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Personal Statement |
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October 13, 2007 |
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Dear Dean of the Arts, Theater Department Faculty, and members of the Academic Personnel Committee: |
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During the period under review my research both as an actor and a director as well as my university service have been extensive, high-impact, visible, deep, and diverse. My teaching has been big, adventurous, diverse, and evaluated as predominantly excellent. |
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I took the March 18, 2005 advice of the Interim Campus Provost and Executive Vice Chancellor, “You have been reviewed three times in the last four years.... I encourage you to consider being reviewed on a more normative timetable.” I think I was inadequately promoted on my last two reviews, despite the short review period. The first was less than a step and a half, which is considerably less than my colleagues in the department have received for comparable research; I had also been chair. The other was only a salary adjustment, for again, a lot of research in one year, again, while serving as chair. My teaching was also evaluated as overwhelmingly excellent during these reviews. The department letters supported my requests. I should think the work represented during this period merits consideration of two full steps, i.e., an one-step acceleration. |
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This document may be found on my website: www.dannyscheie.com with links to artists and theaters whose reputations may need supportive material. (It is found under the UCSC button on the homepage). I also urge the reader to find much of the supporting material usually supplied in hardcopy elsewhere on this website, particularly photos, videos, and critical reviews. (I have included some of it on file on paper; some of it is found in both places.) |
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Research |
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As noted above, my work as Actor and Director has been diverse. It has been visible at some of the largest and most reputable theaters in the country, as well as at cutting-edge avant-garde houses. I have continued in what is perhaps the most typical strand of my career: a rigorous theatrical re-examination of classical drama. I have also directed and acted in brand-new pieces. Whereas previously my work on new plays tended to center on gay and lesbian identity, during this period it has expanded significantly into Filipino and African-American identity. I have become an expert as an actor in 18th century baroque roles, both English and French; reviews (found on my website under “press” with key sections in boldface) suggest my interpretations of these roles as unique and outstanding. |
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Jessica Hagedorn, Charles Mee, David Edgar, and Amy Freed are international playwriting stars who were in residence with me during rehearsals of these projects. Similarly Les Waters, John Rando, Lillian Groag, Daniel Fish, Sharon Ott, and Jon Moscone have international profiles as directors. They chose to cast me, and I believe all of them would do so again. Berkeley Rep and the Old Globe in San Diego are perhaps the most influential theaters on the West Coast, regularly moving work directly to New York. The Old Globe is under the artistic direction of Jack O’Brien who was represented on Broadway this year by Hairspray and Tom Stoppard’s The Coast of Utopia; he won Tony awards for both. Asolo Rep is the most prestigious artistic repertory theater in Florida. As stated below, I think Campo Santo at Intersection for the Arts in San Francisco is probably a national model of an inner-city theater in terms of diversity of programming and integrity of mission. My work is regularly reviewed in the national theater publications Variety and Backstage. A book (by Roz King) focusing on my production of Cymbeline in 2000 was published during this period of review and reviewed in the London Times Literary Supplement. |
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It should be noted that this type of research involves at least five forty-hour weeks of rehearsals on site and usually eight performances a week for five to ten weeks per production. |
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Because my projects during this period were so many and so diverse, I have listed them below. |
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Actor: |
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Restoration Comedy: I played Sir Novelty Fashion, Lord Foppington in two productions of Pulitzer Prize finalist Amy Freed’s Restoration Comedy, at the Old Globe in San Diego and at California Shakespeare Theater. In San Diego it was directed by John Rando (who on Broadway directed the musicals Urinetown , The Wedding Singer, and Neil Simon’s The Dinner Party); Star Trek’s Bob Blackman designed the costumes; Ralph Funicello did the set; York Kennedy did the lights; Marco Baricelli, Peter Frechette (Tony nomination for Eastern Standard) and Kimberly Scott (Tony nomination for Joe Turner’s Come and Gone) were also in it. At Cal Shakes it was directed by Sharon Ott (who was Artistic Director of Berkeley Rep when they won the Tony Award and later took over as Artistic Director of Seattle Rep). The role was among the very favorites of my career, and I received a Bay Area Theater Critics Circle nomination for my performance. I also performed in a staged reading of it at the Roundabout (NY) on Broadway. My acting in this production is the subject of an article in the next edition of Journal of Eighteenth Century Studies. |
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Fetes de la Nuit. This was a world-premiere at Berkeley Rep by Charles Mee, perhaps already the classic and quintessential post-modern playwright. He was in residence during rehearsals. It co-starred Maria Dizzia (currently Euridyce in New York), Youssef Kemahl, Mishi Barral, B-Boy Machine, Corinne Blum (SF Ballet), Bruce McKenzie (currently in The Farnsworth Invention in New York), and several other phenomenally talented actors and performers. Les Waters directed. Jean Isaacs choreographed. It was so thrilling to be part of this project, in which my performance was very well-received, the most notable scene being a Scorcese homage in which I leapt from the catwalk into an audience box. I had played in a two-year run of Mee’s Orestes ten years earlier at the Nourse Auditorium in San Francisco, so I cherished this throughline to my career. |
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