Melanie Stewart

Professor, Department Chair
(856) 256-4034
stewartm@rowan.edu
http://www.melaniestewart.org

Professor and Department Chair, Melanie Stewart is a 20 year veteran of the Department of Theatre and Dance at Rowan University. Throughout her tenure Stewart has actively linked her professional career as a performer, choreographer, director and producer of avant guarde dance theatre to her academic career as a teacher, mentor and now Chair of Theatre and Dance. Her recent works produced at Rowan include Kill Me Now: Rowan Edition (2012), Big Love (2011), The Last Days of Dr. Jekyll (2009), 4.48 Psychosis (2006), The Fantastic Return of the Fabulous Fable Factory (2005), The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe (2003), The Gathering (2001), The Snow Queen (2000), Cabaret (1999), Duke and Dance (1998), Petrushka (1996), and Lilith (1994). With her professional company, Melanie Stewart Dance Theatre, she produced the nEW Festival, a dance driven, artist fueled festival at The University of the Arts in Philadelphia. Recently she has been performing Babel, an original political satire developed with The Philadelphia Live Arts Festival and Peter Clerke, Director of the Scottish based Theatre Company Benchtours. She holds two degrees in Dance, a BA from Webster College and an MFA from Temple University. An active member of the national and international theatre dance community, Melanie serves on the Board of the Philadelphia Dance Coalition. Her awards include numerous fellowships for in dance, theatre and interdisciplinary work from the PA Council on the Arts and The National Endowment for the Arts. For her work at Rowan she has received awards for the productions of The Gathering and The Lion, the Witch and Wardrobe from the The Kennedy Center American College Theatre Festival. In 2003, she won the Outstanding Advisor Award from The Student Government Association.