Faculty

Biography

Sara Bickweat Penner (she/her) is an actor, director, intimacy director and voice and movement specialist who has worked extensively in theatre in NYC, Chicago, and regionally throughout the U.S. She holds an MFA from The Actors Studio, The New School for Drama and has worked with Arthur Penn, Lloyd Richards, Robert Lupone, Paul Rudd, Joe Calarco, Vernice Miller, and Elizabeth Kemp and many others. 

In 2022 Sara received a Teaching Innovation Grant to create instructional touch policies, practices and coursework at UR on Consent in Performance, and developed an Eastman Institute for Music leadership course in Spring 2023 for vocal performance and opera students. In 2025 she was awarded Professor of the Year in Humanities by the Student Associated Government. Sara’s intimacy and movement direction has been on stages at Nazareth College, RIT/ National Technical Institute for the Deaf, Geva Theatre, Blackfriars Theatre, RCP’s Shakespeare in the Park, The Company Theatre’s Temple Theatre, JCC CenterStage, The Musical Theatre Company Chicago, and many others. She has taught workshops on Intimacy Direction and Consent in Performance at Geva Summer Academy, SUNY Brockport, Rochester Institute of Technology, Eastman School of Music, and Blackfriars Theatre and at conferences throughout the country. She is a certified Intimacy Director for Live Theatre through Intimacy Directors and Coordinators and has also trained with TIE. 

As a director Sara is passionate about creating explorative and enriching theatre journeys for artists in educational theatre, professionally and through community partnerships. Her educational work spans conservatories, liberal arts and community colleges, summer enrichment programs and teaching artist work in public and private schools. She is inspired through devising new work and interpreting established plays and musicals in imaginative new ways. A true collaborator, she is intrigued by worldbuilding with performers and musicians, designers, technicians, choreographers and producing teams to transport, entertain and spark meaningful change and growth in her community. 

www.sarabickweatpenner.com 

Courses Offered (subject to change)

• ENGL 174:  Acting I
• ENGL 272:  Acting II
• ENGL 177:  The Actor's Voice
• ENGL 176:  Movement for the Actor
• ENGL 279 (also DANC 276, GSWS 269):  Consent & Performance
• ENGL 156:  From Scratch: Creeating Devised Theatre
• ENGL 298, 299:  Performance Lab