THE 15TH NATIONAL SYMPOSIUM OF THEATER IN ACADEME
Theater and Social Justice: Race, Gender, and Identity Symposium co-directors: Sandhya Narayanan and Domnica Radulescu
APRIL 1–2 WASHINGTON AND LEE UNIVERSITY
All presentations and performances will be virtual and will be live streamed for in person attendance for Washington and Lee University faculty and students in Stackhouse Theater on April 1st and in the Chavis Board Room on April 2nd.
Register in advance:
go.wlu.edu/theater-symposium
After registering, you will receive a confirmation email containing information about joining the meeting.
Schedule of Events THURSDAY, APRIL 1
FRIDAY, APRIL 2
10–10:30 Welcoming and opening remarks — Lena Hill, Professor of English, Dean of the College and Domnica Radulescu, founding director of the Symposium, Professor of Comparative Literature.
10:00–10:15 Opening remarks for day 2 — Sandhya Narayanan, co-director of the 15th Theater Symposium, Visiting Assistant Professor of Anthropology, Washington and Lee University
10:30–11:30 “The Power of the Play: Promoting Equity and Health Education through Community-Based Theatre.” Jeffrey Pufhal, UF Center for Arts in Medicine, University of Florida
10:15–11:15 “Ethnographic Theater Making: Multimodal Alchemy and Possibilities for Social Change,” Debra Vidali, Associate Professor of Anthropology, Emory University
11:45–12:45 “The Scholarship” — a protest play inspired by Black Lives Matter and the Rhodes Must Fall movement. Cristina Bejan, Professor of History, Metropolitan State University of Denver, and James Brunt, actor, poet-spoken word artist, Denver, Colorado
11:30–12:30 “Getting Caught: A Collaboration on and off Stage between Theater and Anthropology.” Cristiana Giordano, Associate Professor of Anthropology, UC Davis; and Greg Pierotti, Assistant Professor of Theater, University of Arizona
12:45–1:45 Lunch Break 1:45–2:45 “Music as a Gateway to Nature” — an eco-justice performance. Benjamin Mirin, Center for Conservation Bioacoustics, Cornell University 3:00–4:00 “Carousel of Women’s Voices” — reading and discussion of three feminist plays by Jennifer Tremblay, playwright, editor and director, Camp littéraire Félix, Montreal, Canada 4:30–6:00 “Laughing Matters” — a theater for social justice workshop using comedy. Norma Bowles, founding artistic Director, Fringe Benefits Company 6:15–7:45 “The Earth Is Speaking” — Performance of scenes and monologues about trauma and healing, directed by Carol Campbell, theater artist and educator, Germanna Community College, and Domnica Radulescu, playwright, Professor of Comparative Literature, Washington and Lee University. With: Carol Campbell, Linda Dawson, Sandhya Narayanan, Taylor Valencia, Rose Yao
12:30–1:30 Lunch Break 1:30–2:30 “Unpack” — a memory play presentation and interactive workshop by Catalina Florescu, Pace University, New York 2:45–3:45 “‘Chez moi:’Testimonies of Questioning Belonging” — a documentary film presentation. Celine Okome, Class of 2021, Washington and Lee University 4:00–5:30 “When Mosquitos Come Marching in” — staged reading of play by Mohamed Kamara, Associate Professor of French and Africana Studies, Washington and Lee University; directed and curated by Michael Hill, Professor of English and Africana Studies, Washington and Lee University. With: Kamryn Godsey ’23, Betelihim Haile ’22, Iyanna Hartman ’22, Michael Hill, Mohamed Kamara, Amber Morrison ’23 5:45–7:15 “The Violence That Binds Us: Stories of Domestic Abuse Survivors,” staged reading of play by Stephanie Sandberg, Assistant Professor of Theater, playwright, Washington and Lee University. With: Tori Danner, Sam Camp, Gulshirin Dubash, Anna MacLean Araya, Beth Links, Piper Blouin Foley-Schultz
Participants Biographies Anna MacLean Araya is a community artist (expressive dance, drama and voice), facilitator and Massage Therapist who follows her love of creativity in community. She strives to make professional art welcoming and accessible for people of all ages and abilities. Originally from Halifax Nova Scotia, she is now based in Toronto as an allied-artist with the integrated arts company, Picasso PRO and has been a member and creative collaborator with L’Arche Daybreak since 2006. Anna MacLean Araya plays Sarah
Cristina A. Bejan, Ph.D. (Lady Godiva) is a historian, theatre artist, and poet. A (Rhodes) and Fulbright scholar, she teaches history at Metropolitan State University of Denver. Bejan was educated at Oxford and Northwestern Universities. She authored 64 articles on sites in Africa and Europe for the US Holocaust Memorial Museum. This past year she published a history book Intellectuals and Fascism in Interwar Romania, and poetry collection Green Horses on the Walls. A playwright and spoken word artist, her creative work has appeared in the US, UK, Romania and Vanuatu.
