James Dylan Held
Associate Professor of Theatre History and World Theatre & Drama
BA and MA – California State University
MFA – University of Washington
Prof. Held has been on the theatre faculty at WVU since 1980, specializing in Scenic Design, Period Style and Theatre History. He has designed numerous productions for the University (most recently, Playboy of the Western World) and for professional theaters and has directed productions including: Medea, An Ideal Husband, The Rivals, Noises Off! and Brighton Beach Memoirs.
Following a six-year term as chair of the Division (1989-95), Professor Held shifted his focus in teaching from the design area to Theatre History/Literature/Theory and Criticism, graduate seminars and World Theatre & Drama. He completed preparations for a web-based version of World Theatre and Drama that was first offered summer, 2008. This is a course unique to WVU and incorporates Prof. Held’s textbook as the main content of the new website. He has also become a popular instructor for the Osher Life Long Learners program in Morgantown, for which he offers an on-going series in MASTERS OF WORLD DRAMA.
Fall 2009 Courses:
THET 170: World Theatre & Drama
THET 170: World Theatre & Drama (web-based)
THET 361: Theatre History I: Space (development of the stage and architecture of the theatre)
THET 610: Graduate Research Methods/Dramatic Theory and Criticism Seminar
Spring 2010 Courses:
THET 101: Introduction to the Theatre
THET 170: World Theatre & Drama
THET 170-Web: World Theatre & Drama (web-based)
THET 363: Theatre History III: The Body (the actor and director on stage)
Osher Lifelong Learners:
The Plays of Horton Foote (spring 2009); The Life and Work of Lanford Wilson (fall 2009); John Steinbeck’s The Grapes of Wrath: Novel, Play and Film, (spring 2010).
Moon for the Misbegotten
Die Fledermaus