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College of Arts & Letters Department of Theatre Arts and Dance Professor Theresa Larkin Office: MU 243 Biography Theresa Larkin is currently a tenured full professor (Acting/Directing/Arts Management/MFA) in the Department of Theatre Arts and Dance. She is a professional actress, theatre director, videographer, producer, video editor, conference planner, arts administrator, non-profit consultant, and founder/co-founder of numerous non-profit and profit companies, most notably: The Artists' Collective, Theatre for the 21st Century, Latino Classical Repertory (East Los Angeles Theatre Company), and Palar Consulting / Appraisal Corporation. Theresa has consistently been working in some capacity in the performing arts for over thirty years. As a conference planner she has worked on a national level for many years with Association For Theatre in Higher Education (ATHE-founding the Directing Forum in 1985), American Theatre College Festival (ATCF-Regional Festival Adjudicator since 1980), and Center for Theatre of the Oppressed/Applied Theatre Arts/Los Angeles (CTO/ATA/LA-Conference planning, co-founder, workshop leader). Recently, Theresa was a core conference planner for the international conference held in Hollywood at the Renaissance Hotel (home of the Kodak Theatre) celebrating Augusto Boal's Theatre of the Oppressed with colleagues from the CTO/ATA/LA. For four years she also served as Historian/Documentarian for CTO/ATA/LA. In 2007, Theresa was awarded a proclamation for the County of Riverside for a new work (with co-writer Mary H. Curtin) celebrating Mine' Okubo (Japanese-American internee artist famous for her camp drawings) entitled Mine': A Name For Herself. In 2009, Professor Larkin is being honored by ACTF with an Excellence in Education Award for her many years of volunteer service with this national organization. Her academic degrees include a BA in Drama/Dance from Loyola Marymount University; MFA in Shakespearean Performance from U C Irvine; and a Ph.D. (in progress) in Cultural Studies/Cultural Documentary from Claremont Graduate University. She also trained at Royal Academy of Dramatic Art, London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art (Intensive Tutorials), London Contemporary Arts, Shakespeare and Company, and Avid Editing, and numerous other training environments in the arts. Previously, Theresa spent three years as a tenure-track professor in the MFA program (Acting/Directing/Voice) at San Jose State University; two years as a Visiting Assistant Professor at Southern Illinois University at Carbondale in the MFA program (Acting/Voice); and three years as an MFA Lecturer at University of California, Irvine in the undergraduate program (Acting). Professor Larkin has also taught at National University, American InterContinental University, Springfield College, and guest lectured at numerous campuses around the world, including Santa Clara University, University of Nevada, Las Vegas, Oberlin College, and Chulalongkorn University (Thailand), among other campuses. As a professional director and actor, Theresa is a member of the following unions: Society of Stage Directors and Choreographers, Screen Actors' Guild, Actors' Equity Association, American Federation of Radio and Televuision Artists, and California Faculty Association. |