Norma Bowles, Artistic Director of Fringe Benefits Theatre, has conducted residencies in Theatre for Social Justice, acting, commedia dell’arte and new play development with community organizations, universities, and theatres throughout the US, as well as in Australia, Brazil, Canada, Spain and the UK. She edited both of Fringe Benefits’ play anthologies, Cootie Shots and Friendly Fire, and co-edited Staging Social Justice: Collaborating to Create Activist, an anthology of essays about Fringe Benefits’ collaborative devising process. Bowles is a recipient of the Association for Theatre in Higher Education’s first “Award for Leadership in Community-Based Theatre and Civic Engagement.” (Please see www.cootieshots.org.)
James Brunt (Brunt Poetry) is an actor born and raised in Denver, Colorado, who loves to create anything that will make his heart beat faster and blood boil up. A graduate of Metropolitan State University of Denver, he is a prominent force in the Colorado spoken world and theatre scenes. He is an educator in the arts: teaching improv through the Black Actors Guild. Brunt is also a collaborating artist with Theatre 29, Rainbow Militia, Bucharest Inside the Beltway, and many other Denver and Boulder arts groups. He also has a partnership with Second Star to the Right Children’s Books.
—2—
Sam Camp is an actor and writer with an MFA from California Institute of the Arts. His recent roles include Fight Song, The Unhappy Creature, Memories of a Stranger, and The Cloister. He is currently working on The Violence that Binds Us by Stephanie Sandberg and two of his own puppetry/toy theatre pieces. Sam Camp plays John and Matthew and is the Production Manager for the entire symposium
Carol Campbell’s commitment to education, broadcasting and performance is framed in human rights pursuits. Carol dedicates much of her activism through several mediums. Her work includes award-winning stage plays aimed at ending gender oppression. In 2011 she published a book that accompanied her meditation oracle, Crone Stones. Her work in broadcasting spans over ten years, including weekly contributions to the hit Sirius-XM broadcast, Broadminded and more recently, Carol launched a terrestrial radio show in 2016, Music Alley, a part talk/part musical hour focusing on the local music scene and the musicians who have social impact. Carol teaches at Germanna Community College. She travels regionally as a lecturer and a post-show dramaturg, integrating performance with discussion of critical issues, including dating violence and sexual assault. Co-author and director of The Earth Is Speaking. Carol Campbell plays Selene and Coratess
Tori Danner spent 23 years of her life in the Middle East. She focused her last 3 years there in the entertainment industry. Starting off with voiceover work and story telling for local radio stations, she eventually landed a position as a talk show host on a National Television Station. She earned her Master’s Degree in Acting from CalArts prestigious Graduate Acting program in 2019. She most recently performed as Mark Antony with Warriors for Peace, Kiss by Guillermo Calderon, The End The End The End... at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival and Hamlet; playing the role of Ophelia. Through her talent and unique story, Tori hopes to encourage people to shirk the certainty of their comfort zone and pursue their passions. Tori Danner plays Carrie and Shawmaika
Linda Dawson has spent many years interested in personal and collective trauma, and how it manifests in our current climate. This led her to a decade plus interest in yoga as a healing modality. Linda also trained as an Alexander Technique teacher with an emphasis on trauma healing. She currently works with children at a local daycare, and is furthering her education with a nursing degree. She is a fervent believer in the arts and creativity as a healing force in the world, and is excited to work with this passionate and talented group of women. Linda Dawson plays Tiamat and Rita —3—
Gulshirin Dubash is an actor, director and theatre educator originally from Bombay, India. Dubash earned her Bachelor of Arts in Theatre and Anthropology from Beloit College and her Master of Fine Arts in EnsembleBased Physical Theatre from the Dell’Arte School of Physical Theatre. She works within the pedagogy of theatre practitioner Jacques Lecoq, and is proficient in physical theatre, commedia dell’Arte, melodrama, clown, street theatre, and devised work. Dubash also has a strong interest in Eastern theatrical forms and the anthropology of theatre. In 2002, she began studying Japanese Noh theatre with Rick Emmert (Kita School) and the late Mitsuo Kama (Ko School) at the Noh Training Project. She joined the only Englishlanguage Noh company, Theatre Nohgaku, in 2008. She has also worked with Clowns without Borders. Gulshirin Dubash plays Joanie
Dr. Catalina Florina Florescu earned her Ph.D. in Medical Humanities from Purdue University. She teaches at Pace University in New York and organizes a festival of new plays at Jersey City Theater Center. She works on an edited collection under contract with Routledge, Female Playwrights and Intersectionality in Contemporary Romanian Theater. For more information, visit http://www.catalinaflorescu.com/
Piper Blouin Foley-Schultz is an actress, writer, and director. After receiving her B.F.A. from Virginia Commonwealth University, she practiced her art in New York and Los Angeles for a number of years. She currently resides in Lexington, Virginia where she is pursuing a master’s degree in clinical mental health counseling. Piper Blouin Foley-Schultz plays Vicky
Cristiana Giordano is Associate Professor of Anthropology at UC Davis. Her research addresses the politics of migration in Europe through the lens of ethno-psychiatry and its radical critique of psychiatric, legal, and moral categories of inclusion/exclusion of foreign others. She is the author of Migrants in Translation. Caring and the Logics of Difference in Contemporary Italy (University of California Press, 2014), Winner of the Boyer Prize for Contributions to Psychoanalytic Anthropology, Society for Psychological Anthropology, 2017. Giordano’s other line of inquiry involves finding new ways of rendering ethnographic material into written texts and/or artistic forms. She has been collaborating with playwright and director Greg Pierotti on new methodologies at the interstice of the social sciences and performance.
