Theresa Larkin, Ph.D.

Theresa Larkin, Ph.D.
College of Arts and Letters
Department of Theatre and Dance
Office MUS243
Phone
323.343.4103
Email
tlarkin@calstatela.edu

 

Bio

Dr. Theresa Larkin has been a professor in the CSU since 1986, and with the Department of Theatre and Dance at Cal State LA since 1989, where she is a tenured full professor in the Department of Theatre, and Dance. Her areas of expertise span a broad spectrum, which include acting (classical and modern), art, artivism, arts management, business, communications, cultural studies, dance, directing, documentary/film, globalization, media philosophy / media studies, music appreciation (classical and world), performance studies, performance training (Shakespearean acting, movement, voice production & speech training), Shakespeare, sociology, VPA, and U.S. Constitution (LAUSD Training). Academic degrees include the following: BA in Drama and Dance from Loyola Marymount University (1977); MFA in Drama (Specialization: Shakespearean Performance) from U C Irvine (1983); MA and Ph.D. in Cultural Studies (MA Specialization: Cultural Documentary; Ph.D. Specialization: Grassroots Artivism) from Claremont Graduate University (2009 and 2011); Ph.D. dissertation title: The Vismistic Triadic.

Dr. Larkin is an expert in culture, media and performance. Most notably, Shakespearean performance (classical acting and First Folio text analysis), theatre directing (auteur, new works, multi-media art, one-person shows, performance lectures, and classical texts), producing (non-profit theatre, video, film), arts administration (non-profit consulting, management, strategic planning, grants, event planning), voice for the stage (vocal production, IPA, diction, accents and dialects), movement (choreography: modern, period, and folk), cultural studies (cultural documentary, culture and society, alternative cultural environments,) political theatre (Boalian and Frierian Pedagogy and Theatre of the Oppressed), grassroots activism, and artivism. After a decade long study of activism in the arts, she has devised a performance training technique for grassroots artivists called VISMS, which is a values-centric praxical approach to framing, making, producing, and performing ethical glocal artivism. 

During 2012-2014, she devoted time to developing and teaching online courses in theatre arts for the College of Arts and Letters. 

Ms. Larkin has received numerous theatre awards for producing and acting, and is responsible for coordinating and conducting hundreds of productions, workshops, staged readings, conferences, symposia, talk backs, and master classes  (producing, directing, acting, choreographing, and writing). She founded (and co-founded) non-profit and profit companies, most notably: The Artists' CollectiveTheatre for the 21st CenturyLatino Classical Repertory (with Tony Plana, et al, now renamed East Los Angeles Theatre Company), and TheatreLife. Profit companies include LioLark Productions and Palar Corporation. In 1988, Theresa served as Associate Artistic Director for Idaho Shakespeare Festival in Boise. Before assuming her professorship at Cal State LA, Theresa spent three years as a tenure-track Assistant Professor in the MFA program (Acting / Directing / Voice / Movement) at San Jose State University (1986-89); two years as a Visiting Assistant Professor in the MFA program (Acting / Directing / Voice / Movement) at Southern Illinois University at Carbondale (1984-86); and three years as an Lecturer in Acting at University of California, Irvine (1980-83). She also previously taught English as a Second Language (ESL) for Berlitz, School of Languages (1983-84).

Additionally, Professor Larkin taught at National University (27 years - teaching hundreds of classes across 17 disciplines), American InterContinental University (AIU) (9 years across 5 disciplines), Springfield College (5 years in Communications, Behavioral Science, Writing and Research), and guest lectured at numerous campuses around the world, including Santa Clara University, University of Nevada, Las Vegas, Oberlin College, and Chulalongkorn University (Thailand); among other campuses. She was voted Outstanding Professor twice at AIU (In 2002 for Business and in 2005 for General Education).

