Jeanne Leep, Ph.D.

Professor

Jeanne Leep
Jeanne
Leep
Contact
OFFICE
The Stream 106
PHONE
(608) 663-3222

Biography

Jeanne Leep, Ph.D. (Head of the Acting & Directing Program/Edgewood College Theatre Producer) is a Professor in the Department of Theatre Arts here at Edgewood College.

She received her Ph.D. in directing from Wayne State University, and her M.A. from the University of Michigan in theatre studies. Leep has also studied the Stanislavski system at the Moscow Art Theatre’s training program.  An active member of the Association of Theatre in Higher Education, she is currently serving on the acting focus group conference planning board.

Dr. Leep serves as the head of the acting and directing program for the Department of Theatre Arts, as well as the Producer for the Edgewood College Theatre Company as they continue to celebrate moving to their new home in the Black Box Theatre of the visual and theatrical arts building, The Stream.  She is also the faculty advisor for many student organizations in the theatre, including Theatre Assembly, and the Theatre Assembly Planning Committee.

Some past directing credits include Metamorphoses, Comedy of Errors, Dead Man Walking, Arabian Nights, Wait Until Dark, Dancing at Lughnasa, The Cripple of Inishmaan, Top Girls, Guys and Dolls, The Importance of Being Earnest, How I Learned to Drive, The Glass Menagerie, and The Laramie Project.

Since 2004, Dr. Leep has worked with colleagues across campus to bring students to London every other year to study theatre, art, and culture for an intensive two-week winterim study abroad experience. 

She is a founding member of River City Improv, an award-winning performance improvisational company based in Michigan, celebrating its 20-year anniversary in 2014.  She also continues to perform short form improv with River City and other companies as her schedule allows.

She is the winner of the 2011 Edgewood College Sister Stevie Award, the college’s most prestigious honor, given annually to a college faculty or staff member who possesses and cultivates the qualities of affirmation of others, the values of the college, enthusiasm, love of learning, acceptance of diversity, responsibility for service, compassion, friendliness to all, and love of peace and justice.  In 2013 she was awarded full professorship at the college.

Her book, Theatrical Improvisation, published by Palgrave Macmillian, came out in 2008, and was recently issued in paperback.

Dr. Leep's areas of expertise are in Improvisational performance techniques, acting, directing, Stanislavski based acting and directing techniques, Shakespeare in performance, dramaturgy, script analysis, devised script creation based on improvisational work, basic vocal coaching and dialect work.

Leep's areas of expertise lie in Improvisational performance techniques, acting, directing, Stanislavski based acting and directing techniques, Shakespeare in performance, dramaturgy, script analysis, devised script creation based on improvisational work, basic vocal coaching and dialect work.