Bernadette Hamilton-Brady, M.F.A.

M.F.A., Virginia Commonwealth University
B.A., Incarnate Word College

Introduction to Theatre
Voice and Diction
Acting
Acting for Shakespeare
Auditioning
Theatre History
Ballet
Rehearsal and Performance

Bernadette Hamilton-Brady is currently the Professor of Drama at St. Mary’s University in San Antonio, Texas. She served as Chair of the Drama Department and has been teaching for 36 years. She earned her M.F.A. in Acting from Virginia Commonwealth University. Her expertise encompasses pedagogical and interdisciplinary applications at her campus, study abroad in London, and production work in creativity, theatre, musical theatre and dance. Of late, she has partaken in creating devised theatre projects with her students on cultural identity, climate change, homelessness, mental health, and the COVID-19 pandemic.  

Under her tenure at St. Mary’s University, she has produced, directed, acted, light-designed, and choreographed over 48 productions. Her range of productions has included such shows as Young Frankenstein, Thirst, Crimes of the Heart, Triangle Factory Fire Project, A Gown for His Mistress, Godspell, Rent, Hamlet, The Isle of Dogs, The Fox, The Ice Wolf, Much Ado About Nothing, Lovers: Winners, The Cherry Orchard, Othello, Brecht on Brecht, I Hate Hamlet, Everyman, Miss Julie, The Pirates of Penzance and Side by Side by Sondheim. She has also performed the roles of “Mrs. Patrick Campbell” in Dear Liar, “Gertrude” in Hamlet, and “Wife” in the bilingual production of August Strindberg’s The Stronger with the International Theatre Festival of San Antonio. Her work has included various collaborations with the Shoestring Shakespeare Company, San Antonio Public Theatre (defunct), The Public Theatre of San Antonio, San Antonio Symphony, San Antonio Museum of Art, Opera Theatre of San Antonio, Mexican Cultural Institute, Guadalupe Cultural Arts Center, Jump-Start Performance Co., University of Texas Health Science Center, University of Texas at San Antonio, Texas A&M University at San Antonio, San Antonio Public Library, Texas Ballet Concerto, Incarnate Word Ballet Company, Joffery Ballet Workshop, Richmond Ballet and Virginia Opera.

Her one-woman show on Pola Negri was a special project entitled His Polita in 2003. This production was based on research gathered from the Pola Negri Collection in the St. Mary’s University Blume Library’s Archives and other sources. She presented supplemental research from this at the Filmoteka Narodowa-Instytut Audiowizualny (FINA) International Conference on Pola Negri in Warsaw, Poland and at the Lipnowski Cultural Society’s Pola i inni (Pola and others) Film Festival in Lipno, Poland during the Spring of 2018.

She has held professional memberships in Association for Theatre in Higher Education (ATHE) for which she has presented research and held administrative positions, American Association of Theatre Education (AATE), United States Institute for Theatre Technology (USITT), and the American Association of University Professors (AAUP).

Her range of productions has included a recent theatrical adaptation of Amy Kenny’s book My Body Is Not A Prayer Request in which she adapted the text into a devised theatre performance as well as directed and performed in the show with two disabled Guest Artists. Other shows that reflect her work in different genres are Young Frankenstein, Thirst (a production staged completely on water in the University Natatorium), Crimes of the Heart, The Triangle Factory Fire Project, A Gown for His Mistress, Godspell, Rent, Hamlet, The Isle of Dogs, The Fox, The Ice Wolf, Much Ado About Nothing, Lovers: Winners, The Cherry Orchard, Othello, Brecht on Brecht, I Hate Hamlet, Everyman, Miss Julie, The Pirates of Penzance and Side by Side by Sondheim.

She has also performed vocal interpretations of poetry for performances with Gemini Ink, Instituto De Mexico En San Antonio and the San Antonio Symphony.

Her community work has allowed her to engage in acting and theatre workshops with middle to high school students of such organizations as the Guadalupe Cultural Arts Center and the Edgewood Independent School District.

She has also conducted lector workshops for local parishes in the Archdiocese of San Antonio.

For her production of The Triangle Factory Fire Project, she moderated a panel discussion with local officials and experts on the ramifications of the play’s tragic depiction of the 1911 Triangle Factory fire in New York City.

A Theatrical Adaptation of Amy Kenny’s My Body Is Not A Prayer Request: Staging & Upstaging Disability in the Church & Beyond. Research Showcase 2024: Adaptation & Change in the Age of AI. St. Mary’s University. San Antonio, Texas. 2024.

IDENTITATEM<->IDENTIDAD<->IDENTITY: Making MOMENTS Toward a Transformative Devised Theatre Production by Capturing the Spiritual and Cultural Realities of Local Youth and Young Adults. Association for Theatre in Higher Education (ATHE) Conference. Detroit, Michigan. 2022.

Crafting Pola Negri’s Portraiture in Her Twilight Years (1957-1987). FINA International Conference: Pola Negri and the Vicissitudes of Stardom. Warsaw,Poland. 2018.

Crafting Pola Negri’s Portraiture in Her Twilight Years (1957-1987). Pola i inni Film Festival. Lipno, Poland. 2018.

Teaching Voice and Diction in the 21st Century. Southwest Teaching and Learning Conference. Texas A & M San Antonio. San Antonio, Texas. 2009.

Teaching in the 21st Century. “Regenerations: Theatre and Performance as a Regenerative Force.” Association for Theatre in Higher Education Conference. New Orleans, LA. 2007.

To and Between Languages Through Theatre: Techniques for Bridging the Distance Between Native Tongue and a New Language. “Crossing Borders.” Association for Theatre in Higher Education Conference. Toronto, Ontario, Canada. 1999.

Association for Theatre in Higher Education (ATHE)
Theatre as a Liberal Art (TLA)
American Association of Theatre Education (AATE)
United States Institute for Theatre Technology (USITT)
San Antonio Theatre Coalition (SATCO)
American Association of University Professors (AAUP)