Rebekkah J. Meixner-Hanks

Associate Professor of Theatre

Theatre Department Coordinator

Stage Lighting, Scene Design, Theatre Appreciation, Stage Makeup, Costume Construction, History of Theatre

Office: OG 184 Phone: (812) 941-2653 e-mail: rmeixner@ius.edu

Since joining the Indiana University Southeast faculty in 2005, Rebekkah has spent her time as the theatre department coordinator/ chair and associate professor of theatre. While working for IU Southeast she is also the department’s resident scenic and lighting designer; and as needed she has also stepped in the costume designer’s shoes. In 2010 she was given the honor of designing the scenery and lighting for Lee Meriwether’s world premiere of her one woman show The Women of Spoon River. In 2012 this same production was chosen to be a part of the prestigious NY Fringe Festival. Prior to joining IU Southeast, Rebekkah worked as a successful designer and properties master for numerous regional theatres throughout the Northeast. When not being a properties master she has built a career around working in various technical theatre positions and Theatrical design. Rebekkah obtained her Masters of Fine Arts for theatre design and production from the University of Louisville and holds her B.A. from the State University of New York at Oswego. Memorable design credits include: The Mousetrap, Mad at Miles, Equus, The Women of Spoon River, Godspell, House of Blue Leaves, My Name is Tracy, Bus Stop, Proof, Sweet Bird of Youth, Noises Off, among many others. Regional Technical Theatre Credits Include: Alley Theatre in Louisville KY, Music Theatre Louisville, Louisville KY, Bunbury Theater in Louisville KY, University of Louisville in Louisville KY, New Harmony Theatre in Evansville IN, Worcester Foothills Theatre in Worcester MA, The Boston Conservatory of Music in Boston MA, Merry-Go-Round Playhouse in Auburn NY, as well as others.

Herbert Caldwell

Assistant Professor of Theatre

Stagecraft, Theatre Appreciation

Office: OG 184 Phone: (812) 941-2666 e-mail: hcaldwel@ius.edu

Herb has been a professional scene and lighting designer and stage technician for more than 20 years. He has designed for regional theatres around the country and served as Technical Director at several universities. He was the first Master Electrician for the Aronoff Center in Cincinnati and prior to that taught lighting, audio, electronics, and computers as a Vocational Education Teacher/Coordinator at the School for Creative and Performing Arts (Cincinnati). More recently he returned to school and earned an AAS degree in Electronics from Ivy Tech where he passed the ISCET (International Society of Certified Electronic Technicians) exam. He is one of only about 200 ESTA (Entertainment Services and Technology Association) Certified Entertainment Electricians in the US. He is an Extra Class "Ham" radio operator and created and taught first responder classes for the Indiana State Emergency Management Agency in emergency communications and power distribution. He has been a state licensed pyrotechnician (Ohio) and federally licensed Manufacturer of High Explosives which afforded him the opportunity to be the "fire and smoke guy" for the Phantom of the Opera and Jerry Lewis (Damn Yankees). Herb holds a Master of Fine Arts degree from the University of Utah and is an accomplished scene painter. He is also a journeyman stagehand through IATSE (International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees) Local 5 in Cincinnati. He has worked productions for five motion pictures including Innocent Man and Lost In Yonkers, numerous professional theatre productions, operas, ballets, concert tours and virtually every type of theatrical entertainment. Herb spent the last three years working in Minneapolis/St. Paul as the Education Coordinator for the International Alliance of Stage Employees Local 13, where he has developed and launched a progressive Apprenticeship/Journeyman re-training program for professional stagehands.

Jim Hesselman

Assistant Professor of Theatre

Acting, Directing, Movement for the Theatre

Office: OG 068 Phone: (812) 941-2227 e-mail: jhesselm@ius.edu

Jim Hesselman is an actor/director/playwright from Milwaukee, Wisconsin, who has made the Kentuckiana area his home for over twenty years. In that time he received his MFA from the University of Louisville, where he directed last season’s production of Urinetown, and currently teaches a course in Musical Theatre. Jim has acted in, written and/or directed over one hundred and fifty productions at Derby Dinner Playhouse and runs his own Production Company, Theatre Island Productions. He has performed all over the country, including almost two years on the road playing Billy Crocker opposite “Days Of Our Lives” diva Gloria Loring on the National Tour of Anything Goes. Jim has also been Producing Artistic Director of both the Shawnee Summer Theatre and Music Theatre Louisville and has written fourteen children’s musicals, a gospel musical called Celebrate, and co-written the gospel musical comedies, Peace In The Valley and Sing Hallelujah! which broke box office records at Derby Dinner Playhouse this past September. As an actor, Jim most recently toured in the 20th Anniversary of the original Nunsense starring Kaye Ballard, Lee Meriwether, Georgia Engel, Mimi Hines and Darlene Love. That experience yielded some wonderful friendships and began yet another career turn as an author. His memoir with Ms. Ballard, How I Lost 10 Pounds In 53 Years was published last September and he is currently finishing up work with Lee Meriwether on her biography and a manuscript with television pioneer, I Love Lucy and Bewitched director, William Asher.

