Department of Theatre & Dance
Faculty and Staff
The Theatre and Dance team is a diverse and dynamic group of committed educators, experts in their field and respected members of the professional theatre community.
Faculty
Missy Barnes
Chair of Department of Theatre and Dance; Musical Theatre
B.A., Drama, Loyola University New Orleans, 1997
M.F.A., Music Theatre, Roosevelt University, 2001
My teaching and research interests include musical theatre performance, musical theatre history, and psycho-physical education. In addition to my degrees listed above, I am a certified teacher of the Alexander Technique as well as a certified Somatic Movement Educator, trained at the School for Body-Mind Centering. I have spent many years working as a musical theatre performer, actor, director, and choreographer. I am an active member of the Southeastern Theatre Conference (SETC), Alexander Technique International (ATI), and the Stage Directors and Choreographers Society (SDC).
Thomas Ouellette
Annie Russell Theatre Producing Director; Acting & Directing
B.A., Holy Cross College
M.F.A., Acting, Catholic University of America
Additional training: HB Studio, New York and the Director’s Programme at The Royal National Theatre in London
Chair of the Theatre and Dance Department and Producing Director of the Annie Russell Theatre from 2002-2008, I have been a faculty member since 1996 and teach courses in the acting and directing sequence. At Rollins, I have directed main stage productions of How I Learned to Drive, Equus, One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, Macbeth, Noises Off, A Delicate Balance, Extremities, The Foreigner, Dancing at Lughnasa, A Streetcar Named Desire, and Gross Indecency: The Three Trials of Oscar Wilde, among others. I inaugurated the Second Stage series in 1998 and have produced over 30 student-directed shows including Waiting for Godot, Closer, Keely and Du, The Triumph of the Golds, The Laramie Project, Necessary Targets, Spinning Into Butter, and a dozen original works. I direct and perform in Orlando and around the country and am an active member of Actors Equity Association (AEA), The Screen Actors Guild (SAG), and The Association of Film, Television and Radio Actors (AFTRA). Recent credits include The Folger Shakespeare Theatre and the Kennedy Center in Washington, DC; The Orlando Shakespeare Theatre and Mad Cow Theatre in Orlando; St. Michael’s Playhouse in Burlington, VT; The Charles Playhouse in Boston; and The Mason Street Theatre in San Francisco. Recent national acting credits range from Montano/Duke of Venice in Othello to the record-breaking and still running production of Shear Madness. Recent national directing credits include All’s Well That Ends Well (co-directed with Jim Helsinger), Blithe Spirit, Educating Rita, Stop Kiss, Lobby Hero, Frankie and Johnny in the Clair de Lune, and a new adaptation of Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice. I am proud to have received the Cornell Distinguished Faculty award in 2010. It’s tough to find a speechless theatre professor, but, truly, I was floored when President Duncan called my name.
Robin Gerchman
Director of Dance, Professor
B.F.A. Dance, University of the Arts
Ed.M Dance Education, Temple University
M.F.A. Interdisciplinary Arts, Goddard College
My teaching and research interests stress the interconnectiveness of movement with multiple disciplines, aesthetics, criticism, historical and cross-cultural perspectives. Through teaching I work to develop students' abilities of movement and introduce them to new ways of seeing and knowing the world; all of which provide a framework for the exploration of creativity and individual expression. In addition to my degrees, I have concentrated training with Ann Vachon and Risa Steinberg, original members of the Limon Dance Company. My most recent performing has been with DanceLink, a dance company in Pennsylvania and producing community-based dance events with the Lehigh Valley Dance Exchange. As a choreographer I enjoy engaging the community by presenting site specific works with community performers and musical theatre.
David Charles, Ph.D.
Acting, Improv
B.A. (Hons), Theatre Performance and English, Roosevelt University, 1995
M.F.A., Theatre Performance, Western Illinois University, 1998
PhD., Theatre History, Criticism and Dramatic Literature, Louisiana State University, 2003
A New Zealander by birth, I have called the United States my home since 1991 and joined the Rollins’ faculty in 2003. Much of my scholarly and performance work has focused on the realm of improvisational and non-scripted theatre. I have performed with numerous professional improvisational companies across North America, such as Chicago Comedysportz, Astor’s Beechwood, Downtown Disney’s Comedy Warehouse and SAK Comedy Lab, where I currently serve as the Associate Artistic Director. I am also a graduate of North America’s oldest improvisational training center, Josephine Forsberg’s Players Workshop of Second City, and I am the founding Artistic Director of Rollins Improv Players, an on-campus troupe committed to service and entertainment through performance. Creating and directing new improvisational work is a particular passion—original works include: Your Opera in a Trunk (Pensacola Opera), FourPlay: The Improvised Musical (SAK Comedy Lab, Winter Park Playhouse), Is This Seat Taken? (Jester Theater), and Murder We Wrote, It’s All Greek to Me, The Lost Comedies of William Shakespeare, and Upton Abbey on the beautiful Annie Russell stage here at Rollins College. My primary interest is in exploring the boundaries, function and face of theatre in our ever-changing modern world. I am a proud member of Actors’ Equity, and the recipient of multiple teaching awards, including the Hugh F. McKean Award, Arthur Vining Davis Fellowship and Cornell Distinguished Faculty Award.
