C.V.

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EMPLOYMENT

EDUCATION

University of California at Berkeley, Berkeley, CA
Ph.D. in Performance Studies, December 2014
Designated Emphasis in Critical Theory
Dissertation Committee: Shannon Jackson (Chair), Anton Kaes, Martin Jay, Catherine Cole

Columbia University, Columbia College, New York, NY
Bachelor of Arts in Philosophy and English Literature, May 2005
Magna Cum Laude; Dean’s List (2001 – 2005); Departmental Honors in Philosophy

PUBLICATIONS

Books in Progress

Postdramatic Theatre and Form, with Shane Boyle and Matthew Cornish (under contract with Bloomsbury)

Stages of Disavowal: Performing Arts Policy in Post-Wall Berlin (in progress)

The Negro Problem: Stew’s Music, Theatre & Music-Theatre, with Stew (in progress)

Academic Journal Articles

“Castorf’s Lehrstück: A Volksbühne Elegy,” Theatre Survey (forthcoming 2018)

“Putting Policy into Performance Studies?” Performance Research 24.4 (2015): 104-111.

“(Gob Squad’s) Revolution Now! Or Never?” TDR: The Drama Review 55.4 (2011): 144-151.o

“Negotiating the Negro Problem: Stew’s Passing (Made) Strange,” Theatre Journal 62.2 (2010): 191-207.

Articles in Edited Collections

“Introduction: Theatre’s New Formalism,” Postdramatic Theatre and Form, eds. Shane Boyle, Matthew Cornish, and Brandon Woolf (under contract with Bloomsbury, forthcoming 2018)

“Towards Paradoxically Parallaxical Postdramatic Politics?” Postdramatic Theatre and the Political: International Perspectives on Contemporary Performance, eds. Karen Jürs-Munby, Jerome Carroll, and Steve Giles (London: Bloomsbury Methuen, 2013).

Book Reviews

“Performing Policy: A Review Essay,” TDR: The Drama Review 61.2 (Summer 2017): 180-182.

Other Essays

“Indefinite Article: Gob Squad’s War & Peace,” NYU Skirball 2018 Season Zine (December 2017)

“Utopia™ : Towards a (Performance) Politics of Co-Habitation,” HowlRound: A Journal of the Theater Commons (February 2013).

“Occupy, Hope, Exchange: A (Sort of) Travelogue,” HowlRound (February 2012).

“Questioning Cultural Diplomacy,” The Arts Politic (Spring 2010): 28-30.

“Our Fishy Nonprofit Sector,” The Arts Politic (Fall 2009): 18-19.