—4—
Lena Hill was appointed Dean of the College in 2018. She is a Professor of English and Africana Studies. She received her bachelor’s from Howard University, her Ph.D. from Yale University, and completed postdoctoral work at Duke University. Lena’s scholarship and teaching focus on African American literature and visual culture, and she is known internationally as a scholar of Ralph Ellison. In addition to publishing numerous articles and essays, she has authored and co-edited three books. Lena and her husband, Professor Michael Hill, have two children: an 18-year-old daughter, Caitlyn, and a 13-year-old son, Michael Carl.
Michael Hill is Professor and Interim Chair of Africana Studies at Washington and Lee University. He received his B.A. from Howard University and his M.A. and Ph.D. from Harvard University. His research analyzes post-World War II African American experience with particular attention to the ways that black individuals pursue excellence within white institutions. His book The Ethics of Swagger: Prizewinning African American Novels, 1977-1993 came out in 2013. Along with his wife, W&L Dean of the College Lena Hill, he co-edited Invisible Hawkeyes: African Americans at the University of Iowa During the Long Civil Rights Era (2016). Right now, he is working on Weathervanes of Democracy: Adolescence in African American Novels, 1937-2016. Raised in Monroe, Georgia, Professor Hill lives in Lexington with his family.
Mohamed Kamara is Associate Professor of French at Washington and Lee University. He has a B.A. and a Diploma in Secondary Education from Fourah Bay College (the University of Sierra Leone) and an M.A. and Ph.D. from Purdue University and Tulane University, respectively. Mohamed’s teaching and research interests include French language as well as French and Francophone literatures and cultures, with specific focus on African and Eighteenth-century French women writers, colonial education, and human rights. He has published short stories as well as research on human rights, the African Child soldier, French colonial education, and African literature.
Beth Lincks is a member of Ensemble Studio Theatre and New Circle Theatre Company. Zoom: You Are Alone (Riverside Theatre), Masking (NCTC, with Joe Spano). Broadway: Carrie. Fringe Festivals: Edinburgh, NYC, Philly, Charleston. NYC: HERE, Sam French Festival. TV: All My Children, Another World, Guiding Light, SNL, Letterman. MFA: Asolo Conservatory. Beth Lincks plays Ellen
—5—
Ben Mirin has spent the past several years recording rare and unusual sounds in nature, then sampling those voices to create music that inspires conservation. Mirin combines his passions for music and wildlife to share science stories with audiences beyond the reach of traditional nature media. He has received grants and fellowships from the National Science Foundation, National Geographic, The Safina Center and The Explorers Club. His portfolio includes an original television series for National Geographic, four films, a globally syndicated computer game, and over 4,000 natural sound recordings. He is currently a Ph.D. student in the Center for Conservation Bioacoustics at the Cornell Lab of Ornithology.
Sandhya Krittika Narayanan is the Visiting Assistant Professor of Anthropology at Washington and Lee University. Her previous research focuses on indigenous multilingualism and gender among Quechua and Aymara speakers along the Peru-Bolivia border. She is also a trained Bharatanatyam dancer (South Indian Classical Dance); and spends her time outside of research dedicated to teaching this artform to children and adults and performing across the U.S. and Canada. Sandhya Krittika Narayanan plays Kali and Calenda
Celine Okome is a senior at Washington and Lee University, with a major in Business Administration, and double minors in French, and Film & Visual Culture. As co-collaborator on this project, Celine co-wrote the script, edited the sequences, and drew the animations. Celine is incredibly honored that Professor Radulescu selected her to be a part of this project, and proud of the work that they have both done, to bring it to fruition.
