Faculty | Theater | SIU

Technical Direction and Production

Robert Anderson's theatrical career started with a Bachelor's of Science in Theatre from Minnesota State University, Mankato after a decade of military service. After graduation, he was hired as a touring technical director based out of Kenner, LA. After completing this tour, he worked in film in the greater New Orleans area until he was hired as Technical Director for Jefferson Performing Arts Society.

Professor Bogumil teaches modern British and American literature, with a particular interest in British, Irish, Scottish, Australian and American drama, and often works with student playwrights in the Theater Program.

Tom Fagerholm's career in theater started with a Bachelor of Arts in creative drama and theater education from the University of Northern Iowa. After graduating, he toured as an actor-educator, worked as a freelance technical director and co-founded two theater companies including Intergenerational Theatre Productions in Eagan, Minn., still in operation today.

Dr. Fletcher is the author of Rediscovering Mordecai Gorelik: Scene Design and the American Theatre (SIU Press, 2009) and co-author (with Scott R. Irelan and Julie Felise Dubiner) of The Process of Dramaturgy: A Handbook (Focus Publishing, 2010), the forthcoming introduction to the theatre text, Experiencing Theatre, with Scott R. Irelan, and a volume on American playwrights of the 1930s for a Methuen series edited by Brenda Murphy and Julia Listengarten. She is currently at work (with Dr. Cheryl Black from the University of Missouri) on a book on the Theatre Union, the first professional workers theatre company in the US.

Jacob Juntunen is a playwright and theatre scholar whose work focuses on theatre’s role in forming national imagined communities, paying particular attention to marginality.

His first book, Mainstream AIDS Theatre, the Media, and Gay Civil Rights: Making the Radical Palatable, was published by Routledge (2016). It shows ideological change over time by examining receptions of plays with an AIDS focus from 1985-2000. It intervenes in the notion that mainstream theatre, because it relies on capitalism, must be inherently conservative. He published related research in three different McFarland anthologies, two articles on HowlRound.com, and an article in the journal Peace and Change. He also gave invited talks on the subject at Adam Mickiewicz University (Poznań, Poland), Ohio University, and SIU. Based on this work, he was named the 2016 James Fisher Fellow in the American Theatre and Drama Society (ATDS).

Gennie Neuman Lambert is a set designer that works in both professional and academic organizations. She often designs for new plays and musically driven performances, including the world premiere of Repairing A Nation by Nicole Salter at Crossroads Theatre Company, filmed by PBS's Theater Close Up's series, and The Rape of Lucretia at the Krannert Center for Performing Arts conducted by Julie Jordan Gunn, directed by Kirsten Pullen.

Susan Patrick Benson recently made her stage debut at Play2C Theater in Berlin. Her NYC resume includes Ensemble Studio Theatre, Currican Theatre, HB Playwright's Foundation, La MaMa ETC as well as annual appearances in the legendary Rev. Al Carmines' Christmas Rappings.

Jane Pivovarnik is the costume shop manager for SIU’s Theater Program.

Originally from Springfield, IL, Jane was previously the assistant costume shop manager at PCPA. She has also worked as a draper for Portland Opera, Portland Center Stage, Northwest Children’s Theater, Western Oregon University, the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, and Mcleod Summer Playhouse. She has also worked on costumes for Glimmerglass Opera and Signature Theater, DC. She has designed costumes for PCPA and Allan Hancock Community College. She has a BS in Fashion Design and Merchandising and an MFA in Costume Design from Southern Illinois University Carbondale.

Performance/Movement

Matthew C. Williams choreographed Will Ferrell’s Broadway debut, You’re Welcome America. Off-Broadway credits include Rooms and the revival of Carrie, the musical. Matthew went on to direct Carrie, the musical at Montclair State University. Matthew was the assistant director to Casey Nicholaw on the Broadway production All About Me.

Wendi R. Zea is an associate professor in costume design, teaching design, period styles, costumes construction, play reading and a variety of costume crafts classes, including dyeing, fabric modification, wigs and millinery.