PROFESSIONAL THEATER EXPERIENCE

  • Director, Writer, Egg Dream Procedural; Produced by LABA: Laboratory for Jewish Culture, 14th Street Y, New York, NY (November 2017)
  • Assistant Director, Public Space Consultant, A Marvelous Order, by Judd Greenstein and Tracy K. Smith; Directed by Joshua Frankel; Produced by LMCC, Fulton Center, New York, NY (June 2017)
  • Dramaturg, Performer, Mosquito Net Play by Stew; NYUAD Arts Center, Abu Dhabi (November 2016)
  • Director, The Rock Garden by Sam Shepard; Barrow Group Theater, New York, NY (December 2015)
  • Director, Yap Yap by Ben Gassman; Little Theater at Dixon Place, New York, NY (November 2015)
  • Assistant Director, Futurity by César Alvarez; Directed by Sarah Benson; Produced by Ars Nova & Soho Rep, Connelly Theater, New York, NY (October/November 2015)
  • Dramaturg, Performer, Wagner, Max! Wagner! by Stew & Heidi Rodewald; The Kennedy Center, Washington, DC (September 2015)
  • Co-Creator, Performer, Stew’s Listening Party; BRIC Arts, Brooklyn, NY (November 2013)
  • Co-Director, Co-Writer, Performer, Vincent Price is Cracking Up by Shakespeare im Park Berlin, Former Delphi Silent Film Cinema, Berlin, Germany (October 2013)
  • Co-Director, Co-Writer, Performer, King Bethel by Shakespeare im Park Berlin; Site-Specific, Multi-Lingual Performance in Görlitzer Park, Berlin, Germany (August 2013)
  • Co-Director, Co-Curator, Performer, Strength & Health: March, Shakespeare im Park Berlin in collaboration with the English Theater Berlin, Germany (March 2013)
  • Co-Creator, Performer, The Upper Echelon: A Durational Performance by Shakespeare im Park Berlin; 36-Hour, Site-Specific, Bi-Lingual Performance in Grunewald, Berlin, Germany (September 2012)
  • Co-Director, Co-Writer, Performer, Utopia™ – Where All is True by Shakespeare im Park Berlin; Music by Stew; Site-Specific, Bi-Lingual Performance in Görlitzer Park, Berlin, Germany (August 2012)
  • Co-Director, Co-Creator, Performer, Orson Welles presents Henry IV for the Radio by Shakespeare im Park Berlin; Music by Stew (Recorded in February 2012; Live Performance in February 2013)
  • Co-Director, Co-Creator, Performer, Henry IV / Heinrich der Vierte by Shakespeare im Park Berlin; Music by Stew; Site-Specific, Bi-Lingual Performance in Görlitzer Park, Berlin, Germany (August 2011)
  • Co-Director, Co-Translator, The Plebeians Rehearse the Uprising by Günter Grass, Zellerbach Hall, UC Berkeley (October 2008) [Co-Directed/Co-Translated with S. Boyle]
  • Director, Co-Creator, A Street Scene (devised from the poetry of Bertolt Brecht), Zellerbach Hall, UC Berkeley (April 2008)
  • Assistant Director, Producer, Ophelia: Opera in Blue by Sergei Dreznin, Hudson Guild Theatre, New York, NY (May 2007)
  • Assistant Director, Associate Producer, Mickey Mouse is Dead by Justin Sherin; Directed by Gordon Carver; Pleasance Theatre, Edinburgh Fringe Festival, Edinburgh, UK (August 2006)
  • Assistant Director, Associate Producer, Mickey Mouse is Dead by Justin Sherin; Directed by Gordon Carver; 59E59 Theatres, New York, NY (July 2006)
  • Director, Producer, The Resistible Rise of Arturo Ui by Bertolt Brecht, Lerner Hall, Columbia University (December 2004)

COMMUNITY-BASED & ACTIVIST PERFORMANCE (selected)

WORKS IN DEVELOPMENT

  • Talmud Talk – a devised investigation of the five pages in the Babylonian Talmud that tackle the “Messiah” and the inevitable world decline that precedes their coming.
    • LABA: Laboratory of Jewish Culture Artist Residency (2017-2018)
  • The Summer Way by Maxwell Flaum and Brandon Woolf; an existential exploration of our ongoing “Golden Age” of television and the “decline” of the public intellectual – mediated by enlightened pop-punditry of Marshall McLuhan and Norman Mailer.
    • “Next Stage” Artist Residency, The Drama League, March 2017
    • Staged Readings: UC Berkeley (March 2016), NYU (March 2016)
  • Bloated & Blues: A Black + Jew Kabarett by Stew and Brandon Woolf; a song-cycle of critical reflections on contemporary race relations refracted through the histories and humor of German Kabarett.
  • Culinary Theatre by Ben Gassman and Brandon Woolf; an inter-sensorial performance about the complexities of evolving outer-borough neighborhood texture – in its congeniality and its antagonism.