Lisa Cody-Rapport
Artist-In-Residence, Costume and Scenic Design
B.F.A., Theatre Design/Technology, West Virginia University, 1981
M.F.A., Theatre Design, University of Connecticut, 1989
I’m particularly engaged with introducing and sharing the creative design process with students in collaborative intersections of art and theatre. My teaching interests are set, costume, make-up, and the fundamentals of design, as well as scenic painting, costume construction and devised theatre. My designs and artwork often utilize illusion, expectations, and transformation in both traditional and non-traditional environments, and I enjoy developing site-specific concepts. I am also very committed to enabling students to experience international influences through field studies at the Prague Quadrennial in the Czech Republic every four years and Edinburgh’s Fringe Festival in the UK.
Marianne DiQuattro
Theatre, Literature, Associate Professor
Ph.D. University of Notre Dame
I come to the theatre department through my research interests in the intersection of dramatic literature, performance history, and phenomenology and through my artistic interest in directing, theatre for small communities, and theatre for and with children. My dissertation research focuses on moments of what I call “unsettled spectatorship,” in which performance events place ethical demands on their spectators. I examine specific dramatic works and performance histories of Antonin Artaud, Samuel Beckett, and Martin McDonagh. Professionally, I present at conferences on a wide range of literary and theatrical research interests, most recently on Artaud’s body as a performance of the plague metaphor, and on the limited access disabled individuals face to professional opportunities in the theatre world. I teach the Theatre History I and II and Script Analysis courses, along with electives in Global Theatre, Travel Narratives, and Rollins Foundation in the Liberal Arts offerings in the neighborhood of When Cultures Collide. I am the founder and artistic director of Paper Sky Theatre in Grove City, PA. It is a nonprofit theatre that seeks to be a location for theatrical excellence, education, inclusion, and community development. My recent directing credits include: Twelfth Night and As Your Like It by William Shakespeare, Sylvia by A.R. Gurney, The Importance of Being Earnest by Oscar Wilde, and The Cripple of Inishmaan by Martin McDonagh.
Kevin Griffin
Production Manager; Resident Lighting Designer
A.A. - Liberal Arts, Seminole Community College, 1985
B.F.A. - Theatre Arts, Design & Technology, Mason Gross School of the Arts, Rutgers University, 1988
M.F.A. - Theatre Arts, Lighting Design & Technical Production, School of Theatre, Penn State University, 1998
My professional lighting design experience includes several designs at The Orlando Shakespeare Theater, The Orlando Repertory Theater, Pennsylvania Center Stage, Mad Cow Theater, Allegheny Highlands Regional Theater, Pennsylvania Dance Theater, Valencia State College, UCF Repertory Theater, and The Mellon Patch Players. I have served as designer/consultant for the Bellefonte Historical Preservation Museum of Bellefonte, PA, the Head of Lighting for Cirque Du Soleil’s La Nouba! at Downtown Disney, as well as a live action stage technician at Disney’s EPCOT. I am a current member of I.A.T.S.E. Local 631 in Orlando, FL, as well as a member of U.S.I.T.T. where he serves on the lighting and education commissions.
Robert Miller
Technical Director & Resident Sound Designer
B.S, Criminology, Florida State University, 1990
B.A., Theatre, University of Central Florida, 1994
M.F.A., Technical Direction and Sound Design, University of Memphis, 1999
I teach in multiple areas of technical theatre including technical direction, sound design, rigging, pneumatics and structural design for the stage. Areas of research include the use of engineered materials for scenic construction and the application of digital technology in sound design. A former officer of the Northwest Section of The United States Institute for Theatre Technology (USITT), I am currently a member of both the National and Southeast Section of USITT.
Suzanne Salapa, Ph.D.
