Dr. Dorothy J. Holland

Dorothy Holland is Associate Professor of Theatre and  Women, Gender & Sexuality Studies. Dr. Holland teaches a range of courses: Production Studies, Theatre History, Advanced Acting, Physical Theatre, Staging Gender, and First Year Seminars.  Her research explores the intersections of performance, feminist theory, critical race studies, and contemporary theatre practice. 

Holland has been a professional actor and director for over 40 years; she has performed leading roles on Broadway, Off-Broadway, in national tours, and in regional theatres throughout the country.  Since she came to the University of Richmond in 1999, Holland has directed a twenty main-stage productions, including Appropriate (Branded Jacobs-Jenkins); Caroline, or Change (Tony Kushner & Jeanine Tesori);  Top Girls (Caryl Churchill); The Resistible Rise of Arturo Ui (Brecht); Spring Awakening (Sater & Shiek);  Love and Information (Caryl Churchill);  All My Sons (Arthur Miller); How I Learned to Drive (Paula Vogel); Mother Courage and Her Children (Bertolt Brecht);  The Skin of Our Teeth (Thornton Wilder); The Madwoman of Chaillot (Giraudoux), Trojan Women: A Love Story (Charles Mee); and Rent (Jonathan Larson).  She has alos   performed leading roles in several local productions: Prospero in The Tempest;  Emily Stilson in Arthur Kopit's Wings; Evelyn in Tales of the Lost Formicans; Ionesco’s The Chairs; and three productions with Barksdale Theatre: The Laramie Project, The Exact Center of the Universe, and the premier of Alex Finlayson's Misfits.  Dorothy trained with Uta Hagen at HB Studio in New York, and Physical Theatre training with Marcello Magni and Stefan Metz (Complicite).