For a complete list of courses taught and productions directed since coming to the Cal State system in 1986, please go to http://www.theresalarkin.com

Early career, Ms. Larkin trained at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art, London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art, London Contemporary Arts, Shakespeare and Company, and with numerous other specialized training environments in the arts in Hollywood, New York, and London. In the last few years, she has studied film structure and storytelling with James Bonnet, while also being certified in editing techniques in Avid and Final Cut Pro. In previous years, Theresa completed a number of activist and cultural documentaries. Her artistic performance training has been extensive. Modern acting/directing mentors include Robert Cohen, Keith Fowler, Pamela Barnard, Stella Adler, and Virginia Barnelle. Shakespearean performance mentors include George William Needles, Brewster Mason, and medieval scholar Edgar Schell. Dance/Movement/Armed & Unarmed Combat mentors include Mary Lynn Waterman, Donald Hewitt, Charles Edmondson, Teo Morca, Bella Lewitsky, Antoinette Marich, Judy Scalin, B.H. Barry, and Henry Marshall. Voice mentors include Cecily Barry, Patsy Rodenberg, Kristin Linklater, Dudley Knight, and Carla Meyer. As a professional director and actor, Theresa has been a member of the following unions and organizations: Society of Stage Directors and Choreographers, Screen Actors' Guild, Actors' Equity Association, American Federation of Radio and Television Artists, the Royal Society of Art, and the Edinburgh International Fringe Festival. She is also a current member of California Faculty Association.

In 2002, Ms. Larkin was cited by veteran critic Polly Warfield (Dramalogue / Backstage West) as a Living Legend of Los Angeles for her award-winning performance in 1981 as Lu Ann Hampton Laverty Oberlander (in the play Lu Ann Hampton Laverty Oberlander by Preston Jones). Ms. Larkin shares this honor with fellow actor, Jeffrey Meek, for his role as Skip Hampton. 

As a conference planner she worked on a national level for a number years with Association For Theatre in Higher Education (ATHE-founding the Directing Forum in 1985), American Theatre College Festival (ATCF-Regional Festival Adjudicator since 1980), and Center for Theatre of the Oppressed/Applied Theatre Arts/Los Angeles (CTO/ATA/LA) as a founding member, workshop leader, national conference planner, and core conference planner for the international conference held in Hollywood at the Renaissance Hotel (home of the Kodak Theatre) celebrating Augusto Boal's Theatre of the Oppressed with colleagues from the CTO/ATA/LA. For four years, Theresa served as Historian/Documentarian for CTO/ATA/LA. 

In 2003 and 2004, Dr. Larkin served on the Hollywood Hills West Neigborhood Council (HHWNC) as Chair of Cultural Planning and Community Outreach, respectively. 

In 2007, Theresa was awarded a proclamation from the County of Riverside for an original multi-media work (co-written with biographer Mary H. Curtin) celebrating Mine' Okubo (Japanese-American internee artist famous for her camp drawings) entitled Mine': A Name For Herself. This production was invited to perform for the Day of Remembrance at the Smithsonian Museum in Washington, D.C. 

In 2009, Professor Larkin was honored by ACTF with an 'Excellence in Education' Award for 27 years of volunteer service with this national organization housed in the Kennedy Center. The designation celebrates her critical response to countless university productions and for serving as a regional adjudicator and festival judge for nearly three decades at regional festivals held in the Midwestern and Southern United States.

During the 2016-2017 academic year, Professor Larkin is proud to have successfully launched a new on-campus program designed to enhance dramatic literacy entitled Performance Salon, which presented twenty single-night staged dramatic readings of theatrical plays during the Fall and Spring Semesters.  Performance Salon will continue to offer quality dramatuc readings of the world canon during the academic year of 2017-2018. See listing of titles below.

For more information, please go to: http://www.performancesalon.org 

Academically, in her spare time, Dr. Larkin is also completing a second Ph.D. at European Graduate School in Saas Fee, Switzerland and Valletta, Malta in Philosphy, Art and Critical Thought (previously listed as Communications and Media Philosophy), with an expected completion date in early 2018. The Ph.D. dissertation title is Cancer and the Healing Arts.