Ballet, Choreography
B.A., Dance, Shenandoah UniversityM.F.A., Dance, Florida State UniversityDoctorate of Education, University of Central Florida
Additional training: Annandale Dance Theatre, under the direction of Patricia Nicholson, Kathleen Brown, and Kay Hearton; Maryland Youth Ballet; Columbia City Ballet.
I have served on the faculty of George Mason University and Shennandoah University. I am a member of the dance faculty at Valencia Community College and here at Rollins.
Robin Wilson
Modern, Jazz
B.A. Dance, University of South Florida
I teach modern and jazz technique. I was formerly a Professor of Dance at Ball State University and co-chaired the dance program for the Indianapolis High School of Performing Arts for fourteen years. I’ve choreographed for the Anderson Ballet, Ball State University, Dance Kaleidoscope, and for the Interlochen National Arts Academy. As a performer, I worked for six years as a member of Dance Kaleidoscope, Indiana’s professional modern dance company. My training includes expertise in the Limon technique through work with original member of the Jose Limon Company, Bill Hug; LUIGI (NYC); and the Alvin Ailey School (NYC). I co-teach Dance for Parkinson’s Disease in coordination with the Parkinson Outreach Center at Florida Hospital.
Eric Zivot
Acting
I am an actor, director, and writer. My work in film, television and on stage has taken me across both the US and Canada, and to England as well. My theatrical background includes: The Stratford Shakespeare Festival of Canada, The American Conservatory Theater, Tour de Force, The Fountain Theater, the Alliance Theater and the Canadian company of Nicholas Nickleby. I have originated roles for such plays as Them That's Got, Raising Caen and Declarations. Film and Television work includes: JAG, The Alarmist, Babylon 5, Two Voices, Sunset Beach and Mob Story. I have been on staff and guest lectured for some of the most distinguished actor training programs in North America including A.C.T., The University of Washington, Southern Methodist University, C.A.S.T., The University of Dallas, Case Western Reserve University, Duke University, and the National Theater Conservatory. I am also a founding member of the Association of Theater Movement Trainers and have served as a Senior Mentor for the Voice and Speech Trainers Association. Before coming to Rollins, I co-founded and ran the Gymnasia Theatrica, my own school, in Los Angeles. It was here that I created my break through actor training methodology, the Triune Brain Method. I am proud to have students who are now working actors, literally, around the world.Staff
Allison Crutchfield
Costume Studio Manager
B.F.A. Design and Technical Theatre, University of Connecticut, 2004
M.F.A Costume Design, University of California, San Diego, 2009
My career as a theatre educator started when I was just a grad student at the University of California, San Diego. I was overwhelmed how rewarding it was to share my passion for art, theater, and design with aspiring young students. And in turn be motivated in my own work by their newfound passion for dramatic arts. I am currently an artist and costume designer working in Orlando, FL. I have costume designed regionally and in New York for 59E59 Street Theater: New York, NY, Rising Sun Theater Company: New York, NY, Northern Stage, White River Junction, VT, New London Barn Playhouse: New London, NH, The New School for Drama: New York, NY, Fault Line Theatre: New York, NY, the Trinity/ Brow Consortium: New York, NY, Connecticut Repertory Theatre: New York, NY. I have production managed at The New London Barn Playhouse and Queensborough Community College. I am currently the Vice Commissioner of the Costume Lab and Studios for United States Institute for Theatre Technology (USITT) and a proud member of IATSE United Scenic Artist Local 829.
Lauren Cushman
Assistant Technical Director, Resident Prop Master & Projectionist
B.F.A., Theatre Design and Technology, University of Central Florida, 2006
M.B.A., Leadership and Management, Rollins College, 2011
I devote the majority of my time to teaching the production process in many areas of technical theatre, which include scenery construction, properties, and projections. In addition to teaching, I scenic and projection design for the Annie Russell Theatre. I am an active member of the United States Institute for Theatre Technology (USITT).
Chelsea Hilend
Assoc. Director of Theatre, Communications & Operations
T. 407.646.2253
B.A. (Hons), Theatre Arts - Performance Emphasis, Rollins College, 2010
M.B.A., Rollins College, 2017
I facilitate the relationship between the Department of Theatre and Dance at Rollins College and the surrounding campus and Central Florida community, from building communications strategies to directing event operations. I teach "Intro to Theatre Administration," exploring best practices and the skills necessary to succeed in a variety of leadership roles inside the expressive arts. You can also find me performing and teaching at SAK Comedy Lab, flexing the improvisational theatre muscles I developed as a member of Rollins Improv Players.
