THEATER DIRECTOR / SDC
By the Bog of Cats...
Scholarly work
Since graduate school, my research has centered on Irish drama and the figure of the ghost, specifically issues of haunting, trauma, and the past. As a specialist in the area of theater and Irish studies, I have peer-reviewed both book proposals and articles. My work has been published in journals and collected volumes and presented at conferences.
Currently, my focus is on new Irish adaptations of Greek drama and the endurance of mothers in wartime. Always, I'm concerned with the women in these plays and the ways in which they navigate their worlds.
Education
UNIVERSITY OF MINNESOTA, Minneapolis - Department of Theatre Arts & Dance
Ph.D. Theatre Arts (Theatre Historiography)
Dissertation: “A Poetics of Ghosting in Contemporary Irish and Northern Irish Drama”
TRINITY COLLEGE, Dublin, Ireland - School of Creative Arts
M.Phil. in Irish Theatre and Film Studies
Thesis: “The UnConscious, The UnCanny and The UnDead: Tropes of Spectrality in
Contemporary Irish Drama”
THE CATHOLIC UNIVERSITY OF AMERICA, Washington, D.C. – Department of Drama
B.F.A. in Directing
Publications
Book Review of Staging Trauma: Bodies in Shadow in Ecumenica, ed. by Alan W. Sikes, volume 14, issue 2 (November 2021): 287-291.
“Fierce Words/Brutal Deeds: Abjection and Redemption in Enda Walsh’s bedbound” in The Theatre of Enda Walsh ed. by Ian Walsh/Mary Caulfield, Dublin: Carysfort Press, 2015: 65-76.
Book Review of Stewart Parker: A Life in New Hibernia Review, ed. by James Silas Rogers, volume 18, number 4 (Winter 2014): 151-153.
Book Review of Out of History: Essays on the Writings of Sebastian Barry in New Hibernia Review, ed. by James Silas Rogers, volume 13, number 1 (Spring 2009): 151-153.
“Ghosts of the Great War in The Steward of Christendom” in New Hibernia Review, volume 13, number 2, (Summer 2009): 110-124.
“Haunted Landscapes: Ping Chong’s East/West Productions” in Querying Difference in Theatre History, ed. by Ann Haugo and Scott Magelsson, Newcastle: Cambridge Scholars Press, 2007: 86-92.
Book Review of Sacred Play: Soul Journeys in Contemporary Irish Theatre, ed. by James Silas Rogers, New Hibernia Review, volume 10, number 1 (Spring 2006): 155-156.
“The Mythical and the Macabre: The Study of Greeks and Ghosts in the Shaping of the American premiere of By the Bog of Cats…” in The Theatre of Marina Carr: “before rules was made” ed. by Anna McMullan/Cathy Leeny, Dublin: Carysfort Press, 2003: 114-127.
Academic Engagements
Member, American Conference for Irish Studies (ACIS)
Member, Association for Theatre in Higher Education (ATHE)
Member, Irish Society for Theatre Research (ISTR)
Panel Chair, Irish Society for Theatre Research conference, Philadelphia (2024)
Peer Reviewer, book proposal, Peter Lang Publishers (2024)
Peer Reviewer, New Hibernia Review (2006-2019)
Peer Reviewer, Villanova Journal Review (2018)
Panel Chair, National and Midwest, American Conference for Irish Studies (numerous years)
Select Conferences
“…through a feminist lens: adapting and directing Much Ado About Nothing”
ATHE (Association for Theatre in Higher Education) National Conference
Working Group: Revising Yesterday to Reimagine Tomorrow: Why We Adapt Now
Atlanta, Georgia, August (upcoming), August 2024
“Suffering, Raging, Mothered: A Feminist Consciousness of Women in Wartime”
Irish Society for Theatre Research (ISTR) National Conference at Villanova
(Philadelphia, Pennsylvania), May 2024
Co-Host with Dr. Sean Farrell
Midwest Regional American Conference for Irish Studies
Theme: Drawing Lines: Inclusion and Exclusion in Ireland and the Irish Diaspora
(NIU/DeKalb, Illinois), October 2021
“Directing an Irish World Digitally”
American Conference for Irish Studies (ACIS) Midwest Regional
(NIU/DeKalb, Illinois), October 2021
“(RE) Claiming Immediacy: Derry’s Girls and Dolls as Virtual Theater
Panel Organizer American Conference for Irish Studies (ACIS) Midwest
(NIU/DeKalb, Illinois), October 2021
“Getting Started as an Actor in Chicago”
Panel Organizer Self-Employment in the Arts (SEA), 20th annual
(Columbia College, Chicago) February 2020
“Encountering the Uncanny: Women/Dying Bodies/Onstage”
American Conference for Irish Studies (ACIS) Midwest Regional
(Minneapolis, Minnesota), October 2018