Professor Knopf served as Chair and Producing Director of UB Theatre and Dance for two terms (2004-2010), and then as Director of Theatre (2011-2016). He led the effort to design the department’s first two graduate programs: the MA and PhD in Theatre and Performance, now in their fifth year. Before coming to UB, he served as Associate Chair and Director of Graduate Studies in Theatre at the University of Michigan.
Dr. Knopf is the author and editor of six books on theater and film: the two-volume anthology Theater of the Avant-Garde, 1890-1950 and 1950-2000 (Yale), The Theatre and Cinema of Buster Keaton (Princeton), Theater and Film (Yale), and most recently, Script Analysis for Theatre: Tools for Interpretation, Collaboration and Production (Bloomsbury Methuen, 2017), and The Director as Collaborator (2nd edition, Routledge, 2017). He has directed for NPR’s radio drama series The Archaeology of Lost Voices, as well as at New York’s historic Town Hall, Circle Rep Lab, Circle in the Square Downtown, Paradise Factory, Theatre North Collaborative, and the Cherry Lane.
Over the course of his career, Dr. Knopf has taught Script Analysis, Avant-Garde Performance, Improvisation for Storytellers, and all levels of acting and directing. At the end of 2016, he elected to become Professor Emeritus to focus on his writing and family. He is currently working on an Intro to Theater textbook with his wife, Katie, which shifts the emphasis of introductory theatre courses for non-majors to skills and learning outcomes that serve students beyond theater.