During Fall 2016, in response to gowing homelessness that is occuring throughout Los Angeles, Theresa began actively pursuing a Citizens Think Tank on Homelessness with LA District Attorney Mike Fueur's Community Justice Initiative, with the specific intent to tour TAC's new performance lecture Homeless to various communities experiencing an exponential increase of homeless populations in their neighborhoods and business districts. This passionate endeavor has gotten little support from community members, but it has evolved into a series of new works dedicated to the challenges and vision of homelessness, healing through art, and Restorative Justice iniatives.

Artistically, during 2017-2018, Theresa will continue to workshop her one-woman performance lecture based on her most recent scholarly research and writing on cancer and healing entitled High-Risk. Additionally, she and colleagues are in the process of revitalizing the non-profit 501 (C) (3) multi-media theatre company The Artists' Collective for the 2018-2019 season with artivist new works and performance lectures, which include HomelessProtected Class, A More Perfect Union, Enemy Of The People - Flint, Restoration, and Healing Arts.

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Contact

Professor:  Theresa Larkin, Ph.D.          

Email: tlarkin@calstatela.edu

Office Hours:  Monday & Wedmesday:  3:30 pm – 5:30 pm  (May change to weekends with Performance Salon rehearsals) 

Best by appointment.         

Office: Music 243

Office phone:  323-343-4103        

Cell phone: 323-899-4255 (Best)                         

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Current Courses *

Fall Semester - 2017

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TA 3410 - 01

Acting III: Classical Acting*

TA Course - 01 - #96699 - Activity

Monday & Wednesday - 5:00 pm - 7:30 pm

Music 214 

August 21 - December 9

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TA 

Portfolio*

TA Course - TBA

Music Building 243

August 21 - December 9

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TA 4100

Performance Participation: Performance Salon*

TA Course - Production - Dramatic Readings (See List of Plays Below)

MU 129 Conference Room & MU 101 Arena Theatre

Weekends:  12:00 pm - 11:00 pm (TBA)

August 21 - December 9

Performance Salon

Dramatic Readings 

Fall Semester 2017 

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Saturday, September 9, 2017
Antigone*
by Sophocles
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Sunday, September 10, 2017
Antigone X
by Paul Cizmar

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Saturday, September 23, 2017
Romeo & Juliet
by William Shakespeare

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Sunday, September 24, 2017
The Rover
by Alphra Behn
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Saturday, October 21, 2017
Frankenstein
by Mary Shelly
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Sunday, October 22, 2017
In The Next Room
by Sarah Ruhl
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Saturday, October 28, 2017
Orlando
by Virginia Woolf
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Sunday, October 29, 2017
The Fountainhead
by Ayn Rand
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Saturday, November 4, 2017

Toys In The Attic 

by Lillian Hellman
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Sunday, November 5, 2017
Caligraphy
by Velina Hasu Houston

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Saturday, November 11, 2017
Restoration
by Theresa Larkin**
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* Adapted or ** Written by Theresa Larkin, Ph.D.
Titles Subject to Change 
http://www.performancesalon.org
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Spring Semester - 2017

TA 4100 - 01

Performance Participation: Performance Salon

TA Course - #34755

Weekends:  12:00 pm - 11:00 pm (TBA)

MU 129 Conference Room & MU 101 Arena Theatre

January 23 - May 20

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TA 4460 - 01

Advanced Directing

TA Course - 01 - #34760 

Friday:  11:00 am - 4:00 pm

Music Building 101

January 23 - May 20

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Fall Semester - 2016

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TA 5105 - 01

Dramatic Structure I: Theatre

TA/MFA Course - #91861

Tuesday:  4:30 am - 7:15 pm

TVFM Building 202

August 22 - December 10

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TA 5740 - 01

Theories In Performance

TA Course - 01 - #95742 

Thursday:  6:00 pm - 8:45 pm

Music Building 129

August 22  – December 10

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TA 4670 - 01 & 02 

Praxis: Theory And Practice

TA Section 01 / 02 - #92664 / 92666

Friday:  11:00 am - 11:50 am / 11:50 am - 3:10 pm

Music Building 112 / 101

August 22 - December 10

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TA 3900 - 01

Theatre Research And Writing

TA Course - 01 - #92600

Friday:  4:00 am - 6:45 pm

Music Building 114

August 22  – December 10 

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List Of Courses Taught

Cal State LA - 1989-2017

TA                  100                  Play Practicum

TA                  141                  Acting: Games and Exercises

TA                  142                  Acting: Character

TA                  143                  Acting: Scenes

TA                  149                  Diction and Dialects

TA                  152                  Analysis of Drama and Theatre*

TA                  160                  Living Theatre

BCST             210                 Body and Identity in Dance, Theatre and Film*

