Faculty & Staff |
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Ralph Blasting became Dean of Liberal Arts at Siena College in July 2004. Prior to that he taught theater history for fifteen years at Towson University in Baltimore, where he also served as department chair. Dean Blasting completed his Bachelor of Fine Arts degree in scene design and a BA in German at Wayne State University in Detroit; an MA in Theater History at the University of Michigan; and his PhD at the Graduate Centre for the Study of Drama at the University of Toronto. His area of specialization is medieval drama, and he is one of the few people in the world to have participated in the production of all four of the existing English Medieval Mystery plays. He has published on German medieval drama, has conducted leadership seminars for faculty, and has served as presenter or panel member in sessions on campus construction, student outcomes assessment, and various subjects in contemporary theatre. He lives in Niskayuna with his wife, Laurie Detenbeck, and their daughter Hannah.
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As a visual artist my image base is reality at large, its past/present and future conditions. My interest lies in the deconstruction and manipulation of the readymade visual, as appropriation, material that is accessible to the general audience, and to make visible the unseen, or unknown, by reinventing content and meaning through storytelling, parody play and humor and to illicit response and reaction as one of pleasure and entertainment, bemusement and ambiguity. This can be as fact or the selective transforming of reality, the twisting of it to bring out its essence, fiction. |
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Edward Deet is an expert on the practical aspects of video production. He founded "A VideoView Production" studio in 1981, has given numerous seminars on shooting and editing video, and has produced numerous documentaries and corporate videos. Ed's specialties include the restoration and transfer of various film formats and creating videos for the web. Ed has served as advisor to the Siena College Television Club (SCTV) since 2005. His involvement helped to make the new studio a reality, and brought http://www.sienatv.org online to emphasize the importance of emerging technologies on the future of video.
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Steve Fletcher has been an adjunct professor at Siena College since 1998. His classes have included Acting One, Acting Two, Introduction to the Theatre, and Voice and Movement for the Stage. His directing credits at Siena include Godspell, The Servant of Two Masters, and Rumors. Acting credits include a nine year run as Brad Vernon on ABC's daytime drama One Life to Live. He recently starred in Curtain Call Theatre's production of Rabbit Hole and Love Letters and can be currently seen in the movie Dorian Blues, and the upcoming movie The Skeptic. Regional theatre credits include Brick in Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, Sergeant Toomey in Biloxi Blues, Sky in Guys and Dolls, Mack the Knife in The Threepenny Opera, Quentin in After the Fall, McMurphy in One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, Cyrano in Cyrano de Bergerac and Petruchio in Taming of the Shrew. He earned his BFA and MFA from the Goodman School of Drama i nChicago and was a founding member of the Wisdom Bridge Theatre Company and the Free Street Theatre Company. He is also an avid painter, passionate dancer and, during the summer months, Sailing Director at Camp Chingachgook, Lake George, New York. |
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Mahmood Karimi-Hakak, Artistic Director of Mahak International Artists Inc., is a poet, theatre director and filmmaker. He has written, produced, directed, designed and/or acted in over 50 stage and screen productions in the US, Europe and his native Iran, and is the recipient of three international awards. His literary credits include five plays, two books of poetry, several translations from and into Persian and numerous articles and interviews both in English and Persian. Karimi-Hakak has taught at CUNY, Towson and Southern Methodist universities in the US, and universities in Belgium and Iran. |
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Mark Grimm, an adjunct journalism professor, is a former TV news anchor who has conducted one-on-one interviews with two US presidents. He has appeared on the Phil Donahue show and the CBS national news. He founded Mark Grimm Communications in 2002. It is a media relations and public speaking training firm in Guilderland (www.markgrimm.com). Mark, a 1978 Siena grad, is the executive producer/host of the Siena AlumniConnection on WVCR, 88.3 The Saint. It airs Saturday at 10 am and again on Sunday at 6 pm. Professor Grimm was a Conlin Scholar as an English major at Siena and has a master's degree in communications from the Newhouse School at Syracuse University. |
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Brian Massman holds an MFA in Media Arts from the University of Montana. He has worked professionally as a stage actor for many years, touring across the U.S. and Canada in dramas, comedies, musicals and Shakespeare. In Montana, Brian was the creator/host of his own one-man television variety program: TVI, which he wrote, directed, photographed, edited, scored and performed every role in himself. He has also designed media projections for several stage productions. |
