Cliff Odle

New Jersey native Cliff Odle teaches acting and directing in the School of Drama. He has directed plays including “Amadeus,” “Agnes of God,” “Yellowface” and “The Colored Museum” for venues including Fresh Ink Theater, New Urban Theatre Lab, Wings Theater, UMass Boston Theater and Bates College. His acting resume is extensive with over 50 performances for a variety of productions for the Wheelock Family Theatre, The Huntington Theater Company, New Repertory Theatre, The GAMM Theatre and others. 

I don't feel that I am just teaching "acting," but I am trying to prepare the whole student to become an artist in an ever changing, volitile world. I feel that I am not just teaching skills, but teaching them tools that will help them thrive with their souls intact.

Credentials

• Former Assistant Professor of Beginning Acting and Playwriting, Bates College, 2017-22
• Former Lecturer of Topics – Politics and Contemporary Drama, Contemporary African and Caribbean Theatre, The Black Image in Stage and Screen, and Introduction to Acting I, University of Massachusttes Boston, 2011-17
• Former Lecturer of Playwriting Basics, Emerson College, 2010-12
• Other former teaching and lecturer positions include institutions such as Gamm Theatre, Theatre Espresso, Freedom Trail Foundation, Cambridge Arts Summer Camp, Drew University, San Diego Actor's Theatre Children's Classics, Boston University and Stony Hill Players

Career Highlights

• Held a variety of roles in the Boston-area debut of “Passing Strange,” “Race,” “Fences” and “The Color Purple.”
• Written works including “Lost Tempo,” “Our Girl in Trenton,” “Running the Bulls,” “The Petition,” and “Slammin’ the Bones.”
• Published works include "Motel Therapy" in "Boston Theater Marathon XII: 2010 Anthology" and several works for The Freedom Trail Foundation including "African American Religion in Early America" and "Black Jacks: African American Mariners in Early America"
• Founder of the annual Jersey Voices Play Festival at Chatham Players in New Jersey