Keynote Address

“Has It Can’t Happen Here Happened?: Performances of History in Times of Crisis.” The Federal Theatre Project: Context & Issues. Toulouse, France. October 17-19, 2019.

Conference Papers Presented

“Immersive Simulations in the Time of COVID: Zooming the Boston Tea Party Reenactment.” Association for Theatre in Higher Education. Austin, Texas. August 5-8, 2021. (Submitted)

“Romancing History: Performing Racial History and Reimagining Cultural Memory in Birth of a Nation and Hamilton.” Memory Studies Association, Warsaw, Poland. July 5-9, 2021. (Accepted)

“Magnifying the Past/Activating the Present: The Afterlife of It Can’t Happen Here.” American Society for Theatre Research, Arlington, Virginia. (Accepted; conference canceled due to COVID-19.) Working group met virtually November 14.

“Step Back in Time, Traveler: Living History as Not Not History.” International Federation for Theatre Research, Galway, Ireland [Moved online due to COVID-19]. Historiography Working Group met virtually July 13-15, 2020.

“Romancing History: Performing Racial History and Reimagining Cultural Memory in Birth of a Nation and Hamilton.” Memory Studies Association, Charlottesville, Virginia. June 18-21, 2020. (Accepted; conference canceled due to COVID-19).

“Between a Rock and a Hard Place: The Economics of Regional Theatre.” Mid-America Theatre Conference, Chicago, Illinois. March 6-9, 2020.

“Transforming American Elections…or Not: It Can’t Happen Here and the Performance of Possibility.” American Society for Theatre Research, Arlington, Virginia. November 7-10, 2019.

“Changing Scenes of Political Belief in Performance.” Association for Theatre in Higher Education. Orlando, Florida. August 7-11, 2019.

“Reinventing the Federal Theatre Project’s ‘Voodoo Macbeth’: Remembering the Other.” Mid-America Theatre Conference, Cleveland, Ohio. March 7-10, 2019. (Submitted)

“Remembering the Crowd: Historical Authenticity in Mosinee.” To be presented at the American Society for Theatre Research, San Diego, California. November 15-18, 2018.

“Whose Revolution? : Revising Cultural Memory with the Boston Tea Party.” Association for Theatre in Higher Education. Boston, Massachusetts. August 1-5, 2018.

“Rewriting History: The Communist Invasion of Mosinee, Wisconsin.” International Conference on American Drama and Theater, Nancy, France. June 4-6, 2018.

“Historical Spin: Japanese-American Internment Camps, the US Government, and Allegiance.” Mid-America Theatre Conference, Milwaukee, Wisconsin. March 15-18, 2018

“A Fiery Cross? The Clansman, Birth of a Nation, and the Populist Resistance of the Ku Klux Klan.” American Society for Theatre Research, Atlanta, Georgia. November 16-19, 2017.

“Historical Appropriations: Reclaiming Cherokee Identity through Performance.” Association of Theatre in Higher Education, Las Vegas, Nevada. August 3-6, 2017.

“‘Citizen in the Negative’: Performing and Vilifying History in Japanese-American Internment Camps.” Comparative Drama Conference, Orlando, Florida. April 6-9, 2017.

“Performing Revolution: The Problem of Reenacting the Boston Tea Party.” Mid-America Theatre Conference, Houston, Texas. March 16-19, 2017.

“Enemy Non-Alien: Performing the Histories of Japanese-American Internment Camps.” American Society for Theatre Research, Minneapolis, Minnesota. November 3-6, 2016.

“Activist, Feminist, First Lady: Remembering Eleanor Roosevelt in Performance.” Association for Theatre in Higher Education, Chicago, Illinois. August 11-14, 2016.

“Patriotism and Performance in Revolutionary Boston: (Re)Constructing Memory Over Time.” American Society for Theatre Research, Portland, Oregon. November 5-8, 2015.

“‘4000 Silent Graves’: Reenacting Cherokee History and Memory in the Smokey Mountains.” Association for Theatre in Higher Education, Montreal, Quebec. July 30-August 2, 2015.

“Unto These Hills: Cherokee History and the Performance of Memory.” Mid-America Theatre Conference, Kansas City, Missouri. March 19-22, 2015.

“May Day in Mosinee: Pageants and Perception During the Cold War.” American Society for Theatre Research, Baltimore, Maryland. November 20-23, 2014.

“Memory Remade: The Legacies of The Clansman and Birth of a Nation in Popular Culture.” International Federation of Theatre Research/La fédération internationale pour la recherche de theater, Popular Entertainments Working Group, Warwick, England. July 28-August 1, 2014.

“Dynamo: Hallie Flanagan and the Vassar Experimental Theatre.” Mid-America Theatre Conference, Cleveland, Ohio. March 6-9, 2014.

“Invisible Empire: Myth, Memory, and History Play in The Clansman and Birth of a Nation.” Association for Theatre in Higher Education, Orlando, Florida. August 1-4, 2013.

“Playing with Writing/Writing with Play: Writing in Introduction to Theatre for Non-Majors.” Association for Theatre in Higher Education, Orlando, Florida. August 1-4, 2013.

“Then Is Now: Clansman, Birth of a Nation and History in the Making.” Performance Studies International, History and Historiography Working Group, Palo Alto, California. June 26-30, 2013.

“Performing Time: Myth, Memory, and History at the FDR Memorial.” Mid-America Theatre Conference, St. Louis, Missouri. March 7-10, 2013.

“Imagined Democracy: The Federal Theatre Project Performs (Native) America.” American Society for Theatre Research, Nashville, Tennessee. November 1-4, 2012.

