Robert Chapel

Chair
Fine and Performing Arts Planning Commission

Robert Chapel has been professor of drama and has chaired the Department of Drama at the University of Virginia since 1990.

Mr. Chapel has directed or acted in more than 140 theatrical productions in New York, Los Angeles, regional, and university theatre. Since 1995, he has served as producing artistic director for the Heritage Repertory Theatre and since 1987 has served as one of its principal stage directors.

Prior to joining the University's faculty, he taught and/or directed at San Diego State University (where he received an outstanding teaching award), New York University's Tisch School of the Arts, and the University of Michigan, California Institute of the Arts, and the University of Alabama. While in New York he created and produced, with Brooks McNamara, a series of shows out of the Shubert Archive, culminating in Shubert Alley, which was presented at the Players Club and at the "Performathon" at Lincoln Center.

In addition, Mr. Chapel has served as artistic director of Music Theatre North in Potsdam, New York. During an eight-year residence in Los Angeles, he served as vice president for a Los Angeles-based film company, assisting in the production of three feature films shot in Australia, Canada, New York, and Los Angeles. During that time, he also received the Drama-Logue Award for directing Genet's The Balcony at the Company of Angels theatre. While in Los Angeles and New York, he also acted in a number of films, prime-time television programs and commercials. He is a member of SSDC, AEA, SAG, AFTRA, ATHE, and SETC.

Charlottesville productions of note include: King Lear, Sweeney Todd, Always…, Patsy Cline, Into the Woods, Falsettos, Guys and Dolls, The Taffetas, Man of La Mancha, Forever Plaid, Jacques Brel…, Lady Day at Emerson's Bar and Grill, How the Other Half Loves, The Dining Room, Broadway Bound, I'm not Rappaport, Fiddler on the Roof, Hair, and Cabaret. One of the things he is most proud of since coming to UVA is the creation of the Arts Dollars/Student Fee Program. His biography is included in Who's Who In America.

Mr. Chapel is a graduate of the University of Michigan where he earned a B.A.,
an M.A. in theater, and a Ph.D. in theater. His wife, Maria, is a graduate of Drexel University in Philadelphia. Before moving to Charlottesville she was a fashion
designer in New York City for fifteen years.


Contact information: Robert Chapel, Drama Building, Culbreth Road, Charlottesville, VA 22903; 804/924-3327 (voice); 804/924-1447 (fax).