Shirley Kagan has taught theatre at Hampden-Sydney for over 25 years. Kagan is also an Advisory Board Member for Education at Arizona's Southwest Shakespeare Company. Elsewhere in the world of theatre, Kagan directed Richmond Firehouse Theatre's "The Picture of Dorian Gray" noted by the New York Times for being one of the Première post Covid live theatre productions.
Shirley Kagan
Barger-Barclay Professor of Theater
Fine Arts
Johns Auditorium, 201
Phone:
(434) 223-6266
Email:
skagan@hsc.edu
M.F.A., University of Hawaii at Manoa
B.A., Williams College
Directing and acting with particular interest in Beckett, Brecht, Pinter and Shakespeare. While at H-SC I have developed two courses that I particularly love: American History Through the Musical and The Theatre of Law.
I also enjoy collaborative work with colleagues across the disciplines.
Acting, Directing, Dramatic Literature, Shakespeare Studies.
Kagan has served on many of the college committees most recently on the Academic Master Planning Committee and as Chair of the Department of Fine Arts.
She is pleased to serve as the American Director of the Virginia Program at Oxford and as advisor to Alpha Psi Omega Dramatic Honors Society.
Presenter of paper "A Tale of Two Noras" at the South Atlantic Modern Languages Association, November 2023
Director, staged reading of Timothy Findlay’s “Elizabeth Rex” independent production, Tokyo, Japan, June 2023
Presenter of paper "Children of Assimilation" at the South Atlantic Modern Languages Association, November 2022
Presenter of talk The Virginia Program at Oxford Model for roundtable panel on global education at the South Atlantic Modern Languages Association, November 2021
Director, “The Picture of Dorian Gray" original adaptation. Firehouse theatre, Richmond, VA, June 2020
Actor in Edgar Allan Poe: Buried Alive Preview Screening: a WCVE Community Ideas Stations event at the Poe Museum, Richmond, VA, October 2018
Director of Po'okela award winning The Comedy of Errors for the Hawaii Shakespeare Festival, Honolulu, HI, July 2017
Cooking, Gardening, Traveling, Karaoke