About Me

Peter Zazzali is a theatre director, actor, trainer, and scholar whose work is recognized internationally. He is Professor of Theatre and Director of the School of Theatre and Dance at James Madison University. Prior to that he was Senior Lecturer of Acting and Program Leader of (BA Hons) Acting at LASALLE College of the Arts in Singapore and Associate Professor of Theatre at the University of Kansas, where he was also the Associate Chair of the Department of Theatre and Dance. He served as the founder and Artistic Director of the Kansas Repertory Theatre, which he led for five years. He has acted and directed in over 150 productions throughout the world at institutions such as the Acting Company, Guthrie, George Street Playhouse, Western Australian Academy for the Performing Arts, New Zealand National Drama School (Toi Whakaari), and the New Jersey, Texas, and Utah Shakespearean Festivals. Peter’s scholarship has appeared in numerous peer-reviewed journals and prominent theatre magazines such as Theatre Journal, PAJ, Theatre Research International, Performance as Research, and American Theatre, among others. In 2016, Routledge published his book Acting in the Academy: the History of Professional Actor Training in US Higher Education. In 2021, Routledge released his sequel, Actor Training in Anglophone Countries: Past, Present, and Future. A Fulbright Scholar alumnus, Peter holds a BFA (CalArts) and an MFA (University of Delaware) in Acting and a Ph.D. in Theatre Studies (CUNY Graduate Center). He is a member of Equity, SAG, and the SDC.