Professor Betty Bernhard has taught a range of theatre courses including acting at all levels, directing, women playwrights, senior seminar, terrorism and theatre ,and theatre for social change. She has five videos in distribution on aspects of both folk and classical Indian theatre based on her frequent research trips throughout India and her productions of Sanskrit plays in English at Pomona done in collaboration with veteran Indian artists. Her play productions include Shakespeare, a wide range of contemporary work, musical theatre, opera, and original devised class projects. As a two-time Fulbright scholar to India, she lectured on American theatre and directed five plays including Big Love for the School of Drama in Thrishur, Kerala in Malayalam. She is looking forward to directing it this year in English at Pomona. Betty is a frequent presenter at conferences in Australia, Amsterdam, Hawaii, Montreal, Pakistan, India, and in the United States. She was a student of Kristin Linklater (voice),Herbert Blau (performance theory),and Augusto Boal (Theatre of the Oppressed (Augusto Boal). She is an avid theatergoer and loves to travel.

Research Interests:

      Focusing on India, she is interested in how theatre shapes and is shaped by society, particularly the marginalized groups and people in transitional situations such as immigration. Most recently, she completed a feature documentary on ways that Women Theatre Activists of India use theatre as a means to bring about social and cultural change. Many of the older women worked in the Ghandi “Quit India” movement against the British, using theatre as their means. She directed three plays in India and two classical Indian plays at Pomona College. She has also studied with Augusto Boal and the Theatre of the Oppressed: Theatre for Social Change. She has produced three documentaries and a CD-ROM on Indian folk, classic and political theatre.

Selected Publications:

      “Keeping Chili Powder Out of Their Eyes” in Seagull Theatre Quarterly, 12, 1998

      “Actor Training in the United States,” in Encyclopedia of Contemporary Theatre, Vol. II, The Americas (Routledge, 1996)

      Producer and photographer, “Casebook on Sanskrit Theatre” video (Insight Media Distributors) 1994

      Producer and photographer, “Bhavai, Folk Theatre of India, 1993 (Insight Media Distributors)

      Producer and photographer, Women Theatre Activists of India,” 1996 (self-published)

      Producer, CD-ROM archive of “Bhavai, a Vanishing Folk Theatre Form of Gujarat, India” (self-published)

Awards and Honors:

      Invited speaker and workshop participant on theater, United States, India, Amsterdam, Australia, Canada, Greece, Ireland and New Zealand

      Fulbright Lectureship, Drama and Women Studies at Stela Maris College, Madras, India, 1993

      Fulbright Lectureship, School of Performing Arts, Calicut University, Trichur Kerala, India 2001

      Director, Romeo & Juliet, Festival of Non-violence, Ahmedabad, India, 2005

      Director, “Big Love,” University of Calicut ( Kerala, India) School of Drama 2001

      Co-director, original drama “The Leopard,” Darpana Academy of Performing Arts, Ahmedabad, 1997

      USIA Arts American Program, Theater Director, Kerala, India. Produced “Roosters” for the Kerala Living Theatre, 1993