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JIM HARRIS
A young woman stands in blue light beside a fallen figure on a broken highway — How I Learned to Drive, directed by Jim Harris

Theatre Artist · Emporia, Kansas

JIM
HARRIS

Actor. Director. Educator.

Thirty years of making theatre — on stage, in the director’s chair, and in the classroom.

See the work About Jim

How I Learned to Drive, Emporia State University, 2023

Poster for Below the Belt, November 12–15: factory smokestacks and a green river under an orange sun

Now in rehearsal · Directed by Jim Harris

Below the Belt

by Richard Dresser — A dark comedy about getting ahead, getting even, and getting nowhere.

Below the Belt by Richard Dresser is a darkly absurd comedy about three men working in a mysterious, isolated industrial compound, where office politics become a ruthless battle for power, status, and survival. As alliances shift and rivalries intensify, the men struggle to make sense of a system whose rules are constantly changing—and from which there may be no escape.

Get tickets (opens Emporia State ticket site in a new tab)
Dates
November 12–15, 2026
Venue
Ronald Q. Frederickson Theatre
Emporia State University

I have spent more than thirty years in rehearsal rooms — as an actor since 1993, as a director, as a fight choreographer, and as a teacher. I now teach acting, directing, movement and dramatic literature at Emporia State University, where I direct on the mainstage and train the next generation of theatre artists and teachers.

Acting professionally since
1993
Productions directed
23
Fight choreography credits
24
KCACTF Certificates of Merit in Direction
3
A man kneels beside an armchair, holding the hand of a woman seated in it

Recent work · Directed by Jim Harris

by Donald Margulies · November 14–17, 2024 · Ronald Q. Frederickson Theatre

View the production

Directing

Actor-focused. Text-driven.

Comedies of bad manners, Beckett, Vogel, a man-eating plant. A selection of recent productions.
All productions

Acting

A Meisnerite, if you will.

  1. Sanford Meisner
  2. William Esper
  3. Kristine Holtvedt
  4. Jim Harris

I started acting professionally in 1993, working from the Stanislavski-based technique I learned as an undergraduate: play the action, pursue the objective. It was a solid foundation. Then, at Purdue, came three years of intensive Meisner training, and that is where I really learned my craft.

Selected roles

  • Caliban — The TempestArkansas Shakespeare Theatre
  • Joe Keller — All My SonsUniversity of Central Arkansas (Guest Artist)
  • Max Prince — Laughter on the 23rd FloorOpen Eye Productions, Chicago
  • William Henry Harrison — Tecumseh!Scioto Society, Inc.

Stages include Actors Theatre of Louisville, Arkansas Repertory Theatre, Arkansas Shakespeare Theatre, Tecumseh! — Scioto Society.

Acting credits & training

Teaching

“I bring a practitioner’s perspective to the classroom — artistic growth and academic rigor, in the same room.”

I teach the way I was taught to work: by doing it. Whether the subject is a Meisner repetition exercise, a rapier phrase, or the given circumstances of a Beckett play, students learn by getting up on their feet and then thinking hard about what just happened.

  • 01

    Acting

    • Acting: Methods
    • Acting: Scriptwork
    • Auditioning for the Role

  • 02

    Movement & Stage Combat

    • Movement for Actors
    • Stage Combat — Unarmed
    • Stage Combat — Single Rapier

  • 03

    Directing & Production

    • Play Directing
    • Play Production
    • Senior Capstone

  • 04

    Dramatic Literature & Analysis

    • Script Analysis
    • Modern Drama
    • A Survey of Dramatic Literature
Teaching & mentorship

In rehearsal

News & current projects

Let’s make something.

Directing engagements, fight choreography, guest-artist residencies, workshops and academic conversations.

Get in touch