Greg Pierotti is a theater artist who, in collaboration with Cristiana Giordano, investigates the intersection of ethnographic and theatrical devising, writing, and research practices. With Giordano he recently published “Getting Caught: a collaboration on and off stage between theater and anthropology” in The Drama Review. His plays include The Laramie Project, The People’s Temple and Laramie: 10 Years later. His devised theatrical work has been seen in such venues as Lincoln Center and Brooklyn Academy of Music. He is currently an assistant professor of theatrical devising and experimental dramaturgy at the University of Arizona.
—6—
Jeffrey Pufahl is a theater practitioner with over 25 years of professional experience in film and theatre in Canada, the US, and the UK. His work at the University of Florida investigates the intersection of applied theatre and community health and how theater can support communities and engage the public in critical dialogue. Notable projects include: From Colored to Black: The Stories of North Central Florida, a multi-modal play that uses oral history to explore health inequities and systemic racism, and Voices from the March, an ethnographic play documenting the 2017 Women’s March through the eyes of the students who attended.
Domnica Radulescu is the Edwin A. Morris Professor of Comparative Literature at Washington and Lee University. She holds a master’s degree in Comparative Literature and a Ph.D. in Romance Languages from the University of Chicago. She is the author of three critically acclaimed novels, Train to Trieste, Black Sea Twilight, and Country of Red Azaleas and of awardwinning plays. Train to Trieste has been published in thirteen languages and is the winner of the 2009 Library of Virginia Fiction Award. Radulescu received the 2011 Outstanding Faculty Award from the State Council of Higher Education for Virginia and is twice a Fulbright scholar. Co-author of the play The Earth Is Speaking.
Dr. Stephanie Sandberg is a professor, scholar, playwright and documentary filmmaker in the U.S. specializing in theatre for social justice and change. She has written more than a dozen plays and documentaries concerning issues of domestic violence, racism, refugee resettlement, human trafficking, sexuality and politics, and disability. Currently her work focuses on creating an aesthetic of a theatre of care, using feminist care ethics in building theatrical communities that foster change at the core level, supporting essential human values. Author of The Violence that Binds Us.
Jennifer Tremblay was born in 1973 in Canada. To date, she has published more than twenty-five titles: novels, novels and albums for children, dramatic texts, poetry, etc. In 2008, she won the Governor General’s Award for her play The List. This text, translated into eight languages, produced on all continents, has won her several international awards. She has been an editor for Quebec publishing houses. She heads the Camp littéraire Félix, an organization dedicated to training self-taught authors.
—7—
After serving as a Peace Corps Volunteer in Trang, Thailand from 2015–2017, Taylor Valencia earned her M.S. in Civil Engineering in 2019. Currently, she works as an Environmental Engineer with the Virginia Department of Health Office of Drinking Water, providing oversight of public waterworks systems to ensure their drinking water meets federal and state regulations. Driven by social and environmental justice, Taylor’s top priority is guaranteeing consumers have safe drinking water. A firm believer that potable water is a human right, you can find Taylor in Central Virginia inspecting groundwater wells and surface water treatment plants. Taylor Valencia plays Mami-Wata
Debra Vidali (Associate Professor, Anthropology, Emory University) is an anthropologist, theater-maker, artist, and scholar-activist. Her work experiments with the modalities, frontiers, and implications of knowledge production. Projects are deeply collaborative, and developed at the intersection of social science, theater-making, performance, design, multisensorial ethnography, and decolonial praxis. Topics include: civic engagement, social justice, media, and Indigenous sovereignty. Current work centers on Indigenous sovereignty and solidarity/allyship in Western New York State | Haudenosaunee Territory. Previous research focused on radio, multilingualism, national publics, and the Bemba language in Zambia. Prof. Vidali is also Affiliated Faculty in Emory’s Department of Theater and Dance.
Rose Yao began training at 14 years old at the Stella Adler Studio of Acting in New York City, and has continued her acting education in Los Angeles at Playhouse West after graduating with a B.A. in Psychology from Brooklyn College. She currently volunteers with the non-profit organization Ktown4All, who provide essential needs and social services to unhoused people. Rose is currently located in Los Angeles. Rose Yao plays Kuan Yin and Sidiri
—8—
Acknowledgements
This event is made possible by funding from: Office of the Dean of the College Women Gender and Sexuality Program Sociology and Anthropology Department
Special thanks for administrative support to: Brittany Wright Linda Cummings Michelle Rothenberger
For technical support: Alicia Shires and IT staff
For printing and publications: Mary Woodson
Production Manager: Samuel Camp