Richard Poole worked extensively in New York City as a director and teacher before joining the NIU faculty. He has coached actors in several award winning Broadway, Off-Broadway, and television productions. Professor Poole co-founded the Gately/ Poole Acting Studio in New York City with Kathryn Gately and was both its director and a master teacher for 14 years, overseeing its growth to over 250 students per year. Before joining Ms. Gately, he taught for several years at The American Academy of Dramatic Arts and Rutgers University. For 10 years in New York City, Professor Poole was the executive director for 42nd Street’s Nat Horne Theatre, home of three separate companies, and in that capacity was part of the development of Theatre Row. Before leaving New York , he was head of acting for the professional program at Primary Stages Theatre Co, and co-head of the Playwriting Unit with Arthur Giron. He was the co-founder of the c*rst professional television acting training program on the east coast. Professor Poole is also associated with New Dramatists in Chicago, with whom he and several Chicago playwrights workshopped new plays in the acting classrooms at Northern. He has taught and coached actors in New York, Chicago, and Los Angeles and has given master classes in Meisner technique at the Gaiety School of Acting and the Abbey Theatre in Dublin, Ireland. He was a member of the acting faculty at Interlochen Center for the Arts, and from 2002 – 4, he was the artistic director of an Equity Theatre, The Barnstormers, in Tamworth, New Hampshire.