Dr. Susan F. Russell
Associate Professor
Theatre Arts
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Education
BA With Honors in English from Hendrix College (Arkansas)
Fulbright Scholar studied at the University of Dusseldorf
MA Theatre and Drama at the University of Wisconsin (Madison)
PhD Drama at the University of Washington (Seattle)
Academic Focus
German theatre; women, gender and sexualities studies; performance theory
Dr. Susan Russell – Chair, Department of Theatre Arts. After spending a year in Germany as a Fulbright scholar, she earned her M.A. in Theatre and Drama at the University of Wisconsin and her Ph.D. in Drama at the University of Washington. Her scholarly research has been published in The Journal of Dramatic Theory and Criticism, Studies in Theatre (Canada), and Theatre Journal. She has also worked at a number of professional theatres as a dramaturg, translator, and assistant director and assistant in new play development, including The Empty Space Theatre in Seattle (the oldest experimental theatre in the U.S.); the Utah Shakespearean Festival; and the Oregon Shakespeare Festival (the second largest Shakespeare Festival in the U.S.) She has directed and performed in over 70 productions in the U.S. and Germany, including most recently at Gettysburg directing The Winter’s Tale, Diana of Dobson's, The Merchant of Venice, Big Love, The Illusion, Godspell, Jubilee, Ghetto, and The Caucasian Chalk Circle,and translating Goldoni’s The Liar, with Dr. Stefano Boselli. Her most recent work as a professional actor was in Open Stage Harrisburg’s productions of The Threepenny Opera and The Diary of Anne Frank. Dr. Russell teaches playwriting, theatre history and dramatic literature courses, as well as First Year Seminars such as “Understanding the Holocaust through Literature and Film,” “Images of Women in Popular Culture,” and “Dreaming in Color,” focusing on African-American, Latino/a, and Asian American drama. She also enjoys teaching Introduction to Women, Gender and Sexualities. In addition, she has led Service Learning projects to Alabama to study the Civil Rights Movement and to volunteer at the National Voting Rights Museum in Selma. She produced her original musical, Helen and Teacher (based on the lives of Helen Keller and Anne Sullivan, with music by Dr. Lynn Gumert) as a staged reading at the Majestic Theater, and received a grant from the Mellon Foundation to produce a staged reading with professional actors in New York City in June 2008. In June 2009, she directed Helen and Teacher for the Gettysburg Fringe Festival. She has a son, Samuel Scott Hale.