Jeanne Klein

Jeanne Klein has been associated with the theatre department since 1984.  She tought courses in theatre for young audiences (TYA), elementary and secondary theatre education, child media psychology, and US theatre history.  She was named one of five finalists for the senior class H.O.P.E. teaching award in 2012.

As a nationally recognized Winifred Ward Scholar (1985), her inter-disciplinary research in childhood studies has been published in book chapters and numerous articles in various journals.  She has also directed over fifty productions for and with young people of all ages in a wide range of theatrical styles.  Her reception studies with child audiences earned awards from the American Alliance for Theatre and Education and a grant from the Children’s Theatre Foundation of America, as well as recognition at the Netherlands Theatre Institute in Amsterdam.  As a US member of ASSITEJ (TYA/USA), she has attended many international theatre festivals for young audiences across the US, as well as Canada, France, the Netherlands, Japan, Australia, Denmark, and Sweden.  Given her international and national reputation, TYA colleagues, graduate students, and publishers frequently call upon her expertise.

Before coming to KU, she taught and directed productions at Ohio Northern University, Gladwin High School, and several summer youth theatre camps in Michigan, having earned theatre degrees from Michigan State University (M.A. 1981) and Western Michigan University (B.A. 1974).