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, New School University and a BFA in Musical Theatre and Acting from Sergent Conservatory for the Performing Art and Adelphi University. At The Actors Studio Sara has worked with Arthur Penn, Lloyd Richards, Robert Lupone, Paul Rudd, Elizabeth Kemp and many others and is a proud member of AEA Actors Equity Association), SDC (Society for Directors and Choreographers), ATHE (American Theatre in Education) and WTP (Women and Theatre Program).

Sara is a senior lecturer in the University of Rochester’s International Theatre Program and works in both academic and professional settings. 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 voted Professor of the Year in Humanities by the Student Associated Government. Her collaborative academic partnerships in the past few years at UR have included The School of Nursing, Eastman School of Music, The Program of Dance and Movement and The Office of Community Engagement.

Sara is also the resident intimacy director for URITP. As an intimacy director Sara is passionate about collaborating in rehearsal rooms where she can support the director’s vision and the actors’ boundaries so that artists can create their bravest, truest, most imaginative work. Her intimacy and movement direction has been on stages at Nazareth College, RIT/ National Technical Institute for the Deaf, Geva Theatre, Blackfriars Theatre, Bristol Valley Theatre, RCP’s Shakespeare in the Park, The Company Theatre’s Temple Theatre, ROC JCC CenterStage, The Musical Theatre Company Chicago, and many others. She has taught workshops on Intimacy Direction and Consent in Performance and socially engaged theatre making at Geva Summer Academy, SUNY Brockport, Rochester Institute of Technology, Eastman School of Music, and Blackfriars Theatre. And has shared her pedagogy on socially engaged theatre making and consent forward theatre in educational with theatre educators across the country through conferences with The Kennedy Center American College Theatre Festival and American Theatre In Higher Education. She is certified through Intimacy Directors and Coordinators and Mental Heath First Aid and has trained with Theatrical Intimacy Education.

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. Sara is proud of creating opportunities for learning, self-discovery and growth with actors of all ages, backgrounds and experience levels. 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. She has performed and produced in the NY, Berkshire, Minneapolis and Rochester Fringe Festivals and loves the creation of new work or the reimagining of established plays in a new way.

Courses:

Acting I/ Acting Techniques ENGL 174

Acting II/ Advanced Acting ENGL 272

The Actor’s Voice ENGL 177

Movement for the Actor ENGL 176

Consent & Performance ENGL 279, DANC 276, GSWS 269,

From Scratch: Creating Devised Theatre ENLG 156

Plays in Performance ENGL 292 (293), 294 (295)

INTEREST AND SPECIALITIES 

1. Theatre Direction and Movement Direction 

2. Interdisciplinary Collaboration  

3. Intimacy Direction for Live Theatre 

4. Community Engagement through the Arts