Meet our wonderful
Faculty

Richard Larsen

Professor,

Theatre Design,

and Production

Since his arrival at the University of Scranton in 1993, Rich has designed over 90 productions with the University Players, often times doing double duty as scenic and lighting designer and sprinkling a handful of costume and sound designs in for good measure. His scenic and lighting design work has also been featured at the Scranton Cultural Center for the commercial premiere of Harry Connick Jr.’s The Happy Elf and as the former resident lighting designer for the Scranton Civic Ballet. Rich’s work has also been seen at Oklahoma State University, The University of the Arts in Philadelphia, Wyoming Seminary’s Performing Arts Institute at the F.M. Kirby Center in Wilkes-Barre, The University of Northern Colorado, and Manhattanville College. Rich also serves as the technical director for the Boston Liturgical Dance Ensemble for their annual Christmas production of A Dancer’s Christmas at the Alvin Ailey Dance Center in NYC. Rich earned a Master of Fine Arts (MFA) in Theatre Design and Technology from San Diego State University and a Bachelor of Science in Theatre from Northern Arizona University in Flagstaff, AZ.

Courses taught: Introduction to Theatre, Introduction to Technical Theatre, Design for Theatre, Lighting Design, Scenic Design, Scene Painting, Production Lab, First Year Seminar: Round Corners/Visual and Literary Enigmata, and Physics of Theatre

Michael O'Steen

Associate Professor of Acting
and Directing

Directing/Choreography: NYC; Hey God?, Just Feet From Broadway. Regional: Drowsy Chaperone, Sugar, Anything Goes, Sound of Music, Guys and Dolls, Little Shop of Horrors, Good Man Charlie Brown, Annie Get Your Gun others. University Players: From Shakespeare to Steve Martin. Performer: Broadway; Meet Me in St. Louis, Starlight Express. Nationally; Cats, Sayonara, Fame, Guys and Dolls. Regionally: Manhattan Theatre Club, Goodspeed Opera House, Papermill Playhouse, Walnut Street Theatre, Studio Arena, Theatre Virginia, Geva Theatre, and countless others. Pgh and NJ Symphonies, Woody Allan’s Everyone Says I Love You. Teaching: Lee Strasburg Theater and Film Institute, NYU Tisch School of the Arts, MSU, Carnegie Mellon University School of Drama, and its School of Music. BFA, MFA from Carnegie Mellon University’s School of Drama. SDC, SAG-AFTRA, AEA.

Courses Taught: Introduction to Theatre, Introduction to Acting, Intermediate Acting, Advanced Acting, Directing I, Directing II, Stage Combat, Voice and Speech, Musical Theatre Performance.

Dr. Hank Willenbrink

Associate Professor, Theatre Program

Hank Willenbrink's play The Boat in the Tiger Suit premiered at The Brick Theatre (NYC) and is published by Original Works Publishing.

Hank's work has been seen at Sala Beckett (Barcelona), JACK, Performance HIghways, WordBRIDGE, quiet, and World Interplay International Festival of young Playwrights (Australia). 18 won the John Cauble Award for Best Sort Play from KCACTF. Hank's monologues have been featured in Monologues for Men by Men, More Monologues for Men by Men, and Best Men's Stage Monologues of 2014.

Hank's essays have been published in Theatre Journal, Contemporary Theatre Review, Theatre Forum, Response, and online at The Lark and HowlRound. He co-edited an anthology of contemporary Spanish an Portuguese-language writers, Palabras: Dispatches from the Festival de la Palabra. His essay on the use of music in HBO's Girls can be found in HBO's Girls and the Awkward Politics of Gender, Race, and Privilege. He co-founded the music blog We Listen for You (welistenforyou.com).

Courses taught: Latest and Greatest: Prize Winning Fiction Poetry and Theatre, The American Literary Experience, Senior Seminar, Intro. to Theatre, Theatre History I, Theatre History II, Solo Performance, Playwriting I and Playwriting II.

Steve Martin. Performer: Broadway; Meet Me in St. Louis, Starlight Express. Nationally; Cats, Sayonara, Fame, Guys and Dolls. Regionally: Manhattan Theatre Club, Goodspeed Opera House, Papermill Playhouse, Walnut Street Theatre, Studio Arena, Theatre Virginia, Geva Theatre, and countless others. Pgh and NJ Symphonies, Woody Allan’s Everyone Says I Love You. Teaching: Lee Strasburg Theater and Film Institute, NYU Tisch School of the Arts, MSU, Carnegie Mellon University School of Drama, and its School of Music. BFA, MFA from Carnegie Mellon University’s School of Drama. SDC, SAG-AFTRA, AEA.