BU Appoints Director Wendy Goldberg And Interdisciplinary Theater Educator Ashleigh Reade As College Of Fine Arts Faculty

Boston University College of Fine Arts has announced faculty appointments and promotions for the 2022-2023 academic year. A leading director in the country, Wendy Goldberg has been appointed a Full Professor in Directing at the CFA School of Theatre. Goldberg, who also serves as the Artistic Director of the National Playwrights Conference at the Eugene O'Neill Theater Center, will lead BU's Master of Fine Arts (MFA) Directing program. Award-winning cartoonist and historian Joel Christian Gill (CFA'04) begins his appointment this fall as the Inaugural Chair of BU's all-new MFA in Visual Narrative program and Associate Professor of Art in the CFA School of Visual Arts. Also joining the CFA faculty is interdisciplinary theater educator and performer Ashleigh Reade as Assistant Professor in Voice and Speech in the CFA School of Theatre.

Wendy Goldberg has spent the last 20 years leading the foremost programs in the development, direction, and the production of new works for the American Theater. As Artistic Director of the National Playwrights Conference at the Eugene O'Neill Theater Center for 16 seasons, under Goldberg's tenure, the O'Neill was awarded the 2010 Regional Tony Award, the first play development and education organization to receive this honor as well as the 2016 National Medal of Arts from the White House. Goldberg is the first woman to lead the conference in its fifty-year history. She served as the Chair of Jury for the Pulitzer Prize in Drama in 2020 and 2021, and as a member of the jury for the Pulitzer Prize in 2019.

Goldberg has served on the Executive Board of Stage Directors and Choreographers Foundation (SDC) since 2005, founding and leading the National Directors Fellowship. Credits include Arena Stage, The Denver Center, Actors Theatre of Louisville, Cincinnati Playhouse in the Park, The Guthrie, The Goodman, Signature, Center Stage, Alliance, Playmakers Rep, and Paper Mill Playhouse, among others.

In 2019, Goldberg founded TheFrontOffice, a theatrical and media development company after serving as a performance director for Rockstar Games in New York City. In 2017. Goldberg was hired to help direct Red Dead Redemption 2, the largest open world video game in the history of gaming and the best opening weekend for an entertainment product in the history of entertainment.

Goldberg is the recipient of the Zelda Fichandler Finalist Award given to a director who is "transforming the region through theater" by the Society of Stage Directors and Choreographers Foundation.

"I am very excited to lead the graduate directing training at BU and join such illustrious colleagues as we help nurture and grow students into professionals during this challenging moment for theater artists," says Goldberg. "As we come back from theatrical and live event shut down during the global pandemic, much has shifted, and it is important to me that training shifts as well as we approach this next chapter with a renewed sense of imagination balanced with a broader and deeper understanding of the overall theatrical landscape. I have always been interested in relevance and how as storytellers we respond to our historical moment, so to be in a position to aid students as they begin to chart the future of theater, feels extremely invigorating and inspiring. I feel quite honored to join this faculty."

Goldberg is an honors graduate of the University of Michigan and holds an MFA in Directing from UCLA's School of Theater, Film and Television.

Instrumental in planning the new MFA in Visual Narrative degree at BU, CFA alum Joel Christian Gill joins the College's faculty as the Inaugural Chair of the Visual Narrative program and Associate Professor of Art in the School of Visual Arts, bringing a wealth of knowledge and storytelling to CFA.

Gill is a cartoonist and historian who speaks nationally on the importance of sharing stories. He is the author of the acclaimed memoir Fights: One Boy's Triumph Over Violence, cited as one of the best graphic novels of 2020 by The New York Times and for which he was awarded the 2021 Cartoonist Studio Prize. He wrote the words and drew the pictures for Fast Enough: Bessie Stringfield's First Ride and the award-winning graphic novel series Strange Fruit: Uncelebrated Narratives from Black History, as well as three volumes of Tales of The Talented Tenth, which tell the stories of Bass Reeves, Bessie Stringfield and Robert Smalls.

