As a Fulbright Specialist, independent artist, and solo traveler, I am curious, eager, and driven to learn about ways in which other cultures experience public lands, natural spaces, and eco-systemic challenges, and look for paths for collective creative inspiration and action. I’ve been honored to work on international as well as national projects around issues of environmental arts, belonging, and arts integration.
Recent Projects:
Guest lecturer: (Hi)stories of the American West
Pädagogische Hochschule Vorarlberg Feldkirch, Austria | Apr 2023
Curriculum development and guest lecture for graduate students exploring revisionist approaches to traditional presentations of American expansion through the lens of contemporary drama.
Environmental and Climate Justice Theater: New Forms for New Solutions (Fulbright Specialist, Austria)
Visiting Scholar/Resident Artist, University of Graz Austria | Oct-Nov 2021
Curriculum development in arts integration in literature, ecocriticism, climate change theater, American Studies and Intermediality. Artistic Direction for the Climate Change Theater Action Festival performances and community discussions.
Visiting Scholar, University of Vienna Vienna, Austria | Nov 2021
Guest workshop in contemporary English drama
Visiting Scholar/Guest Artist, Pädagogische Hochschule Vorarlberg Feldkirch, Austria | Nov 2021
Curriculum Development for teachers college in arts integration and Artistic Direction for the Climate Change Theater Action Festival. performances and community discussions.
Guest Artist, GIBS Bi-lingual School Graz, Austria | Nov 2021
Curriculum design and workshop facilitation for secondary school educators and students with a focus on youth development through theater.
Guest director/curriculum specialist, Try Theatre Croatia | Sept 2021
Supporting the mission to spread the transformational impact of theatre by engaging, inspiring, and empowering young people through class and curriculum development, strategic planning, and direct instruction. Try Theatre has since expanded to multiple sites in 4 countries.
Faculty Member, Spoleto Study Abroad Italy | Aug 2020, postponed
Shakespeare master classes and writing mentor for cultural immersion course.
Bring a creative lens to your social justice work, and a social justice lens to your creative work
Strengthen the fabric of civic life, elevate issues, and promote the health and well-being of vulnerable populations through creative projects. My work is dedicated to realizing the potential of theater to develop awareness of self and society, to build and strengthen community, to foster self-responsibility and belonging, and to empower action.
I produce and direct professional, community, and student theatrical events, and I offer assistance to education institutions and educators to address curriculum goals, teaching the language of theater and using that language to challenge, engage, and motivate students in the learning process.
Collaboration starts with your community's needs and goals. Please contact me to discuss the ways in which theater can be a vehicle for social change in your community!
More about my background
Building on my decades as an artist-in-residence with classrooms, schools and colleges, and professional development programs, I partner with international organizations to share strategies and best practices, and/or to lead programs using theater and literature to advance academic and social goals. I collaborate with educators to look at various models of text analysis and comprehension, physical and vocal training, and exploration of character and theme.
I am passionate about integrating my artistic practice with my role as an environmental activist. I work with local playwrights and national initiatives such as Climate Change Theater Action and The Arctic Play Cycle to nurture a new theater of eco-systems, uplift marginalized voices around issues of climate concern, and spark multi-generational and cross-discipline conversation. I strongly believe we need more language to describe both the genre and the realities of environmental justice if we are to expand our collective imagination towards hope and inspire others towards change. Using the tools of theater, I have worked with both youth and adults to document what's happening in rural or marginalized communities and illuminate their stories in urban centers. Through both classic and contemporary texts, I use theater to explore identity and gender, encouraging individuals to try out roles and relationships, emotional expression and risk-taking in a safe space. My practice both celebrates cultural traditions and works towards expanding culture to be more inclusive and authentic in celebrating the individuals who inhabit it.
As both a professional theater director and arts educator, I believe in integrating professionals and amateurs to create dynamic, exciting, immediate and resonant art. Making theater demands collaboration, and exposes underlying assumptions, tensions, and language barriers that can stay hidden or glossed over in regular daily life. The collaboration of moving a script to stage demands asking difficult questions in a language everyone can understand. Because of this, the work of theater is multilayered – developing common language, risking failure, braving the difficult questions, exposure to new and uncomfortable situations, and expressing deeply held values.
Culture in general, and theater in particular, is important and inspirational: it ignites curiosity, creativity, critical thinking, and connection to other people and the places around us. Theater is social work for individuals and groups. Theater is coalition-building, partnering partner with municipal projects, creatively addressing internal issues like workplace morale, or external goals like making public services more user-friendly. Theater can literally save lives by giving people voice and can shift cultural norms by centering marginalized stories.