Scott Kaiser
MOST RECENT POSITION:
Director of Company Development, Oregon Shakespeare Festival, Ashland (2008-2018)
Essential Job Responsibilities:
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Serves as a member of OSF’s artistic staff.
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Confers with Artistic Director on all matters relating to OSF’s resident acting company.
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Collaborates as a member of a five-person team that casts the festival’s eleven play repertory each season.
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Supervises the company development staff, which includes resident and guest coaches in voice, movement, singing, dance, and fight direction.
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Travels extensively as an ambassador and talent scout to actor training programs nationally.
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Oversees OSF’s Acting Company Trainee Program, in collaboration with colleagues at Southern Oregon University.
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Supports the Festival’s mission of equity, diversity, and inclusion.
EDUCATION AND TRAINING:
Royal Central School of Speech and Drama, London
Advanced Diploma in Voice Studies
With Distinction (July, 1992)
University of Washington, Seattle
Professional Actor Training Program
Master of Fine Arts (June, 1985)
University of Michigan, Ann Arbor
Bachelor of Arts, With Distinction (June, 1981)
DIRECTING CREDITS:
Oregon Shakespeare Festival
Co-director, Henry the Sixth, Parts Two and Three (2004)
Co-director, Henry the Sixth, Part One (2004)
Director, The Huck Finn Project (1998-2000)
Director, School Visit Program Residency Team (1994-1998)
Associate Director, Measure for Measure (1998)
Assistant Director, Timon of Athens (1997)
Assistant Director, The Winter's Tale (1996)
Assistant Director, Awake and Sing (1996)
Island Shakespeare Festival
Director, Titus Andronicus (2022)
University of Washington
Director, A Midsummer Night's Dream (2019)
Carnegie-Mellon University
Love’s Labor’s Won (2017)
Southern Oregon University
Hay Fever (2019)
Shakespeare’s Other Women(2017)
Three Sisters (2012)
Anton in Show Business (2009)
The Philadelphia Story (2006)
Ghosts (2006)
Twelfth Night (2005)
Santa Clara University
Awake and Sing (2015)
Seattle University
Love’s Labor’s Won (2014)
University of Oregon
Arcadia (2013)
New London Barn Playhouse, NH
Show Boat (1991)
Duke University Drama
Arms and the Man (1991)
As You Like It (1991)
A Marvellous Party: Scenes and Songs of Noel Coward (1990)
The Fantasticks (1990)
Love's Labor's Lost (1990)
Twelfth Night (1989)
Stage Door (1989)
ACADEMIC & CONSERVATORY TEACHING:
The Guthrie Experience for Actors in Training (1997-2017)
One week intensives on Acting Shakespeare with MFA acting students from the nation’s top conservatories
Mary Baldwin University (2020)
Mary McDermott Visiting Artist
One semester: Directing Shakespeare on the Blackfriar's Stage and Voicing Shakespeare's Text
Univ. of Washington Professional Actor Training Program (2018, 2019)
One month intensive on Shakespeare’s Wordcraft with MFA acting and directing students
Stanford University/TAPS (2013, 2017)
Guest lecturer on Acting Shakespeare
Southern Oregon University
Playwriting, Voice and Speech 3, Introduction to Acting (2019)
Instructor of Acting Shakespeare (2014-present)
Seattle University (2012, 2014)
Intensives on Acting Shakespeare with theatre students
Southern Methodist University (2014, 2016)
Three-day intensives on Acting Shakespeare with MFA students
California Institute of the Arts (2009-10)
Three-day intensives on Acting Shakespeare with MFA students
Indiana University (2009-10)
One week intensives on Acting Shakespeare with MFA students
Univ. of Washington Professional Actor Training Program (2003)
One week intensive on Acting Shakespeare with MFA students
Dell’ Arte School of Physical Theatre (1997)
One week intensive on Voice Production with students in the Physical Theatre Program
University of Utah (1993-1994)
Visiting Assistant Professor of Theatre, Actor Training Program
Two semesters: Advanced Acting, Dramatic Verse, Audition Technique, Beginning and Intermediate Voice.
Duke University (1988-91)
Instructor of Acting and Voice
Six semesters: Introduction to Acting, Acting I, Acting II, Acting III, Acting IV, Voice and Speech I, Voice and Speech II.
