Scholar
Education
Ph.D., Theater Studies, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, 2025
Dissertation: "A Fairly Fabulous History of Chicago Queer Theatre"
Graduate Minor: Queer Studies
M.A., Theater Studies, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, 2018
MFA, Playwriting, Actors Studio Drama School at New School, NY, 2002
BFA, School of Drama, Illinois Wesleyan University, 1988
Teaching Experience
Lead Teaching Assistant, University of Illinois
Courses: Introduction to Theatre (2024–25), Broadway Musicals (2022–24), Theatre Histories (2019–22), Dramatic Literature (2020–21)
Playwriting and Performance
Between Us (2021)
Church (2020)
Coasters (2021)
Bedfellows (2016)
What Friends Do (2002)
Dramaturgy & Professional Experience
Lead Dramaturg, Illinois Theatre (2023–25)
Production/Event Coordinator, River Center Adler Theater (2002–07)
Production Coordinator, Navy Pier Chicago (1997–99)
Service and Committees
IATSE Local 85 Education Committee (2022–Present)
Alpha Lambda Alumni Advisory Board (2002–Present)
My scholarly pursuits have deepened my understandings of theatre spaces and spaces that cultivate performance. In the first example, I critique the choices of a director to strip away realism from the real world locations set in the opera Tosca. In the second I examine the performances allowed in spaces designated as gay bars in Chicago by both the inhabitants of the environment as well as the effect of the space on the inhabitants.
A Tosca too Far
“A Tosca too Far or Restraining Regietheater” examines Calixto Bieito’s Tosca produced at Opera Noske to illuminate the pitfalls of the practice of regietheater in opera.This practice is not foreign in the sphere of theater -in fact a production of Shakespeare using classical/original staging and design concepts would now more than likely be considered positively avant-garde. As Opera (capitalization intentional) moves into this age of re-examination and re-interpretation of the canon I believe that the role of the dramaturg in opera needs to be expanded upon within the production team.
Mapping Performances in Gay Spaces
This paper explores the spectrum of spaces in which a gay identity is performed from the neighborhood bar to the shadowy spaces of sexuality. This exploration will encompass the performances of self-identity of not only the bodies within these areas but also of the spaces themselves as they attract segments of the population to them.
Performance Analysis: Beautiful Thing
This paper critiques the twentieth anniversary production of Beautiful Thing at the Arts Theatre in London.