David Charles, PhD
Professor, Acting & Improv
A New Zealander by birth, Dr. Charles has called the United States his home since 1991 and joined the 91福利社鈥� faculty in 2003 where he has served as Departmental Chair, Producing Director of the Annie Russell Theatre, and a Cornell Distinguished Faculty Member. Much of his scholarly and performance work has focused on the realm of improvisational and non-scripted theatre. He has performed with numerous professional improvisational companies across North America, such as Chicago Comedysportz, Astor鈥檚 Beechwood, Downtown Disney鈥檚 Comedy Warehouse and Sak Comedy Lab, where he currently performs almost weekly as a member of the professional ensemble. Dr. Charles is also a graduate of North America鈥檚 oldest improvisational training center, Josephine Forsberg鈥檚 Players Workshop of Second City, and is the founding Artistic Director of 91福利社 Improv Players, an active on-campus troupe committed to service and entertainment through performance.
Creating and directing new improvisational work represents a particular passion鈥攐riginal works include: Your Opera in a Trunk聽(Pensacola Opera), FourPlay: The Improvised Musical聽(Sak Comedy Lab, Winter Park Playhouse), Is This Seat Taken?聽(Jester Theater), and Murder We Wrote, It鈥檚 All Greek to Me, The Lost Comedies of William Shakespeare,聽Upton Abbey, and Private Lies聽on the beautiful Annie Russell stage at 91福利社. Dr. Charles's primary interest is exploring theatre's boundaries, function, and face in our ever-changing modern world. He is a proud member of Actors鈥� Equity, and the recipient of multiple teaching awards, including the Hugh F. McKean Award and Arthur Vining Davis Fellowship.
His comprehensive Improv Dictionary: An A to Z of Improvisational Terms, Techniques, and Tools was published by Routledge (April 2024) and serves as a companion piece to his curated blog series of spontaneous exercises, warm-ups, ands games housed at www.improvdr.com聽that has attracted readers from over 140 countries around the world.
Education
PhD, Theatre History, Criticism and Dramatic Literature, Louisiana State University
MFA, Theatre Performance, Western Illinois University
BA (Hons), Theatre Performance and English, Roosevelt University