The Florida Project

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Board of Emeritus-Gil Lazier

Dr. Gil Lazier has been Dean of the Florida State University School of Theatre since 1982 and a member of the faculty since 1970. Under his leadership, the FSU School of Theatre has achieved international prominence as an academic program of the highest excellence, consistently in top-ten listings by such publications as US News & World Report. The School operates two separate campuses in Tallahassee and Sarasota, six theatres, a unique curriculum in London, and has affiliations with some of the leading theatre artists and schools throughout the world.

Dean Lazier has served his profession in leadership roles for many years. For example, he is Past President of the Association for Theatre in Higher Education and served on its Board of Governors for nine years. ATHE is the largest national association for professors, students, artists and administrators in theatre in America. He is Past Vice President of the International Theatre Institute/US and member of the Education Committee of ITI Worldwide, an association begun by UNESCO with over 80 member counties. He has served as a Commissioner for the Association of Schools of Theatre, the national accrediting body for theatre in higher education, and is a frequent adjudicator and consultant for that organization.

Dr. Lazier is an acknowledged expert in research and creativity in his discipline. He was a pioneer in the application of systematic research techniques to the theatre and children’s behavior, leading a team of researchers from FSU and Columbia University in the creation of the Inventory of Dramatic Behavior, one of the first and most useful empirical measures of dramatic behavior available to the field. This work led to many influential publications in leading journals and consultancies for HEW, NIE, the Aspen Institute for Humanistic Studies, and the JDR III Fund. As a theatre artist, Dean Lazier had directed dozens of productions, including world premieres, in New York, Florida, and even in Russia. He has acted in plays at FSU, in feature films, and on network television.

Dean Lazier has been honored by Florida State University and the State of Florida for his excellence in teaching, research, and service. He is the recipient of the FSU Provost Award for Distinction in Teaching; the FSU Ross Oglesby Award for Leadership, Scholarship and Service; and the Distinguished Career Award by the Florida Theatre Conference, the major state theatre association.

Dean Lazier’s dedication to establishing direct ties between his School and leading teachers and artists of other countries has created a global environment for his students. He pioneered in the creation of the first articulated agreement between an American theatre education program and the great Moscow Art Theatre and School. This agreement facilitated the exchange of eighty Russian and American students and twelve faculty over three years. Lazier also created the London Theatre Experience; a unique semester of study for highly qualified students who work directly with leading artists and teachers of the British stage. This program is integrated into the required curriculum of the FSU graduate actor-training degree, offered in cooperation with the Asolo Theatre Company of Sarasota, a leading regional professional theatre under Lazier’s aegis as Dean of the FSU Theatre School.

Dr. Lazier developed the Hoffman Eminent Scholar Chair in Theatre at Florida State in 1985; a million-dollar endowment to bring internationally acclaimed theatre professionals to the University for short teaching sequences. The Hoffman Chair was the first rotating Eminent Scholar professorship in the State System. This Chair has created a legacy for American theatre training. As occupants, such acclaimed artists as Joseph Papp, Roger Rees, Richard Schechner, Desmond Heeley, Aleksandr Galin, Helen Krich Chinoy, Lloyd Richards and Ann Reinking have applied their gifts to the teaching of students of the theatre at Florida State.

For these and other career achievements, Dean Gil Lazier was awarded the two highest honors in his discipline, election for life to the College of Fellows of the American Theatre, comparable in theatre to the National Academy of Science; and the National Theatre Conference, limited to 100 acknowledged leaders in theatre in America.