Jerald C. Schwiebert

1951-2023

Jerald “Jerry” Schwiebert, clinical assistant professor emeritus of performing arts (theatre & drama), passed away on August 14, 2023, following a decade-long battle with cancer. Schwiebert joined SMTD in 1990 as assistant professor and was appointed clinical assistant professor in 1998, retiring in 2014. An innovative teacher and charismatic mentor, he developed movement courses that sought to address the physical demands of acting, eliminate tension by making the body movement patterns more efficient, and increase the student actor’s capacity for expression. His interdisciplinary work explored the fundamentals of anatomy and physiology, developed exercises to refine neuromuscular patterns, utilized digital analysis, and drew inspiration from the Alexander technique, the Feldenkrais technique, Laban movement training, and Tai Chi.

An Ohio native, Schwiebert earned a specialized BA degree in theatrical arts and production at the University of Toledo, and he went on to work as an assistant film editor in New York. He was then named director of the Toledo Public Arts Center, where he oversaw the design and construction of a theatre. After earning his MFA in the graduate directing program at the University of California, San Diego, he began his academic career, which included positions at Hillsdale College, Michigan Technological University, the University of Toledo, and Southern Methodist University. In 2011, the University of Michigan Press published his first book, written with Candace Platt, titled Physical Expression and the Performing Artist: Moving Beyond the Plateau. It was followed by Expressive Conducting: Movement and Performance Theory for Conductors, written with Dustin Barr, published in 2017. At SMTD, Schwiebert directed a number of Department of Theatre & Drama fully staged productions, including Arthur Miller’s The Crucible, Thornton Wilder’s Our Town, and John Cariani’s Almost, Maine. He also directed productions at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe, the Syracuse Opera, and the Intiman Theatre at Seattle Central College.

Chris Peluso

1983-2023

A graduate of the Department of Musical Theatre who enjoyed a prolific stage career, Chris Anthony Peluso Jr. (BFA ’14, musical theatre), died suddenly on August 14, 2023, at age 40. In an announcement about his death, Linda Goodrich, interim chair of the Department of Musical Theatre, said, “The Michigan Musical Theatre family is heartbroken as we announce the passing of our dear family member/alum, the loving, charismatic, and divinely gifted Chris Peluso.… Our hearts go out to his family.” Peluso’s death came a year after he publicly shared that he had “stepped away from theatre work to seek treatment for a schizoaffective disorder.” At the time, Peluso said he hoped that his transparency about his condition might help “bring some awareness to how so many suffer from mental illness in silence.”

Peluso’s Broadway career began soon after graduating when he understudied the role of Balladeer in the Roundabout Theatre’s revival of Assassins (2004). He went on to understudy leading roles in Lestat (2006), Beautiful: The Carole King Musical, and Off-Broadway’s The Glorious Ones (2007). He starred as Sky in Broadway’s Mamma Mia! (2008) and performed in both the first (2005) and second (2009) national tours of Wicked, playing the replacement Fiyero in the second tour. In more recent years, Peluso enjoyed great success in London’s West End, starring in Miss Saigon (2015), Show Boat (2016), The Woman in White (2017), and in the UK tour of Funny Girl (2017).