Rose Bruford College of Speech and Drama, England, (1992)
Guest Instructor
One term: Voice Production, Public Speaking, and Shakespearean/Jacobean Text.
University of London, England (1992)
Guest Instructor, Queen Mary/Westfield College
One term: Voice Production/Text.
VOICE AND TEXT DIRECTION:
Oregon Shakespeare Festival, Head of Voice and Text (1993-2011)
2013 Season
The Taming of the Shrew (David Ivers, Director)
2012 Season
Animal Crackers (Allison Narver, Director)
2011 Season
Julius Caesar (Amanda Dehnert, Director)
2010 Season
The Merchant of Venice (Bill Rauch, Director)
Cat on a Hot Tin Roof (Christopher Liam Moore, Director)
2009 Season
Henry VIII (John Sipes, Director)
The Music Man (Bill Rauch, Director)
2008 Season
Othello (Lisa Peterson, Director)
Fences (Leah Gardiner, Director)
Welcome Home, Jenny Sutter (Jessica Thebus, Director)
2007 Season
Romeo and Juliet (Bill Rauch, Director)
The Cherry Orchard (Libby Appel, Director)
Rabbit Hole (James Edmondson, Director)
2006 Season:
The Winter’s Tale (Libby Appel, Director)
The Diary of Anne Frank (James Edmondson, Director)
The Merry Wives of Windsor (Andrew Tsao, Director)
King John (John Sipes, Director)
2005 Season:
Richard III (Libby Appel, Director)
Room Service (J.R. Sullivan, Director)
Love’s Labor’s Lost (Kenneth Albers, Director)
Gibraltar (Liz Diamond, Director)
2004 Season:
Henry the Sixth, Parts Two and Three (Also co-director)
Henry the Sixth, Part One (Also co-director)
The Comedy of Errors (Bill Rauch, Director)
The Royal Family (Peter Amster, Director)
2003 Season:
Daughters of the Revolution (Tony Taccone, Director)
Romeo and Juliet (Loretta Greco, Director)
Antony and Cleopatra (Penny Metropulos, Director)
Richard II (Libby Appel, Director)
2002 Season:
Macbeth (Libby Appel, Director)
Noises Off (Kenneth Albers, Director)
Handler (Bill Rauch, Director)
Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? (Tim Bond, Director)
Titus Andronicus (Jim Edmondson, Director)
2001 Season:
The Tempest (Penny Metropulos, Director)
Enter the Guardsman (Peter Amster, Director)
Oo-Bla-Dee (Tim Bond, Director)
Troilus and Cressida (Kenneth Albers, Director)
Three Sisters (Libby Appel, Director)
2000 Season:
Henry the Fifth (Libby Appel, Director)
The Man Who Came to Dinner (Warner Shook, Director)
Hamlet (Libby Appel, Director)
Stop Kiss (Loretta Greco, Director)
The Trojan Women (Liz Diamond, Director)
1999 Season:
The Good Person of Szechuan (Penny Metropulos, Director)
El Paso Blue (Tim Bond, Director)
Rosmersholm (Jerry Turner, Director)
Henry the Fourth, Part Two (Libby Appel, Director)
The Three Musketeers (Penny Metropulos, Director)
Pericles (Laird Williamson, Director)
1998 Season:
The School for Scandal (Lillian Garrett-Groag, Director)
Vilna’s Got a Golem (Barbara Damashek, Director)
Henry the Fourth, Part One (Michael Edwards, Director)
Measure for Measure (Libby Appel, Director)
Uncle Vanya (Libby Appel, Director)
1997 Season:
King Lear (Libby Appel, Director)
Death of a Salesman (Penny Metropulos, Director)
Blues for an Alabama Sky (Tim Bond, Director)
The Two Gentlemen of Verona (Ken Albers, Director)
Timon of Athens (Penny Metropulos, Director)
1996 Season:
The Darker Face of the Earth (Ricardo Khan, Director)
The Winter's Tale (Fontaine Syer, Director)
Moliere Plays Paris (James Edmondson, Director)
Awake and Sing! (Debra Wicks, Director)
Coriolanus (Tony Taccone, Director)
1995 Season:
The Cure at Troy (Tony Taccone, Director)
Twelfth Night (Melia Bensussen, Director)
Pravda (Henry Woronicz, Director)
The Skin Of Our Teeth (Fontaine Syer, Director)
