Dr. Alvin (Al) Goldfarb is the child of Holocaust survivors and a nationally known theatre educator and administrator. Al served as chair of the department of Theatre, Dean of Fine Arts, and Provost and Academic Vice President at Illinois State University. Al served as President of Western Illinois University from 2002 to 2011, when he retired.

Throughout his distinguished administrative career, Al continued to teach and publish. He has published articles and reviews in leading journals. In addition to his textbooks Theatre: The Lively Art; Living Theatre; and An Anthology of Living Theatre, coauthored and coedited with Ed Wilson, retired theatre critic for the Wall Street Journal, Al also coedited, with Rebecca Rovit, Theatrical Performance during the Holocaust, which was a National Jewish Book Award finalist.

Education

Ph.D., City University of New York, Theatre (9/73 – 1/78)
Graduate Center Thesis: “Theatre and Drama and the Nazi Concentration Camps”
M.A., Hunter College of C.U.N.Y., Theatre and Cinema (9/72 – 8/73 )
Thesis: “Selected Late Plays of Tennessee Williams: A Re-Evaluation”
B.A., Queens College of C.U.N.Y., Theatre and Mass Communications (1/68 – 6/72)

Administrative Experience

President, Western Illinois University, 7/1/2002 – 6/30/2011 (retired)
Provost and Vice-President for Academic Affairs, Illinois State University, 8/98-6/2002
Dean, College of Fine Arts, Illinois State University, 9/88 -7/98
Acting Dean, College of Fine Arts, Illinois State University, Spring, 1986
Chair, Department of Theatre, Illinois State University, 7/81 – 8/88
Director of Graduate Studies, Department of Theatre, Illinois State University, 7/80 – 8/81

Teaching Experience

Illinois State University
Professor, Department of Theatre, Illnois State University (7/86 – 6/30/2011 (retired)
Associate Professor, Illnois State University (8/80 – 7/86)
Assistant Professor, Illnois State University (8/77 – 7/80)St. John’s University 
Adjunct – Part-time, Department of Communications, St. John’s University (9/76 – 5/77)

City College of C.U.N.Y. 
Adjunct – Part-time, Department of Speech, City College C.U.N.Y. (9/75 – 5/77)

Hunter College of C.U.N.Y.
Adjunct – Part-time, Department of Theatre and Cinema, Hunter College of C.U.N.Y. (Summer 1975

Queens College of C.U.N.Y.
Adjunct – Part-time, Department of Drama and Theatre, Queens College of C.U.N.Y. (Summer 1975)

Publications

Books and Monographs
Living Theater: A History. Third and Expanded Edition. Co-authored with Edwin Wilson. (New York: McGraw-Hill, 2000).
Living Theater: A History. Second and Expanded Edition. Co-authored with Edwin Wilson. (New York: McGraw-Hill, 1994).
Living Theater: An Introduction to Theatre History. Co-authored with Edwin Wilson (New York: McGraw-Hill, 1983).
Teacher’s Guide to Shakespeare on Stage. Co-authored with Calvin Pritner. Videotape series produced by the Illinois Shakespeare Festival and distributed nationally to educational television networks.
Theater: The Lively Art. Fourth Edition. Co-authored with Edwin Wilson (New York: McGraw Hill, 2001).
Theater: The Lively Art. Third Edition. Co-authored with Edwin Wilson (New York: McGraw Hill, 1999).
Theater: The Lively Art. Second Edition. Co-authored with Edwin Wilson (New York: McGraw Hill, 1996).
Theater: The Lively Art. Co-authored with Edwin Wilson (New York: McGraw Hill, 1991).
Theater: The Lively Art: A Brief Edition. Co-authored with Edwin Wilson. (New York: McGraw Hill, 1993).
Theatrical Performance during the Holocaust: Texts, Memoirs, and Documents. Coedited with Rebecca Rovit. (Baltimore, Md.: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1999).

