Summary
I combine the arts, scholarship, and pedagogy to contribute to a flourishing culture with other creatively and critically engaged collaborators.
Education
I hold a Ph.D. from York University in Toronto where I received a Trillium Scholarship and a Provost’s Dissertation Fellowship that fully funded my studies.
My dissertation is titled: Animating Performance: Tracing Venice’s Resonant Diva Attraverso il Palco e la Soglia.
At Eastern Michigan University, I studied applied theatre methodologies for working with young people and adults. For my internship, I was awarded the prestigious DAAD German fellowship funding a year of study in Berlin where I worked at the Unter den Linden theatre in the community outreach and opera education program. From EMU, I received an MFA in Applied Drama and Theatre for the Young.
Prior to my academic study and teaching, I performed professionally for eight years in German opera theatres. After leaving Germany, I started my graduate study at Bowling Green University where I discovered my love for performance theory, scholarship, and teaching. My thesis became the article “A Nest of Nightingales: Cuzzoni and Senesino at Handel’s Royal Academy of Music” published in Theatre Survey. I earned a dual degree at Bowling Green University consisting of a Master of Arts/Theatre and a Master of Music/Vocal Performance
Experience
I have taught Voice and Articulation, an experiential learning course in Drama and Play in Human Experience, and Integrated Arts for education majors at EMU. I taught Music History and Living with the Arts at Concordia University. I also ran the Drama Club at Slauson Middle School in Ann Arbor. I directed an art installation and a devised performance piece with adult performers titled Insider Stories/Peripheral Visions at the Riverside Arts Center in Ypsilanti. At the University of Michigan, I directed a student production of Kurt Weill’s Lady in the Dark in conjunction with a course in Gender Studies and Performance and I taught Theatre History I and American Drama and co-taught Introduction to Theatre. I have used several online formats in my classes, and I am interested in creating a hybrid course for teaching Theatre History and for courses centered on improvisation and devising.
In March 2019, I directed an updated English version of Il Maestro di Musica at the Riverside Arts Center with an intergenerational cast of community and college performers. In the summer 2019, I earned certification as a Practitioner of the Lessac Voice and Movement method and have been selected to train for the Master Teacher level in the coming summer 2020. In February 2020 I directed an updated English language production of Hansel and Gretel at RAC with community members, children, professional musicians, and university students.
Skills
- Teaching University
- Courses
- Lessac Voice and Movement Practitioner
- Stage Director
Specialties
- Publik Speaking, Stage Directing, Vocal Performance
Groups & Associations
- American Alliance for Theatre and Education, American Society for Theatre Research, American Theatre in Higher Education, International Federation for Theatre Research, Lessac Voice and Movement Research Institute, Voice and Speech Trainers Association
Spoken Languages
- English, German
