The University of Michigan School of Music, Theatre & Dance announces that Professor Jessica Boevers Bogart will join the faculty as assistant professor in the Department of Musical Theatre in fall 2023. Bogart is a theatrical director, actor, and teacher of many disciplines. In this role, she will teach Sophomore and Junior Performance, courses designed to help students strengthen individual and ensemble performance skills with increased emphasis on text analysis, collaborative work, and audition techniques.
“I am honored to join the esteemed University of Michigan Musical Theatre program. I look forward to creating an ideal landscape for discovery and metamorphoses for these exceptional students as they prepare to do their own transformative work to shape the future of American theatre,” said Bogart. “I am also thrilled to be supported by this energized artistic community as I work to create inspired and relevant stories in our current evolving theatrical world.”
Bogart served as an associate artistic director at Chicago’s Apple Tree Theatre and has directed award-winning regional theatre productions in Chicago, Raleigh, and New York. She has played leading roles on Broadway in Les Miserables, A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum, Rent, Oklahoma, Beauty & the Beast, Boeing Boeing, Brief Encounter, In My Life, and Dear Evan Hansen, and she performed with NYCO in A Little Night Music at Lincoln Center.
She has rehearsed and collaborated on creating new works with some of the most brilliant artists of our time, including Andy Blankenbuehler, Sam Mendes, Stephen Sondheim, Trevor Nunn, and Tina Landau. Additionally, she has shared the stage with greats like Mark Rylance, Zoe Caldwell, Jeremy Irons, Nathan Lane, and Whoopi Goldberg.
“We are delighted to welcome Professor Bogart, a seasoned Broadway actress turned musical theatre educator and scholar, to the musical theatre faculty,” said Linda Goodrich, interim chair and professor emerita of the Department of Musical Theatre. “With her brilliant stage career and exceptional academic credentials, she will surely inspire and empower the next generation of performers. Her unique blend of artistry and scholarship and her collaborative skills in creating curriculum and new works will not only enrich our department but bring fresh, innovative approaches to the ever-changing landscape of our industry.”
Bogart holds a BFA from the Cincinnati Conservatory of Music, where both she and her husband Matt Bogart have been honored as distinguished alumni, and an MA from New York University in educational theatre.