Articles and Notes
“Adolf Hitler as Portrayed in Drama and Film During His Lifetime.” Journal of Popular Culture, 13 no. 1 (Summer 1979), 55-56.
“Annotated Bibliography of Holocaust Dramatic Literature.” Staging the Holocaust. Edited by Claude Schumacher. (London: Cambridge University Press, 1998).
“Art of the Theatre.” In: New Lincoln Library Encyclopedia. Columbus, Ohio: Frontier Press, 1982.
“Arthur Miller: A Critical Survey.” American Playwrights from 1945. ed. Philip Kolin (Westport, Conn.: Greenwood Press, 1989).
“Biblical and Religious Imagery and the Question of Theodicy in Holocaust Drama.” Theatre Annual, 36 (1981), 41-51.
“Bibliography of Holocaust Dramatic Literature.” Plays of the Holocaust. ed. Elinor Fuchs (New York: TCG Publications, 1987).
“Early London Productions of Chekhov, 1911-1930.” Southern Theatre, 23 no. 1 (Winter 1979), 15-21.
“The Emperor of Atlantis: Satire in the Nazi Concentration Camps.” Theatre Journal, 32 (October 1980), 386-87.
Entries for The Academic American Encyclopedia published by Arete Publishing company in 1980.
Entries on Lee J. Cobb, Berta Gersten, David Kessler, and Paul Muni for American National Biography(Oxford University Press, 2000).
Entries on the Folksbiene, Yiddish Art Theatre and Jewish Art Theatre, ed. American Theatre Companies, ed. Weldon Durham (Westport, Conn.: Greenwood Press, 1987).
“Gigantic and Miniscule Actors on the Nineteenth-Century American Stage.” Journal of Popular Culture, 10 no. 2 (Fall 1976), 267-79.
“Greek Tragedy in the Nazi Concentration Camps: Charolotte Delbo’s Qui Rapportera ces Paroles? and Alberto Moravia’s Il Dio Kurt.” Exchange 6 no. 3 (Fall, 1980), 1-10.
“Holocaust on the Air: The Radio Plays of the Writers’ War Board. “ Journal of American Drama and Theatre, 8 no. 2 (Spring 1996), 48-58.
“Inadequate Memories: The Survivor in Plays by Mann, Kesselman, Lebow, and Baitz.” In: Staging the Holocaust, ed. Claude Schumacher (London: Cambridge University Press, 1998).
“Josef Szajna’s Metaphorical Representations of the Nazi Concentration Camps.” Exchange, 6 no. 2 (Spring-Summer 1980), 1-14.
“More Questions About ‘Non-Academic’ Creative Activities in Theatre.” ACA Bulletin, no. 43 (January 1983), 26-29.
“Period of Adjustment and the New Tennessee Williams.” In: Tennessee Williams: A Tribute (University of Mississippi Press, 1977), pp. 310-17.
Rachel Crothers: Bloomington-Normal’s Native Daughter in the Broadway Theatre.” Bloomington-Normal Magazine, 1 no. 3 (March 1979), 8-9.
“Roar China in a Nazi Concentration Camp,” Theatre Survey, 21 (November 1980), 184-85.
“Theatrical Activities in Nazi Concentration Camps.” Performing Arts Journal, 1 no. 2 (Fall 1976), 3-11.
“The Theatrical Life of Sherlock Holmes.” North Light Repertory program, April 1981, Evanston, Illinois.
“Theories of Tragedy” and “Theories of Comedy” In: The Theatre Experience. Fifth Edition. By Edwin Wilson. (New York: McGraw-Hill, 1991).
“Thomas William Robertson: Actor.” Theatre Survey, 20 (November 1979), 64-67.

