Janice Akers
Theater Studies
Senior Lecturer
Theater Emory
Resident Actor/Director
Rich Building, Room 219
404-727-2207
Janice Akers is a Senior Lecturer on the Theater Studies faculty, serving as the department Director of Undergraduate Studies and as the Liaison for PACE, Emory University’s freshman advising program. Ms. Akers teaches acting and directing as well as special topics courses co-taught in the dance program. She is the recipient of two Crystal Apple Awards for teaching: the 2007 Excellence in Performing Arts Education award and the 2008 Undergraduate Seminar award. She also received the 2005 and 2011 Fine Award, “voted by Theater Studies majors and minors for a faculty member who has influenced the growth of his or her students.” She is a resident actor/director with Theater Emory, the professional theater on the Emory campus. Ms. Akers has developed original plays/adaptations for Theater Emory and directed Shakespeare, Ibsen, Strindberg, Odon von Horvath, Ellen McLaughlin and Sam Shepard. Ms. Akers has been in the acting profession for over 35 years, performing over a dozen roles in Theater Emory productions and staged readings and performing in 75 productions in companies in California, Ohio, as well as in Chicago and Atlanta. She is an Associate Artist with the Georgia Shakespeare Festival, performing 20 roles over eight seasons and directing Love’s Labour’s Lost in the 2010 summer season. In 2002, she performed at the Centre Dramatique de Bretagne in Lorient, La Comédie de Clermont-Ferrand, and the Maison des Arts et de la Culture in Paris. In the summer of 2006, Ms. Akers performed with the French company of Arthur Nauzyciel at the Avignon Festival in France and the Athens Theater Festival in Greece. She also performed at the Centre Dramatique/Loiret in Orleans in 2008 and the Theatre de Singel in Antwerp, Belgium in 2009.
