William Grange is Hixson-Lied Professor of Theatre Arts in the Johnny Carson School. The author of six books, several essays, book chapters, journal articles, reviews, and encyclopedia entries, he was recently awarded the Distinguished Chair in Humanities and Cultural Studies at the University of Vienna. In Vienna he taught courses (in German) concentrating on American actors, actresses, and acting. He has taught similar courses in German at the University of Cologne, under the auspices of the German Fulbright Commission and the University of Cologne Senate. Dr. Grange has received research awards from the Deutscher Akademischer Austauschdienst (German Academic Exchange Service), the Harry Ransom Humanities Research Center at the University of Texas, the National Endowment for the Humanities in Washington, D.C., the Dorot Foundation in Providence, Rhode Island, the Mellon Foundation in New York City, the International Institute of Education, the Hixson-Lied Trust Endowment, the Jane Harrison Lyman Research Trust Fund, and several others. For his research efforts in 2008 he received the University of Nebraska Vice-Chancellor's Award for Research in the Humanities. Dr. Grange has also won awards for his teaching and his service to students, whom he teaches both academic and performance courses at the undergraduate and graduate levels. Dr. Grange has been an Equity actor for over thirty years, appearing in several professional productions throughout the United States, most recently as Caldwell B. Cladwell in the award-winning Broadway musical "Urinetown" at Lincoln's Haymarket Theatre. His other musical roles include Prof. Henry Higgins in "My Fair Lady" with Gwynne Geyer, Capt. von Trapp in "The Sound of Music" with Lindsey Alley, and El Gallo in "The Fantasticks!" He was a member of the original Light Opera of Manhattan company, appearing in numerous Gilbert and Sullivan productions while still a graduate student and has directed a number of musicals since then in student productions at colleges and universities. He was also a founding member of the Alabama Shakespeare Festival, playing Polonius in "Hamlet," Duncan in "Macbeth," Cleante in "Tartuffe," Amiens in "As You Like It," Leonato in "Much Ado About Nothing," and Balthasar in "Comedy of Errors." With student film directors in the Johnny Carson School he has played several oddball characters in their thesis films. They range from despondent police detectives to murderous CIA agents and philosophical fishermen. He has most frequently played dyspeptic professors in student films —although he can't quite figure out why students keep casting him in such roles. If you would like to receive copies of films in which he has appeared, he welcomes inquires by e-mail. His books are readily available on the "William Grange Page" of Amazon Books, http://www.amazon.com/William-Grange/e/B001HOH05G/ref=sr_tc_img_2_0.
