Jim Volz: About the Artist

Click here to listen to his interview.

JIM VOLZ is an international arts consultant, author, producer and professor at California State University, Fullerton. He has produced over 100 professional productions, consulted with over 100 companies, and published more than 100 articles and books on management, arts criticism, Shakespeare and theatre.

Jim is President of CONSULTANTS FOR THE ARTS, an international arts consulting service that works with a revolving team of highly qualified theatre professionals contracted to bring their specific area of expertise to each project. In recognition of his assistance to Shakespeare companies worldwide, Dr. Volz was presented with the prestigious international Burbage Award from Virginia’s American Shakespeare Center in 2011.

Jim served as a longtime critic/columnist for both New York’s Back Stage and Hollywood’s Drama-Logue and has published in American Theatre, Horizon Magazine, Equity News, SSD&C Journal, Theatre Management Journal, Oxford University Press’ Theatre Research International and in a myriad of other international publications. He has been the editor of the Shakespeare Theatre Association’s international publication, quarto, since 1991. He is the author/editor of nine books including Working in American Theatre, The Back Stage Guide to Working in Regional Theatre, How to Run a Theater and Shakespeare Never Slept Here. Buffett and the Bard, edited with Cindy Melby Phaneuf and Shakespeare Around the World with Evelyn Carol Case are works in progress.

Jim is Past President of the National Theatre Conference, a member of the American Theatre Critics Association and a longtime voting member for the prestigious Tony Award’s Regional Theatre Award.  The Alabama Shakespeare Festival‘s Board of Trustees recruited Jim to spearhead the ASF’s historic expansion from a small summer operation in Anniston, Alabama, to the world’s 5^th largest Shakespeare Festival in Montgomery, Alabama. From 1982-1991, Jim orchestrated the tremendous growth of the Alabama Shakespeare Festival as Managing Director in partnership with Artistic Directors Martin L. Platt and Kent Thompson.

Devoted to arts education, Dr. Volz has taught at over a dozen universities, administered MFA programs in acting, stage management, and arts administration and served as Head of the BFA in Arts Administration program and acting Chairman of the Department of Theatre and Dance at Wright State University. He is a Ph.D. graduate from the University of Colorado, Boulder and has been a professor at California State University, Fullerton since 1991. Jim is married to professional actress and award-winning educator Evelyn Carol Case. As a writing team, they edited Words for Lovers: Snippets from William Shakespeare.