Reviews
“Books in Review: Theatre of the Holocaust and Indelible Shadows: Film and the Holocaust,”Theatre Journal (October 1983).
“Books in Review: Bright Star of Exile.” Performing Arts Journal, 2 (Winter 1977-78).
“Books in Review: The Habima — Israel’s National Theatre, 1917-1977.” Theatre Journal, 32 (October 1980), 405-06.
“Books in Review: Vagabond Stars.” Educational Theatre Journal, 30 (March 1978), 1933-34.
Review of Israeli Holocaust Drama, edited by Michael Taub. Shofar: An Interdisciplinary Journal of Jewish Studies, (Fall 1998).
Theatre in Review: “Bent.” Theatre Journal, 32 (October 1980), 398-99.
Theatre in Review: “The Theatre of Peretz.” Educational Theatre Journal, 28 (October 1976), 417-18.

Convention Papers and Other Convention Dates
“Adolf Hitler As Depicted in Drama and Film.” Midwest Popular Culture Association Convention, October 1979, Bowling Green State University, Bowling Green, Ohio.
“Biblical Imagery in Holocaust Drama.” American Theatre Association convention, Dallas, August 1981 and Illinois Theatre Association convention, Chicago, Illinois, October 1981.
“Children’s Theatre in the Holocaust.” Illinois Theatre Association convention, Chicago, Illinois, September 1984.
“Course Loads in Theatre.” National Association of Schools of Theatre convention, August 1988, San Diego.
“Defending the Theatre in the Next Millennium.” Illinois Theatre Association, keynote address, Chicago, Illinois, September, 1998.
“Drama and the Nazi Concentration Camps: Attempts to Stage the Unstageable.” Illinois Theatre Association convention, Peoria, Illinois, 1979 and American Theatre Association, August 1980, San Diego.
“Giant and Dwarf Actors on the Nineteenth-Century British and American Stage.” Popular Culture Association, April 1976, Chicago.
“The Place of the M.A. degree in the Theatre Department.” National Association of Schools of Theatre convention, August 1989, Chicago, Illinois.
“Popular Entertainments in Colonial America.” American Society for Theatre Research, November 1975, Washington, D.C. (In collaboration with Rita Plotnicki.)
“Relationship Between University and Secondary School Theatre.” National Association of Schools of Theatre convention, Chicago, August 1987.
“Strategies for Teaching Theatre History to Undergraduates.” American Theatre Association convention, Minneapolis, August 1983.
“Survival of Popular Entertainments in the Nazi Concentration Camps.” Popular Culture Association, Cincinnati, April 1978.
“Survivor in American Drama.” Shoah and Performance conference, University of Glasgow, September 1995.
“Teaching the Holocaust through Dramatic Texts.” Association for Theatre in Higher Education, San Antonio, Texas, August, 1998.
“Tenure Standards for Design/Technical Faculty.” Association for Theatre in Higher Education convention, August 1991, Seattle, Washington.
“Testimony as Theatre or Theatre as Testimony.” Association for Theatre in Higher Education, Chicago, August 1997.
Chair, “The Dark Side of Popular Culture” panel, Popular Culture Association, Cincinnati, April 1978.
Chair, Current Research in Theatre History, American Theatre Association convention, Dallas, August 1981.
Chair, Competitive Panel in Theatre History, American Theatre Association convention, San Francisco, August, 1984.
Chair, “Baroque Stage Design,” American Theatre Association convention, Toronto, August 1985.
Chair, “Spanish-American theatre,” American Society for Theatre Research, New York, November 1985.
Chair, “Current Research in Theatre History,” Association for Theatre in Higher Education, San Diego, August, 1988.

