- Faculty Profile
Andrew White
Associate Professor of Theatre
Center for the Arts B407
219.464.5514
andy.white@valpo.eduBiography
R. Andrew White is Associate Professor of Theatre and teaches courses in Acting, Auditioning, Voice and Diction, Movement, Dramatic Literature and Theatre History. He directs productions annually in the Department of Theatre and teaches regularly in the Freshman Core Program. In Chicago, he has worked as an actor at numerous theatres including the European Repertory Company (of which he was an ensemble member), Steppenwolf, Wisdom Bridge, Chicago Dramatists, Plan B Productions, and Writers’ Theatre. In Russia he performed at the Tabakov Theatre and the American Studio of the Moscow Art Theatre. Regionally, he has worked at Indiana Repertory Theatre and the Indiana Shakespeare Festival.
Andrew’s areas of expertise include performance, classical approaches to acting, the Russian actor-director Konstantin Stanislavsky, the actor-teacher Michael Chekhov, Anton Chekhov, and the intersection of Yoga and acting practice.
Before joining the faculty at Valparaiso University in 1999, he worked at Fox Theatricals and assisted the executive producer in reopening Chicago’s Cadillac-Palace Theatre, bringing Blue Man Group to Chicago’s Briar Street Theatre, and on mounting the Broadway productions of Jekyll and Hyde, Death of a Salesman, You’re a Good Man, Charlie Brown and Thoroughly Modern Millie.
Education
MFA Acting - Carnegie Mellon University and Moscow Art Theatre School 1996
BA Theatre and Television Arts and English - Valparaiso University 1990Research Interests
Topics:
Acting Theory; Konstantin Stanislavsky; Michael Chekhov; Vsevolod Meyerhold and Biomechanics; Russian Theatre; Religion and Theatre; Yoga, Eastern Spirituality and their correlation to acting practice.Current Research
Topics:
Stanislavsky and his last acting technique known as “Active Analysis”; Connections of Stanislavsky’s System of actor training and Michael Chekhov’s acting technique to Eastern Orthodox Religious Practices; acting practice and higher consciousness; children’s theatre in the Soviet Union; how the writings of Saint Augustine influenced the work of Soviet-era theatre artists.Publications
- "Radiation and the Transmission of Energy: From Stanislavsky to Michael Chekhov", Performance and Spirituality, March, 2009
- "La pratique du rayonnement selon Mikhail Tchekhov ou comment développer un savoir-faire" ("The Practice of Radiation According to Michael Chekhov or How to Develop the Skill"), Mikhail Tchekhov: de Moscou a Hollywood, du theatre au cinema, June, 2009
- "Stanislavsky and Ramacharaka: The Influence of Yoga and Turn-of-the-Century Occultism on the System", Theatre Survey, May, 2006
- "A Director Rehearses: An Interview with Arthur Penn", New England Theatre Journal, January, 2005
Professional Affiliations
- Association for Theatre in Higher Education (ATHE)