D. Lance Marsh
Professor of Acting and Head of Performance
Theatre
Theatre - Performance
Biography
D. Lance Marsh serves as Head of Performance and as a Professor in the School of Theatre where he teaches many of the upper division acting courses, including Chekhov, Shakespeare, Greek Tragedy, Audition Techniques and Comedy. Lance was the 2015 recipient of the Oklahoma City University Outstanding Faculty Award. He directed Cosi, which was a Region VI Finalist production in the Kennedy Center American College Theatre Festival, and was nominated (one of only 17 shows in the country) to go to the Kennedy Center. For the company, he has also directed Man and Superman, Twelfth Night, Pride and Prejudice, The Importance of Being Earnest(twice — once as a co-production with Oklahoma Shakespeare in the Park and Oklahoma City Rep), Three Sisters, Uncle Vanya, Hamlet, Dancing at Lughnasa, The Trojan Women (which he also adapted), A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Othello, The Merchant of Venice (a co-production with Oklahoma Shakespeare in the Park) and The House of Atreus, a massive four-play Greek tragic saga, for which Professor Marsh also did the adaptation. The Company also produced his adaptation of Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol recently.
Lance also serves as the Associate Artistic Director for Oklahoma Shakespeare in the Park (where he directed Misalliance and acted in Hamlet in 2009 and directed A Comedy of Errors in 2010,The Seagull in 2011, Othello in 2012, Measure for Measure in 2013, Macbeth in 2014, and G.B. Shaw’s You Never Can Tell this summer. He recently acted in the Oklahoma City Theatre Company production of A Streetcar Named Desire as Mitch.
Before coming to OCU, Lance taught at the Professional Actor Training Program at the University of Arizona, as well as at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, and at the University of Wisconsin-Baraboo/Sauk County. He holds a BFA in Theatre (Acting) from Stephens College and an MFA in Acting from UW-Madison. He was a founding company member of the Central Works Theatre Ensemble in California, and the founding Artistic Director of the Summerset Theatre in Wisconsin.
Before becoming a teacher, Lance spent over fifteen years as a professional actor, primarily performing in classical plays. He has appeared at the Berkeley Repertory Theatre, the Western Stage, the California Shakespeare Festival, the Okoboji Summer Theatre, Next Act Theatre, First Stage Children’s Theatre, the Milwaukee Chamber Theatre, the Wisconsin Shakespeare Festival, the Milwaukee Shakespeare Company, the Texas Shakespeare Festival, and the Arizona Repertory Theatre and was a company member for 5 years at American Players Theatre. A proud member of Actors Equity and an Associate Artist at Oklahoma City Rep, he recently he has performed in the City Rep productions of Our Town, Hay Fever, Moonlight and Magnolias, August: Osage County, Much Ado About Nothing, and as Mark Rothko in Red. He is currently in the cast of Peter and the Starcatcher, a co-production between TheatreOCU and City Rep. He has directed professionally in California, Missouri, Iowa, Arizona and Wisconsin and directed The Glass Menagerie for City Rep a few years ago.
