After graduating from Trinity University with a double major in Drama and English, I earned a PhD at Stanford University, where I developed a strong belief that theory and practice go hand in hand.  I studied directing under Carl Weber of the Berliner Ensemble and had the opportunity to participate in workshops with important and inspiring performance groups from all over the world, including Anne Bogart’s SITI Company, the Workcenter of JerzyGrotowski and Thomas Richards, WlodimierzStaniewski’s group Gardzienice, and members of the Moscow Art Theatre.  These artists taught me the uniquely physical and emotional power of performance, a power often beyond words.  At the same time, by working with several exciting and insightful scholars at the top of their fields, I gained an intensive appreciation for the theoretical power of theatre.  Etymologically related to the Greek thea, or “sight,” both theatre and theory provide us a way of deeply seeing how the world works.  I devote my research, my directing, and my teaching to investigating how theatre can open the world up for our understanding and questioning in a uniquely live and embodied way. 

Teaching Philosophy

I teach theatre because no other medium offers students such a concrete and directly communal space through which to explore how action, perception, language, and culture interact.  I have taught classes in performance theory, theatre history, dramatic literature, and concrete acting practice here at Trinity as well as at Stanford University and summer programs held at Oxford University, UC Berkeley, and UCLA.  Each experience has deepened my respect for the medium’s ability to give students a way to understand theoretical concepts in concrete terms.  The process of creating a role or discovering a moment opens students to the boundaries between the self and other, between subject and world, while offering a unique laboratory for interrogating perception, power relations, and social dynamics.

I believe that the study and practice of theatre should increase a student’s humanity: her ability to empathize, to perceive what is around her, and to see clearly how both material and more mysterious forces shape society.  For this reason, I agree with Peter Brook that Stanislavski’s focus on humanity, Brecht’s clear vision of economic forces, and Artaud’s tortured vision “signaling through the flames” are all just as vital to the actor.  Whether I am teaching Modern Drama or Introduction to Acting, I always try to balance the work such that students both learn different approaches and gain a sense of theatre’s significance to culture and society.  More than anything, I want students to learn a hunger for exploring the heart of the medium, for expanding their imaginations and connections with others. 

Teaching and theatre are deeply important to me, so teaching theatre is particularly close to my heart.  I feel a strong commitment to future generations of artists, and I firmly believe that theatre’s basis in presence, interaction, and community can provide both majors and non-majors a rich laboratory for concretely playing out the relationships between text and performance, between knowledge and action, and between art and life.