Helping students discover plays visually and physically

The University of Portland (2019-2024)

Head of MFA in Directing (2019-2022)

Undergraduate Courses

Theatre History (Fall 2019, Spring 2021-2024)

Students in this course studied and researched global theatre history from its origins to the present day. The course affirmed how a working knowledge of the history of the theater enhances all areas of theatrical production and performance. (10-30 students)

Dramaturgy (Spring 2020-2024)

This course introduces students to the wide variety of tasks that a dramaturg might be called upon to complete in the modern American theatre. A variety of classroom projects prepares students to operate as literary managers and dramaturgs. (5-10 students)

Playwriting (Spring 2020, 2023, Fall 2023)

This course is dedicated to the first part of the process of playwriting: getting a play on to the page. No play in this class will be “finished,” (if any play ever really is…) rather the emphasis was on drafting and refining. Students in the course act as both playwrights and dramaturgs, writing their own work and responding to the work of their classmates. (10-15 students)

Theater for Social Change (Fall 2022)

This course investigated how theatrical practitioners across the globe have historically used their craft to comment on, intervene in, or start social change. In the first half of the course, students will read plays, research historical theatrical flash-points, and discover many different techniques of creating socially impactful theatre. In the second half of the course, we will move into a practice-based exploration of the ideas, resulting in a piece of socially impactful theatre. (10-15 students)

Race and Drama in the U.S. (Fall 2023)

This dramatic literature course introduced students to a diverse range of plays and performance theory to discover how the long legacy of racial theatre in the U.S. has reflected and shaped attitudes towards race and racialized groups. (10-20 students)

Shakespeare and Text (Fall 2021)

This research-based course approached Shakespeare from a theatrical viewpoint, learning skills that will be of special benefit to directors, dramaturgs, and actors approaching Shakespearean texts. Students in this course will explore the way in which the textual and editorial history of Shakespeare’s plays impacts modern performance. (5-10 students)

Renaissance Drama (Fall 2021)

In this two-part course, Students were immersed in the plays and theatrical culture of “Renaissance” England (1580-1630). In the second half of the course, we disrupt the standard narratives of “Renaissance Drama” and discover other “Renaissances” in the theatre, focusing on the work of women and historically under-represented communities. (10-20 students)

Classical Drama (Fall 2020)

This course focused on the Oedipus plays by Sophocles: Oedipus the King, Oedipus at Colonus, and Antigone. Students read and discussed the original plays alonside a variety of adaptations of these plays, all written in a different time and place with a distinct message from the playwright to their contemporary audience. In reading each adaptation, we considered the sociocultural landscape that birthed the adaptation as well as the literary and theatrical elements of the piece. (10-15 students)

Introduction to Fine Arts (Spring 2020, Fall 2021, Fall 2022, Spring 2024)

This core class, offered for all UP students focused on “aesthetic inquiry, imagination and the creative process.” This course taught students to engage in creative processes and recognize ways products of creative and artistic expression inform human experience. (25-30 students)

Graduate Seminars

Directing Shakespeare (Fall 2020)

This focused seminar brough MFA directors an in-depth exploration of one of Shakespeare’s plays, to be chosen by the students in the first week of class. In addition to a close reading and analysis of the text, students explored the textual, editorial, and performative history of the chosen play to prepare themselves to direct the piece. The course culminated in director’s pitch for the play as well as a cut performance version of the text. (5-10 students)

Hidden Figures: Women in Theatre History (Spring 2020)

Students in this course will be introduced to (or become more familiar with) many women who impacted theatrical history and yet are rarely discussed in traditional surveys of theatre history. We read plays by female writers and learned about the life and theatrical work of female actors, managers, and directors. (5-10 students)

Script Analysis (Fall 2019)

Students in this course read plays closely with special attention to structure and style, investigate the key ideas of major dramatic theories, and engage with performance traditions from a range of periods. The central focus of the course is in using play analysis to create dynamic stage performances. (5-10 students)

University of Nevada, Las Vegas (2013-2019)

Director of the MA in Theatre

Recipient of the College of Fine Arts Teacher of the Year (2016)

Graduate Seminars

Shakespeare And… (Spring 2015)

In this graduate level seminar, students learn and practice a variety of methodologies to enable them to interpret, analyze, and embody Shakespeare’s texts. 15-20 students.