COURSES TAUGHT

  • “Radically Curating Radical Performance,” NYU (Spring 2018) [Co-Taught with Jay Wegman]
  • “Experiments in 20th Century Performance,” NYU (Fall 2017)
  • “Drama in Performance: Urban Communities & Materialities,” NYU (Fall 2017)
  • “Histories of (Western) Theatre & Drama II,” NYU (Spring 2017)
  • “Drama in Performance: Immersion & Participation,” NYU (Spring 2017)
  • “Theories of Drama: Thinking Antigone,” NYU (Fall 2016)
  • “Drama in Performance: Theatre & the City,” NYU (Fall 2016)
  • “Performance and Ethnography,” FU Berlin (Spring 2016)
  • “Performing the Social World: An Introduction to Performance Studies,” FU Berlin (Winter 2015/16)
  • “Performing the Festival: Theatre der Welt 2014,” Freie Universität Berlin (Spring 2014) [Co-Taught with K. Beushausen & K. Wächter]
  • “Berlin’s Off-Theatre Scene,” Freie Universität Berlin (Spring 2012) [Co-Taught with K. Beushausen]
  • “Introduction to Acting,” UC Berkeley (Spring 2010)
  • “Brecht & Beyond: Revolutionary Stages in Europe,” UC Berkeley (Fall 2009)

AWARDS & FELLOWSHIPS (selected)

  • LABA: Laboratory of Jewish Culture Fellow, New York (2017-2018)
  • Drama League “Next Stage” Artist in Residence, New York (2017)
  • “Interweaving Performance Cultures” Artist Research Fellowship, FU Berlin (January – April 2016)
  • Drama League Director’s Project Fellowship, New York (2015)
  • American Society for Theatre Research – Collaborative Research Award [with Shane Boyle] (2015)
  • Dunbar Ogden Prize for Best Graduate Essay in Theater History, UC Berkeley (2013)
  • Berlin Program for Advanced Studies Dissertation Fellowship (April 2012 – March 2013)
  • American Society for Theatre Research – Thomas Marshall Graduate Student Award (2011)
  • Fulbright U.S. Scholar Research Grant (September 2011 – February 2012)
  • DAAD Graduate Research Fellowship (2011 – 2012) – declined
  • Graduate Division Summer Research Grant, UC Berkeley (Summer 2011)
  • Dissertation Fellowship from the Program in Critical Theory, UC Berkeley (Spring 2011)
  • Dean’s Normative Time Fellowship, UC Berkeley (2010 – 2011)
  • Graduate Program in Performance Studies Summer Research Grant, UC Berkeley (2008, 2009, 2010)
  • Max Kade Summer Research Fellowship, UC Berkeley (Summer 2008, Summer 2009)
  • DAAD 8-Week Intensive Language Course Grant (Summer 2009)
  • The Berkeley Fellowship for Graduate Study (2007 – 2010

INVITED LECTURES, SEMINARS & ARTIST TALKS

  • “The Summer Way: A Talkback,” New Play Reading Series, UC Berkeley (March 2016)
  • “Brecht, Boal, and the Legacies of Radical Performance,” New York University, NY (October 2015)
  • “Haunted (Infra)structures of Public Memory: Performance, Event, Temporary-Use,” Bard College, Annandale-on-Hudson, NY (December 2013)
  • “‘Culture-Attack’: Infrastructural Notes on Berlin’s Freie Szene,” Freie Universität Berlin, Germany (January 2013)
  • “Debating the Aesthetic State: Closing Berlin’s Schiller Theater,” UC Berkeley (November 2011)
  • “UCMeP: A Year Crushing Public Education,” Freie Universität Berlin, Germany (July 2011)
  • “Postdramatic Paradigms in Contemporary German Performance,” Stanford University, Palo Alto, CA – followed by a devising postdramatic performance workshop (November 2010)

