Theatre Arts
Department Head
Associate Professor
Moss Performing Arts Center
970.248.1795
rcowden@mesastate.edu
Richard R. Cowden, Head of the Department of Theatre Arts and Associate Professor in Theatre and Speech, hails from Grand Junction and graduated from Mesa State College. His performances at Mesa State garnered him numerous acting citations and his direction of Days of Possibilities, Mesa State's first all-student mainstage production, earned him a Kennedy Center Meritorious Achievement Award. He also holds a Master of Fine Arts from Ohio University's Professional Director Training Program. Mr. Cowden has worked professionally as an actor and director at the Denver Center Theatre Company, the Bristol/London Old Vic, and the Ad Hoc Theatre Company. In 1996, he founded The Roundfish Theatre Company in Denver, one of the region's most innovative and critically-acclaimed small theatre companies. Mr. Cowden teaches Beginning Acting, Acting Styles, Voice and Diction, and Playwrighting as well as serving as a resident director for the Mesa State College Department of Theatre and Artistic Director of Greenshoe Theatre Company of Grand Junction.