From the Mississippi Delta (Debra Wicks, Director)
Emma's Child (Cynthia White, Director)
This Day and Age (Pat Patton, Director)
Macbeth (Jerry Turner, Director)
1994 Season:
Hamlet (Henry Woronicz, Director)
You Can't Take It With You (Peggy Shannon, Director)
The Pool of Bethesda (Fontaine Syer, Director)
Oleanna (Charles Towers, Director)
The Rehearsal (Henry Woronicz, Director)
The Two Noble Kinsmen (Nagle Jackson, Director)
Tales of the Lost Formicans (Susan Fenichell, Director)
Much Ado About Nothing (Kirk Boyd, Director)
1993 Season:
Cymbeline (Henry Woronicz, Director)
Richard III (James Edmondson, Director)
Joe Turner's Come and Gone (Clinton Turner Davis, Director)
Light In the Village (Kirk Boyd, Director)
A Flea In Her Ear (Kenneth Albers, Director)
The Baltimore Waltz (Barbara Damashek, Director)
A Midsummer Night's Dream (Cynthia White, Director)
Antony and Cleopatra (Charles Towers, Director)
The White Devil (Jerry Turner, Director)
The Intiman Theatre, Seattle (2000)
Measure for Measure (Libby Appel, Director)
The Guthrie Theater, Minneapolis (1997-1998)
The Venetian Twins (Michael Bogdanov, Director)
The Playboy of the Western World (Joe Dowling, Director)
Blithe Spirit (Joe Dowling, Director)
Racing Demon (Mark Brokaw, Director)
Illinois Shakespeare Festival (1993)
Richard II (John Sipes, Director)
A Midsummer Night's Dream (Bruce Longworth, Director)
Pericles (Doug Finlayson, Director)
Rose Bruford College of Speech and Drama, England (1992)
Richard III (Antony Cornish, Director)
Measure for Measure (Annie Tyson, Director)
Love's Sacrifice (Roger Smith, Director)
Duke University Drama (1988-1991)
Vocal Coach on over 20 Duke Drama productions including:
Hamlet, The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie, Mud, A Servant of Two Masters, The Trojan Women.
Bucknell University (1990)
The Importance of Being Earnest (Bob Gainer, Director)
Georgia Shakespeare Festival (1989)
Twelfth Night (David Leong, Director)
The Comedy of Errors (Karen Robinson, Director)
PUBLIC SPEAKING:
Voice and Speech Trainers Association (2019)
Featured Presenter, Orlando, Florida
American Shakespeare Center (2011)
Blackfriars Conference Keynote Address
Voice and Speech Trainers Association (2008)
Conference Keynote Address, Ashland, Oregon
ORIGINAL PLAYS & ADAPTATIONS:
Falstaff in Love
Playwright, University of Colorado at Boulder (March, 2019)
Commissioned by the Oregon Shakespeare Festival (2015)
Shakespeare’s Other Women
Director/Playwright, Southern Oregon University (2017)
Playwright, Island Shakespeare Festival (2018)
Playwright, University of Oklahoma (2017)
Love’s Labor’s Won
Director/Playwright, Carnegie-Mellon University (2017)
Playwright, Illinois Shakespeare Festival (2015)
Director/Playwright, Seattle University (2014)
Now This
Playwright/First Voice, Ashland New Plays Festival (2016)
Playwright, Quintero Theatre, University of Houston (2011)
Splittin’ the Raft
Playwright, People’s Light & Theatre Company (2007)
Playwright, Marin Theatre Company (2005)
Henry the Sixth, Part One: “Talbot & Joan”
Co-director/Adaptor, Oregon Shakespeare Festival (2004)
Henry the Sixth, Parts Two and Three: “Henry & Margaret”
Co-director/Adaptor, Oregon Shakespeare Festival (2004)
Antony and Cleopatra
Co-Adaptor, Oregon Shakespeare Festival (2003)
Waiting for April
Director/Playwright, Ashland New Plays Festival (2003)
Frederick Douglass Reads Huck Finn
Director/Adaptor, Staged reading, Oregon Shakespeare Festival (2000)
Measure for Measure
Co-adaptor, Intiman Theatre (2000)
Co-adaptor/Associate Director, Oregon Shakespeare Festival (1998)