"Comics are the greatest form of visual communication and a pure form of Postmodern art in that they are relatively new and specifically because they question the standard ways that humans communicate stories. Comics and cartooning have the ability to take an abstract aesthetic and create realism in the function of storytelling (via semiotics, history, prose, and poetry)," says Gill. "At the BU College of Fine Arts School of Visual Arts, we have the opportunity to show this with our unique and powerful focus on images, ideas, and skills. Students in our Visual Narrative MFA program will focus on how the stories they tell connect and shape an ever-changing world. Comics are an essential tool in shaping the world's narrative landscape and ideas."

Dana Clancy, School of Visual Arts Director and Associate Professor of Art, Painting, welcomes Gill to BU School of Visual Arts. "Joel Christian Gill's tremendous energy, vision, and strong sense of inquiry will ignite his students as they learn to tell their own and others' stories in innovative and authentic ways," says Clancy. "I look forward to the exciting interdisciplinary collaborations Joel is planning within and beyond the School that draw on his expertise and connections in the field, including the upcoming exhibition he is curating for the BU Art Galleries and his own work illustrating Stamped from the Beginning. The Visual Narrative program is already unique for utilizing the resources of BU School of Visual Arts, BU, and the city of Boston. The degree will come to life and engage students with important social issues with Joel leading it."

Gill received his MFA from Boston University and his BA from Roanoke College. For more on Gill, visit his official website: www.joelchristiangill.com.

Interdisciplinary theater educator and performer specializing in voice, speech, text, and accent work, Ashleigh Reade brings an extensive portfolio to BU with years of working in academia and professional acting experience.

"Joining the BU School of Theatre is, quite honestly, a dream come true! From my very first interactions with students and faculty, I knew this was where I wanted to teach. I'm honored to join a community of creative and progressive artists and teachers, and to continue building a truly inclusive pedagogy in voice and speech training," Reade says.

Prior to joining the faculty at the CFA School of Theatre, Reade was an Assistant Professor of Theater at the Boston Conservatory, where she taught Fitzmaurice Voicework and Knight-Thompson Speech work. She also designed and taught the Vocal Production course for Harvard Summer School and Harvard Extension School, and served on the theater faculties of Dean College, Salem State University, and Bunker Hill Community College.

Reade has taught masterclasses for Loyola Marymount, CCM, Boston Conservatory, Harvard University, Broadway Artist's Alliance, Lyric Stage, and The Moscow Art Theater School. Coaching credits include Intimate Apparel (Brandeis), Witness: Uganda (ART, asst.), The Light Princess (ART), as well as multiple productions with the Institute for Advanced Theater Training at Harvard University and the Harvard-Radcliffe Dramatic Club. A presenter at VASTA and ATHE, Reade's research focuses on an anti-oppressive vocal pedagogy that centers application, acting to voice connection, and the actor's lived experience as the fuel for dynamic vocal variety.

Prior to her teaching transition, Reade was a professional actor, beginning her career on the National Tour of Roger's and Hammerstein's STATE FAIR. Other credits include Sacramento Music Circus, Papermill Playhouse, Surflight Theater, Seven Angels Theater, and West Virginia Public Theater. Reade has also originated lead roles in four new musicals, performing at the Producer's Club, Ars Nova, and The York. In 2020, Reade and her partner started indie-rock band Your Local Dance Hall.

Reade is a Certified Associate Teacher of Fitzmaurice Voiceworktm and is pursuing certification in Knight-Thompson Speech work. She has received two Dean's Commendation Awards from Harvard Extension School, and ten Certificates of Teaching Excellence from the Derek Bok Center at Harvard University. She received her BFA from Boston Conservatory, an MFA from Harvard University and holds a M.X.A.T., Certificate in Classical Acting, LAMDA.

Additional CFA full-time faculty hired as lecturers include: School of Visual Arts - Fox Hysen, Lecturer, Painting; School of Music - Jacqueline Smith, Lecturer, Music Education; School of Theatre - Haydee Zelideth, Lecturer, Costume Design; and Aja Jackson, Lecturer, Lighting Design (previously part-time faculty).

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