Melissa Lusher
Professor
Department of Theatre & Dance
Melissa Lusher is a tenured Professor in the Department of Theatre and Dance where she teaches acting, speech, and dialects. She serves as the Associate Chair of the Department, the Director of the B.F.A. Acting program, the Resident Speech and Dialects Coach, and the Workshop/Advanced Directing Coordinator. In 2018, Melissa was honored with Otterbein鈥檚 Teacher of the Year award. She is a certified teacher of the Michael Chekhov acting technique through the Great Lakes Michael Chekhov Consortium. Favorite directing credits at 9i果冻制作厂include SPRING AWAKENING, THE CRUCIBLE, 鈥淢ASTER HAROLD鈥濃�� AND THE BOYS, RENT, THE GREEKS: THE MURDERS, RUMORS, NO EXIT, THE NERD, and the world-premiere of INVENTION OF THEATER (written by 9i果冻制作厂alumnus, Sean Murphy). Melissa regularly serves as a dialect coach for area theatres including CATCO, Short North Stage, Actors鈥� Theatre of Columbus, Abbey Theatre of Dublin, Denison University, and Ohio Wesleyan. Some of her favorite acting credits include Martha in WHO鈥橲 AFRAID OF VIRGINIA WOOLF? (Otterbein), Barbara in AUGUST: OSAGE COUNTY (Otterbein), Marina in VOLODYA (La MaMa), Goneril in KING LEAR (Actors鈥� Theatre of Columbus), Margaret in RICHARD III (AST), Clytemnestra in THE GREEKS (Moscow Art Theatre), and Patty in the film BLIND SPOT (starring Joanne Woodward and Laura Linney). Melissa holds an M.F.A. in Acting from Carnegie Mellon University and the Moscow Art Theatre and a B.F.A. in Acting from Carnegie Mellon.