Rebekkah Meixner

Assistant Professor of Theatre

Theatre Department Coordinator

Stage Lighting, Scene Design, Theatre Appreciation, Stage Makeup, Costume Construction, Topics in Theatre

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

Prior to joining the Indiana University Southeast theatre family in the Fall of 2005, Rebekkah worked as a successful 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 in 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; My Name is Tracy, Bust Stop, Proof, Sweet Bird of Youth, Noises Off, among many others. Regional Technical Theatre Credits Include: 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.

Christe Lunsford

Visiting Assistant Professor of Theatre

Stagecraft

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

A native of Louisville, KY, Christe Lunsford received her BFA in Theatre from the University of Louisville and her MFA in Design and Production from Florida Atlantic University, Boca Raton with a focus in Scenic and Sound Design. After several years of freelance design and production, travelling the country, Christe landed again in Louisville as the Director of Operations for the Louisville Palace Theatre. Christe has designed a number of shows, her favorite scenic designs include: Three Sisters, The Lover, A Perfect Ganesh, Keely and Du, Holy Ghost, Caucasan Chalk Circle, Heidi Chronicles, and The Protecting Veil. Her favorite sound designs would include: A Bright Room Called Day, A Perfect Ganesh, I Never Saw Another Butterfly, Misalliance, and Macbeth. Christe has also spent many years working as a technician for various companies, including Actors Theatre of Louisville, Kentucky Shakespeare Festival, The Crest Theatre in Delray Beach, Florida, Klein Dance Company and CORE Ensemble both in South Florida.

Jim Hesselman

Visiting Assistant Professor of Theatre

Acting I, Directing, Movement for the Theatre

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

Jim Hesselman is in his first year as a faculty member in the IU Southeast Theatre Department. He 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.

Ramona Morris

Visiting Assistant Professor of Theatre

History of Theatre, Theatre Appreciation

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

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.