Professional Offices and Significant Committee Assignments

National Association of Schools of Theatre Evaluator, 1986 to 2011
Chair, Educating Illinois: An Action Plan for Distinctiveness and Excellence at Illinois State University, 2000-2001.
Chair, President’s Task Force on Administrative Efficiency, Illinois State University, 1990-1991.
Member (Governor appointed), Illinois Arts Council, 1996-2000.
Member, President’s Strategic Planning Task Force, Illinois State University, 1989-1990.
President, Illinois Alliance for Arts Education, 1997- 1999.
Regional Chair, ACTF Region III-West, 1985-1988.
Referee, Central States Speech Journal, 1982-84.
Regional Chair, ACTF Criticism competition, 1983-85.
Editorial Consultant, “Theatre in Review.” Theatre Journal, 1981-1983.
ACTF Regional critic, 1981-1989.
Expert Reader, Theatre Journal, articles on the Holocaust and Theatre.
Referee, BHE-PSC Research Grant for the City University of New York, December, 1978.
Research Assistant, see acknowledgement in A.H. Saxon’s The Life and Art of Andrew Ducrow (Hamden, Connecticut: Archon Books, 1978).

Honors and Grants

Alumni Achievement Award, City University of New York Graduate School and University Center, 2001.
Service Award, Illinois Alliance for Arts Education, 1993.
Town and Gown Lecturer, Ball State University, October 1992.
Outstanding Contribution Award, University Theatre, Illinois Theatre Association, 1991.
Fell Trust Grant, “Virtual Reality conference,” 1991 ($5000).
Guest Lecturer, University of North Carolina–Asheville, 1990 and 1991.
Kennedy Center Medallion for ACTF, Region III, 1989.
Illinois Arts Council grant, “Building by Design,” 1991 ($3800).
Illinois Arts council grant, “Building by Design,” 1987 ($10,000).
Illinois Arts Council grant, “Illinois Shakespeare Festival,” 1987 and 1988 ($10,400 & $8,200).
Instructional Development Program Grant, Illinois State University, Summer 1981.
International “Who’s Who in Education,” 1979.
City University Graduate Fellowship, 1974-75.
Phi Beta Kappa, June 1972.
Graduated Queens College “magna cum laude,” June 1972.
Queens College’s Deans’ List.
New York State Regents’ Scholarship, 1968-72.

Derek Goldman is an award-winning stage director, playwright/adapter, developer of new work, educator, and published scholar, whose work has been seen around the country, Off-Broadway, and internationally.  He is Professor of Theater and Performance Studies at Georgetown University where he is co-Founding Director of the Laboratory for Global Performance and Politics (with Ambassador Cynthia Schneider),  housed in the School of Foreign Service with a mission "to harness the power of performance to humanize global politics."  He has worked at theaters such as Steppenwolf, Lincoln Center, Arena Stage, CenterStage, Folger Theater, Round House, Everyman Theatre, Mosaic Theater,  Synetic Theater,  Theater J, the Kennedy Center, Ford's Theater, McCarter,  Segal Center (Montreal), Northern Stage, Forum Theater, Olney Theater Center (where he is an Artistic Associate),  and many others. He is the author of more than 30 professionally produced plays and adaptations, including work published by Samuel French and produced internationally, and he has directed over 80 productions.  Recent highlights include A Streetcar Named Desire at Everyman (Wall Street Journal Best of 2016); his adaptation of David Grossman's Falling Out of Time (Theater J); Diary of Anne Frank (Olney) and many others. He has a 25 year history of writing and directing Holocaust-related plays including his original play Right as Rain which toured nationally for 3 years; Our Class (Theater J, Helen Hayes Nominated for Outstanding Production); and My Report to the World,his play about Polish World War II hero and Holocaust witness Jan Karski featuring David Strathairn which has been performed in Poland (in conjunction with the opening of the POLIN Museum of the History of Polish Jews); New York (in residence at the Museum of Jewish Heritage), and  DC (Georgetown and Shakespeare Theater/Harman Center).  In 2016 he was honored to receive the prestigious President's Award for Distinguished Scholar-Teachers. From 2007-2016, he served as Artistic Director of the Davis Performing Arts Center at Georgetown. He is  co-President of the US Center of the International Theatre Institute (ITI), a Board member at Theatre Communications Group (TCG), Founding Director of UNESCO's UNITWIN Global Network of Higher Education in the Performing Arts, and Founding Artistic Director of the StreetSigns Center for Literature and Performance, an award-winning socially-engaged professional theatre founded in Chicago and now based in Chapel Hill NC.    He received his Ph. D. in Performance Studies from Northwestern University.