DANCE          210                 Body and Identity in Dance, Theatre and Film*

LBS                234                 Multicultural Arts in Los Angeles

TA                  300                  Play Production

TA                  300                  Production Support

TA                  310                  Play Production

TA                  312                  Development of World Theatre II

TA                  313                  Development of World Theatre III

TA                  314                  Staging Violence in World Theatre

TA                  316                  Theatre & Dance in 20th Century Urban Environments

TA                  341                  Advanced Acting: Improvisation

TA                 3410                 Acting III: Classical Acting***

TA                  343                  Playing a Role

TA                  348                  Movement for Actors

TA                  348                  Breath, Movement, Voice II / Viewpoints

TA                  349                  Voice for Stage

TAD               349                  Breath, Movement, Voice III

TA                  357                  Creative Experiences

BCST             380                  Emotion in Theatre and Film

TA                  380                  Emotion in Theatre and Film

TA.                 3800                Emotion in Theatre and Film

TVF/T            380                  Emotion in Theatre and Film

TA                  3900                Theatre Research and Writing***

TA                  398                  Cooperative Education

TA                  400                  Creative Drama - Elementary

TA                  4100                Performance Particpation***

TA                  401                  Advanced Acting - Classical Theatre

TA                  439                  Arts Management

TA                  439                  Theatre Management

TA                  441                  Acting Studio I

TA                  442                  Acting Studio II*

TA                  442                  Acting Studio III

TA                  445                  Principles of Directing I

TA                  446                  Principles of Directing II

TA                  4460                Advanced Directing***

TA                  447                  Acting for Musical Theatre

TA                  449                  Undergraduate Directed Study

TA                  450                  Principles of Directing III

TA                  454 – L            Special Topics – Lecture

TA                  454 – P            Special Topics – Performance

TA                  4540 - P          Special Topics - Performance Salon***

TA                  454 – L            Special Topics: Women’s Studies*

TA                  457                  Emotion in Theatre and Film

TA                  459                  Hispanic Play Production

SPAN             459                  Hispanic Play Production

TA                  463                  Shakespeare as Living Theatre

TA                  4630                Shakespearean Performance***

TAD               467                  Theory and Method in Performance

COMM          467                  Theory and Method in Performance      

TAD               467                  Praxis: Theory and Practice in Performance

TA                  4670                Praxis: Theory and Practice***

COMM          468                  Performance and Social Change

TAD               468                  Performance and Social Change

TA                  471                  Theatre of the Avant-Garde

TA                  472                  Historical Analysis of Lyric Theatre

TAD               486                  Cross-Cultural Approaches to Social Performance

TA                  498                  Advanced Cooperative Education

TA                  499                  Undergraduate Directed Study

TVFT             5105                 Dramatic Structure I: Theatre***

TVFT             517                   Acting for the Stage

TA                  511                  Special Studies in Theatre History

TA                  541                  Seminar: Theories of Acting

TVFT             542                   Acting Studio*

TVFT             543                   Voice for Performers I

COMM          567                  Theories of Oral Interpretation

TA                  5740                Theories In Performance***

TA                  595                  Graduate Performance

TA                  598                  Graduate Directed Study

TA                  599                  Graduate Project

TA                  599                  Graduate Thesis

TA                  900                  Graduate Studies

***                                          New Semester 2016-2018 Courses

*                                             Syllabi Prepared

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CSLA Campus Productions, Programs & Research Activities - 2017 - 1989

CURRENT: 2017-2018

Cancer and the Healing Arts - 2018 - (EGS Ph.D. Dissertation - ABD) 

