Position
Assistant Professor of Theatre
Education
BM in Music Education/Voice Performance, Susquehanna University
MA in Theatre, Binghamton University
Ph.D. in Theatre, University of Colorado-Boulder
Previous Teaching Positions
Genesee Community College (NY)
University of Colorado-Boulder
Binghamton University
Teaching Responsibilities
Acting (all levels)
Dramatic Literature
Theatre History
Voice and Diction
Pioneer Players/Musical Theatre Mainstage Productions
Biographical Information
David Schuler is an Assistant Professor of Theatre at UW-Platteville. Originally from Pennsylvania, Dr. Schuler moved here from upstate New York and most recently taught in the theatre program at Genesee Community College (NY). While at Genesee, he was recognized with an Excellence Award in Teaching, Leadership and Learning from the University of Texas’ National Institute for Staff and Organizational Development.
Schuler first trained for the theatre at Balliol College, Oxford, studying with the likes of Rosemary Harris, Andrew Jack, Earle Gister and Paul Rogers. He has performed in over thirty productions including lead roles in Amadeus, Bitter Friends, The Quilling of Prue, Voice of the Prairie and 1776. In 2000, he developed a one-man historical portrait of John Adams and has since given over sixty performances. Recent engagements include a presidential conversation with Adams, Jefferson, Lincoln and Roosevelt at the New York State AGATE Conference; the Arkansas Bar Association Annual Meeting; the Wayside Inn, Sudbury, Massachusetts; and the Rochester Regional Library Advocacy Conference (NY).
As a director, Dr. Schuler trained with Don Boros and Jim Symons. He has worked in Colorado, Indiana, New York, Pennsylvania and Norway. In 2002, his co-adaptation of Ibsen’s Brand premiered in Fort Wayne, Indiana. Previous directing credits include The Triumph of Love, The Phone Plays, Fiddler on the Roof, I Never Sang for My Father and Educating Rita. Recently, he directed The Fantasticks here at UWP and will be working on Harold Pinter’s Old Times and co-directing David Ives’ All in the Timing this spring.
Schuler’s scholarly interests include aboriginal theatre/theatre anthropology, Ibsen, modern Shakespearean performance, and living history characterization. He received the prestigious Reynold’s Fellowship for his dissertation research while at CU-Boulder, and during his time in Norway served as the translation consultant on the award-winning aboriginal film documentary Even if a Hundred Ogres. He is completing a book-length study on the Beaivváš Teáhter—the Norwegian Sámi National Theatre, and is currently working on a performance studies article entitled, “Weaving as Storytelling—The Interrelationship between Textiles and String Figures in the Performance of the Virsky Ukrainian National Dance Company.” Recognized as a specialist in Sámi culture, Schuler has lectured extensively about the Sámi, especially their theatre, throughout the eastern United States since 1997.
He is active in the Society for the Advancement of Scandinavian Studies, the Association for Theatre in Higher Education and the Kennedy Center’s American College Theatre Festival. He continues to be a production respondent here in Region III and was recently honored for his work as a respondent by KCACTF Region II in 2006.
In his former life, Dr. Schuler studied choral conducting with Robert Shaw and Brock McElheran, and performed with the Saratoga-Potsdam Chorus and the Philadelphia Orchestra under Charles Dutoit, Eugene Ormandy and Robert Shaw.
Contact Information