CalArts Theater Faculty Take on New Positions

Travis Preston, Dean of the School of Theater at the California Institute of the Arts (CalArts) has announced changes in two administrative positions in the school. Carol Bixler will assume a new role as Producing Director of the School of Theater and Ellen McCartney will assume the Director of Design and Production position. Preston comments, "Our School has grown in such wonderful ways over the last few years. I am happy to be able to adjust the administration to meet the needs of our shifting circumstances."

Carol Bixler, Former Director of Design and Production, will continue her duties as Head of the Producing Program and Producing Director for the Center for New Performance. Bixler has a broad background in both commercial and non-commercial theater, music, and dance and came to CalArts after several years producing projects on the East Coast. For four years she was Managing Director and Associate Producer of En Garde Arts, New York City's premiere site-specific theater company. She co-produced the Center for New Theater at CalArts' inaugural production of King Lear, both in its world premiere at the Brewery in Los Angeles in 2002 and for its subsequent production in 2003 in France at the Frictions Festival. Bixler holds a M.F.A. in Theater from Columbia University.

Ellen McCartney has served in various capacities in her tenure at CalArts including serving as Interim Co-Dean for the 2009-2010 school year. Along with her new position, McCartney will continue serving as Head of the Costuming Program and continue to hold the Robert Corrigan Chair in the School of Theater. Her professional costume work has been seen nationally including various venues in LA, NY (On and Off Broadway), Seattle, Minnesota, Indiana. McCartney's work has also been featured internationally such as Bunkamura, The Kaaitheatre, Brussels, The Hebbel Theatre, Berlin, The Wiener Festwochen, Vienna and the LIFT Festival, London.Berlin, Vienna, and London.

The School of Theater at CalArts emphasizes a diverse and interdisciplinary approach to the development of work for the 21st century. Both the school and its professional producing arm, the CalArts Center for New Performance, work across a broad spectrum of artistic settings, media, and technologies. The training is designed to gives students the flexibility, skill, and ingenuity to navigate a rapidly changing environment and to pursue their dreams with maximum agency.

CalArts is unique in its multidisciplinary approach to studying the arts through its six related schools: Art, Critical Studies, Dance, Film/Video, Music and Theater. CalArts encourages students to recognize and explore the complexity of the aesthetic, social and political aspects of the arts. It is supported by its distinguished faculty of practicing artists and provides its BFA and MFA students with both the hands-on training and the engagement with the cultural community necessary for artists' growth. CalArts was founded in 1961-and opened in 1969-as the first institution of higher learning in the U.S. specifically for students interested in pursuing degrees in the visual and performing arts.

http://theater.calarts.edu/

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