December 20, 2000

BIRMINGHAM, AL — Marc Powers, M.F.A., has been named chairman of the Department of Theatre at the University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB). The announcement was made today by Bert Brouwer, M.F.A., dean of the UAB School of Arts and Humanities.

“Marc Powers is an accomplished actor and director who has shown considerable skill in leading an academic theater program,” Brouwer said. “As chair of the department of theater at Winthrop University he and his faculty were able to grow the program by 400 percent, create seven new curricula and gain national professional accreditation for both the theater and dance programs. He is indeed an excellent hire because he continues to challenge himself in his art, his administrative duties and in teaching.”

Initially, Powers will continue to strengthen ties between the theater and other academic departments. Long-term goals include increasing the number of theatre majors as well as completing Phase III of the Alys Stephens Center, which will include the department’s new classrooms and offices. Powers also plans to develop a visiting artist series and an international study program.

“We anticipate growing from being a program of local notice to one of national reputation,” Powers said.

Powers comes to UAB from Winthrop University in Rock Hill, S.C., where he was chair of the Department of Theatre and Dance. Powers has more than 27 years experience as an actor, teacher and director. He joined the faculty of Winthrop in 1990 as an assistant professor. In 1992 Powers was named chair of the department. Prior to joining Winthrop, Powers was director of the Governor’s Summer Institute for the Gifted and Talented in the Arts at Ohio State University in Columbus, Ohio, from 1986 to 1990.

Powers also was a master teacher of theatre at the Pennsylvania Governor’s School for the Arts from 1973 to 1984, and at the Performing Arts Foundation of Long Island in Huntington, N.Y., from 1977 to 1982.

Powers earned his M.F.A. in acting from Pennsylvania State University in1985. He also performed graduate studies in theatre at Indiana University and earned his Bachelor of Arts in English with a theatre concentration from Bucknell University. He has written more than 20 papers and presentations for the Southeastern Theatre Conference, the Association for Theatre in Higher Education, and the Congress on Research in Dance and the American College Theatre Festival.

Powers has been a member of Actor’s Equity Association since 1976. He was principal actor for Playworks, Spirit Square Center for the Arts in Charlotte, N.C., in 1990. He was a guest artist for the Ohio State University OSU Acting Company in 1989 and 1986. Powers also was director of children’s theatre and a principal actor in 1985 for the Camden Shakespeare Festival’s Resident Company in Camden, Maine. From 1976 to 1981 he was a member of the resident acting company of PAF Playhouse on Long Island.