Andy White

Biography

R. Andrew White is 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 has worked as an actor at numerous area theatres including the European Repertory Company (of which he was an ensemble member), Steppenwolf, Wisdom Bridge, Chicago Dramatists, Plan B Productions, Writers Theatre, and Indiana Repertory Theatre. In Russia he performed at the Tabakov Theatre and the American Studio of the Moscow Art Theatre.

Andrew’s areas of expertise include performance, 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 opening 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 1990

Contributions

• Books:
  • The Routledge Companion to Stanislavsky, editor (London: Routledge, 2013).
    With Alan D. Ernstein, A Timeline of Western Drama: Scripts from the Classic Period to the 21^st Century, ed. (San Diego: Cognella, 2014).
• Chapters:
  • “Chekhov’s Notion of Radiating: From Concept to Concrete” Marie-Christine Autant-Mathieu and Yana Meerzon, eds. The Routledge Companion to Michael Chekhov (London: Routledge, 2015).
  • “Altered States: Radiating Consciousness in Michael Chekhov’s Technique” in Jade Rosina McCutcheon and Barbara Sellers-Young, eds. Embodied Consciousness: Performance Technologies (New York: Palgrave Macmillian, 2013).
  • “Embodying the Disembodied: Hesychasm, Meditation, and Michael Chekhov’s Higher Ego” in Lance Gharavi, ed. Religion, Theatre, and Performance: Acts of Faith (London: Routledge, 2011).
  • “La Pratique du Rayonnement selon Mikhail Tchekhov ou Comment Developper un Savoir-Faire” in Marie-Christine Autant-Mathieu, ed. Mikhaïl Tchekhov: de Moscou à Hollywood, du théâtre au cinéma (Paris: L’Entretemps, 2009).
  • Various articles in journals including Theatre Survey, Performance and Spirituality, TDR/The Drama Review, and New England Theatre Journal.

Interests

• Acting Theory & Practice; Konstantin Stanislavsky
• Michael Chekhov
• Anton Chekhov
• Vsevolod Meyerhold and Biomechanics
• Russian Theatre
• Religion and Theatre
• Yoga, Eastern Spirituality and their correlation to acting practice.

Courses Taught

• Introduction to Theatre, Voice and Diction, Movement for the Theatre, Acting I, Acting II, Acting III, Acting for the Camera, Theatre and Culture I and II, Writing for Stage and Screen, Auditioning, Chicago Theatre, The Vampire Tradition

Memberships

• Association for Theatre in Higher Education (ATHE)

Recognitions

• Member of the Editorial Board for Ecumenica: A Journal of Theatre and Performance
• Advisory Board Member of the Stanislavsky Institute for the 21^st Century
• Kennedy Center/American College Theatre Festival – Region III respondent