Brett earned the Master of Letters and Master of Fine Arts degrees in Shakespeare and Renaissance Literature in Performance from Mary Baldwin College in partnership with the American Shakespeare Center of Staunton, Virginia. His MLitt thesis is titled “From Machiavelli to Marlowe: The Development of the Machiavel as an English Dramatic Archetype,” and his MFA thesis is titled “Titus Andronicus: An MFA Directing Project.” Both theses are available by inter-library loan from Mary Baldwin College, as is a recording of the February 2010 performance of Titus Andronicus which Brett directed. At the 2010 College English Association conference in San Antonio, Texas, he presented “‘Behold,
I’m
gone;
My
body
taken
up’:
The Body Stage
Property
in
the
Plays
of
Thomas
Middleton.
” He has taught both undergraduate and graduate students at Mary Baldwin.
Brett was Assistant to the Director for the American Shakespeare Center’s 2009 Summer/Fall production of Titus Andronicus and the 2009-2010 touring productions of Romeo and Juliet and Francis Beaumont’s The Knight of the Burning Pestle. In 2008-2009, he served as artistic director of The University Wits, in which time he managed a national tour of The Tempest, directed Henry VIII, and coordinated the 24-Hour Theater Project and Wits End New Play Festival, a national competition for graduate playwrights. In 2009, Brett was assistant director for the Mary Baldwin MFA production of Henry IV, Part II, and in 2010, he stage managed the MFA production of Pericles, directed by Tina Packer. In 2009 and 2010, he also led a Shakespeare reading, lecture, and play-going group for senior citizens.
Brett is originally from Peoria, Illinois, where his family still resides. He earned a Bachelor of Arts in theater from Wabash College in Crawfordsville, Indiana. At Wabash he directed or assisted 1776 by Sherman Edward and Peter Stone, Sure Thing by David Ives, On the Harmful Effects of Tobacco, A Jubilee, The Alien Corn, The Bear, and The Proposal by Anton Chekhov, and The Elephant Man by Bernard Pomerance. He was awarded the Phi Beta Kappa Prize for outstanding creative work in the direction of The Elephant Man. During his residency in Crawfordsville, he served on the board of directors of the Sugar Creek Players. During his three year term, he was elected parliamentarian, treasurer, and president of the corporation; he also directed, produced, and designed lights for several productions.
Brett currently resides in Madison, Wisconsin, where he is a project manager for Epic Systems Corporation and an independent scholar. He is a member of the Modern Language Association and the College English Association.
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