Lori Adams lives a charmed life as Head of the Acting Program at Illinois State University. There are few things that bring her more joy than teaching students the art of acting. A veteran of the classroom, Professor Adams has taught at ISU since 1997 where she takes special pride in the fact that she develops a personal relationship with each one of the more than 100 acting students (all of which she will eventually teach in the classroom). Other opportunities to work one-on-one with students are provided through her advisement of FreeStage (student-producing theatre RSO), coaching of the highly-coveted Irene Ryan Acting Award competition for the Kennedy Center American College Theatre Festival (to which Lori has coached actors to the finals at the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C. on eleven different occasions), and co-direction of the Chicago Professional Agent and Casting Director Showcase for graduating students. In 2012, Professor Adams was awarded the Stan and Sandy Rives Excellence in Undergraduate Education Award that recognizes outstanding teaching and significant contribution to the undergraduate experience. As an actor, Adams has appeared in Richard II, Richard III, Macbeth, and Henry VIII for the Illinois Shakespeare Festival and as Fay in Iron; Susan in Woman In Mind; Patrice in A Fair Country; Agnes in Tiny Island and Maureen in The Beauty Queen of Leenane at Heartland Theatre Company. In 2003, she began successfully touring her one-woman show, Shame the Devil! An Audience with Fanny Kemble http://www.cfa.istu.edu/jmwilso4/ throughout the United States and Canada. Other acting credits include: Nebraska Repertory Theatre, Breadline Theatre Group, Actors Theatre of Phoenix, Actors Lab Arizona, Childsplay Inc., Mulebarn Theatre and the Stockyards Theatre Project. She appeared on the Travel Channel’s “Weird Travel – Haunted Campuses” as Ange Milner and credits include work in commercials, industrials, print ads and voiceovers. As a director, Adams’ production of Falling opened Off –Broadway in the fall of 2012. Uniformly acclaimed by New York critics, “Lori Adams, the director, has wrenched every ounce of juice from its reservoir of emotions, like water from a dish towel.” (Rex Reed; The Observer); “….the play packs a powerful punch. Superbly staged by Lori Adams and wonderfully acted….”Falling” soars.” (Frank Scheck; New York Post) the show garnered three Drama Desk nominations. Falling by Deanna Jent, originally produced at the Mustard Seed Theatre in St. Louis (also directed by Adams) was named the 2011 Kevin Kline Award winner of Outstanding New Play. Other Mustard Seed Theatre directing credits include the 2014 premiere of Human Terrain by Jennifer Blackmer and Fires In the Mirror in 2010. Lori is always excited to direct her students in productions at ISU which include: Pride and Prejudice, Dancing At Lughnasa, The Grapes of Wrath, Picnic, To Kill a Mockingbird, Tommy, Crimes of the Heart, Evita, A View From the Bridge, and The Diary of Anne Frank and this year’s production of One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest. Lori is a proud member of SDC (Stage Directors and Choreographers). A graduate of the University of Nebraska-Lincoln with an M.F.A. in acting, Lori has also taught at Illinois Wesleyan University and Arizona State University. The proud mother of Anna (a dancer) and Nathan (an actor), she spends whatever time she can in NYC where they both live.