College of Visual and Performing Arts Dean bruce d. mcclung has announced the appointment of Rebecca Bailey as Assistant Professor of Acting.
Rebecca Bailey is an artist, advocate, and teacher who is passionate about how the theatre can energize, entertain, and address questions about the world around us. She is currently the Executive Artistic Director for South Dakota Shakespeare Festival and has served as Assistant Professor of Theatre at the University of the Ozarks and as Education Director for the Arkansas Coalition Against Sexual Assault. Her work focuses on using movement, kinesthetic awareness, text, mindfulness, and devising to bring experiences to life.
While Education Director for the Arkansas Coalition Against Sexual Assault, she received a National Sexual Violence Resource Center Visionary Voice Award. She was also the recipient of a Citizen’s Artist Award from the Kennedy Center American College Theatre Festival (KCACTF). Rebecca and her students have won numerous commendations from KCACTF over the past decade, and she also served as KCACTF Arkansas State Chair for two years.
Directing credits include Actually, Extremities, The Comedy of Errors, The Diary of Anne Frank, Disney’s The Little Mermaid, The Merchant of Venice, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Peter and the Starcatcher, Proof, Two Gentlemen of Verona, Venus in Fur, and the devised productions For Hurting Hands and Shake My Tree. Through advocacy, Rebecca’s performance work has impacted three statewide training conferences for Sexual Assault Trauma-Informed Response. Favorite Performances include roles in King Lear, Pericles, Plaza Suite, and White Christmas.
Bailey holds a Master of Fine Arts (MFA) in Directing from the University of South Dakota, a Bachelor of Arts (BA) in Theatre from South Dakota State University and is a two-hundred-hour registered yoga teacher and Sexual Assault Advocate. She also spent a wonderful year studying Shakespeare and Performance at Mary Baldwin University.