Dr. Jeffrey R. Solomon is the President of the Andrea and Charles Bronfman Philanthropies, a group of foundations operating in Canada, Israel and the United States. Among the foundations’ innovative launches are Birthright Israel and Reboot, two initiatives aimed at connecting young, assimilated Jews to their tradition, The Gift of New York, a powerful response to September 11, helping to heal families of victims through the power of culture, and Project Involvement, an educational reform program serving some 265,000 Israeli elementary school students. He previously served as the Senior Vice President and Chief Operating Officer of UJA-Federation of New York.

Other past positions include executive positions at Altro Health & Rehabilitation Services, Miami Jewish Home and Hospital for the Aged and Jewish Family and Children’s Services in Miami. Dr. Solomon also served with the City, State and Federal Governments. An author of over 80 publications, he served as an adjunct associate professor at New York University and sits on numerous nonprofit and foundation boards including the FJC, a community foundation in New York, the Jewish Funders Network and Musicians On Call. He also served on the Board of the Council on Foundations, where he chaired the Committee on Ethics and Practice and served on its Executive Committee. He is a founding trustee of the World Faiths Development Dialogue and has received a number of honors from professional associations and universities.

His widely acclaimed book, The Art of Giving: Where the Soul Meets the Business Plan, co-authored with Charles Bronfman, was published by Jossey-Bass in October, 2009. It has been awarded the Axiom Gold Medal in philanthropy and has been translated and published in South Korea. They recently completed a sequel which explores the principles and practices of social entrepreneurship, expected to be released in early 2012.

September 15, 1970–February 28, 2023 *of blessed memory

Kim Simon was Managing Director of the Shoah Foundation Institute at the University of Southern California. She was responsible for overseeing the Institute’s day-to-day work, including its educational programs, research, documentation activity, public outreach, and administration. Simon was hired in 1994 to coordinate the Shoah Foundation’s efforts to collect interviews around the world with Holocaust survivors and other witnesses. After the testimony collection phase, Simon established the Institute’s office of global partnerships, creating and developing its international program agenda, overseeing its work in 17 countries.

Kim Simon spent 15 years working in the field of Holocaust video documentation and education. Prior to her post as Managing Director, Simon served as the Institute’s interim executive director from 2008-2009 and director of programs, overseeing its national and international educational agenda.

Simon served on the U.S. delegation of the Task Force for International Cooperation on Holocaust Education, Remembrance and Research. She oversaw the development of an educational application, IWitness, and focused on the pedagogical, organizational, and policy considerations of working with Holocaust and genocide survivor and witness testimony in an online environment. IWitness is a multimedia application that aims to engage the intersection of using video testimony on the Internet as a way to explore multi-literacies and the topic of the Holocaust and other genocides in education.

In September 2011, Simon was awarded an Alumni Honorary Doctorate of Humane Letters from her alma mater, Colorado College.

Robert (Bob) Skloot retired in 2008 after 40 years of teaching, directing and administrating at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. His career has included serving as Fulbright Professor in Israel (1980-81), Austria (F 1988), Chile (F 1995) and The Netherlands (S 2005), and as Fulbright Specialist in England (2013). He is the author and editor of many books and essays about the theatre of the Holocaust and genocide, including The Darkness We Carry: The Drama of the Holocaust (1988) and the two-volume anthology The Theatre of the Holocaust (1981; 1999) and The Theatre of Genocide: Four Plays about Mass Murder in Rwanda, Bosnia, Cambodia and Armenia (2008). In 2011, Skloot was chosen for inclusion in Fifty Key Thinkers on the Holocaust and Genocide, ed. Bartrop and Jacobs (2011). Over a generation, Skloot has presented scores of lectures throughout the United States and internationally on subject that include: the Arts of the Holocaust, the Theatre and Genocide, Holocaust Education, American Theatre and Drama, etc.

