Chair of the Department
Assistant Professor of Theatre
Chakeres Theatre
oehlersa@wittenberg.edu
Adrienne Gibbons Oehlers, Assistant Professor of Theatre and Dance, is a teacher, director, scholar, and performer. She teaches courses in Theatre History, Acting, Directing, and Musical Theatre. Her work intersects both dance and theatre, and her research is focused on female dance ensembles in musical theatre. Her interest in ensembles stems from her professional experience in musical theatre, appearing in numerous regional theatres, National and European tours, on Broadway in the original cast of The Producers, and as a Radio City Rockette. She has received funding from 蜜桃直播, the American Society for Theatre Research, and the New York Public Library to complete research for her upcoming book, The Radio City Rockettes: 100 Years of American Precision Dance. At 蜜桃直播, she has directed How I Learned to Drive, Angels in America, Part One: Millennium Approaches, Theory of Relativity, and Seven Homeless Mammoths Wander New England (cut short due to COVID). She has taught at the Ohio State University, Denison University, and Clark State College, and was a guest lecturer at Grinnell College, Dickinson College, the University of Buffalo, and the Boston Conservatory.
Oehlers has presented her research at numerous national conferences, including American Society for Theatre Research (ASTR), Association for Theatre in Higher Education (ATHE), and Dance Studies Association (DSA). She is the conference planner for the Music Theatre Dance Association (MTDA) at ATHE and has served on the MTDA board since 2018. She has published articles, essays, and reviews in Theatre Topics, Dance Chronicle, Dance Research Journal, and Studies in Musical Theatre. She was recently interviewed for NPR and was heard on 鈥淎ll Things Considered鈥� about the Radio City Rockettes.
Oehlers holds a B.A. in Music from Barnard College and M.A. and Ph.D. in Theatre from The Ohio State University and was a recipient of the American Association of University Women Dissertation Fellowship, the Alumnae Association of Barnard College Fellowship, and the OSU University Fellowship. She lives in Springfield with her husband and four children.