MILAN DRAGICEVICH
Office: 108 Fine Arts Center miland@theater.umass.edu
Department of Theater milanodyssey@gmail.com
151 Presidents Drive www.milandragicevich.com
University of Massachusetts
Amherst, MA 01003-9331
(413) 545-3490
CURRICULUM VITAE
My work has increasingly evolved to combine classical theater
performance with my emerging development as a playwright and
playmaker, utilizing my extensive performance background to influence
a more robust, adventurous, multidisciplinary, theatrically charged,
contemporary, and actor-driven form of dramatic storytelling.
Education
University of Wisconsin at Milwaukee
Professional Theatre Training Program
Degree: MFA, Performing Arts Theatre
University of California at Los Angeles (UCLA)
Department of English
Degree: BA, English (Summa Cum Laude)
Key Influences
William Shakespeare, for his unbounded mind, magical words, a soaring theatrical canvas, and a sense that people are mysterious and not easily circumscribed
Jimi Hendrix, for taking the electric guitar into the stratosphere, for layering psychedelic, wildly untamed musical riffs on top of the traditional 12-bar blues
Arundhati Roy, for her powerful yet calm eloquence, for a brilliant weaving of contemporary and ancient ideas and motifs in today’s India
Tadashi Suzuki, for his insistence on a compelling physical presence on stage, for the training regimen that develops such disciplined charisma
Bernard Shaw, for his contrarian wit, his sense that theater must surprise, take us to undiscovered country
Machine de Cirque, for their bold brew of theatrics, circus, technology, vaudeville, and storytelling
PLAYWRITING & PRODUCTION
Refugee by Milan Dragicevich
Produced by Sudbina Theater Company
JOAKIM INTERFEST international theater festival, Kragujevac, Serbia
Directors: Milan Dragicevich & Nikita Milivojevic
October 9-15, 2018
Refugee by Milan Dragicevich
Produced by Sudbina Theater Company
Shea Theater Arts Center, Tuners Falls, MA
Director: Milan Dragicevich
October 17-22, 2017
Refugee by Milan Dragicevich
Produced by UMass Department of Theater, Fine Arts Center
Director: Nikita Milivojević (Guest Artist, Belgrade, Serbia)
November – December 2016
World premiere featured on New England Public Radio (Susan Kaplan)
Milosevic at The Hague by Milan Dragicevich
Produced by Serious Play! Theatre Ensemble/Cultural Images Group
JOAKIM INTERFEST International Theater Festival, Kragujevac, Serbia
Directors: Milan Dragicevich & Sheryl Stoodley, October 2009
Special Jury Award, Joakim Interfest International Theatre Festival
Milosevic at The Hague by Milan Dragicevich
Produced by Serious Play! Theatre Ensemble/Cultural Images Group
A.P.E. at Window Performing Arts Center, Northampton, MA
Directors: Milan Dragicevich & Sheryl Stoodley, February-March 2009
World premiere featured on New England Public Radio’s “Morning Edition"
PROFESSIONAL ACTING & PERFORMANCE
Film
SEED
Lead Role: Nathan O'Connor
Producer: Bit Films
Featured at Interfilm Berlin International Film Festival (2015)
Writer/Director: Chris Perry, 2013
https://www.milandragicevich.com/film-seed.html
Stage
UMass New Africa House Theater
Joe Turner's Come and Gone, by August Wilson
Featured Role: Rutherford Selig
Director: Gilbert McCauley, 2020
UMass Fine Arts Center/Department of Theater
Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, by Tennessee Williams
Leading Role: Big Daddy
Director: Jared Culverhouse, 2015
Northern New England Repertory Theatre Company, New London, NH
Arms and the Man, by George Bernard Shaw
Leading Role: Major Sergius Saranoff
Director: John Goodlin, 2014
New England Repertory Theatre Company, New London, NH
Hedda Gabler, by Henrik Ibsen
Leading Role: Eilert Lovborg
Director: Trace Oakley, 2013
Music in Common, Inc., national tour, Memorial Hall, Shelburne Falls, MA
The Last Waltz Live: a theatrical-musical recreation of the Martin
Scorcese film (The Last Waltz), covering the The Band’s final concert.
