PhD candidate, University of Washington

degree expected 2018

Theatre History, Theory, and Criticism

Dissertation: Ubu’s Moment: Four Secret Histories of a Fin-de-Siècle Avant-Garde Theatre

Chair: Odai Johnson

MFA, California Institute of the Arts

Directing for the Stage

Mentor: Robert Benedetti

BA, Colgate University

Interdisciplinary Humanities

Assistant Professor, School of Theatre

The Pennsylvania State University, State College, PA

2017 - present

Visiting Assistant Professor of Theatre

Department of Performance and Communication Arts

St. Lawrence University, Canton, NY

2014-2016

Theater History and Practice

Directing / Acting / Playwriting / Play Analysis / Introduction to Theater

Group Performance: Devising Drama From Non-Dramatic Sources

Theater and Society / Twentieth Century Avant-Garde Theater: Theory, History, Practice 

Humanities

Introduction to Intellectual History

Theories of the Avant-Garde

Science and its Critics

First-Year Program Seminars: Uses of Fairy Tales: How Mythology Shapes Society / The Metamorphoses: From Ovid to Today/ The History of the Future: Evolution of Western Worldviews

• “The Odeon of Pericles: a Tale of the First Athenian Music Hall, the Second Persian Invasion of Greece, Theatre Space in Fifth Century BCE Athens, and the Artifacts of an Empire.” Theatre Symposium 24 (2016): 21-40.
• “Rachilde’s Supermale of Letters and the Invention of the Ubu Roi Riot.” Text and Presentation (2012): 92-108.
• “Loië Fuller and the Coercive Moral Force of Colored Light: Modernity, Eternity, and the Folies-Bergère.” Book chapter in Women in the Arts in the Belle Epoque: Essays on Influential Artists, Writers and Performers. London: McFarland & Co., 2012. 97-117.
• "'It Sounds Too Much Like Comrade’: The Preservation of American Ideals in Room Service.” Journal of American Drama and Theater 20.2 (2008): 29-48.
• Ghost writer for 16 entries in the FANDEX Family Field Guide to Shakespeare. 2nd Edition. New York: Workman, 2003.

• “The Real Battle of Ubu Roi : The Last Stand of Henry Bauër, Anarchist Theater Critic of the Parisian Fin de Siècle.” Mid-America Theater Conference, St. Louis, March 2013.
• “André Antoine and the Audience attending Ubu Roi.” Theater History Symposium of the South-East Theater Conference, Furman University, Greenville, SC, April 2011.
• “A Phantasmagoria Haunting Paris: Walter Benjamin and the Avenue de l’Opéra.” American Society for Theater Research, Annual Conference. Seattle, November 2010.
• "The Birds of Mars: The Carnival Destruction of the Phoenix Theater in 1617.” Theater History Symposium of the South-East Theater Conference, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, NC, April 2007.
• “Walking in the Unreal City: Analyses of Deborah Warner’s Angel Project.” Mid-America Theater Conference, Chicago, March 2006.
• “Cabbages, Kings, and the Offal Reality of Edward Hall’s Rose Rage.” International Federation for Theater Research, Washington, D.C., July 2005.
• “Revolution and Reason in Bertolt Brecht’s The Measures Taken and Heiner Müller’s The Task.” Comparative Drama Conference, Los Angeles, April 2005.
• “The All-Powerful Train Station: Getting to Mallarmé’s Symbolist Reality.” Mid-America Theater Conference, Kansas City, MO, March, 2005.

THE ADDING MACHINE St. Lawrence University 2014

This production of the 1923 American Expressionist play featured a giant mechanical turntable, an overall production design inspired by silent films of the 1920s, and a cast of 9 college students playing 45 separate roles.

MACHINAL Potsdam College Theatre 2002

Dramaturg and Producer for educational production of Sophie Treadwell’s Machinal. Different portions of the production guided by various directors. Directors include advanced directing students at Potsdam College, Members of the College Faculty, Freelance Guest Directors and myself. Working method inspired by Robert Benedetti.

A CRETACEOUS CONCERTO The Orchestra of Northern New York 2002

Event producer and director of staging/narrative for educational dinosaur-themed orchestral concert for young audiences. Concert included pre-show “Instrument Petting Zoo” where young music enthusiasts have an opportunity to try and play any instrument in the orchestra.

UBU THE KING Stonehill College 2001

A version of the fin-de-siècle French play that launched the avant-garde theatre of the 20thcentury, accompanied by a (sometimes) marching kazoo and theremin band, and played on a set mimicking a huge toilet.

MR SHAKESPEARE & MR PORTER Medicine Show Theatre Ensemble 2000

The dream musical: book by William Shakespeare, music and lyrics by Cole Porter. Abridged Shakespeare plays, played straight, featuring the characters in several musical numbers. Production features: Lear, Hamlet, Macbeth, and A Midsummer Night’s Dream.

PEEROPOLIS Alaska Theatre of Youth 1999

Based on the travels of Ibsen’s Peer Gynt, featuring a Houdini-esque Peer Gynt as the greatest escape artist of all time. Script developed in conjunction with the Alaska Theatre of Youth.

ON THE VERGE Colgate University Theatre 1999

An in-the-round & environmental presentation of Eric Overmeyer’s play performed with cast and audience in an oversized electrified sandbox. Production Design by Marjorie Bradley Kellogg.

GENESIS CIRCUS Walt Disney Modular Theatre 1997

Modern Medieval Mysteries performed on carnival trailers surrounding a central audience all under a “big top” of lights. Adaptation and additional material by Sebastian Trainor

BRAVE NEW WORLD Walt Disney Modular Theatre 1996

Director of “first unit” of Robert Benedetti’s walkthrough presentation of Aldous Huxley’s Brave New World. Production featured a cast of over 100 with audience tours departing every 14 minutes.
 

Directing Mentors:

Jules Aaron; Lucy Bailey; Herbert Blau; Craig Belknap; Robert Benedetti; Lou Florimonte; Frank Hauser, CBE; Jerome Kilty; Jacques Levy; Michael Mitchell; Lewis Palter; Howard Stein (Dramaturgy); Barbara Vann.