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Shannon (April) Sweeney
Professor of Theater; Chair, Department of Theater
Department/Office Information
TheaterApril Sweeney is an actor and theater maker originally from Dallas, Texas. She holds a bachelor of fine arts in acting from Marymount Manhattan College and a master of fine arts in acting from Columbia University. She has performed internationally in theaters and festivals in Argentina, Belgium, Bolivia, Colombia, Costa Rica, France, Ireland, and Hungary. In the United States she has performed in regional theater, a national tour, off-Broadway and downtown New York theater over the past decade.
Ms. Sweeney has taught a number of master classes and workshops throughout Bolivia and Argentina while in residency with Laboratorio Teatral Willaldea. Directing credits include: Fauna (Torn Page, NYC); Avalon (co-director, Stonington Opera House, ME); MEDEA and Admissions (COLD READ, Syracuse Stage); She, and the Empty Living Room (undergroundzero festival, NYC); Atardecer 43 (Teatro Comunitaria Villa Traful, Argentina); A Short Play for 3 Spanish Speaking Actresses Stuck in a Cherry Orchard and Contemplations on a 4 Minute Macbeth at (Laboratorio Teatral WILLALDEA, Argentina); and PMURT a performance lecture by Kevin Doyle (Vooruit, Ghent, Belgium).
At IJʿ Erin Courtney's Map of Virtue, Federico León's 1500 Meter's Above Jack's Level, Melody Bates' R & J & Z, Clare Barron's Dance Nation and Antigone. She has also developed several TYA works PUNCHjudyJUDYpunch, They Say Her Name is Alice, Wald, a wondertale , and an adaptation of Kate DiCamillio's Flora and Ulysses.
Projects in development include a 4 episode trans-media, performance member entitled I DIGRESS: The Intimate Insights of a Childhood Weirdo by Sauda Jackson, Expanse of the Hudson River as Painted by Thomas Cole (an adaptation of Djuna Barnes' first novel Ryder), and a festival of works by Romina Paula.