chappell@chapman.eduMoulton Hall 210Drew Chappell is an instructional assistant professor in Theatre, where he teaches foundational courses as well as Theatre for Social Change, Theory and Criticism, and a First Year Foundations Course in Fantasy and Science Fiction. He is an avid traveler, who has visited cultures on five continents and studied their performance traditions and techniques. He believes a global approach to theatre studies reveals the multilayered story of theatre's development and the universality of the play impulse.

Dr. Chappell earned his BA in history from UC San Diego and then shifted his focus to theatre for graduate study. He earned his MFA in Applied Theatre and Theatre for Youth from the University of Texas at Austin and his PhD in Theatre from Arizona State University.

His research interests are in the areas of social justice through the arts, play as performance, and curriculum development. His two published books are Children Under Construction: Critical Essays on Play as Curriculum (Peter Lang) and Play, Performance, and Identity: How Institutions Structure Ludic Spaces (Routledge). He has written articles on topics such as the Federal Theatre Project, photography as research method, and board and card games as social and ideological acts of transfer. Dr. Chappell’s creative/practice interests are in new play development and theatre education. Highlights from his playwriting include a performance at the Kennedy Center and commissions from Utah Valley University.

Dr. Chappell’s creative/practice interests are in new play development and theatre education. Highlights from his playwriting include a performance at the Kennedy Center and commissions from Utah Valley University. Dr. Chappell has also taught educational theatre residencies at all levels K-12 including on a Pima reservation in Arizona, as well as serving as director of a summer theatre camp for a professional theatre.pr@chapman.educhappell@chapman.edu(714) 628-7330https://poweredbyplay.podbean.com/