|
|
Jack Ellis
Associate Professor of Theater
|
Department
of Exprissive Arts
Western New Mexico University
Silver City, NM 88061
ellisj@wnmu.edu
Office – Web 101
Phone – (575) 538-6502
B.F.A., North Texas State
M.F.A., University of Texas
Jack Ellis is originally from Paris, Texas. He received his BFA degree in
Theatre, Speech and English with Secondary Education Certification from North
Texas State University in Denton, Texas.
After several years of work in the real world, including two stints as a bartender,
he apprenticed at the famous Alley Theatre in Houston, Texas. During the following
years, he taught school, then returned to school at the University of Texas in
Austin for his MFA degree.
After graduation, he became the technical director for the W.E.Scott Theatre
in Ft. Worth, Texas, and in the next five years did over 30 plays as designer
or actor. During this time, he won the Kennedy Center Bronze medal for technical
contribution to the American College Theatre Festival, Region VI, which was hosted
by the Scott.
A period of travel followed his time in Ft. Worth, with working visits to Greece,
Italy, England and Spain.Returning from Europe to New York, Jack worked in the
craft at the New York Shakespeare Festival, La Mama, Columbia University and
some small theatres so far off Broadway as to be almost extraterrestrial.
Exhausted with the possibilities of the Big Apple, Jack returned to Texas, worked
as designer and actor on the Alabama-Cushotta Indian Reservation in the outdoor
historical drama Beyond The Sundown. He lived in a converted school bus
and got a great tan for the first time in his life.
Feeling the need to expand horizons, Jack worked as Technical Director/Designer
at KUHT-TV, the eighth largest PBS venue in the world. After two years, he became
the Art Director of the station and participated in such projects as Teacher
in Space with the Johnson Space Center (his set never made it to air, but then,
neither did the Challenger), Signing with Cindy, which sold world- wide, A
Harp Christmas, a big seller in Jamaica, and the air debut of John Bradshaw,
guru of pop psychology.
After 12 years, Jack left Houston for New Mexico and free-lance designed for
various art galleries, artists, musicians, and shaved -ice franchises.
In 1991, as a member of a science-fiction writers group, Jack was introduced
to Silver City for the first time, and commented, "What a nice town. I could
live here."
Three months later , he moved to WNMU to become the Director of the Drama Discipline
, and has been active in the University, Civic, Educational and Psychic life
of the area ever since. He has directed almost 30 plays here, including:
- Camelot
- Blythe Spirit
- The Millennium Review
- Romeo and Juliet
- Wizard of Oz
- An Enemy of the People
- Joan of Lorraine
- 7 Brides for 7 Brothers
- Charlotte's Web
- Night of the Iguana
- Harvey
- Bacchae
- Urishima Taro & The Shadow Dragon (original script)
- Seascape
- Under Milk Wood
- Philadelphia, Here I Come
- Peter Pan
- Volpone
- Galileo
- Sharazade (original script)
- The Diary of Anne Frank
- A Phoenix Too Frequent (ACTF entry)
- The Cherry Orchard
- How I Learned to Drive
- The Silver Whistle
- The Laramie Project (ACTF entry)
- Twelfth Night
- J.B.
- Sylvia
Jack is an attending member of the American Institute of Technical Theatre, SWTA
and has taken plays to the Kennedy Center American College Theatre Festival ,
where student actors and technicians have won awards for their work, including
nominations for the prestigious Irene Ryan Scholarships Competition. He has also
taken busman's holidays to direct, most notably Shakespeare's Two Gentlemen
of Verona at The Pacific Repertory Company in Carmel, California.
Jack is very proud to have past students participating in theatre around the
United States, and enjoys hearing of their travels and successes far and wide.
Professor Ellis served for four years as Co-Chair of the Expressive Arts Department
and was given promotion to Associate Professor at Western.
Asked for his proudest moments at Western, Jack replies that his work on the
renovation of the Fine Arts Center Theatre (FACT) and the Webb Theatre spaces
were both elating and frustrating. "The task of renovation is ongoing in theatre," he
says. "We have had some remarkably insightful support from the administration
over the years, especially by our President, John Counts. His vision for what
the FACT and the program can be, has allowed for us to get bond issues passed,
which enabled us to make the FACT a really evolving space and facility. Projects
need to be finished, but the foundations are laid, and with lots of attention
to detail, the facility can be a top-notch production house."
"Additionally, I am very happy with my opportunities to interface with my community...
giving the students performance windows... with the local high schools, the Main
Street Project, the Ice Queen for the Lighted Christmas Parade (I designed and
built the original) and the Fourth of July Parade. I was also a founding member
of the Silver City International film Society. This year, I am very excited that
one of my students in playwrighting will have the opportunity to see her work
performed at the Ft. Bayard Theatre. It is a melodrama for a real historical
melodrama theatre of the 1890s period. That is fantastic... and I get to support
that. That is what I love - the theatre as a part of the life of the community,
a real part of the real world. That is my theatre vision."
He continues, "I am deeply disturbed that the arts, including theatre, are getting
so little support by the educational system nationwide. Parents, who were given
no arts training in grade school or high school, have never realized how vital
art in their life is, and are now cheating their children by not standing up
and demanding Arts in Schools. If they become aware, and act, society and culture
will have new tools - and old tools used in new ways - to change everything.
I believe that completely!"
|