Featured Performer: Prologue, Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales, 2014
Northern New England Repertory Theatre Company, New London, NH
Anna Christie, by Eugene O’Neill
Leading Role: Mat Burke
Director: Trace Oakley, 2012
Smith College New Play Series, Northampton, MA
The Harrassment of Iris Malloy, by Zak Berkman
Featured Role: Sticker
Director: Linda McInerney, 2012
A.P.E. Gallery, Northampton, MA
Renati the King, by Gian DiDonna
Leading Role: René Descartes
Director: Keith Langsdale, 2011
Northeast Shakespeare Ensemble, Lebanon Opera House, NH
Comedy of Errors, by William Shakespeare
Leading Role: Antipholus of Syracuse
Director: John Goodlin, 2009
Much Ado About Nothing, by William Shakespeare
Leading Role: Benedick
Director: John Goodlin, 2008
Hartford Stage Company, Hartford, CT
A Raisin in the Sun, by Lorraine Hansberry
Featured Role: Karl Lindner
Director: Seret Scott, 2006
Kingsmen Shakespeare Company, Thousand Oaks, CA
Twelfth Night, by William Shakespeare
Featured Role: Malvolio
Director: Susan Angelo, 2003
Will Geer Theatricum Botanicum, Los Angeles, CA
The Crucible, by Arthur Miller
Leading Role: Reverend Hale
Director: Ellen Geer, 2000
Saint Joan, by Bernard Shaw
Featured Role: Bishop Cauchon
Director: Ellen Geer, 1998
Richard III, by William Shakespeare
Leading Role: Richard III*
Director: Ellen Geer, 1995
* Los Angeles Drama-Logue Critics Award in Acting
The Three Sisters, by Anton Chekov
Leading Role: Tusenbach
Director: Douglas Campbell, 1990
Pacific Conservatory for Performing Arts/Theatrefest, Santa Maria, CA
Pump Boys n’ Dinettes, by the Pump Boys n’ Dinettes
Leading Role: Jackson
Director: David Kazanjian, 1988
It’s a Bird, It’s a Plane…It’s Superman! by David Newman, Robert Benton
Leading Role: Abner Sedgwick**
Director: Brad Carroll, 1988
** Los Angeles Drama-Logue Critics Award in Acting
Great American Children’s Theatre (national tour)
Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, by Roald Dahl, adaptation
Featured Role: Beauregard
Director: Leslie Reidel, 1989-90
Oregon Shakespeare Festival, Ashland, OR
Measure for Measure, by William Shakespeare
Featured Role: Pompey
Director: Jim Edmondson, 1986
The Threepenny Opera, by Bertolt Brecht
Featured Role: Smith
Director: Andy Traister, 1986
Broadway, by George Abbott and Philip Dunning
Featured Role: Scar Edwards
Director: Pat Patton, 1986
Television
NBC Television in association with Paramount Pictures
Frasier (sitcom)
Featured Role: Klingon, in “The Show Must Go Off”
Director: Robert Egan, 1999
PROFESSIONAL MEMBERSHIP
Actors Equity Association, VASTA (Voice and Speech Trainers Association),
ATHE (Association for Theatre in Higher Education)
PUBLICATIONS
The Persuasive Actor: Rhetorical Power on the Contemporary Stage
This book, officially released by Hackett Publishing Company in March 2019,
is a bold and innovative approach to contemporary actor training. By adapting
the classical principles of rhetoric, today’s actor learns to send a powerful vocal
“charge” into the act of speaking, strengthening expressivity and range, vocal
bravery and command. The book seeks to rediscover the lost art of persuasive speaking,
ultimately transforming an actor’s relationship to language, from Shakespeare to
Hip Hop Theater, from Shaw to Spoken Word, igniting a spark that will create a more
evocative, courageous, and thrilling performance.
“Looking Both Ways,” in American Theatre, February 2010; observations
on bringing Milosevic at The Hague to Joakim Interfest international
theater festival in Kragujevac, Serbia.
“The Actor and Shakespeare’s Text,” published in the Massachusetts
Center for Interdisciplinary Renaissance Studies Newsletter, September
2009 issue
TEACHING EXPERIENCE
University of Massachusetts at Amherst (2004-present)
School of Fine Arts/Department of Theater
108 Fine Arts Center
Amherst, MA 01003-9331
Professor of Performance. Reimagined "classical" actor training. Adapting
principles of classical rhetoric in unleashing the actor’s voice and speaking
ability in verbally adventurous contemporary plays, from Tom Stoppard to
Suzan-Lori Parks, from Lucy Kirkwood to Spoken Word. Shakespearean
actor training: rhetoric, verse speaking, meter, vocal phrasing, text analysis.
Focus on creating vivid, electrifying performances by utilizing the magic of
persuasive verbal craft. Text Coach for mainstage productions. Contemporary
Acting techniques, emphasizing a strong pursuit of action and partnership.
