Michelle Bellaver is an Assistant Professor in Acting and Directing in the Department
of Theatre and Dance at the Fresno State University. She is a director, actor, and
writer working in theatre and film. She is a company member of the Hippodrome Theatre
and has produced the Hippodrome’s New Works Festival since 2020. Her research interests include The Female Gaze, Polyvagal Theory, Neurodivergent
Performers, Lessac BodyVoice, and Ethics of Care. Professor Bellaver investigates
the use of cinematic elements and film projections on stage as seen in her recent
productions of Dryland (The Hippodrome Theatre) and Marie Antoinette (Barry University) where she directed greenscreen film and curated “found” cinema
footage to explore the interiority of character. She wrote and directed the experimental
feature film Saint: 5 Etudes for Joan of Arc, which explored new filmic language theory around The Female Gaze and the development
of on-set techniques using ‘the feeling camera’. Other directing credits include Antigone, The Pliant Girls, Bionic, A Cardboard Moon, Winston Drives Big Jim, Tartuffe,and The Glass Menagerie. Michelle’s acting has been seen at La MaMa, Long Island Performing Arts Center, The
Hippodrome Theatre, Nuance Theatre Company, Word for Word/ZSpace, and the Renegade
Theatre Experiment. Some of her film roles have streamed on Amazon Prime and Apple
TV+. She is a member of SAG-AFTRA and Actors’ Equity Association. Michelle has been an
Artist-in-Residence in playwrighting at The Tank NYC, where she directed and co-wrote
the play Bad Egg, a contemporary, verse adaptation of Shakespeare’s Hamlet which also received readings, development workshops and works-in-progress showings
at the Purple Rose Theatre Company and Dixon Place. Michelle's short story writing
can be found in the Canadian literary journal The Windsor Review: International Journal(2008). She was a Founder and Co-Artistic Director of Cyclops Theatre Company in New
York City and the Director of Education at the Town Hall Theatre Company in Lafayette,
California. She has taught at University of Florida, Barry University, Jacksonville
State University and Borough of Manhattan Community College. She has served as the
Chair of the Faculty Creative Critique Circle at JSU (2019-2020) and on the faculty
cohort for the BMCC Equity and Digital Learning Project. She is the recipient of the University of Florida’s College of the Arts 2023-24
and 2022-2023 Research Incentive Awards for Visiting Faculty and she received the
Jacksonville State University’s “Seek a Useful Life” Teaching award in 2020. She received
her MFA in Acting from the University of Florida and her undergraduate degree in theatre
from San Francisco State University. She has trained with the National Michael Chekhov
Association and is a Certified Teacher with the Lessac International Training and
Research Institute and a Registered Somatic Movement Educator with ISMETA.