Natalie C. Bowman

Adjunct Lecturer in Theatre, Costume Designer

Costume Shop Manager

Office: OG 058 e-mail: natcbrow@ius.edu

Natalie is originally from northern Indiana where she designed costumes for IU South Bend Raclin School of the Arts' productions of Scapino! (2003) and After Juliet (2009). A graduate of Indiana University South Bend (1998), Natalie received her M.F.A. in Costume Design from Florida State University in 2001. She went on to design the world premier children's play, Tales of a Shimmering Sky at Virginia Stage Company. In addition to working at the Tony award winning Utah Shakespearean Festival for nearly eight years as a cutter/draper and first hand, she also designed the costumes for two seasons of their educational tour (Macbeth and The Taming of the Shrew), which travels for three months over five western states. Other credits include working with Swine Palace Productions based at Louisiana State University, Milwaukee Shakespeare Company, Notre Dame Shakespeare Festival, Notre Dame University Department of Film, Television and Theatre, and several theatres/costume organizations in England. Natalie has been working in southern Indiana for the past three years as a freelance costumer after moving from Northern Illinois University where she was the Assistant Costume Shop Manager.

Daniel R. Hill

Adjunct Lecturer in Theatre

Acting, Theatre Appreciation

Office: OG 058 e-mail: hilldr@ius.edu

Daniel R. Hill is a professional actor, director, playwright, published poet, and professor of theatre. Originally from Louisville, Daniel has worked across the United States as a theatre artist. He holds a BS in Performance and African American Theatre from the University of Louisville, and earned his MFA in Acting from the PATP at the University of South Carolina. He has worked for Tony award winning theatres such as the Utah Shakespeare Festival and Actors Theatre of Louisville, and most recently performed this past summer for the Kentucky Shakespeare Festival. When he is not on stage, in front of the camera, or in the classroom, Mr. Hill frequently teaches workshops in improvisation, stage combat, acting, and deciphering Shakespeare.

Gregory Maupin

Adjunct Lecturer in Theatre

Directing

Office: OG 058 e-mail: gmaupin@ius.edu

Gregory Maupin co-founded Le Petomane Theatre Ensemble, with which he has co-created twenty or so original productions and is a charter member of Brooklyn's Under the Table Ensemble. He is also head ukulele-ist of Rannygazoo, a singing duo completed by his wife, Abigail. With Actors Theatre of Louisville: (as director) THE CURES OF THE HORNED BABY, HYGIENE; (as performer) 43 PLAYS FOR 43 PRESIDENTS; A MIDSUMMER NIGHT'S DREAM; ...COP SHOW PARODY; Other Theatre: VAUDEVILLE (also co-creator), PARADISE LOST (Dell'Arte Company). Mr. Maupin trained in physical theatre at Dell'Arte International and has taught workshops in physical comedy and mask at (among others) the New York International Fringe Festival, the American Academy of Dramatic Arts, YPAS, StageLab Louisville, Stage One, Franklin College.

Ramona Morris

Adjunct Lecturer in Theatre

Playwriting

Office: OG 058 e-mail: rmorris@ius.edu

Ramona L. Morris holds a Masters of Arts in English, Creative Writing, from Southern Illinois University, where she studied with Kent Haruf and E. Beth Lordan. She was also active in the SIUC Department of Theatre, where she studied with Christian H. Moe and performed in original plays and musicals and had two of her own plays produced, one of which was awarded the designation of first alternate production by the Kennedy Center/American College Theatre Festival, Region-III. Her full-length play Thirsting by the River Gilgamesh won the Paul Green Playwrights Prize, awarded by the North Carolina Writer's Network and chosen by playwright Samm-Art Williams. Her one-act Petticoat Battleground was presented at Rend Lake Amphitheatre, and as part of a three-state tour by Northwest Missouri State University. Space Aliens and Tupperware was presented by the company acting studio in Atlanta, Georgia. While at SIUC, she was awarded as a co-recipient of the Teacher of the Year Award by Project Achieve. She has taught at SIUC; at St. Mary's College in Notre Dame, Indiana; at Northwest Missouri State University in Maryville, Missouri; and at Indiana University Southeast. She appeared three seasons as a singer-actress at Theatre Arts of West Virginia's outdoor dramas Hatfields and McCoys and Honey in the Rock. She works as an editor at ProQuest, abstracting and indexing journals in the performing arts and serves as an elder at Mt. Tabor Presbyterian Church in New Albany. At IU Southeast, she has taught theatre history, theatre appreciation, and playwriting.