Stage Movement techniques, utilizing the physical theater training of Japan’s
Tadashi Suzuki. Emphasis on vigorous, disciplined, sharply crafted use of gesture
and movement.
University of California at Los Angeles (September 2002 to June 2003)
UCLA School of Theater, Film, & Television
102 East Melnitz Hall
Los Angeles, CA 90095-1622
Visiting Assistant Professor. Training undergraduate (BA) and graduate
(MFA) theatre students in Shakespearean/Restoration performance, with
special emphasis on exploiting verbal craft, adapting tools from classical
rhetoric to empower vocal expression, spur a bold bravery of speaking.
University of Delaware (September 1998, April 1999)
Professional Theatre Training Program
Department of Theatre, Mitchell Hall
Newark, DE 19716
Visiting Assistant Professor. Contemporary rhetorical training for the actor:
Training MFA conservatory acting students in recognizing and applying a
powerful array of verbal patterns in Elizabethan speeches, as well as in
contemporary texts by Sarah Kane, Tony Kushner, Caryl Churchill.
Emphasis on exploiting the dynamic properties of orchestrated language.
American Academy of Dramatic Arts (1991 to 2000)
1336 N. La Brea Ave.
Los Angeles, CA 90028
Voice and Speech Instructor: IPA notation, Edith Skinner, Fitzmaurice
Voice. Introductory and Advanced Contemporary Acting Techniques. Styles
Instructor: Shakespeare, elevated language. Auditioning.
Will Geer Theatricum Botanicum (1991 to 2004)
Academy of the Classics
1419 N. Topanga Canyon Blvd.
Topanga, CA 90290
Member of Performing Company and Academy Instructor/Text Coach.
Introduction to Shakespearean verse speaking, rhetoric, meter.
CONFERENCES, PRESENTATIONS, WORKSHOPS
Voice and Speech Trainers Association (VASTA) International Conference
Orlando, FL., August 4-7, 2019
Presentation/Workshop Leader: "Persuasive Magic: Ideas, Rhetoric, and Cultural Voice"
Will Geer Theatricum Botanicum Academy of the Classics
Los Angeles, CA, July 20, 2019
Workshop Leader: “Verbal Power on the Shakespearean Stage"
Association for Theatre in Higher Education (ATHE) International Conference
Las Vegas, NV, Spectacle: balancing education, theory & practice
August 3-6, 2017
Panelist: Making Places: Playwriting and Creative Placemaking
Presentation: "Inside the Tent: Refugees, Playspaces, and Reclaiming History"
Sponsored by Playwrights and Creative Teams (PACT)
Will Geer Theatricum Academy of the Classics
Los Angeles, CA, August 2017 & 2018
Workshop Leader: “Shakespearean Rhetoric in Performance”
The Electric Lodge, Venice Beach, CA, August 2017 & 2018
Workshop Leader: “Verbal Power in Contemporary Plays”
Sponsored by Susan Angelo’s Shakespeare Gymnasium studio
UMass Interdisciplinary Conference, Old Chapel
“Interpreting Shakespeare: A Celebration of Poetic Perception”
Advisor, Roundtable Participant – discussion of language and musicality
in Shakespeare’s plays, April 9, 2017
Association for Theatre in Higher Education (ATHE) International
Conference, Montreal, Canada, Je Me Souviens – I Remember, August 2015
Panel Chair and Creator: “Beyond the Bard: Performing Heightened
Language in Contemporary Plays and Texts”
Sponsored by Voice and Speech Trainers Association (VASTA)
Itaka Shakespeare Festival, Novi Sad, Serbia
Workshop Leader: "Magical Words, Courage, and Persuasion on the
Shakespearean Stage," at Academy of Dramatic Arts, Univ. of Novi Sad
Fellowship by the Marion & Jasper Whiting Foundation, June 2015
Association for Theatre in Higher Education (ATHE) National
Conference, New York City, Risking Innovation, August 2009.
Speaker: “Expanding Boundaries: Creating Post-dramatic Narratives”
Sponsored by Playwrights Action and Creative Teams (PACT)
Association for Theatre in Higher Education (ATHE) National
Conference, New York City, Risking Innovation, August 2009
Speaker: “Shaping Elevated Texts through the Tadashi Suzuki
Technique” Sponsored by the Association for Theatre Movement
Educators (ATME) focus group.
