Telephone: (843) 953-5802
Fax: (843) 953-8210
Office: Room 218-C, Albert Simons Center for the Arts
Email: cobbj@cofc.edu

Joy Vandervort-Cobb, currently an Associate Professor of African American Theatre and Performance at the College of Charleston, began her career in theatre almost 30 years ago as an actress with the Freedom Theatre in upstate New York. Most recently, Joy was seen in Charleston as Hecabe in Euripides' The Trojan Women on the mainstage at the College of Charleston; in a V-DAY Celebration of The Vagina Monologues, and as the melancholy Jaques in As You Like It, as part of the 2001 Shakespeare Project in residence at the College of Charleston.

On television, she was seen as a beleagured driver in a Savannah Auto Mile commercial. Additionally, Ms. Vandervort-Cobb voiced the EMMY AWARD winning video documentary "Where Do We Go From Here?...the Legacy of Dr. Martin Luther King," and has been seen on a national HUD commercial (with her daughter, Jaymie). She performed the TONY award winning one-woman show, The Search for Signs of Intelligent Life in the Universe on the fringe of the International Spoleto Festival, called Piccolo Spoleto.

Additional performance roles include Rose, in August Wilson's Pulitzer Prize winning play Fences; Myra in Don Evans' One Monkey Don¹t Stop No Show, which was featured during the MOJA Arts Festival in Charleston, SC, and the role of MC Mama Voodoo in the world premiere of San Francisco based I AM! Productions' Portrait of a Girl From Nowhere...An Urban Fairy Tale. As Sister Hubert in the New York premiere of Danny Goggins¹ Nunsense II...The Second Coming, Joy was able to fulfill a lifelong dream of being a nun.

Joy can also be seen in the title role of the award winning short, Mother of the River, and as an ill-fated nurse in the CBS Movie of the Week Carriers with Judith Light and Bill Nunn. In the 2000 Piccolo Spoleto Festival, Ms. Vandervort-Cobb collaborated with dancer Eliza Ingle, of Anonymity, on a dance-theatre piece called TORN, which she wrote. Under the musical direction of Broadway veteran Maida Libkin, Joy was the 6 week Guest Star of THE GOOD TIME VARIETY HOUR WITH BILL SCHLITT, singing, dancing and performing a two character-one actress piece. Additional acting credits include national tours of for colored girls who have considered suicide when the rainbow is enuf and Purlie.

Along with having performed internationally, Joy has had her work as a director showcased across the country and Canada. Through her work with Festival Theatre USA, Ms. Vandervort-Cobb¹s work was seen at the Edinburgh Arts Festival in Edinburgh, Scotland. Directing credits include national tours of MAHALIA, From the Mississippi Delta, Dreamgirls, Purlie and for colored girls... Regionally her work has included productions of Crumbs from the Table of Joy; Having Our Say; Trouble in Mind; Blues for an Alabama Sky; Angels in America, Part I: Millennium Approaches; The Colored Museum; Red, Hot & Cole; Gospel at Colonus; Hair; and Ain't Misbehavin'. She has served as Assistant Director on national tours of Little Shop of Horrors and One Mo' Time and as production stage manager on national touring productions of Sophisticated Ladies (where she met her husband) and Ain't Misbehavin'.

As a member of the College of Charleston community, Professor Vandervort-Cobb is the faculty advisor to Delta Sigma Theta, Inc., and faculty mentor to a number of performance students. She is most proud of her connection to her students who awarded her with a DIVA for Professor of the Year in 1994-95 and a LIFETIME ACHIEVEMENT AWARD in 1998-99. She is also the recipient of the 2000 ExCel Award for Outstanding Faculty Member (Excellence in Collegiate Education and Leadership). Joy presently makes her home on James Island, SC, with her two children: JonRoss and Jaymie. They are her fans and her inspiration.