Ashland Center for Theatre Studies

Theatre Teacher Training Faculty

Sean O'Skea

Technical Direction/Production Management for Master of Theatre Studies

Sean O'Skea, Associate Professor of Scenic Design for Southern Oregon University, has been privileged to work in theatre in New York and the Northwest for the past dozen years. Prior to coming to SOU, he served on the faculty of Alfred University in upstate New York and Concordia University--Portland. Outside of academia, Sean has designed for Third Rail Rep, Broadway Rose Musical Theater, Tyger's Heart Shakespeare, Capitol Playhouse, The Kavinoky Theater, among others. He is also a summer program instructor for the famous Cobalt Studios in New York. Although primarily a scenic designer, Sean has also designed light, sound, and costumes. Serving as technical director at Concordia and Alfred, Sean has personally built much of what he has designed and has considerable carpentry and scene painting experience. Sean received his MFA in Design from the University of Portland in 2002. He also has a Masters in Historic Preservation from Ball State University.

What our students say:

• "Sean has lots of good advice for those of us in the trenches of the scene shop and some great ideas about useful tricks on stage. I know we all came away with some specific things to use."
• "An engaging, interesting instructor. Sean has a clear way of presenting material and instructions that made the experience of learning so many new things a lot easier and more enjoyable."
• "Sean is extremely knowledgeable, a great intellect, and excellent designer. He is always massively prepared and packs a ton of information in a short amount of time"

Sean teaches drafting, technical direction and production management for the Master of Theatre Studies Program.  Due to popular demand, Sean will teach the elective course Scene Painting Intensive again in 2012.

View photographs of Sean's scenic designs at his website.