Section Title

Director of Theatre, Assistant Professor

B.A., Theatre & Communication Arts, Gannon; MFA, Theatre Directing, Virginia Commonwealth; MDiv, Theology, Bexley Hall Seminary

Theatre, Communication and Fine Arts

Fr. Shawn started at Gannon University on March 1, 1989, as Adjunct Professor of Theatre and Executive Director of the Erie Summer Festival of the Arts. Fr. Shawn became a full-time tenure-track instructor of theatre Fall 1989, was tenured in 1997, and appointed Director of Theatre in 2000.

Fr. Shawn has directed numerous plays and musicals during his twenty years at Gannon, including ARCADIA, ROMEO AND JULIET, HAIR, GODSPELL, and NINE.

In 2003, Fr. Shawn created SHAKESPEARE SUMMER NIGHTS, an outdoor program of free public performances of Shakespeare plays and related works.

Fr. Shawn is also a featured performer with the Erie Playhouse and the Erie Philharmonic Orchestra, and is an Episcopal priest in the Diocese of Northwestern Pennsylvania.

It is important in the current job market to make sure that your skills and development are diversified, experience in mutliple disciplines and areas. The Department of Theatre, Communication, and Fine Arts is best suited to preparing young professionals in performance, design, and direction/managment in the arts and media related fields because of the sharing of skills and talents in multimedia settings.

Gannon is a place that not only prepares students for their chosen professional fields but also prepares individuals to live lives that are not only useful but rewarding beyond their vocations.

Each student that graduates, regardless of their career path, credits their success with the experiences that they gain from being a part of the Department of Theatre, Communication and Fine Arts, because of our intense collaboration and respect for one another as individuals.

I love teaching...PERIOD! As long as there is a student in front of me, I am THRILLED!

Marrying my Theatre and Theology worlds, I am intensely interested in research in theatre history and its relation to faith communities, in particular the medieval period, where theatre and religion were not only related but thoughtfully and vitally integrated.