School of Theatre Arts and Dance
College of Performing and Visual Arts
Rand holds a PhD in Theatre Studies from the University of Colorado at Boulder and a Master of Fine Arts in Theatre Directing from The University of Texas at Austin.
Rand Harmon is a theatre director, producer, educator, and a creative entrepreneur.
Dr. Harmon is the co-founder and Co-Director, with Dr. Sarah Off, of the Northern
Colorado Center for Arts Entrepreneurship. Dr. Harmon founded and has produced UNC’s
StART Student Arts Salons from 2016-2020. For the 2022-2023 StART Salons, Dr. Off joined him as co-producer.
In October 2022, Drs. Harmon and Off inaugurated the Center for Arts Entrepreneurship’s
Day of Art, featuring student performance and visual art at five venues around campus
and downtown Greeley.
At the University of Northern Colorado, Dr. Harmon has directed The Crucible, These Shining Lives, Pérdida, The Laramie Project, and Macbeth. Other professional directing credits: James and the Giant Peach (Phamaly Theatre Company, Denver), The Tempest (Colorado Shakespeare Festival Anti-bullying Initiative Tour 2013), Noises Off! (CU Boulder), Elevator Plays, Elevator Plays 2: Beyond the Norm!, Elevator Plays3, Macbeth, The Most Beautiful Lullaby You’ve Ever Heard, Marco Polo and InterLifeChangeCycle (all site-specific productions for Specific Gravity Ensemble, Louisville, KY), The Tragedy ofJulius Caesar, Noises Off! and Sweet Bird of Youth (Indiana University Southeast), Twelfth Night (Public Theatre of Kentucky, Bowling Green, KY), Ham Macbeth and The Ding Dongs; Or What is the Penalty in Portugal? (Square Product Theatre, Boulder), and I Am My Own Wife (Pandora Productions, Louisville, KY).
For UNC, Dr. Harmon primarily teaches THEA240 Beginning Directing, THEA 440 Directing the One-Act Play, THEA241 Theatre Management, THEA454 Senior Seminar, and PVA 210 Introduction to Arts Entrepreneurship. At UNC Dr. Harmon has also taught THEA 110 Performance in a Theatre Production, THEA 135 Playscript Analysis, THEA 160 Beginning Acting, THEA 260 Scene Study, THEA324 Masterpieces of Drama, and THEA340 Workshop in Directing. Prior to his arrival at UNC in Fall 2013, Dr. Harmon held teaching positions at the University of Colorado Boulder, and Indiana University Southeast.
Rand was the founding Artistic Director of site-specific theatre company Specific Gravity Ensemble, in Louisville, KY, and the original creator of Specific Gravity's signature events Elevator Plays, Elevator Plays 2: Beyond the Norm!, and Elevator Plays3.
Prior to his career as a university professor, Rand Harmon worked in the professional theatre and performing arts presenting industries. He served as Executive Director at the Spencer Theatre for the Performing Arts, and the Waco Hippodrome, and as the Special Assistant for Programming to the Executive Director of the University of Texas at Austin Performing Arts Center. From 2002-2005 Rand Harmon was a Member Consultant for the Kentucky Peer Advisory of the Kentucky State Arts Council. Rand Harmon has also worked as the Executive Producer of JAMFEST a 3-day/50 band music festival in Louisville, KY, and the Director of the Applied Role-play Training Ensemble at Blue Apple Players, providing field training to social workers around the state of Kentucky. Rand Harmon also held various production positions at the Colorado Shakespeare Festival, the Alley Theatre, Actor’s Theatre of Louisville, The Old Globe Theatre, the La Jolla Playhouse, and the Birmingham Theater.
Dr. Harmon maintains memberships in the American Society for Theatre Research, the Association for Theatre in Higher Education, and the Society for Arts Entrepreneurship Education. He also serves on the editorial board of the Journal for Arts Entrepreneurship Education.
Rand's academic and research interests focus primarily on the theory, practice and history of site-based and immersive theatre, theatre entrepreneurship and management, directorial and collaborative conceptualization, and contemporary Shakespearean production.
Rand's doctoral dissertation is titled "Site-based Theatre of 21st Century Great Britain: Conceptualizing Audience Experience," which identifies and investigates conceptual methods employed by seven leading creators of noted site-based theatre works in England, Scotland and Wales over the past decade. Rand's article "Hamlet on Alcatraz: A Journey Into the Power of Sacred Space" was featured in the Winter 2013 issue of Ecumenica Journal. Rand's review, "Red Earth's CHALK: Exploring Heritage and Myth through Ritual Performance of Place" was featured in Unstructured.5 Extra, a British on-line Art journal. He co-authored a one-act play with his wife Barb Harmon, "InterLifeChangeCycle (a play for site-specific performance)," published in the 2010 issue of Palimpsest; A Creative Journal of the Humanities.
Rand's site-specific work with Specific Gravity Ensemble (SGE) was featured in David Wohl's article "Site-Specific Theatre" in the Spring 2014 issue of Southern Theatre.
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