Music, Theatre, Dance Faculty & Staff
Last Name
Bell
First Name
James
Email
bellja@gvsu.edu
Title
Theatre, Professor
Website
Office Address
2761C The Haas Center for Performing Arts
Office Phone
616-331-3066
About
James Bell is a theatre scholar, playwright, and dramaturg and is Managing Director for Grand Valley Shakespeare Festival. He holds a B.A. in theatre arts from Brigham Young University and a Ph.D. in theatre history, theory, criticism, and dramaturgy from Florida State University. Before coming to Grand Valley, he taught and was production dramaturg for numerous productions at Jacksonville University, Florida Community College at Jacksonville, and at Florida State University where he was also involved in university theatre administration. He worked with Jason Yancey from the Modern Languages and Literatures Department to write the first English translation/adaptation of Tirso de Molinas Spanish Golden Age classic Antona García. The subsequent production, directed by Karen Libman premiered at the Siglo de Oro Spanish Drama Festival at Chamizal National Memorial in El Paso, Texas and was performed at Grand Valley. His play Autumn in the Valley, which was first developed at the Utah Shakespearean Festival, premiered at Grand Valley in 2006. He was the 1994 Kennedy Center/American College Theatre Festival Student Playwriting Award winner for his play Prisoner, which was performed at the Kennedy Center and has been published by Samuel French. His other plays have been featured at the Mount Sequoyah New Play Retreat as well as the Egyptian Theatre in Park City, Utah.