Faculty and Staff

Acting Faculty

Heather Benton

Associate Professor, Theatre and Dance

Phone

973-655-3085

Email

bentonh@montclair.edu

Location

Life Hall

Debbie Saivetz

Associate Professor, Theatre and Dance

Phone

973-655-3353

Email

saivetzd@montclair.edu

Location

Life Hall

Welcome our New Acting Faculty

Sarah Koestner is an actor, teacher and coach and has been seen in The Libertine (director Eric Tucker), Waiting for Lefty (The Working Theater), Betrayal (Teatro LaTea) and Love Song (The Access Theater) in New York City. Regional credits include Landscape of the Body, The Maids, Doubt, and One Good Marriage with The Garage Theater Group. She Stoops to Conquer with Centenary Stage Company, The Understudy with Amphibian Stage Productions, and A Month of Sundays and Over the River and Through the Woods with The Public Theatre in Maine. Sarah has taught for NYU, Rutgers University, and New York Film Academy. She received her BFA in Acting from Emerson College and her MFA from Rutgers Mason Gross School of the Arts under William Esper. 

Ran Xia is a Shanghai-born, Brooklyn-based interdisciplinary theatre artist. Beatrice Terry Resident at the Drama League (2021/22); Resident Director at the Tank (inaugural Artist of the Year 2019); Guest director ar Barnard (Orlando, fall 2021), Commissioned playwright at Vanderbilt University (To Stab a Butterfly Through the Heart); Usual suspect at Exquisite Corpse Co; audio producer at Black Revolutionary Media, etc. Ran holds immense respect for tardigrades, gets enthused by long train rides and Franz Marc’s Blue horses, and is really to PLAY. ranxia.info

Rachel Graf Evans (she/her) is a writer and theatre artist recently returned to Atlanta. Dramatic writing credits include: PHEROMONE: AN AWKWARD OLFACTORY INQUIRY (Finalist: Philadelphia Theatre Company 2021 Terrence McNally Award; Winner: Elon University 2021 New Play Award/Virtual Production; 2018 Working Title Playwrights Ethel Woolson Lab); RANDI & ROXANNE (Finalist: 2021 Lanford Wilson New American Play Award/Reading at Southeast Missouri State University; 2020 Hollins Playwright’s Lab Reading); BUILT TO FLOAT (Winner: 2018 Essential Theatre Award for Georgia Playwrights). RGE is a proud member of the Dramatists Guild, Ring of Keys, Working Title Playwrights, and the New Play Exchange. M.F.A. Musical Theater Collaboration, Graduate Certificates: Gender, Sexuality, and Women’s Studies; Teaching in Higher Education (Temple University). M.F.A. Playwriting Candidate (Hollins University, est. 2022). B.A. with High Honors: Theatre/Gender, Sexuality, & Feminist Studies (Oberlin College). Stay tuned at www.rachelgrafevans.com

Avery Glymph is a DC native and an award-winning actor, teacher, and director based in New York City. Holding a Master of Fine Arts degree as a graduate of the George Washington University’s Academy for Classical Acting through the Shakespeare Theatre Company, Avery also holds a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree from the University of North Carolina School of the Arts. Avery recently directed the mainstage production of “Stick Fly ” by Lydia R. Diamond at his Alma Mater, the UNC School of the Arts, and is an instructor of Acting in the Department of Theatre Arts at Duke University,.

Joe Jung,An actor/musician living in New York City, Joe holds a BA from Western Michigan University and an MFA from the University of Connecticut and has performed in theaters in NYC and throughout the country. He is also Artistic Director of Project: Theater, a company established in 2004 to foster new works (Unity (1918), Occupation, Mangella, Our Bar) and revive forgotten gems (J.B., The Secretaries, The Great American Desert). Having studied the training techniques of Tadashi Suzuki under Ellen Lauren and Eric Hill, Joe has spent the last two decades leading workshops designed to awaken the actor’s body and help them embrace the mental and physical challenges extant in the pursuit of acting.