Dru Pilmer

Adjunct Lecturer in Theatre

Acting, Movement, Voice

Office: OG 058 Voice mail: (812) 941-2100 ext. 6515 e-mail: dpilmer@ius.edu

Since she began teaching at IU Southeast in the fall of 1998, Dru Pilmer has taught Acting, Voice for the Actor, Movement for the Actor, and private voice lessons. Local TV stations have also sought her skills as a voice teacher to coach on-air personalities. She also teaches for Shakespeare and Company’s (of Massachusetts) Weekend Intensive workshops held annually in Louisville. She teaches for the Kentucky Shakespeare Festival’s Camp Shakespeare summer program; and she has taught for the Arts Council of Southern Indiana’s Kids Culture Club, Jefferson County School Teachers music teachers Professional Development Seminar, IU Southeast’s Arts Institute, the University of Louisville, Spalding University, Jefferson Community College, and Bellarmine College.

Ms. Pilmer has trained with Second City’s Martin de Maat of Chicago and Gary Izza of Disney, in improvisational acting, and was a member of The Louisville Improvisors for 3½ years. At the internationally renowned Shakespeare & Company in Lenox, Massachusetts, she studied extensively for many years with teachers from the Royal Shakespeare Company, London’s Royal Academy of Dramatic Arts, Yale, New York University, and California School of the Arts, to name a few.

Dru Pilmer is one of a limited number of designated Linklater Voice teachers, having trained with New York’s Kristin Linklater. As a Linklater Voice teacher, she has served as voice coach for several local productions, she teaches private and university voice classes, and has led voice workshops both in Louisville (for U of L’s First Harvest Festival and for Massachusetts’ Shakespeare & Company Intensive Weekend) and at the Florida School of the Arts.

Ms. Pilmer’s directorial credits include A Midsummer Night’s Dream and The Boys Next Door at IU Southeast, Kate & Isabel with The Pleiades, How Long Have I Been Dead Anyway? for the 1999 Pleiades Stars of the Future New Play Festival, and Sylvia at Bunbury Theatre.

Additional acting credits include the following—Regional Theatre: Four seasons with Nebraska Theatre Caravan’s West Coast tour of A Christmas Carol, Oklahoma Shakespearean Festival, Southern Appalachian Repertory Theatre in North Carolina, Sterling Renaissance Festival in New York, and Lexington Children’s theatre. Local Theatre: Pleiades, Bunbury Theatre, Juneteenth Festival at Actors Theatre, Boathouse Troupe, Kentucky Shakespeare in the Schools, Pegasus Rising, and Kentucky Contemporary Theatre. Film: a recent, yet-to-be named film produced by Archie Borders, After the Big One, and Life. Additional Credits: Radio voice work, T.V. commercials, professional portrait and abstract artist, and the design of her own house.

Ken Atkins

Office Administrator

Office: OG 051 Phone: (812) 941-2658 e-mail: atkins@ius.edu

Kenneth W. Atkins received his Bachelor of Music degree in Music Composition from DePauw University where he also served as president of Duzer Du, a collegiate dramatic honorary society and appeared in several theatrical productions. An alumnus of New Albany High School, he was a member of the NAHS Student Theatre and a founding member of Student Theatre & Company - a semi-professional summer stock theatre affiliated with the New Albany High School Theatre Department where he served as both actor and music director. Favorite roles include the title character of Argan in Molière's The Imaginary Invalid, Sheridan Whiteside in The Man Who Came to Dinner, Ralph in All The Way Home, Charlie in On Golden Pond, Finian in Finian's Rainbow, Horace Vandergelder in The Matchmaker, Rev. Dr. Hale in The Crucible, Albert in Hobson's Choice, and Rev. Dr. Lloyd in Life With Father.

As a composer, Ken has written and/or arranged music for several local theatre productions including original music for IU Southeast's production of Equus and productions of Tuesdays with Morrie and To Bury Caesar. He also composed music for actress Lee Meriwether's ("Catwoman," Barnaby Jones, The Time Tunnel) one-woman show, The Women of Spoon River: Their Voices from the Hill.