Robert Caisley speaking about theatre, teaching, playwriting and education:

Video Clip #1 "Theatre for me has always been about realizing ..."
Video Clip #2  "In traditional theatre we start with the play, which is the blueprint..."
Video Clip #3  "I begin teaching playwriting from the three-act structure..."
Video Clip #4  "Coming together to produce a show, all of the skills ..."
Video Clip #5  "Getting an education is a great responsibility and far too often..."
Video Clip #6  "When I got off the plane after living six years in LA, I thought..." 

Robert Caisley graduated from the MFA in Performance program at Illinois State University. He has written 13 plays for the stage, 9 of which have been fully commissioned works, and most recently served as Creative Consultant for the History Channel’s Moments of Truth, narrated by renowned historian Stephen Ambrose. 

Caisley is a recipient of fellowships for playwriting from the Kennedy Center and the Sundance Institute Writers Lab. He is a founding member of Chicago’s Breadline Theatre Group, and was the Resident Playwright there from 1992-1994.  He was Artist-in-Residence at The Unseam'd Shakespeare Company, Pittsburgh, PA in 1996, and Visiting Guest Playwright at Illinois State University in 1997. 

In 1996 his play "FRONT" was selected by Pulitzer Prize-Winner Lanford Wilson as the recipient of the Fourth Freedom Forum Peace Play Award, presented by the Kennedy Center. In 1999 he received a Merit Award in Playwriting from KC/ACTF, and in 1993 his play The 22 Day Adagio was workshopped at London’s Royal Court Theatre.

Caisley’s work appears in CHILDSPLAY (edited by Kerry Muir of the Lee Strasberg Theatre Institute in New York) where he is featured with such writers as Sam Shepard, Tina Howe, Lanford Wilson, Steven Dietz, Neil Simon and Maya Angelou. His work in educational dramatic writing has been honored with a Letter of Commendation from Jane Alexander of the National Endowment for the Arts.

Caisley recently relocated from Los Angeles where he worked in screenplay development, pre- and post-production, and freelance story editing, ADR and writing additional dialogue for feature films. He developed the screenplay adaptation of The Dentist of Auschwitz, based on the book by Benjamin Jacobs during his time at Sundance. His screenplay Twitch! co-authored with Kathryn Seno, was under consideration with Harold Ramis' Ocean Pictures at Fox before being optioned by Moher Films. Last year he scripted two shorts Trust and Blue Skies for Innisfree Films.

Caisley has served on the theatre faculty at Illinois Wesleyan University and Illinois State University, where he taught such subjects as Classical Styles, Shakespeare/Restoration, Audition Techniques, Playwriting, Dramatic Literature, Devised Theatre, Acting/Directing Workshop, and Dramatic Literature of the Holocaust. 

He is currently working with a team of writers to develop an episodic campus television series for Penn State University, Florida State University and Cal State Los Angeles. He is also contributing to a four-part documentary series for New Wave Entertainment in Los Angeles, and will begin work this spring on a new commission for Rockford’s Studio Theatre that will premiere in February 2003.

Caisley teaches intermediate acting, a BFA studio, screenwriting and the business of acting.

He has developed a new course (Film and Theatre of the Holocaust) that will be offered by the UI Honors Program in the fall of 2005.