Research & Publications
Over the years I have presented my work at the Association for Theatre in Higher Education conference, American Society for Theatre Research conference, Comparative Drama Conference, Performance Philosophy, the National Popular Culture Association and American Culture Association Conference, and the Mid America Theatre Conference.
My research is interdisciplinary in nature, and I am always curious to see the ways in which the things we learn about become richly more interesting when we pull in lenses from other fields. While my background and education have been in theatre, my liberal arts education and my own interests have resulted in published work that crosses paths with science, history, politics, philosophy, cultural studies, and more.
I am currently working on my second monograph with Routledge, The Monsters We Become: Performing Monsters on Stage, Screen, and Beyond. The work will look at various iconic monster roles performed by an assortment of actors, including silent monsters like some depictions of Frankenstein's Monster and infamous slashers, verbal monsters like the Phantom of the Opera and Freddy Krueger, zombies and their unique requirements for group acting, monsters that are not white men and what that means for acting opportunities, and finally look at those performing monstrous characters at haunted attractions and the reappearance of actors at HorrorCons discussing their infamous horror roles. By evaluating monsters under a lens of serious performative work, the book considers the particularities of monstrous characters and their demands on actors, utilizes Stanislavskian analysis to demonstrate the work possible when undertaking such a role, and reflects on process and creation of these roles as actors have shared in interviews. Considering such monster characters, the unparalleled performative challenges and joys of such acting roles is evident, and new meanings emerge that intersect with the cultural, sociological, and mythical as we consider a monster fully embodied and performed with commitment.
Synopses of Published Work
- My book The Theatre of Nuclear Science: Weapons, Power, and the Scientists Behind it All. The Theatre of Nuclear Science theoretically, culturally, and historically explores theatrical representations of nuclear science to reconsider a science that can have consequences beyond imagination. The book ties many plays, museum exhibits, film performances, and other medium representations to the ideas of phenomenology, answering what theatre uniquely offers in reexamining a future of nuclear threats.
- My essay "The Imposed Limits of Embodied Knowledge" will appear in Theatre Topics in Spring 2024, where I discuss having Long COVID as a theatre artist and teacher. https://muse.jhu.edu/pub/1/article/920472
- I was interviewed for the Spotify Podcast Not Past It for the episode: "Frankenstein's Teen Mom" appearing October 26, 2022. I also shared resources and materials with podcast researchers from my M.A. thesis. Link on homepage.
- My essay "Changes," which explores making academic theatre during the pandemic, appears in Theatre Survey Fall 2021 in "Notes from the Field: Remembering Times of Crisis." https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/theatre-survey/article/abs/changes/7AAF81B3FE35D6F5EAF948F7606FC1F7
- My article "Women in science: Theatrical representations and the realities they mirror" was published with the Journal of Science & Popular Culture in Spring 2020 and examined the historical ways women were viewed in scientific professions and following scientific pursuits. The article drew comparisons between Rosalind Franklin in Anna Ziegler's Photograph 51 and a myriad of women characters in Shelagh Stephenson's An Experiment with an Air Pump with the realities women face in the sciences still today. https://intellectdiscover.com/content/journals/10.1386/jspc_00009_1#metrics_content
- My article "Climate Change and Inescapable Present" was published in Performance Philosophy in 2018 -https://www.performancephilosophy.org/journal and explored climate change and its relationship to time by assessing how theatre, with its own phenomenologically unique qualities of time and experience, has portrayed these tensions through plays. PDF also available below.
- My article "Buffalo Bill: Nebraskans' Performative Act of Imagination and Identity," appeared in Texas Theatre Journal in 2017 and considered how state identity seeks attachment to notable national figures, despite Buffalo Bill being a man with connections across the country. PDF available below.
- "Frankenstein Performed: The Monster Who Will Not Die” appeared in The Popular Culture Studies Journal, and was a Michael T. Marsden Award Winner. My article on Frankenstein has been cited by other scholars in their books and articles, and continues to be consistently downloaded across the world. Tied to my award winning Master's Thesis, the article looks at why we keep returning to the story of Frankenstein and how the story is flexible material for our projected fears. https://www.mpcaaca.org/pcsj-volume-2-numbers-1-2
- My essay, "Dystopian Drama: Imagining Science Without Limitations” appears in the anthology The Age of Dystopia: One Genre, Our Fears and Our Future (2016) analyzed a few plays that portrayed an imaginative world where science had clearly wrought dystopian like conditions.
- I have also published book reviews in SDC Journal, The Journal of American Culture and Theatre Survey. Click the academia.edu link to see some samples of my published work.
From July 2014 to August 2016 I worked for the Journal of Dramatic Theory and Criticism where I served as Managing Editor and handled subscriptions.
| buffalo_bill_nebraska.pdf |
| Climate Change and the Inescapable Present |
