August 18, 2014
Department of Theatre and Dance Associate Professor Lucien Douglas is among the twenty-seven University of Texas at Austin faculty members honored with the 2014 Regents' Outstanding Teaching Award, the UT System Board of Regents’ highest teaching distinction.
The award is considered among the nation’s largest cash prizes for higher education faculty members who exhibit outstanding classroom performance and innovation in undergraduate instruction.
Dr. Douglas has enjoyed an extensive career as an actor in professional theatre, film, and television. His work has received critical acclaim in The New York Times, Time Magazine, and Backstage. He has played over 100 roles, which include being featured on Broadway with Zoe Caldwell and Dame Judith Anderson in Medea; Off-Broadway at New York's Roundabout Theatre in Naked, Family Business, Candida, and Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead with John Rubinstein and John Wood; and at several regional theatres, including the Kennedy Center, Theatre Virginia, North Shore Music Theatre, and the Clarence Brown Company.
A consummate educator, Douglas is an avid supporter of high school theatre programs, He conducts annual workshops for approximately twenty-five Texas high school drama programs as they prepare for their University Interscholastic League One Act Play competitions.
“Lucien Douglas has dedicated his life and career to the teaching of acting. His extraordinary work as a classroom instructor has been recognized by the department, college, and now the university’s Board of Regents,” shares Department of Theatre and Dance Chair Brant Pope. “It is a powerful statement reaffirming that he is a master teacher of acting who is making a tremendous impact on our future artists.”
Established in 2008, the Regents’ Outstanding Teaching Awards program recognizes educators who demonstrate a clear commitment to teaching and sustained ability to deliver excellence to the undergraduate learning experience. A panel of students, peer faculty members and external reviewers evaluates the award nominees’ teaching performance over three years. Faculty members are considered through a rigorous process based on a range of activities and criteria that include expertise, curricula quality, innovative course development and student learning outcomes.
Past Department of Theatre and Dance recipients of the Regents’ Outstanding Teaching Award include Andrea Beckham, Charlotte Canning, Katie Dawson, Franchelle Dorn and Susan Mickey.