Research Methods (Fall 2014, 2017)

Students in this class learn a variety of research and writing methods to apply to the study of theatre production and history. 10-20 students.

Adaptation and Postcolonialism (Spring 2014)

In this graduate level seminar, students read a variety of adaptations of western canonical texts by playwrights across the world. Students learn to read these plays, and the originals, through the lens of postcolonialist theory. 15-20 students.

Graduate and Undergraduate Courses

Dramaturgy in the American Theatre (Spring 2015-2018)

This course introduces students to the wide variety of tasks that a dramaturg might be called upon to complete in the modern American theatre. A variety of classroom projects prepares students to operate as literary managers and dramaturgs. 10-20 students.

Script Analysis II (Fall 2013, 2015-2017)

In this required course, undergraduate and graduate level theatre students read plays closely with special attention to structure and style, investigate the key ideas of major dramatic theories, and engage with performance traditions from a range of periods and geographies. 25-35 students.

Theatre History I (Fall 2013-2017)

This required course for undergraduate and graduate level theatre students covers the history of global performance traditions from oral and ritual performance to the mid-nineteenth century and the advent of Realism and Naturalism. 30-40 students.

Theatre History II (Spring 2014-2018)

This required course for undergraduate and graduate level theatre students covers the history of performance across the globe from the mid-nineteenth century to the present day. 30-40 students.

Theatre Theories (Fall 2014)

Students in this course investigate the key ideas of major dramatic theories and engage with performance traditions from a range of periods and geographies. 25-35 students.

Undergraduate Courses

Script Analysis I (Spring 2014)

In this required course, undergraduate level theatre students read plays closely with special attention to structure and style with an emphasis on applying formalist analysis to the dramatic literature of a diverse range of periods and geographies. 25-35 students.

Women Playwrights (Fall 2013)

In this undergraduate level course students are introduced to the writings of American female playwrights, theatrical conventions, performance theories, and theatrical activity as well as the history of women in America and the emergence of the women’s suffrage and feminist movements. 20-30 students.

University of Washington (2009-2013)

Graduate and Undergraduate Courses

Spanish Drama and Play Production (Teaching Assistant: Winter 2011)

The course includes historical study of Spanish drama as well as performance practice and culminates in a full production of a Spanish Golden Age play. Production and course in Spanish. 15-20 students.

Undergraduate Courses

Play Analysis and Styles (Instructor of record: Summer and Fall 2011, Winter 2012, Spring 2013)

This course in script analysis for drama majors covers period styles for plays from the classical theatre to postmodernism. 15-30 students.

Critical Analysis of Theatre (Interim Instructor: Winter 2013)

This course introduces students to major theoretical methods for analyzing drama and performance. By applying the theories to dramatic literature, students investigate how each of these methods can contribute to contemporary theatre-making and spectatorship. 15-30 students.

Theatrical Ways of Seeing (Developer: Fall 2012; Instructor of Record: Winter 2013)

This new online course, offered for the first time in 2013, introduces students to a series of recorded lectures and videos on the history and production of world theatre; students participate in online discussion forums and quizzes. 50-100 students.

Introduction to Drama (Lead Teaching Assistant: Fall 2010, Spring 2011; Teaching Assistant: Fall 2009, Winter 2010)

Lectures on theatre history and dramatic literature are supplemented by section activities devoted to developing the skills to think critically and practically about drama. The course includes discussion, writing and theatrical practice. Lecture and quiz section format. 150-200 students.

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