High Risk - 2015-2018

Homeless - 2016-2018

Performance Salon - Dramatic Readings

Spring Semester 2017

Portfolio Professional Showcase May 14, 2017

A More Perfect Union - May 13, 2017

An Enemy Of The People - Flint - May 12, 2017

The Exonerated - April 30, 2017

Living Out - April 29, 2017

Summerfolk - April 23, 2017

Misalliance - April 22, 2017

An Enemy of the People - April 21, 2017

Pride and Prejudice - April 9, 2017

Protected Class - March 25, 2017

Macbeth - March 4 & 5, 2017

As You Like It - February 19, 2017

Medea - February 18, 2017

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Performance Salon - New Program - Dramatic Readings

Fall Semester 2016

Much Ado About Nothing - October 30, 2016

Three Sisters - November 6, 2016

Death Of A Salesman - November 29 & 30, 2016

The Persians - December 2, 2016

Homeless - December 3, 2016

Greenland LA - December 4, 2016

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Clybourne Park - 2015

High-Risk - 2015

The Culture of Cancer - 2014

The Winter's Tale - 2013

VISMS - 2012

Arcadia - 2011

The Vismistic Triadic - 2011 - (CGU Ph.D. Dissertation)

Maritare - 2010

Cultural Documentary - 2009 - (CGU - MA) 

Bless Me, Ultima - 2008 

Faust, Parts 1 & 2 - 2007

Mine: A Name For Herself - 2007-2003

Dracula - 2005

A Midsummer Night's Dream - 2004

ThreePenny Opera - 2003

Caregiving - 2002

A Map Of The World - 2001

All's Well That Ends Well - 2000

Antony & Cleopatra - 1999

Finian's Rainbow - 1998 - (CSLA 50th Anniversary Celebration - With Josh Groban)

The Tempest - 1997

In A Woman's Voice - 1996 - 1994

Don Juan: El burlador de sevilla / The Trickster of Seville - 1996

Los Enemigos - 1995

Ahakhav Tribal Preserve - 1994

Black and White and Somewhere in the Shade of Grey - 1994-1992

Latino Classical Repertory - 1994 - 1992 - (On Campus Professional Company)

Measure For Measure - 1993

Othello - 1992

Curse - 1991

Carnival - 1991

Quilters - 1990

Theatre For The 21st Century - 1994 - 1989 - (On Campus Professional Company)

TheatreLife - 1989 - 1986 - (Presenter's Theatre Ensemble)

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Grants - Representative List

2016 - 1989

California Arts Council

City of Los Angeles Cultural Affairs Department

City of Riverside

City of Ventura

County of Riverside

Diane Middleton Foundation

International Longshore and Warehouse Labor Union

IRA - Latino Classical Repertory

IRA - Performance Salon

IRA - Theatre For The 21st Century

Lottery

National Endowment for the Arts

Riverside Community College

Riverside Cultural Affairs 

Ventura Arts Council

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Committees - Representative List

2017 - 1989

University

Committees On Committees

Faculty Policy

Faculty Senate

Fiscal Police

IRA

IRB

Professional Ethics and Academic Freedom

Strategic Planning

Transportation

College of Arts and Letters

ARTP - A & B

Dean Search Committee

Grievance

Risk Management and Safety

Strategic Planning

WASC Educational Effectiveness

WPE

Music, Theatre and Dance

Advisor

Chair Evaluation Committee

Chair Search Committee

Curriculum

Faculty Search Committee

Graduate Admissions

Grievance Committee

Mentor

MTD Mission Statement

MFA

MFA Policy and Curriculum

NAST Accreditation

Part-Time (Adjunct)

Policies and Procedures

Production Supervision

Program Review

Program Review Edit Subcommittee

Public Relations

Scholarship Committee

Season Committ

Theatre For The 21st Century

TVFT Program Curriculum

TVFT MFA / MFA Acting Application Review

RTP A 

RTP B

Semester Conversion

Web Design: Aesthetics and Branding

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Course & Production Custom Websites - Short List

http://www.theresalarkin.com

http://www.theartistscollective.org

http://www.high-risk.org

http://www.performancesalon.org

http://www.maritare.org 

http://wwwthewinterstale.org

http://www.actorsblog.org

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