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Denise Massman, specializing in stage design, designed professionally for the stage for over 25 years before coming to teaching in 2004. She has designed for all the major theatre companies in Montana, including the Montana Repertory Theatre and Montana Shakespeare in the Parks. She taught at the University of Montana and at Lawrence University in Wisconsin before coming to Siena. Denise received her M.F.A from the University of Montana in Costume Design and Technology with a secondary emphasis in Set Design. She earned her B.A. in Studio Art from Montana State University with a minor in Art History. She designs sets, costumes and lighting regularly for Siena College's Creative Arts department. Her latest professional work includes costumes for Commotion in Motion, an educational dance piece about the laws of physics for the MoTran's Dance Company. The dance was featured at the National Dance Association's conference in Saratoga Springs in the summer of 2007. |
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Amanda Ransom is an interdisciplinary artist who has created pieces involving video, installation, music, light & shadow, dance, sculpture, drawing, and painting. Her solo and collaborative visual works and musical performances have been exhibited and performed primarily in New England, the Los Angeles and Tampa Bay areas, and in Asia. She is currently working on a book of original images combining traditional and digital media as well as a series of experimental videos. Amanda holds a BA in Literature from Bennington College, an MA in English from The Claremont Graduate University, and an MFA in Interdisciplinary Art from Goddard College. She currently teaches digital photography, drawing, new art forms, and experimental video. |
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pricciardi@siena.edu Paul Ricciardi is the author of two solo shows: Moving Vehicles (Best Actor in a Solo Show/'02 National Gay and Lesbian Theatre Festival) and Stillwater State. As an actor, Paul's regional credits include The New Play Festival at Proctor’s Theatre, Take Me Out at Boston's Speakeasy Stage (IRNE Award, best ensemble), A Christmas Carol at Trinity Rep, and the world premieres of Paula Vogel’s The Long Christmas Ride Home at Trinity Rep and Craig Lucas’ Action at Provincetown Rep. He earned his MFA in Acting from Trinity Rep in Providence, Rhode Island.
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Sergio Sericolo lives and works in Albany, New York, where his work is well-known and often showcased. He has had exhibitions at the Albany Center Galleries, the Saratoga Arts Center, the Rice Gallery at the Albany Institute of History and Art, the Chapel and Cultural Center at Rensselear, and the Fulton Street Gallery. Sericolo's paintings and drawings can be found in the New York State Comptroller Building Collection and other corporate establishments, as well as in the homes of many private collectors. Sericolo completed a Master of Fine Arts Degree in painting from the University at Albany in 2005. He is currently represented by John Davis Gallery in Hudson, NY. |
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Margo Stavros received her BA in art history from the University of Michigan, MA in art history from Indiana University, and PhD in art history from Pennsylvania State University. She came to Siena in 2003 as the Convivium Teaching Fellow. She teaches Foundations, Medieval Studies, and art history courses in Late Antique and Early Byzantine art and architecture, Medieval art and architecture, and the surveys of art and architecture. Prior to this, she taught the history of art and architecture, Italian and modern Greek languages, and was assistant to the director of the Center for Medieval Studies at Penn State. She was the assistant to the curator of ancient art at the Indiana University Art Museum. Her current research interest is in precious metal jewelry from Byzantium and the Medieval Balkans.
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Edward Ticson, Adjunct Instructor, Studio Art Edward Ticson, after receiving his BS from Siena College, worked as a freelance commercial artist illustrating for textbooks before attending graduate school. He received his MFA from the University of Albany in May 1999, where he taught both drawing and painting. Since graduating, Edward has taught at the College of St. Rose and is currently teaching at Siena College. His work has appeared in both regional and national shows. |
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Joanna Towse, Adjunct Instructor, Music Joanna Towse currently teaches Introduction to American Music, Basics of Singing, and Chorus at Siena. She is the Music Director, Organist, Cantor and Pastoral Associate for the Liturgy at St. Mary's Roman Catholic Church in Nassau, NY, as well as CBE Evaluator in Vocal Performance, and a member of the Albany Pro Musica Masterworks, and the Albany Diocesan Choir. |
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Patricia Trutty-Coohill, Professor, Art History Patricia Trutty-Coohill received her Ph.D. in Art History at Penn State in 1982, and has been at Siena since 2000. She teaches art history courses in World Art, Medieval, Renaissance, and Modern art, as well as seminars on Leonardo da Vinci. Her primary research interests are Leonardo da Vinci and his followers, Michelangelo, and the phenomenological criticism of contemporary art. Dr. Trutty-Coohill was a recipient of Siena's Raymond Kennedy Award for Scholarship in 2004 and currently serves as the chair of the Creative Arts Department at Siena. |
Ralph Blasting, Dean of Liberal Arts 
Liz Blum, Visiting Professor, Studio Art 
Edward Deet, Adjunct Instructor, Electronic Journalism
Steve Fletcher, Adjunct Instructor, Theater 
Mahmood Karimi-Hakak, Professor, Theater 
Mark Grimm, Adjunct Instructor, Electronic Journalism 
Paul Konye, Assistant Professor, Music 
Brian Massman, Adjunct Instructor, Theater 
Denise Massman, Assistant Professor, Theater
Paul Ricciardi, Assistant Professor, Theater
Sergio Sericolo, Adjunct Instructor, Studio Art 
Dow Smith, Visiting Professor, Electronic Journalism
Margo Stavros, Adjunct Instructor, Art History
