AMTP Executive Commitee

Joseph Appelt, School of Communication, Professor, Resident M.F.A Design Director. Joseph Appelt has designed in Chicago for The Goodman Theatre, Court Theatre, Northlight Theatre, Victory Gardens, and Pegasus Players. He has held the position of resident lighting designer at Missouri Repertory Theatre (now called Kansas City Repertory) and the Kansas City Ballet. Other regional theater credits include productions for Milwaukee Repertory Theatre, The Studio Theatre in Washington, D.C., American Conservatory Theatre in San Francisco, Syracuse Stage, Studio Arena Theatre of Buffalo, the Great Lakes Theatre Festival in Cleveland and productions performed at the Spoleto Festival U.S.A. and in Tokyo, Japan. He has a B.A. in psychology and an M.A. in Theatre with a design emphasis from the University of Michigan.

Barbara Butts, School of Communication, Managing Director- TIC, Acting Managing Director-AMTP, Barbara Butts teaches courses in Stage and Production Management. Barbara received her B.A. degree in technical theatre with a concentration in management from Mars Hill College. Prior to coming to Northwestern University, Barbara acquired seventeen years of stage management experience. Her regional theatre credits include work at the Goodman Theatre, Missouri Rep., Asolo Theatre, Children's Theatre Company, and Lookingglass Theatre. Barbara is also a member of the Actor’s Equity Association. Throughout her work in the theatre industry, she has had the honor of working with such directors as Robert Falls, Michael Maggio, Lloyd Richards, Kyle Donnelly, Sheldon Epps, and Mary Zimmerman, and designers such as Santo Loquasto, Tom Lynch, John Lee Beatty and Virgil Johnson. Production management experience includes work with Lookingglass Theatre Company, The Chicago Triathlon, Artistic Circles at the Field Museum and the Northwestern University Theatre & Interpretation Center.

David Bell, School of Communication, associate professor, department of theatre. For the last twenty five years, David H. Bell's career has spanned a wide range of International and National projects, as Director, Choreographer and author. As Artistic Director of the historic Ford's Theatre in Washington D.C., David inaugurated such World Premiere musicals as ELMER GANTRY, A CHRISTMAS CAROL (adapter), and HOT MIKADO (author -- winner Helen Hayes Award, BEST DIRECTOR) In Chicago David's work has earned 30 Joseph Jefferson Award nominations (winning the award 9 times. His work at the prestigious Chicago Shakespeare Theatre includes the recent popular productions of TAMING OF THE SHREW, AS YOU LIKE IT (winner of the After Dark Award, BEST DIRECTOR), and THE COMEDY OF ERRORS. At the Marriott Theatre David has directed over 30 productions including MATADOR (BEST CHOREOGRAPHY), PEGGY SUE GOT MARRIED, CHESS, LITTLE ME (winner BEST DIRECTOR, BEST CHOREOGRAPHER) and WINDY CITY. In New York City David has directed both on and off Broadway. He directed PICTURES IN THE HALL featuring songs by long time collaborator and friend, Craig Carnelia, which garnered both the Bistro and the Mac awards. As well as, the all-star productions of the DIFFA TRIBUTE TO EDITH HEAD (Michael Douglas, Lauren Bacall, Julianne Moore, Roddy MacDowell, etc,), HEARTSTRINGS (Sandy Duncan, Patti LuPone, Salt N"Peppa, Sara Gilbert -- televised for ABC, under the name of IN A NEW LIGHT), and the Museum of The City of New York salute to 130 years of the American Musical GIVE MY REGARDS TO BROADWAY at Carnegie Hall, (Richard Kiley, Jule Styne, Carol Channing, Jerry Orback, Chita Rivera, Jerry Herman, George Abbott, etc,). Internationally, David has worked on London's West End on HOT MIKADO (author - Laurence Olivier Award Nominee), Manchester's Bridgewater Hall (author - THEATRE OF DREAMS), Berlin on DIE SCHONE UND DAS BIEST, Barcelona on THE SPIRIT OF ATLANTA (for the 1992 Olympic closing ceremonies), Paris, Budapest, Vienna, etc. with THE HARLEM GOSPEL SINGERS, "Toronto with PATSY! and the European Tour of the DIRTY DANCING CONCERT TOUR. As associate Director to Kenny Leon at Atlanta's Alliance Theatre, David directed over twenty productions including THE GRAPES OF WRATH, CHESS (AJC award BEST MUSICAL, BEST DIRECTOR.

Rives Collins, School of Communication, associate professor and chair, department of theatre. Mr. Collins continues the 80-year tradition of child drama at Northwestern, directing productions for family audiences and teaching courses in Children's Theatre, Creative Drama, Theatre Education, and Storytelling. He won the Alumni Award for Excellence in Teaching and the Distinguished Teaching Award from Northwestern's School of Continuing Studies. A fellow of the Searle Center for Teaching Excellence, Professor Collins is the recipient of the Charles Deering McCormick Professorship for Excellence in Teaching Award. He is a Phi Beta Kappa graduate of Colorado College, and completed his M.F.A. in child drama at Arizona State University. He joined NU’s faculty in 1986.