Virginia Scott teaches/taught physical comedy, clown, commedia, bouffon, play, physical acting, treteau, and all that kind of wiggling it around at schools such as The Juilliard School, A.C.T., Movement Theatre Studio, and Tisch School of the Arts at NYU: International Theatre Workshop in Amsterdam, Stella Adler Studio, Meisner and Open Arts Studio. TCG just published Discovering the Clown: the Funny Book of Good Acting by Christopher Bayes with Virginia Scott. Virginia created The Commedia Company and Some Clowns, groups who perform contemporary, original commedia and clown shows, associated with her New York City based studio, Fizgig http://www.fizgigstudio.com. Virginia has long created new works with clowns, variety artists, stand-ups and comedians of all kinds at venues such as The Irish Repertory Theatre, Ars Nova Mainstage, UCB, The US Comedy Arts Festival in Aspen, The Comedy Central Theatre, and The Guilded Balloon in Edinburgh. 

Part-Time Faculty/Adjuncts/Visiting Specialists

Dance Faculty

Director of Dance

Elizabeth McPherson

Professor, Theatre and Dance

Phone

973-655-7831

Email

mcphersone@montclair.edu

Location

Life Hall

Stefanie Batten Bland

Associate Professor, Theatre and Dance

Email

battenblands@montclair.edu

Location

Life Hall

Kathleen Kelley

Professor, Theatre and Dance

Phone

973-655-4115

Email

kelleyka@montclair.edu

Location

Life Hall

Maxine Steinman

Associate Professor, Theatre and Dance

Phone

973-655-7893

Email

steinmanm@montclair.edu

Location

Life Hall

Part-Time Faculty/Adjuncts/Visiting Specialists

Musical Theatre Faculty

Faculty teaching in the Musical Theatre Program are based in the Department of Theatre & Dance and the John J. Cali School of Music.

Eric Diamond

Professor, Theatre and Dance

Phone

973-655-3120

Email

diamonde@montclair.edu

Location

Life Hall

Peter Flynn

Professor, Theatre and Dance

Phone

973-655-2137

Email

flynnpe@montclair.edu

Location

Life Hall

Geoffrey Doig-Marx

Adjunct Professor, Theatre and Dance

Email

doigmarxg@montclair.edu

Location

Life Hall

Clay James II

Associate Professor, Theatre and Dance

Phone

973-655-7341

Email

jamesbr@montclair.edu

Location

Life Hall

Music Faculty (Based in the John J. Cali School of Music)

Lori McCann

Professor, Cali School of Music

Phone

973-655-6983

Email

mccannl@montclair.edu

Location

Chapin Hall

Scott D Richards

Professor, Cali School of Music

Phone

973-655-2099

Email

richardssc@montclair.edu

Location

Chapin Hall

Theatre: Design, Technology and Management Faculty

Randy Mugleston

Professor, Theatre and Dance

Phone

973-655-7343

Email

muglestonr@montclair.edu

Location

Life Hall

Erhard Rom

Professor, Theatre and Dance

Phone

973-655-4378

Email

rome@montclair.edu

Location

Life Hall

Part-Time Faculty, Adjuncts and Visiting Specialists

Theatre Studies Faculty

Jessica Brater

Associate Professor, Theatre and Dance

Email

braterj@montclair.edu

Location

Life Hall

Eric Diamond

Professor, Theatre and Dance

Phone

973-655-3120

Email

diamonde@montclair.edu

Location

Life Hall

Mary English

Chairperson, Classics and General Humanities

Email

englishm@montclair.edu

Location

Dickson Hall, 121

Part-Time Faculty/Adjuncts/Visiting Specialists

Graduate Studies Faculty

Jessica Brater

Associate Professor, Theatre and Dance

Email

braterj@montclair.edu

Location

Life Hall

Randy Mugleston

Professor, Theatre and Dance

Phone

973-655-7343

Email

muglestonr@montclair.edu

Location

Life Hall

Erhard Rom

Professor, Theatre and Dance

Phone

973-655-4378

Email

rome@montclair.edu

Location

Life Hall

Debbie Saivetz

Associate Professor, Theatre and Dance

Phone

973-655-3353

Email

saivetzd@montclair.edu

Location

Life Hall

Part-Time Faculty, Adjuncts and Visiting Specialists

Rogelio Martinez
Adjunct Instructor
Playwriting
973-655-7000
martinezrog@montclair.edu

Mysti Stay, MFA
Adjunct Instructor
Production / Stage Management
973-655-7000
staym@montclair.edu

Andrea Stover
Adjunct Instructor
Dramaturgy
973-655-3259
stovera@montclair.edu