Skloot’s play, If the Whole Body Dies: Raphael Lemkin and the Treaty Against Genocide (2006), has been read around the U.S. and internationally (Sarajevo, The Hague,) and in its Spanish version (Aunque Todo El Cuerpo Muera) in Cuba and Peru. Polish, German and Hebrew translations have been recently completed.

Dr. Haim Shaked has been a tenured Professor of International Studies at the University of Miami (UM) since 1988. He has been the incumbent of the Dr. M. Lee Pearce Chair in Middle East Peace Studies (since 1993).

In September 1998, UM announced the creation of the Sue and Leonard Miller Center for Contemporary Judaic Studies and appointed Dr. Shaked as its Founding Director. In 2005 he was also appointed Director of the George Feldenkreis Program in Judaic Studies, at the UM’s College of Arts and Sciences. Dr. Shaked has also served at UM, since 1986, as the Director of the Middle East Studies Institute. From 1995-2000, Dr. Shaked was involved in the creation of the first private (not-for-profit) university in Israel: The Interdisciplinary Center, Herzliya.

Haim Shaked was born in Tel Aviv, Israel (1939). He was educated at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, where he graduated with a B.A. Cum Laude (1962) and an M.A. Cum Laude (1966) in Middle Eastern and Islamic Studies. In 1969 he was awarded a Ph.D. by the University of London’s School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS), on completion of his studies in its Department of History, chaired then by Professor Bernard Lewis. Dr. Shaked’s doctoral thesis dealt with a unique biography of the Sudanese Mahdi.

From 1969-1998, Dr. Shaked was on the faculty of Tel Aviv University (TAU) where he attained the rank of Full Professor (tenured). He was a co-founder (1966) and later (1973-80) Head of the Moshe Dayan Center/Shiloah Institute for Middle Eastern and African Studies. At Tel Aviv University he also served as Dean of the Faculty of Humanities and member of TAU’s Board of Trustees and its Executive Committee as well as of the University Senate and its Steering Committee (1975-80). He took early retirement from TAU in Summer 1998.

From 1981-1983, Dr. Shaked was Interim Director of the Center for Advanced International Studies at UM, with a mandate to develop it into a Graduate School of International Studies. In 1998 it became the School of International Studies. In 2001, the School became the Department of International Studies in UM’s College of Arts and Sciences.

Professor Shaked’s academic specialization is in the modern history and politics of the Middle East; Islam as a political force; and Arab-Israeli relations. He was the co-founder and editor of the annual publication Middle East Contemporary Survey (24 volumes published). In addition, he founded and edited the first fully computerized, comprehensive bibliography on the Middle East, Mideast File. He has also authored and edited several books and numerous articles about the Middle East.

Prof. Shaked is a member of the Board of Advisors of the University of Oklahoma’s International Programs Center/Center for Peace Studies and the Board of Editors of the Middle East Quarterly. He is a member of the Academic Councils of the Canadian Institute for Jewish Research; of the Ben Gurion Institute for the Study of Israel and Zionism, Ben Gurion University; of the Steering Committee of the Kinneret Institute for the Study of Society, Security and Peace (named after Lt. Gen. Dan Shomoron); and of the Steering Committee of the Institute for Galilean Archaeology, the Kinneret College.

For over four decades, Haim Shaked has been invited to participate as keynote speaker, lecturer or scholar-in-residence at classes, seminars, panels, lecture series, briefings, colloquia, symposia and conferences on the Middle East held in Israel, England, Canada, Mexico, India, Australia, Germany, France, Italy, Greece, Sweden, Jordan, Turkey, Puerto Rico and the United States. Professor Shaked has also served as a consultant on the Middle East to private and governmental bodies.