Directory

Allison Hetzel, Professor of Voice and Acting, teaches acting, voice, and speech courses in the undergraduate and graduate theatre programs. Her recent solo performance project, which she wrote and performed,  Step Mama Drama, has been a part of the 2019 United Solo Festival in New York City, Off-Broadway at Theatre Row, and was nominated for a Critic’s Choice Award by All About Solo. Allison also performed Step Mama Drama at the 2018 Edinburgh Festival Fringe in Scotland at the Spaces on the Mile festival venue. Allison was invited to perform a selection of Step Mama Drama in Chicago, Illinois, as part of the Identity Cabaret in the early stages of creating the show in 2016 on the DePaul University Campus.

On-campus she played the role of Toni in Appropriate at UA in the fall of 2016. In London, she also performed multiple roles in “Cross-Cultural Archetype Explorations” at the Royal Central School of Speech and Drama (2014).  She is certified as a Master Teacher of Archetypes for Actors, actingandsingingwitharchetypes.org/master-teachers/ (2015) and an Associate Teacher of Fitzmaurice Voicework (2008).  See www.fitzmauriceinstitute.org

Allison was one of the vocal coaches for the 2011 summer season at the Colorado Shakespeare Festival in Boulder, Colorado.  Allison wrote and performed a one-woman show based on the life and work of Georgia O’Keeffe, titled Considering Georgia O’Keeffe, which she performed in August 2009 and 2010 Edinburgh Fringe Festival as well as the East to Edinburgh Festival of 2010 in New York City at the 59 East 59^th Street Theatres. A selection from this solo work will be performed by Allison at the upcoming 2022 Women in the History Showcase in Chattanooga, TN, as part of the Tennessee Arts Collective. www.tnarts.org/womeninhistory

Allison has also collaborated with colleague Sarah M. Barry in creating and performing a text-based theatre dance piece that premiered in Biel, Switzerland, at the 46th International Choreographers’ Showcase.  Allison is the Voice, Speech, and Text coach for UA theatre productions.  Some past projects include Hell: Paradise Found, The Time of Your Life, Henry V, The Playboy of the Western World, and Blithe Spirit.  Additionally, she also vocal coaches for the on-air voices of Alabama Public Radio. Allison received her MFA in Voice and Acting Pedagogy from Virginia Commonwealth University, where she studied voice and speech with Janet Rodgers.  Before her graduate work, Allison performed at the following theatres in Chicago, IL: Organic Theatre, Ivanhoe, Factory, and The Theatre Building.  She has studied Classical Greek theatre with the Athens Centre of Greece, where she performed in a touring production of The Trojan Women.  She also performed in Darkly Beautiful at the 2002 International Theatre Festival of Sibiu, Romania, where she worked with the DAH Theatre Company of Yugoslavia.  Allison has led voice and acting workshops in Georgia, Illinois, Louisiana, Tennessee, Virginia, Wisconsin, and Scotland.  She is a member of the Voice and Speech Trainers Association (VASTA) and has served locally as a teacher and volunteer for Arts in Autism.