| JAMES HAWKINS (Emeritus) retired from CWU in 2001
after 31 years of distinguished service to the Theatre Arts Department,
where he founded the Children's Theatre Touring program and Youth
Drama Major. An accomplished theatrical designer and puppeteer,
Hawkins has been a guest artist at academic and professional theatres
here and abroad including the California Theatre Center, the Tennessee
Arts Academy, the Alaskan Theatre for Youth, the Birmingham Arts
Center, and the Puppet Center in London. He has won three meritorious
awards from the Kennedy Center American College Theatre Festival,
and, in 1996, was awarded the Distinguished Professor Award in Public
Service from CWU. He has been a member of the performing company
of Eugene O'Neill Theatre Center-National Puppetry Conference, and
is currently a member of the Board of Directors of UNIMA-USA the
International Puppetry Association. Puppets from his private collection
have been added to permanent displays at the Atlanta Puppet Center,
the Seattle Puppet Center and the Valentinetti Puppet Museum in
Bremerton. In 2005 he established the A. James Hawkins Children's Theatre Endowment with the announcement of generous financial contribution,
and has pledged to match the first $5,000 in contributions to this
scholarship fund. This season Hawkins will again share his talents
on and off stage, in the classroom teaching Puppetry this fall,
and as the puppet and costume designer for Pecos Bill and the
Ghost Stampede.
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