“Dissent or Dissension: Phantom Faces, FDR, and the Federal Theatre Project.” Association for Theatre in Higher Education, Washington, D.C. August 2-5, 2012.

“Eyes Only: Public (Mis)Perceptions of the Federal Theatre Project.” Mid-America Theatre Conference, Chicago, Illinois. March 1-4, 2012.

“A ‘People’s Theatre’: Vaudeville and the Federal Theatre Project.” American Society for Theatre Research, Montreal, Canada. November 17-20, 2011.

“Strong Men, Log Bucking, and a Hillbilly Hoedown: Shaping the Federal Theatre Project One Company at a Time.” Mid-America Theatre Conference, Minneapolis, Minnesota. March 3-6, 2011.

“Hybridity, High-Tech, and the Human Interface: Designing Introduction to Theatre for the 20th Century.” Association for Theatre in Higher Education, Los Angeles, California. August 3-6, 2010.

“Storytelling, Chiggers, and the Bible Belt: The ‘Georgia Experiment’ as the Public Face of the Federal Theatre Project.” Mid-America Theatre Conference, Cleveland, Ohio. March 4-7, 2010.

“Democracy Challenged: The Invisibility of Race in the Federal Theatre Project’s Created Equal.” American Society for Theatre Research, San Juan, Puerto Rico. November 12-15, 2009.

“‘The People Rises; the Storm Breaks Loose:’ Violence, Truth and Fiction in the Federal Theatre Project’s Professor Mamlock.” International Conference on American Theatre and Drama, Cádiz, Spain. May 26-29, 2009.

“Legal Lunacy and Cultural Critiques: The Federal Theatre Project’s There’s a Law Against It.” Mid-America Theatre Conference, Chicago, Illinois. March 5-8, 2009.

“Rerating the Underrated: The Beating Heart of the Federal Theatre Project.” Association for Theatre in Higher Education, Denver, Colorado. July 31-August 3, 2008.

“Disappearing Frontiers and the National Stage: Placing the Portland Federal Theatre Project.” Mid-America Theatre Conference, Kansas City, Missouri. February 28-March 2, 2008.

“Math, Science…and Theatre? Chaos Rules in Arcadia.” Film and Literature Conference, Tallahassee, Florida. January 31-February 3, 2008.

“The Federal Theatre Project’s Spirochete: National Whispers in the Windy City.” American Society for Theatre Research, Phoenix, Arizona. November 15-18, 2007.

“A Nation in Need: Pioneering Disaster Relief in the Federal Theatre Project.” Association for Theatre in Higher Education, New Orleans, Louisiana. July 26-29, 2007.

“The Pitfalls of Progress: Introduction to Theatre Steps into the Twenty-first Century.” Mid-America Theatre Conference, Minneapolis, Minnesota. March 1-4, 2007.

“Political Magic Acts Breed Mediocrity: The Federal Theatre Project’s Popular Entertainment in the Windy City.” Theatre Symposium, Decatur, Georgia. March 31-April 2, 2006.

“Demythologizing American Ideology: Collisions of Past and Present in Boston’s Federal Theatre Project.” International Conference on Arts and Humanities, Honolulu, Hawaii. January 11-14, 2006.

“Developing the Citizen as Artist in the Rural South: Adaptation and Transformation in the Federal Theatre Project.” International Federation for Theatre Research/La fédération internationale pour la recherche de théâtre, College Park, Maryland. June 26-July 1, 2005.

“‘Pray for him…’: Communities, Characters, and Chaos in A View from the Bridge.” American Literature Association, Arthur Miller Society, Boston, Massachusetts. May 26-29, 2005.

“Pickpockets, Stripteases, and Magical Democrats: The Federal Theatre Project Teases Tradition in Chicago.” American Comparative Literature Association, State College, Pennsylvania. March 11-13, 2005.

“Yankee Consternation in the Deep South: Worshipping at the Altars of Steel.” Theatre Symposium, Memphis, Tennessee. April 2-4, 2004.

 

Discussant

“Introduction to Graduate Studies in a Shifting Field: Scholarship, Practice, Pedagogy.” Session Organizer. Association for Theatre in Higher Education. Orlando, Florida. August 7-11-2019.

“CTRL+V: Academic Integrity in a Copy-and-Paste World.” Session Organizer. Association for Theatre in Higher Education. Boston, Massachusetts. August 1-5, 2018.

“Balancing the Catapult: Parenting in Academic.” Invited. Association for Theatre in Higher Education, Chicago, Illinois. August 11-14, 2016.

“Teaching Diversity: Creating Difficult Dialogues.” Association for Theatre in Higher Education, Chicago, Illinois. August 11-14, 2016.

“Dream Lessons: What I Know Now That I Wish I Knew Then.” Invited. Association for Theatre in Higher Education, Scottsdale, Arizona. July 24-27, 2014.

Staging the People: Community and Identity in the Federal Theatre Project: American Theatre and Drama Society selection for the “Just Out” panel. Invited. Association for Theatre in Higher Education, Washington, D.C. August 2-5, 2012.

“Ride the Wave, or the Wave Rides You: Integrating Assessment into the Theatre Curriculum. Association for Theatre in Higher Education, Chicago, Illinois. August 11-14, 2011.

“Dance Dramaturgy/Theatre Dramaturgy: A Dialogue to Explore Distinctions and Possibilities.” American Society for Theatre Research, Seattle, Washington. November 18-21, 2010.

“Risking Innovation in the Name of Lively Talkbacks.” Association for Theatre in Higher Education, New York, New York. August 8-11, 2009.