The University of Washington School of Drama, under the leadership of Interim Executive Director Lynn Thomas and Interim Associate Director Geoff Korf, is announcing several new faculty and staff appointments.
Associate Professor Jeffrey Fracé will take over from Tim Bond as Head of Acting. Bond will continue to teach acting and directing to graduate and undergraduate students, and will direct this spring’s all-school production, Cabaret.
Fracé (pictured, left) is a veteran theater artist with more than 100 professional credits in the past 25 years as either an actor, director, writer, or producer. He is a former Associate Artist of Anne Bogart’s SITI Company, performing, touring, and teaching with the company for over 10 years. He holds an MFA in acting from Columbia University, and has taught acting, directing, movement, and devising since 2008. He is currently directing our upcoming production of Chekhov’s Three Sisters.
“I’m thrilled to be working alongside a faculty of master teachers and accomplished professional artists, and with a cohort of courageous and dedicated students. I’m excited to build on the great work Tim Bond has done to refine and strengthen an innovative, rigorous course of training for actors that is grounded in tradition and deep practice, and yet pointed towards the unknown, the undiscovered, and the impossible,” says Fracé.
Playwrights Trista Baldwin and Elizabeth Heffron will join the school as guest instructors this year, with Baldwin teaching Beginning Playwriting and Heffron teaching Documentary Theatre.
“Writing is a muscle, connected to our hearts, minds, and guts,” says Baldwin. “My role is to help students identify where that writing muscle lives, show them how to exercise it, and give them tools to connect this muscle to their desire.”
On the staff side, MuTTT (pictured, left, with Pee-wee Herman) has joined the school as resident sound technician. MuTTT is transitioning into academia after a career in New York and regional theatre that has included designing sound for numerous Broadway and Off-Broadway productions, including Oh, Hello on Broadway, The Open House (Drama Desk