Othello
Adaptor, Shakesperience, Perth, Australia (2000)
Director/Adaptor, presented at the Shakespeare Association of America Conference, San Francisco (1999)
Director/Adaptor, Oregon Shakespeare Festival School Visit Program (1998)
Titus Andronicus
Adaptor, Shakesperience, Perth, Australia (2000)
Director/Adaptor, Oregon Shakespeare Festival School Visit Program (1994)
Huck Finn
Director/Adaptor, Oregon Shakespeare Festival School Visit Program (1998)
Timon of Athens
Co-Adaptor, Oregon Shakespeare Festival (1997)
King Henry the Fourth, Part One
Director/Adaptor, Oregon Shakespeare Festival School Visit Program (1997)
The Two Gentlemen of Verona
Director/Adaptor, Oregon Shakespeare Festival School Visit Program (1996)
Clifford Odets: Downfall of a Hero-Rebel
Director/Adaptor, Reading, Oregon Shakespeare Festival Lecture Series (1996)
The Poetry of Federico Garcia Lorca
Director/Adaptor, Reading, Oregon Shakespeare Festival Lecture Series (1995)
The Winter’s Tale
Director/Adaptor, Oregon Shakespeare Festival School Visit Program (1995)
A Marvellous Party: Scenes and Songs of Noel Coward
Director/Adaptor, Duke University Drama (1990)
PUBLICATIONS:
Falstaff in Love
(Muse of Fire Books, 2020)
Notes from the Back Row: A Voice and Text Director's Journal
(Muse of Fire Books, 2020)
Tales from the Vomitorium: 38 Short Stories
(Muse of Fire Books, 2020)
Henry and Margaret: An Adaptation of William Shakespeare’s King Henry the Sixth, Parts Two and Three
(Muse of Fire Books, 2019)
Adaptations for the Classroom: William Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night's Dream
(Muse of Fire Books, 2019)
Adaptations for the Classroom: William Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night
(Muse of Fire Books, 2019)
Adaptations for the Classroom: William Shakespeare’s As You Like It
(Muse of Fire Books, 2019)
Adaptations for the Classroom: William Shakespeare’s Love’s Labor’s Lost
(Muse of Fire Books, 2019)
Have Shakespeare, Will Travel: Shakespearean Adaptations from the Oregon Shakespeare Festival’s School Visit Program
(Muse of Fire Books, 2019)
Now This: A Play
(Muse of Fire Books, 2018)
Love’s Labor’s Won
(Muse of Fire Books, 2018)
Splittin’ the Raft
(Muse of Fire Books, 2018)
Shakespeare’s Other Women: A New Anthology of Monologues
(Muse of Fire Books, 2017)
The Tao of Shakespeare
(Muse of Fire Books, 2014)
Translating Timon: The Oregon Shakespeare Festival’s Translation/Adaptation Project
(Article for the Voice and Speech Trainer’s Association Review, Vol. 8, 2014)
Shakespeare’s Wordcraft
(Limelight Editions, NY, 2007)
Voice and Company
(Article for the Voice and Speech Trainer’s Association Review, Vol. 6, 2009)
Rebusing the Fartuous Word: Malaprops and Malaforms in Shakespeare
(Article for the Voice and Speech Trainer’s Association Review, Vol. 5, 2007)
Voice and Text at the Oregon Shakespeare Festival
(Article for the Voice and Speech Trainer’s Association Review, Vol. 4, 2005)
Mastering Shakespeare: An Acting Class in Seven Scenes
(Allworth Press, NY, 2003)
How Long Do You Think It Will Run?
(Article for the Shakespeare Bulletin, Vol. 22, Number 3, Fall, 2004)
How Are We Saying This?
(Article for the Voice and Speech Trainer’s Association Review, Vol. 3, 2003)
Have Shakespeare, Will Travel: Four Shakespearean Adaptations from the Oregon Shakespeare Festival’s School Visit Program
(Oregon Shakespeare Festival Publications, 1999)
PROFESSIONAL AFFILIATIONS:
Actor's Equity Association (joined 1986)
Voice and Speech Trainer's Association (joined 1989)
PROFESSIONAL REFERENCES:
Provided upon request.