Dr. Beth Schachter 
Professor of Theatre
(484) 664-3558
Background
Holds a B.A. from Harvard-Radcliffe University, a Directing M.F.A. from the University of California, San Diego and a Ph.D. from the Graduate Center City University of New York. Before coming to Muhlenberg College, she taught at Princeton University, Brooklyn College, and City University of New York. Her areas of expertise include contemporary American avant-garde theatre, feminist theatre/theory, African American drama, and Jewish ethnicity studies. She is currently working on piece which analyzes Jewish American masculinity embodied in Wallace Shawn's The Designated Mourner: "The Vanishing Stage Jew: How Shylock and Svengali Vanish in a Puff of Smoke and Wally Shawn Sits Shiva as The Designated Mourner". She has published and presented on writers such as Suzan-Lori Parks, Wallace Shawn and Mac Wellman. Her professional career as a regional and Off-Broadway director includes numerous world premieres. She has collaborated with writers Suzan Lori-Parks, Doug Wright, Theresa Rebeck, and Mac Wellman, and recently she directed Monkey in the Middle with playwright Brighde Mullins in residence. In New York, she has developed plays for Broadway's New Victory Theatre and Off-Broadway's New York Theatre Workshop, Second Stage and the Public Theatre, among others. She has opened shows at such regional theatres as McCarter, Long Wharf, Adirondack Theatre Festival and Cincinnati Playhouse in the Park. While at Muhlenberg, she worked with alumnus Tade Reen on Educating Grover. She subsequently adapted the play for video, and the award-winning short film serves students and educators across the country. She also directed the premiere of Anything's Dream by Obie-winning artist Mac Wellman, the Baker Artist in Residence for 2002-2003. Muhlenberg's production moved to NYC for a run at the Flea Theater. Most recently, she directed A Midsummer Night's Dream at Theatre of the Seventh Sister and Venus for Muhlenberg. She has been an Artistic Director (Theatre Outlet) and continues to be a Usual Suspect (Associate Artist) at New York Theatre Workshop. Dr. Schachter is a member of the National Women's Studies Association and the American Theatre in Higher Education Association. She has recently become the secretary for ATHE's focus group: The Black Theatre Association. Her interests in gender studies and representation inform her work in both programs.
