Skip navigation
Eric Harrell, MFA
Professor, Performing Arts & MusicTheatre Program Coordinator757.352.4211

Eric Harrell, MFA

Bio

Eric Harrell is the founding Producing Artistic Director of Tidewater Stage, the professional theatre company of Regent University. Prior to founding Tidewater Stage, he served as the chair of the Department of Theatre Arts and head of the MFA Program in Acting. He is an associate professor specializing in integrated voice and movement training for actors. Advocating a psycho-physical approach to the acting process, he draws from such contemporary methodologies as the Linklater and Alexander Techniques and the Lugering Method.

Harrell maintains an active profile as a professional actor, director and occasional playwright. He is a member of both Actors Equity Association and SAG-AFTRA with professional credits in theatre, film and television. As a director, he enjoys working in contemporary literature, musical theatre and Comedy of Manners. He regularly teaches workshops across the country in kinesthetic awareness for both professional and student actors. At Regent, he teaches a four-semester voice and movement studio for MFA actors as well as Advanced Scene Study: Major Playwrights of the 20th Century and Acting in Periods and Styles.
Professor Harrell is a Texas native now living in Norfolk, VA with his wife and two children.

Credentials

B.A. Abilene Christian University, 1995; MFA University of Nebraska-Lincoln, 1998

Publications

CREATIVE WORKS:
Director, 1619: When Destinies Collide, GVI Productions, Virginia Beach Oceanfront, 2018

Director, Dial M for Murder, Tidewater Stage, Virginia Beach, VA, 2018

Director, The Telling Project, Virginia Arts Festival, Zeiders American Dream Theatre, Virginia Beach, VA, 2017

Actor (SAG), In-Lawfully Yours (“Jim Newford”), Home Theatre Films/Regent Pictures, 2016

Actor (AEA), The Hampton Years (“Malcolm MacLean”), Virginia Stage Company, Norfolk, VA, 2016

Actor (SAG), Legends & Lies: Patriots, (“John Paulding”), Fox News Channel, 2016

Actor (AEA), All My Sons (“George Deever”), Virginia Stage Company, Norfolk, VA, 2016

Actor (AEA), An Inch of Rope, original solo performance piece, Water Tower Theatre, Dallas, TX

Actor (AEA), The Foreigner (“David Lee”), Tidewater Regional Repertory Theatre, Newport News, VA

Actor (AEA), Indiscretions (“Michael”), Knightsbridge Theatre, Los Angeles, CA

ACADEMIC PRESENTATIONS:
“From Disparate to Indivisible: The Integration of Contemporary Actor Training,” Mid-America Theatre Conference, 2017

Actor-Dramatist’s Lab, Playwriting Symposium, Mid-America Theatre Conference, 2017

“The Actor’s Barre,” Virginia Theatre Association, 2015

“Thinking Knees and Laughing Fingers,” Virginia Theatre Association, 2014

“The Kinesthetic Actor: Integrating Mind, Breath and Body,” Southeastern Theatre Conference, 2013

“Quo Vadis: A Panel Discussion,” Southeastern Theatre Conference,2013

Affiliations

Actors Equity Association
Screen Actors Guild-American Federation of Television and Radio Artists
Southeastern Theatre Conference
Virginia Theatre Association

Awards

Faculty Award for Excellence in Teaching, Regent University, 2015

Certificate of Merit for Outstanding Direction, American College Theatre Festival