EDUCATION

Ph.D.,Theatre Studies, University of Kansas, 2020

Dissertation: “Interrogating War Stories: Dramaturgical Encounters with National Trauma”

Committee: Jane Barnette (Chair), Mechele Leon, Rebecca Rovit, Nicole Hodges Persley, Ani Kokobobo

 

M.A., Theatre Studies, University of Houston, 2012

Thesis: “A Place of Crime and Pardon: Representations of Terrorism on the Post-Soviet Stage”

Committee: Robert B. Shimko (Chair), Keith Byron Kirk, Rene Bellwied

 

B.F.A., Theatre with an emphasis in Acting, Wayne State University, 2007     

 

B.A., Slavic Studies with an emphasis in Russian Language and Culture, Wayne State University, 2007 

 

Additional Training:

Russian Language, Moscow State University, 2006-2007

Acting and Theatre History, Moscow Art Theatre, 2002 & 2003

 

ACADEMIC APPOINTMENTS

Lecturer in Performance Studies & Dramaturgy, School of Theatre & Dance, 2019-2022

University of Houston, Houston, TX                                                                            

Undergraduate Courses: American Drama, Structures and Genres, Introduction to Performance Studies, Dramaturgy in Practice

Graduate Courses: Introduction to Performance Studies, Dramatic Theory and Criticism, Theatre and Trauma, 20th Century Russian Drama, Theatre and Postmodernism

 

Visiting Assistant Professor of Performance Studies, School of Theatre & Dance, 2016-2017

University of Houston, Houston, TX                                                                            

Undergraduate Courses: American Drama, Structures and Genres, Introduction to Performance Studies

Graduate Courses: Introduction to Performance Studies, Dramatic Theory and Criticism, Theatre and Trauma

 

Adjunct Faculty, School of Professional and Continuing Studies, 2016

Springfield College, Houston, TX

Course: Theatre and Drama in Expressing Social Justice and Social Change

 

Graduate Teaching Assistant, Department of Theatre, 2011-2015

University of Kansas, Lawrence, KS                                                                                

As Instructor of Record: Acting I, Introduction to Theatre

As Teaching Assistant: Introduction to Theatre, Theatre History II

As a Graduate Research Consultant: The Actor’s Instrument

 

Teaching Assistant, School of Theatre & Dance, 2009-2011

University of Houston, Houston, TX

As Teaching Assistant: Introduction to Theatre, Theatre History I: Ancient Greece through 1642, Theatre History II: 1642-present

 

PUBLICATIONS IN PEER-REVIEWED JOURNALS

Book review: “Forms of Conflict: Contemporary Wars on the British Stage by Sara Soncini.” Theatre Research International vol. 43 (2018). 

 

CONFERENCE ACTIVITIES

Round Table: Rehearsing and (Re) Forming Approaches to Script Analysis: Pedagogical Frameworks and Inclusive Practice. Association for Theatre in Higher Education (ATHE), 5-8 August 2021.

 

Paper: “‘Besieged by Other Centers’: Dramaturgy, (Counter) Narrative, and the Aftermath of National Trauma,” Practice/Production Symposium, Mid-America Theatre Conference (MATC), 16-19 March 2017.

 

Paper: “Transnational Dramaturgy: Nina Vance, Galina Volchek, and the Remounting of a Soviet Play in the United States,” Translation, Adaptation, and Dramaturgy Working Group, International Federation for Theatre Research (FIRT/IFTR), 28 July-1 August 2014.

 

Dramaturg: Kitchen Sink, Playwriting Symposium, Mid-America Theatre Conference (MATC), 7-10 March 2013.

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GUEST LECTURES & INVITED TALKS

Guest Lecture: “Practical Dramaturgy.” Rice University, 29 May 2020.

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Guest Lecture: “On The Other Shore,” University of Kansas, 16 April 2014.

 

Guest Lecture: “An Impure Bloodline: Dracula and The Origin of the Vampire,” University of Kansas, 16 October 2013.

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Invited Talk: “Theatre that Does Not Play: Documenting and Memorializing Beslan School Number One,” Center for Russian, Eastern European, and Eurasian Studies Brownbag Series, University of Kansas, 22 October 2013.

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Guest Lecture: “Performance and the Everyday,” University of Kansas, February 2013.

 

Guest Lecture: “The Creature Called Dramaturg,” University of Kansas, November 2012.

 

ACADEMIC SERVICE

National:

Co-Managing Editor, Journal of Dramatic Theory and Criticism, 2014-2015. 

 

College:

Kathrine G. McGovern College of the Arts Undergraduate Studies Committee, University of Houston, 2021

 

Departmental:

Acting Head of the M.A. Theatre Studies Program, University of Houston, 2020-2022

 

Coordinator of the B.F.A Playwriting and Dramaturgy Program, University of Houston, 2019-2022.

 

New Faculty Search Committee, Department of Theatre, University of Kansas, 2012- 2013.

 

University Theatre Committee, Department of Theatre, University of Kansas, 2012.

 

Theatre Curriculum Committee, Department of Theatre, University of Kansas, 2011- 2013.

 

Graduate Supervision:

Chair. Jessica Ellison, “What's the Tea? Making a Case Black Queer Theatre,” Kathrine G. McGovern College of the Arts, School of Theatre & Dance, University of Houston, April 2022.

 

Chair. Luke Evans, “See No Queer, Hear No Queer, Feel No Queer: Affects, Emotion and Subjectivity in Queer Spectating, ” Kathrine G. McGovern College of the Arts, School of Theatre & Dance, University of Houston, April 2022.

 

Reader. Chelsea Taylor, “Impossible Stage Directions,” Kathrine G. McGovern College of the Arts, School of Theatre & Dance, University of Houston, April 2017.

 

Reader. Brien Bianchi, “The Table as Stage,” School of Theatre & Dance, University of Houston, May 2017.

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AWARDS AND HONORS

Joseph R. Roach Dissertation Research Award, University of Kansas, 2014.

 

School of the Arts Travel Award, University of Kansas, 2013 & 2014.

 

Kuhlke Russian Theatre Fellowship, University of Kansas, 2011 & 2012.

 

PROFESSIONAL AFFILIATIONS

International Federation of Theatre Research                                                             

Translation, Adaptation, and Dramaturgy Working Group, 2014-present.

 

Literary Managers and Dramaturgs of the Americas, 2011-present.

 

LANGUAGES

English: native

Russian: proficient (speaking, reading, writing)