Visiting Faculty, Fall 2024

The Department of Theater is thrilled to welcome four visiting lecturers for Fall term; Kenneth Ard, Georgina Escobar, Myxolydia Tyler, and Madison Williams.

Kenneth Ard will be teaching a new course; THEA 10.35: Jazz Dance for Theatre.

Kenneth Ard has originated roles in some of the biggest hit shows in Broadway's history, Macavity in Cats and Ken in Smokey Joe's Cafe. Two of which he holds Grammy Award Certifications for best cast album. Other notable roles include ELECTRA in Starlight Express, Pluton in Dangerous Games, and The Chimney Man, starring opposite Gregory Hines, in Jelly's Last Jam. Ken was honored to standby for Tony Award winning legend André De Shields in the musical Half Time at the Papermill Playhouse and was subsequently chosen by Mr. De Shields to lead his multi-talented cast in Sophisticated Ladies at NJPAC. Ken appears as Wilbur in the 2001 Academy Award winning film Chicago. In 2021-22, Ken was featured in Taylor Mac's critically acclaimed limited run sold-out Off Broadway opera, The Hang. The 2023-24 holiday season saw Ken as Duke Ellington in SugarHill: The Ellington/Strayhorn Nutcracker Suite at the Auditorium Theater in Chicago. Ken most recently starred in A Twisty Intergalactic Spectacle at the Hip Pocket Theatre in Fort Worth, Texas, show created with and directed by partner Basil Twist. Beyond Broadway Ken is a visual artist, an award winning chef, an accomplished jazz singer/cabaret artist with an affinity for The GREAT AMERICAN SONGBOOK.

Georgina Escobar will be teaching THEA 50: Playwriting I and a new course, THEA 10.60: Acting Styles. 

Georgina Escobar writes plays, musicals, and audio fiction that incorporates genres like frontera futurity and musical femmetasias to excavate Latin American perspectives to create unique & invigorating stories that fuse intellect and heart. She received the National Kennedy Center's Daryl Ayers Award, the Gotham & Variety Audio Honors Award and an Outstanding Service to the Women on The Border Award. She's is a Kilroy's list writer, a National Musical Theatre Conference at the O'Neill alumni, a McDowell Fellow and Clubbed Thumb Emerging Writers Group Alumni. Escobar's work has been produced Off-Broadway at INTAR, and Off-Off at Dixon Place, and New York Children's Theatre, and internationally in México, Italy, Sweden, Denmark, and the UK. A published climate playwright, she has created work with Lincoln Center Director's Lab, Bushwick Starr, Two Rivers, Milagro, Aurora, People's Light, Hartford Stages, JACK Space Brooklyn and the Lucille Lortel Theatre, among others. She is currently working as book writer for the musicals: FINDING FRIDA, RITCHIE, DESAPARECIDAS, LITTLE DUENDE and THE VINYL CAFE. As an arts educator, she has taught at Kingsborough College (NY), University of Texas El Paso, Princeton University, and Dartmouth College. 

Myxolydia Tyler will be teaching THEA 30.03: Acting I and directing the MainStage production of Hamlet.

Myxolydia Tyler has taught and designed arts education and entrepreneurship curriculum for Lincoln Center Education, Kennedy Center Theatre Competitions, McCarter Theatre, Hartford Stage, Harlem School of the Arts, The Conservatory for the Dramatic Arts of Film and Television, and The Acting Co. She is currently a guest professor and director at Dartmouth College. She has taught as an adjunct professor of Voice and Speech at NYU Tisch and LIU Post and taught intro courses to acting at Pomona University in California. 

She is a Hermitage Artists Fellow and a Michael Bradford Writing Fellow with Quicksilver Theatre. In 2020 she premiered her first written play production of Freebird: The Early Life of Sarah Vaughan for NJPAC Education Assemblies Program. World Premieres:  Sally, Luce, Maggie and Mary u/s at The Public and The Guthrie Theatres 2024 and 2022 world premieres of Susan-Lori Parks' Sally and Tom; Berta at Florida Rep and The Everyman Theatre's 2021 premiere of Berta, Berta! by Angelica Cheri.  Amina at The Contemporary American Theatre Festival's 2021 world premiere of Sheepdog by Kevin Artigue.

Film: 2021 Cathedral: Judy; Venice and Sundance Film Festival Candidate Off Broadway:  Summer 2023 Gertrude u/s in Hamlet at The Public Theatre's Shakespeare in the Park; Ange's in The House That Will Not Stand, Spring 2017 Reading at Manhattan Theatre Workshop; The Narrator in A Season to Unravel, Signature Theatre's workshop production.  Regional Highlights:  Chelle in Detroit '67, McCarter Theatre and Hartford Stage;  Cass in Well Intentioned Whited People Barrington Stage; Beneatha in A Raisin in the Sun (Arkansas Rep), Fannie Lou Hamer/Coretta Scott King in All The Way St. Louis Rep;  and as Camae in The Mountaintop Vermont Stage and Baltimore Center Stage .Television: Season 22 Law and Order (reboot) NBC Season 6 Homeland Showtime Season 3 New Amsterdam NBC, Season 3 Manifest NBC, Season 3 of I am Homicide Discovery ID. Voice over and Commercial: she has been involved with campaigns for Reckitt Benckiser, Golden Corral, Mercedes Benz, and Pandora.

Madison Williams will be teaching THEA 15: Theatre and Society I: Classical and Medieval Performance.

Madison Mae Williams (she/her) is an interdisciplinary artist and scholar. Born and raised on Cape Cod, she received her PhD in Theatre and Drama from UC San Diego, and BA concentrating in musical theatre, poetry, and Africana studies from Hampshire College. Maddie's current research project focuses on alienation and countercultural performance in the Long Sixties. Her other research areas include American musical theatre, the Black Power/Arts movements, horror and the uncanny, performance for children, and the films of Stanley Kubrick and John Cassavetes. Maddie has worked with La Jolla Playhouse, the Old Globe, Berkeley Repertory Theatre, South Coast Repertory, Cygnet Theatre, Diversionary Theatre, the New Cosmopolitans, the Playwrights Realm, Chautauqua Theatre Company, and the Eugene O'Neill Theater Center, among others. She is passionate about theatre work that is accessible, radical, and increases visibility and representation for people of marginalized identities. Maddie is a proud member of the Literary Managers and Dramaturgs of the Americas and the Black Theatre Network. madisonmaewilliams.com

Please reach out to the Academic Coordinator if you are interested in any of the above courses.