Tracy Davis, Ethel M. Barber Professor of Performing Arts and Director, Interdisciplinary Ph.D. in Theatre and Drama, School of Communication, and professor of English, Weinberg College of Arts and Sciences. Ms. Davis received the Clarence Ver Steeg Faculty Award from Northwestern's Graduate School in 2004. Her research focuses on the social and economic history of the British theatre industry. Her current research focuses on Cold War civil defense, performance theory, and methodologies for studying live and historical performance. She joined the NU faculty in 1990.

Amanda Dehnert, School of Communication, assistant professor, department of theatre. Amanda Dehnert was most recently an artist-in-residence with Trinity Repertory Company, a regional theatre in Providence, RI which was founded by Adrian Hall. Her positions there ranged from Artistic Associate to Acting Artistic Director, and her productions included My Fair Lady; Annie; West Side Story; Charles Strouse's You Never Know (world premiere); Songs of Innocence, Songs of Experience; The Mystery of Edwin Drood; Henry IV; A Moon for the Misbegotten; The Skin of Our Teeth; Peter Pan, or the Boy Who Would Not Grow Up; Noises Off; Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?; The New England Sonata (world premiere); Othello; Saint Joan; We Won't Pay! We Won't Pay!; A Christmas Carol (1997 and 2005), and Cyrano de Bergerac. She directed Julius Caesar, A Midsummer Night's Dream and Richard III for the Trinity Summer Shakespeare Project. She also composed original scores and songs for As You Like It; The Cider House Rules, Part 1&2; and Trinity Rep's Boston production of A Christmas Carol. Additionally, she served as a Clinical Associate Professor for the Brown/Trinity Rep Consortium, where she taught MFA directing. She has also taught for the National Theatre Institute, been in residence with the Bread Loaf School of English (Middlebury, VT), and has been the recipient of a a Gielgud Fellowship (SDFC) and an Elliot Norton Award for Outstanding Director (My Fair Lady and Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?).

Joseph Mills, School of Communication, associate professor of dance and director of the dance program. Mr. Mills discovered dance through the visual arts and a passionate curiosity for gymnastics. His BFA degree in fine arts with an emphasis in sculpture and drawing is from Southern Illinois University, where he began study in dance with Alcine Wiltz. He received his Ed.D. from Temple University in 1998, completing his dissertation, The Fungus Among Us: Considering Pilobolus Dance Theatre From Multiple Perspectives. He joined the NU faculty in 2001.

Dominic Missimi, chair of the executive committee, School of Communication, professor of theatre, and director of the Music Theatre Certificate Program. See Executive Director

Ryan Nelson, Resident Musical Director of AMTP, School of Music, Associate director of bands. Director, Contemporary Music Ensemble. Conductor, Symphonic Band. Coordinates undergraduate conducting curriculum and teaches courses in music education and wind literature. Guest conductor, clinician, and arranger. Member, College Band Directors National Association, Music Educators National Conference. Studied conducting with Brady Allred and Eugene Migliaro Corporon.

Stuart Oken, Artistic Director of AMTP. See Artistic Director

Brian Uzzi, Kellogg School of Management, Richard L. Thomas Professor of Leadership and Change. Mr. Uzzi teaches courses on leadership and organizational behavior, in the Kellogg MBA program. For Kellogg's executive development programs, he teaches a range of topics including networking, reputation building, decision-making, team leadership and development, and change management for customized company programs, and business degree and certificate programs. Among Uzzi's scholarly awards are two National Science Foundation grants, a Sigma Xi grant, several distinguished scholarly contribution prizes including the W. Richard Scott Best Paper Award and the Administrative Science Quarterly Distinguished Scholarly Contribution Award. He has received several teaching awards, including the Professor of the Year Award in the Kellogg/Hong Kong University of Science and Technology Executive MBA program. He earned his MS in social psychology from Carnegie-Mellon University and a Ph.D. in sociology from The State University of New York at Stony Brook.

Andrew Watchtel, dean of the Graduate School and professor of Slavic languages and literatures, Weinberg College of Arts and Science. Mr. Watchtel’s research interests include Russian prose, 19th and 20th centuries, particularly the complex interrelationship of literature and society. His current projects include Remaining Relevant After Communism — a multi-disciplinary, collaborative research project studying on how writers in Eastern and Central Europe have attempted to retain their importance under conditions of post-communism. He is noted for his books, Anzhelina Polonskaya, A Voice. Selected Poems, translated, and From the Ends to the Beginning: A Bilingual Web Anthology of Russian Verse.