农夫导航

Theatre Faculty

The Theatre Program at 农夫导航 is led by experienced educators and working theatre artists who are committed to teaching, mentorship, and the collaborative process of making theatre.

Faculty bring a range of professional experiences in performance, directing, design, and production, and maintain strong connections to the theatre community in Louisville.

Students work closely with faculty both in the classroom and in production, gaining guidance, feedback, and support throughout their time in the program.

Faculty Profiles

Zackary Ross

Zackary Ross HeadshotPh.D., University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, 2014
Office: Library B04A
Email: zross@bellarmine.edu
Phone: 502.272.8431

Dr. Zackary Ross is Director of the Honors Program and Associate Professor of Theatre. He has a Ph.D. in Theatre from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, a master鈥檚 degree in Educational Theatre from New York University, and is an honors graduate of Lewis and Clark College鈥檚 theatre department in Portland, Oregon.

In addition to his experience as an educator, Zack is an active theatre artist. As a director, his most recent productions include Eurydice, Dracula, She Kills Monster, Romeo & Juliet, Neighborhood 3: Requisition of Doom, Asking Strangers the Meaning of Life, Commedie of Errors, The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee, Blithe Spirit, and 44 Plays for 44 Presidents. As and actor, he has appeared most recently in Frederick Knott's Wait Until Dark, The Neo-futurists Too Much Light Makes the Baby Go Blind, Christopher Durang's The Actor鈥檚 Nightmare, and Wendy Kesselman's adaptation of The Dairy of Anne Frank. His dramaturgy credits include The Illusion freely adapted from Pierre Corneille鈥檚 L鈥橧llusion Comique by Tony Kushner, Iphigenia and Other Daughters by Ellen McLaughlin, and Buried Child by Sam Shepard.

Zack's research interests include theatrical adaptation, contemporary drama, theatre and social change, early modern drama, and trauma studies. Recently, Zack published a chapter entitled 鈥�Too Much Memory: Interrogating the National Trauma of the War on Terror鈥� in Reflecting 9/11: New Narratives of Crisis, Disaster and Change (2016).

Megan Burnett

Megan Burnett headshotMFA., University of Louisville
Office: Alumni 203
Email: mburnett@bellarmine.edu
Phone: 502.272.7480
Megan Burnett, Associate Professor of Theatre (the first tenured theatre professor at Bellarmine) earned her MFA in Theatre from the University of Louisville.  She studied at Shakespeare鈥檚 Globe in London, trained with Shakespeare & Co. in Lenox, MA, and with John Basil of American Globe Theatre.  She is a Fulbright Memorial Teacher Fund Program member traveling to Tokyo and Hiroshima, Japan in 2005 to study their educational system.  Megan acted and was the acting coach in India for the film, The Hero of Auschwitz: The Life Story of St. Maximilian Kolbe.  Megan toured the country in the one-woman show Shame the Devil! An Audience with Fanny Kemble by Anne Ludlum from 2004-2016.  She continued her interest in women abolitionists and suffragists by writing and touring her own one-woman play, Conversations with a Suffragist: Mattie Griffith Browne 鈥� Kentucky Abolitionist and Suffragist.  Megan also serves as a voice, dialect, and text coach for university and professional productions.
As an academic, Megan has written and presented numerous papers and talks at national and international conferences. Her article, "A Case for Using the First Folio as Directing and Acting Text," was published in Selected Papers of 鈥渢he Ohio Valley Shakespeare Conference: Vol. 8, Article 2. 2015. She also published the article, 鈥淐ut, Cut, Cut to the Heart of the Story: Adapting Amy Tan鈥檚 Novels for Theatre, Film, and Opera鈥� in Critical Insights: Amy Tan edited by Linda Moser and Kathryn West for Grey House Publishing, Fall 2021.  She and Dr. Zack Ross recently co-presented their paper 鈥淧racticing Community: Devised Theatre as Collective Inquiry in the Classroom and Beyond鈥� at the Southeastern Theatre Conference Theatre Symposium 33 in Atlanta.
In addition to directing productions on campus (see below for a list of these plays), Megan also directs and acts professionally in this region.  In recent years, Megan directed Things My Mother Taught Me for Eve Theatre and acted in their production of Dixie Swim Club.  She directed In Juliet鈥檚 Garden for the Louisville Women鈥檚 Club.  She most recently performed the role of Irma in ShPIel Performing Identity Theatre鈥檚 production of Prayer for the French Republic.  She also serves on their board of directors.
She is writing the libretto for the opera Edith Stein: Jew, Christian, Martyr with Dr. S. Timothy Glasscock as composer with a production date goal for 2027-2028. 
 

Teaching Approach

The Theatre Program emphasizes:

  • Hands-on, experiential learning
  • Close faculty mentorship
  • Collaboration across disciplines
  • The integration of theory and practice

Faculty work directly with students in rehearsal spaces, production environments, and the classroom, ensuring that learning is active, applied, and connected to real creative work.

Mentorship & Collaboration

Because of the program鈥檚 size and structure, students have the opportunity to build meaningful working relationships with faculty.

Whether you are performing, working backstage, or developing your own creative work, faculty provide guidance and support throughout the process鈥攈elping students grow as artists, collaborators, and thinkers.

Connection to the Professional World

Faculty maintain active connections to the broader theatre community, providing students with insight into professional practices and pathways.

These connections help bridge the gap between classroom learning and the wider world of theatre.

Contact

Interested in learning more about the Theatre minor or getting involved in productions?

Reach out to a faculty member to:

  • Ask questions about the program
  • Discuss course planning
  • Learn about upcoming opportunities