I am a doctoral student in Comparative
Literature with an emphasis in Drama
at Washington University in St. Louis. My dissertation is an analysis
of 20th century adaptations of Japanese Noh theatre. Sounds interesting,
huh?
I received a BA in English with University
Honors and a BA in Theatre from Abilene Christian
University in 1993, as well as an MA
in Dramatic Literature from Washington University in 1996.
I am a member of Literary
Managers and Dramaturgs of the Americas (LMDA) and of the Society
of Stage Directors and Choreographers (SSDC).
I am the Artistic Director of St.
Louis's newest mid-sized professional theatre company, (Mostly)
Harmless Theatre. In 2002, I directed Cyclone of Rage,
The
Final Interrogation of Ceausescu's Dog, Dancing with a Devil, The Laramie
Project, and Anton in Show Business for the company. In
2003, I will direct the Midwest premiere of Jouet,
a
new rock musical by Allen Robertson, and Four Modern Noh Plays by
Yukio Mishima, including the US professional English-language premiere
of Yuya.
I am active in all aspects of theatrical
production. I have directed Defying Gravity, Fuddy Meers, The Boy Who
Ate the Moon, Annunciation, and Lycanthrophobia for (Mostly)
Harmless Theatre and The Poet and the Rent, Vinegar Tom,
Marisol,
and
Iphigenia and Other Daughters for the Wash U Performing Arts Department.
Elsewhere, I have acted with the St.
Louis Shakespeare Company in The Two Gentlemen of Verona as
Launce and Henry V as Fluellen; I portrayed Weinberl in Tom Stoppard's
farce On the Razzle for them in August 2000. During the summer of
1999 I directed Raised in Captivity for Actors Renaissance Theatre.
In January 1999, I acted as the Company Manager for Anne Bogart's production
of Gertrude and Alice: A Likeness to Loving at the Edison
Theatre.
Primary to my theatrical interests
is the field of dramaturgy. I have acted as production dramaturg or co-dramaturg
on many productions and consider this position one of the most valuable
resources available to a play’s creative staff. Professionally, I have
served as a Literary/Dramaturgy Intern with the Tony Award-winning Alley
Theatre in Houston, Texas, in 1993. I was the production
dramaturg for the Tennessee Repertory Theatre's
productions of Cyrano de Bergerac, Romeo and Juliet, and A Streetcar
Named Desire, and served as production dramaturg/assistant director
for
The Taming of the Shrew in spring 2003. I am currently writing
an original film noir stage adaptation of Dracula for the
Tennessee rep, scheduled for October 2003 and plan to serve as production
dramaturg for their 2003-04 productions of Who's Afraid of Virginia
Woolf? and The Diary of Anne Frank.
My other scholarly interests include
modern dramatic interpretations of classical mythology, gay and lesbian
drama, T. S. Eliot's The
Waste Land, the films of Derek Jarman and Peter Greenaway, Robert
Wilson, and Japanese
Nô drama [especially Yukio
Mishima’s modernizations of these plays].
