Jay Scott Chipman is Associate Professor of Communication and Theatre Arts at Nebraska Wesleyan University having just completed his eleventh year of teaching. He holds a Ph.D. in Theatre History and Performance Studies from the University of Pittsburgh in Pennsylvania and an M.A. in Speech Communication from Louisiana State University. Currently he serves in the capacity of Director of Theatre at NWU as well as Chair of the University’s Fine Arts Division and voting member of three NWU faculty committees: Curriculum Committee, Executive Committee, and University College Curriculum and Academic Policy Committee.

Dr. Chipman teaches the two Theatre History classes as well as dramatic literature courses such as Play Reading, Multicultural Theatre, and Masterpieces of Dramatic Literature. He also works with students who want to be secondary teachers and helps to mentor students in the directing program. Having a related interest in film, Dr. Chipman also teaches Film Appreciation, Gender and the Art of Film, and International Cinema and is working with other NWU faculty to develop a film studies minor. For the past six years he has also taught in NWU’s Liberal Arts Seminar program for first year students offering such topics as: Anime, Radical Shakespeare, Sex Symbols in US Culture, Vampires and Popular Culture, and Stand-up Comedy and Contemporary US Culture.

A passionate supporter of experimental drama, site-specific production work, non-traditional performance styles, women’s writing, and multicultural and international studies, Dr. Chipman strives to maintain a niche for avant-garde work at NWU. Recent productions he has directed include: Josephine The Mouse Singer; View of the Dome; Hamletmachine; The Donkey Show; The Complete Works of William Shakespeare (abridged); Polaroid Stories: and Dark Ride. He will direct Caryl Churchill’s Far Away and House of Bernarda Alba for the 2005-2006 NWU Theatre season.