CONFERENCE PRESENTATIONS

  • “Performing Policy Postdramatically,” What Performs in Postdramatic Theater Working Group, American Society for Theatre Research (ASTR), Baltimore, MD (November 2014)
  • “Utopia™ : Towards a (Performance) Ethics of Cohabitation,” Community Theater and Performance Working Group, ASTR, Nashville, TN (November 2012)
  • “Debating the Aesthetic State: The Closure of Berlin’s Schiller-Theater,” Performance Activism Working Group, American Society for Theatre Research, Montreal, Canada (November 2011)
  • “A Postdramatic Politics?” Postdramatic Theatre as/or Political Theatre Conference, London, UK (September 2011)
  • “Negotiating the Negro Problem: Stew’s Passing (Made) Strange,” Performance Studies International #15, Zagreb, Croatia (June 2009)
  • “Challenges of Thesis 11 Performed: A Performance-Lecture,” Sense and Sensation: A Conversation on Interdisciplinary Research in the Arts, UC Berkeley Arts Research Council, Berkeley, CA (May 2009)
  • “The Tiger and the Philosopher: A Performance-Lecture on Günter Grass\’ The Plebeians Rehearse the Uprising,” UC Institute for Research in the Arts, Riverside, CA (November 2008)

ACADEMIC SERVICE

  • Co-Organizer, Hans-Thies Lehmann – Invited Lecture at NYU (April 2018)
  • Organizer, Katrin Beushausen – Workshop & Conversation at NYU (October 2017)
  • Organizer, Maxwell Flaum – Workshop & Conversation at NYU (March 2017)
  • Organizer, Aaron Landsman – Conversation & Work-in-Progress Showing of Perfect City at NYU (December 2016)
  • Organizer, Todd Shalom (Artistic Director of Elastic City) – Workshop & Conversation at NYU (October 2016)
  • Working Session Co-Organizer, “Beyond the Postdramatic? The Stakes of Contemporary Performance,” American Society for Theatre Research (ASTR), Portland, OR (November 2015)
  • Working Session Co-Organizer, “What Performs in Postdramatic Theater?” American Society for Theatre Research (ASTR), Baltimore, MD (November 2014)
  • Co-Organizer, Matthias Lilienthal (Artistic Director of HAU in Berlin) – Conversation at Freie Universität Berlin (June 2012)
  • Co-Organizer, Gob Squad – Conversation at Freie Universität Berlin (June 2012)
  • Co-Organizer, Tom Stromberg (Curator of the IMPULSE Festival) – Conversation at Freie Universität Berlin (June 2012)
  • Co-Organizer, Anne Passow (Co-Founder of LAFT Berlin) – Conversation at Freie Universität Berlin (June 2012)
  • Co-Organizer, Nina Peters (Former Jury Member, Berlin Senate Theater Funding Body) – Conversation at the Freie Universität Berlin (May 2012)
  • Co-Organizer, Franziska Werner (Artistic Director of Sophiensaele in Berlin) – Conversation at the Freie Universität Berlin (May 2012)
  • Graduate Assistant, Why War? A Public Lecture Series Co-Sponsored by the Program in Critical Theory & Townsend Center for the Humanities, Berkeley, CA (Fall 2010)
  • Co-Organizer, Conversations with Hans-Thies Lehmann & Freddie Rokem: A Symposium on the Conjunctures of Performance and Philosophy (March 2010), Berkeley, CA
  • Co-Organizer, L. M. Bogad – Lecture at UC Berkeley (September 2009)
  • Co-Organizer, Ursula Biemann – Workshop, Screening & Lecture at UC Berkeley (April 2009)
  • Co-Organizer, Jerome Bel – Screening & Conversation at UC Berkeley (March 2009)
  • Co-Founder, Working Group on Contemporary European Performance, Berkeley, CA (2007 – 2010)
  • Organizing Member, Dwinelle Annex Courtyard Rejuvenation Project, Berkeley, CA (January – May 2009)
  • Organizing Committee Member, Interdisciplinarity & Context Conference, Berkeley, CA (September 2008 – April 2009)
  • Graduate Assistant, Dick Hebdige – Lecture/Performance at UC Berkeley (February 2008)
  • Graduate Assistant, Arts, Neighborhoods, and Social Practice Symposium, Berkeley, CA (September 2007 – January 2008)

LANGUAGES

  • English (native fluency)
  • German (advanced speaking and reading ability, moderate writing skills)

PROFESSIONAL MEMBERSHIPS