Theatre OCU celebrates 100 years
OCU’s School of Theatre marks its centennial with a series of special events and a salute to “100 Days of Plays and Players,” including the induction of six OCU Stars into the Theatre Hall of Honor.
“To celebrate this milestone, we will be celebrating all of our extensive production work with at least 100 separate performances while also trumpeting the successes of our talented alumni,” said D. Lance Marsh, the School of Theatre’s head of performance.
The Department of Dramatics and Speech was established in 1922 when the university, then called Oklahoma City College, was headquartered at NE 12th Street and Walnut Avenue. In the years since, the department has expanded into a school that has produced generations of award-winning performers, designers, directors, dramaturgs, educators and visionary leaders in the field.
W. Jerome Stevenson appointed Associate Dean
W. Jerome Stevenson joins the School of Theatre leadership team as associate dean after more than 25 years as an actor, director, singer, coach and administrator in professional theatre. A longtime member of Actor’s Equity and former producing artistic director of the Pollard Theatre Company in Guthrie, Oklahoma, he has worked tirelessly to improve diversity, equity and inclusion in American theater and to advocate for the fundamental importance of the art of storytelling to the human experience. Stevenson has directed more than 50 professional and collegiate productions with his career and contributions having been recognized with the Oklahoma Governor’s.
Fall 2022 guest artists inspiring students with performances, workshops and/or master classes include:
- Broadway Dramaturg Ken Cerniglia (“Hadestown,” “Peter and the Starcatcher,” Disney Theatricals);
- Classical dancers of India from the Sainrythia Dance Academy, a Bharatnatyam school;
- Mike Pasetopah, an Osage, Creek and Cherokee storyteller.
Faculty Honors
- Professor D. Lance Marsh has been awarded one of the inaugural fellowships for creative artists from the American Antiquarian Society. The grant will help fund research in Worcester, Mass., on a new work on the Astor Place Riots of 1848, entitled “Forest/Macready/Macbeth.”
- Dr. Amy S. Osatinski published a book chapter titled “Musical Theatre Training in the 21st Century: A Primer” in the Routledge Companion to Musical Theatre, co-authored with Dr. Bud Coleman. Her monograph: 20 Seasons: Broadway Musicals of the 21st Century will be released by Routledge later this year. This spring, she will present her findings on 21st century Broadway musicals at the Popular Culture Association/American Culture Association Annual Conference in San Antonio and at the Mid America Theatre Conference in Minneapolis, where she also will present “Doing the Impossible: Cultivating a Pedagogy of Care in the Post-Covid Classroom.”
