Roger Ellis is a theatre director, university professor and author living in Michigan, USA. He earned his MA in Theatre from the University of Santa Clara, and his PhD in Dramatic Art from the University of California at Berkeley. He trained as an actor under Michael Shurtleff, Carlo Mazzone-Clementi of Dell’Arte, Robert Goldsby of the Berkeley Repertory Theatre and James Roose-Evans of Great Britain’s National Theatre. He has also spent nine seasons as an actor-director with repertory, summer stock, festival and dinner theatres in California and Michigan, and he frequently conducts workshops on acting and auditioning skills in the Great Lakes region and abroad. He has authored or edited 14 books for the stage, including anthologies, critical works and acting texts. In 1991 he initiated an ethnic theatre program at Grand Valley State University in Michigan, creating guest artist residencies and presenting new international plays dealing with cultural diversity; in 1993 he established that university’s Shakespeare Festival, currently the oldest and largest in Michigan; and in 1997 he established Grand Valley’s annual New Plays-in-Process program, bringing national playwrights to Michigan for extended rehearsals and staged reading productions of their new work. He is currently the President of the Theatre Alliance of Michigan, editor of the international theatre journal, IDEACTION, and a Professor of Theatre Arts and Grand Valley State University.