Joanne started following the work of 2 people.
Joanne changed a CV, an About section.
Joanne Solar eclipses.
Joanne Have just finished reading an interesting text by Colin Calloway: White People, Indians, and Highlanders - it's gotten me thinking about a few different essays I'm working on....
Thesis Title: "Performing Spaces in Scotland: The Theatre of Circulating Acts and Localizing Politics"
About
This past academic year I was the Theatre Lecturer and Director at The Behrend College, Penn State Erie. In the fall I taught Intro to Theatre, Fundamentals of Acting, and a Production Practicum. For spring 2012 I developed an Environmental Art class that I taught alongside the Acting and Production courses. Prior to Behrend College, I taught courses at Macalester College, Augsburg College, the University of Minnesota, and Colorado College.
My research to date has looked at national performances of Scottishness and the theatricality of Scottish politics. I question and explore the spatial dramaturgies of performance (ecological, theatrical, & everyday) in touring productions and a city-wide pageant in the early 19th c. as well as recent uses of theatre in national politics in the early 21st c.
More broadly I am interested in theatre historiography, cultural policy, developments in environmental performance & sustainable architecture, and site-specific theatre. I am intrigued by performances such as Tiger Lion Art's 2010 production, Nature: A Walking Play, that fuse together literary works (for example, Emerson & Thoreau), dynamic storytelling that incorporates the physical setting of the production (such as the Minnesota Landscape Arboretum), and theatrical elements (singing, dancing, provocative staging, etc.). I am becoming more and more interested in the ecological and environmental politics in theatre (staged in a traditional venue or elsewhere). I have spent the last several years becoming more familiar with literature in ecocriticism, sustainable design, and nature writing.
I have presented papers at the American Society for Theatre Research Conference, Performance Studies international Conference, Mid-America Theatre Conference, and the International Conference on the Arts in Society. I have an article about the Scottish Parliament's Festival of Politics (adapted from one of my dissertation chapters) in the June 2011 issue of Contemporary Theatre Review.
I also consider theatre directing not only an artistic outlet but a critical part of my pedagogy. This year I directed Bertolt Brecht's The Caucasian Chalk Circle (April 2012) and Dario Fo's Elizabeth: Almost By Chance a Woman, (November 2011). I have also directed Elmer Rice's The Adding Machine at Colorado College (2009) and David Greig's Outlying Islands at the Xperimental Theatre at the University of Minnesota (2007). My approach to directing includes bringing my own dramaturgical research to rehearsal and working with actors and designers to explore embodied, visual, textual, and aural ways to develop and materialize a central production concept. I am especially aware of (and hopefully attentive to) the specific material dynamics of a given performance space and staging configuration; I work with my actors to experiment with this configuration and then to make very focused decisions regarding movement, gesture, vocal tone, and interaction based on these varying physical factors. In 2011 I took part in ATHE's New Play Development Workshop as a dramaturg. I worked on Jesse Waldinger's 10-minute play, The Loyalist, that revolves around the Scottish heroine, Flora Macdonald.
I earned my PhD in Theatre Arts (Theatre Historiography) from the University of Minnesota (2009), and my Master's in English Literature (program entitled "Nation, Writing, Culture") at the University of Edinburgh (2003). Prior to that, I earned my BA in English Literature & Theatre Arts at the University of Pittsburgh (2002).
