Robert Dillon

Robert Dillon

After earning a B.S. in Education in Speech and Theatre at (then) Southwest Missouri State University, and an M.A. and Ph.D. in Theatre Arts at the University of Missouri-Columbia, Professor Robert (“Rob”) W. Dillon, Jr. came to Southeast in 1989.  Rob has acted for The Park Central Players, The Heart of America Shakespeare Festival and on the stages of Southwest Missouri State University, The University of Missouri-Columbia and Southeast Missouri State University. He also has acted professionally in a number of industrial, commercial and educational video productions. Rob has directed and fight directed many productions over the years and continues to direct in the department’s regular season once or twice each year.

Rob is a regular contributor to The Fight Master, the professional journal of the Society of American Fight Directors, and has published many scholarly and popular articles on theatre, stage combat and Japanese martial culture. 

Rob has taught acting, stage combat, theatre history and script analysis at Southeast since 1989.  Rob takes particular pride in the ongoing development of the stage combat program at Southeastᾰa program unlike any other in the southeast Missouri region, the state or even the nation.  Besides teaching two courses, Combat I and II, along with Department Chair Kenn Stilson, Rob maintains a continuously growing world class armory, and the best safety and training equipment money can buy.      

Rob is married to Ellen Dickey-Dillon and they have two children, Jeremy and Cecilia Rose, and a full complement of dogs, fish and turtles.

Rob is a long-term student of classical Japanese martial disciplines and an accomplished swordsman under Tetsutaka Sugawara of Machida-shi, Japan.   In 2000, Rob received the mokuroku basic teaching license from Sugawara-sensei; one of only 20 such people worldwide.

He divides his avocational time between caring for and training C. S. Buttercup Hancock and May Star’s Estrella, his Foundation-bred American Quarter Horses, and fly fishing for Missouri’s blue ribbon smallmouth bass.