The Massachusetts Center for Renaissance Studies
Renaissance Wednesday series, April 2009
Guest Speaker: “Magical Persuasion: The Actor and Shakespeare’s Text”
Association of Theatre Movement Educators (ATME) National
Conference, Denver, Colorado, Dreaming and Imagining: Process of
Creation, July 2008
Speaker: “Big Words and Robust Gestures: Rivals or Partners?”
Will Geer Theatricum Botanicum Academy of the Classics
Los Angeles, CA, Shakespeare Intensive, August 2011, 2009, August
2006, and July 2005
Text Coach: “Shakespearean Rhetoric for the Actor”
Serious Play! Theatre Ensemble. Northampton, MA. April 2006
Workshop Instructor: “Detonated Language in Contemporary and
Classical Plays.”
Serious Play! Theatre Ensemble. Northampton, MA. November 2005.
Workshop Instructor: “Stage Movement and the Physical Theater of
Tadashi Suzuki.”
FELLOWSHIPS, HONORS, AWARDS, RECOGNITION
UMass Outstanding Teacher Award, 2021, College of Humanities and Fine Arts. Highly competitive award—with strong student input—is given to a faculty member who demonstrates dedicated excellence in teaching, often building bridges between in-class learning and future career application.
UMass Publication Subvention Award, for helping defray publication related
costs, Detonating Rhetorical Devices (e.g., illustrations, licensing fees).
March 2018
Nomination, UMass Distinguished Teaching Award (DTA)
October 2018
Valley Advocate.com, StageStruck: “Seeking Refuge,” a review of Refugee,
by Theater critic Chris Rohmann, January 2017
New England Public Radio (NEPR), special feature on the world premiere of
Refugee, Susan Kaplan, reporter, December 2016
UMass Faculty Research Grant, for development of Refugee, providing
support to bring acclaimed Serbian director Nikita Milivojević for guest
residency at UMass, 2015-16
Marion and Jasper Whiting Fellowship, “Playing Shakespeare: Views from
Abroad,” at Itaka Shakespeare Festival, Academy of Dramatic Art, University
of Novi Sad, Serbia, June 2015
Distinguished Teaching Award (DTA), Nomination, University of
Massachusetts Amherst, 2008-09
Joakim Special Jury Award to Milosevic at the Hague and Serious Play!
Theatre Ensemble, recognizing the play’s “daring, skillful, dramatically
innovative and socially engaged approach” to telling the complex story of
conflict in the Balkans. Given at JOAKIM INTERFEST international theater
festival, Kragujevac, Serbia, October 15, 2009
New England Public Radio (NEPR), special feature on the premiere of
Milosevic at The Hague, Susan Kaplan, reporter, February 2009
Valley Advocate, StageStruck, “Window on the Balkans,” a critical review
of Milosevic at the Hague, by Chris Rohmann, February 26, 2009.
Interdisciplinary Seminar in the Humanities and Fine Arts (ISHA),
University of Massachusetts Amherst, ISHA fellow. Public Art, Public
Thought, Public Effect. Presentation: “Tyrants and Avenging Angels:
Milosevic and the West in the Theatrical Arena,” a discussion of the
development of my original play, Milosevic at the Hague, and the response
generated by the production in Northampton, MA. 2008-09.
New England Public Radio, “Morning Edition,” special feature coverage on
the premier of Milosevic at the Hague, Susan Kaplan, reporter, February
2009
Los Angeles Drama-Logue Critics Award for Outstanding Achievement
in Acting, for role of Richard III in Will Geer Theatricum's production of
Richard III, 1995
Los Angeles Drama-logue Critics Award for Outstanding Achievement
in Acting, for role of Abner Sedgwick in PCPA/Theatrefest's production of
It’s a Bird, It’s a Plane….It’s Superman!, 1988
Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences Nicholl Fellowship in
Screenwriting, Quarterfinalist, for original screenplay, BIG BAND, 1991
Performance Coaching and Directorial Advising
UMass Mainstage Productions:
The Water Station, Movement/2020
Infants of the Spring, Performance/Text 2018
Happiest Song Plays Last, Performance/Text 2017
Hedda Gabler, Text/Speech 2017
The Liar, Rhetoric/Text 2013
Casanova, Rhetoric/Text 2012
House of Bernarda Alba, Directing/Text 2010
The Imaginary Invalid, Rhetoric/Text 2008
Importance of Being Earnest, Rhetoric/Text 2007
Hungry Woman, Directing/Text 2007
House of Desires, Rhetoric/Text 2006
Life is a Dream, Text/Movement 2005
Curse of the Starving Class, Performance 2004