Annabel Pyne and Christopher Hoffmann
Student Life Editor and Staff Writer
The Theater and Music Departments include student voices in their hiring of a new professor at Fine and Performing Arts.
Students in the theater department were invited to campus in June to help with the hiring of a new professor. They participated in a three-day process with each day being devoted to a different candidate. These sessions consisted of a small lesson followed by a Q&A session, according to Brian De Los Santos, a student who participated.
“It felt to us like our opinion mattered,” said De Los Santos.
Emily Levine presented on the third day. Her demo lesson had a brief lecture with some theater history and acting exercises. They had the Q&A after when students could ask her questions about experiences, teaching styles and any other questions they found relevant. De Los Santos commented that Levine seemed like she wanted the students to know that their answers mattered to her when she asked her own questions about the school and community.
Trevor Landreth, the new music professor, received a similar experience during his hiring process. He got to “audition” for his future role by teaching a short lesson, followed by conducting a jazz piece for a small ensemble and a Q&A session. Students and community members of the ESU band program were invited to come and participate in this interactive session. Landreth said that the staff was “very welcoming and inviting” from the beginning of his visit.
When asked about his initial impression of Landreth during that summer audition, CJ Magann, community member and ESU alumni, said that he was “very approachable as someone who was a musician during a playing test the way he broke down what he was teaching.”
They were each then given a tour of the area around campus and around the Fine and Performing Arts building by Brian Hodge, director of bands, and Jason Narvy, professor of theatre. Landreth noted that he was very excited about the facilities, calling the Cohen Recital Hall “awesome,” and recalled that he was excited that everyone in the band felt “all in with the program.”
When asked about the hiring of both Landreth and Levine, Hodge said that “Levine brings a wealth of experience having worked directly with James Levine and Sondheim,” while “Landreth is an experienced percussion specialist and ensemble rehearsing musician.”
Hodge also said that “already, thanks to their efforts, we are seeing new levels of achievements in the performing arts at ESU, and are excited about what the future holds for the student population here.”
Emily Levine:
Levine is originally from Baltimore. She moved to New York City for her undergraduate degree at New York University. Later, she worked as an assistant director to James Lapine in the pre-production of the movie, “Into the Woods” (2014). She also worked on Broadway on “Sondheim on Sondheim,” “Act 1” and other plays and musicals.
Levine later went to Penn State for her master’s degree in directing where she fell in love with teaching. Her program included a stipend and a teacher assistant position that put her in the classroom where she could help develop young actors.
“Being even a small part of that process was so incredibly rewarding,” Levine said.
After finishing her degree, she moved to Houston for a professor position at Lone Star College. She spent 10 years there until she decided she wanted to move back to the Northeast, where her family lives.
When asked what she thinks she adds to the theater department, she comments that while she is filling an empty space, she is also adding her musical theater experience to the ESU program. She was also certified in the Meisner Technique of acting in 2024, which is a method that encourages actors to be present and act authentically within their scene.
This semester, at the Fine and Performing Arts Center, she is teaching Acting 1, Introduction to Theater and Voice for Performance. She is also going to direct the play “Dog Sees God” in the spring, a play about the characters from the Peanuts comics. Though she has never directed this play before, she is excited to work with students and develop their acting ability with them.
Trevor Landreth:
Landreth joins ESU’s music program as an instructor, assistant director, and percussion expert.
Landreth is originally from Wichita, Kansas, and he spent most of his life in the midwest before making the big move to the Poconos this year. He holds a bachelor’s degree in music performance from Emporia State University, a master’s degree in music performance from Wichita State University, and currently holds an A.B.D. at the University of Illinois.
Prior teaching positions before ESU that Landreth held included interim jazz director at Hutchinson Community College, drumline tech for Wichita State University, and percussion instructor for the Camp Allegro music camp in Wichita, Kansas.
When asked about what drew him to wanting to work at ESU, Landreth said that what the university wanted for the position were “all stuff [he] considered [himself] to be knowledgable about”, and that he was “ready to get back into marching band” after not working with one for 2 years.
Landreth currently teaches Fundamentals of Music and History of Rock & Jazz at the University, and recently completed the solo recital “Delphinios” in October. In the spring, he plans on performing and premiering new commissioned pieces, with 2 of them being performed with Madison Roths as the StaccAria soprano percussion duo.