Karen Jean Martinson and El Vez

This introduces Karen Jean Martinson's book Make the Dream Real: World-Building Performance by El Vez, The Mexican Elvis (published May 2025). Martinson's dramaturgical methodology, analyzing the art and performances of Robert Lopez, marries theoretical inquiry with theatrical practice. El Vez will perform and KJ will read excerpts from her book, highlighting how El Vez's performances present a powerful message of social justice and inclusion.

Karen Jean Martinson, PhD, (she/her/hers) is an Assistant Professor of Dramaturgy at Arizona State University. Her scholarly and creative work explores the intersection of contemporary USAmerican performance, consumer culture, neoliberalism, and processes of identification. She also writes and talks (constantly) about dramaturgy and dramaturgical thinking.

El Vez, The Mexican Elvis is the fantastical creation of artist and musician Robert Lopez. From humble beginnings in 1988, when Lopez debuted El Vez during Memphis’ Weep Week celebration, he has built an impressive act and has sustained himself as a working artist for over 30 years. He has released several El Vez CDs, singles, music videos, and live DVDs. He is the subject of a documentary film, El Rey de Rock ‘N’ Roll, and has also appeared in other documentaries highlighting the cultural contributions of Latinx individuals to USAmerican culture. His gold lamé mariachi suit toured the country as part of American Sabor: Latinos in U.S. Popular Music, a traveling museum exhibit that was featured in several prominent locations, including at the Smithsonian. Countless fans have uploaded photos and bootleg performance videos of his shows to the internet, and he also maintains a YouTube channel and an active social media presence. He has toured extensively, both nationally and internationally, and has performed in a variety of venues, from dive bars to huge international music festivals to college campuses to venerated museum complexes to free concerts in public parks.

Earlier/Later/Suddenly/Now: Deleuzian Approaches for Postdramatic Theater

Leo Kupferberg is a dramaturg, writer, and scholar. His research focuses on the application of Continental and postmodernist philosophy to contemporary drama. He has served as the 2024 Dramaturgy Fellow at Seattle Children's Theatre and was named a National Finalist at the Kennedy Center Institute for Theatre Journalism and Advocacy. Having recently graduated from the Bachelor of Theatre Arts program at the University of Michigan, he is now based in Chicago.

John Ward's thoroughly annotated prompt book of Hamlet, the third-oldest in the world, has been held at the Evergreen Museum in Baltimore for over a century. In 2024, some 285 years after it was first produced, Johns Hopkins researchers revived the text as presented nearly three centuries ago, in order to capture what Hamlet was to audiences of the mid-1700s in the English Midlands. In this presentation, professional dramaturg and PhD Candidate Neah Lekan, director of this "Moor Street Hamlet" workshop, will explore the prompt book revival as a method of theatre research, proposing this "resurrection dramaturgy" as an approach to understanding the reception and afterlives of classical plays presented long after their first performances.

Neah Lekan is a PhD Candidate in the Johns Hopkins University Department of English, where her research centers on dramaturgies and scenographies of empire across the Anglophone theatre in Britain, California, and the Iranian diaspora. Neah is also a practicing professional dramaturg, having served as Assistant Festival Dramaturg at the New Swan Shakespeare Festival and currently working at UCI's New Swan Shakespeare Center.

Generative AI has entered the creative infrastructure of theatre-making. The appearance of public-access models demonstrates significant potential for creative collaboration, innovation, and efficiency in nearly every aspect of the art form, from script generation to design enhancement. This potential necessarily comes with warning about how AI could co-opt the creative process at the expense of human art-makers. New technology predictably breeds mistrust and fear until increased knowledge and familiarity lead to confidence and setting boundaries. This presentation is a primer for all ages, whether you "remember when" or were born with a smartphone in your hand. The presentation will provide insights into the practical applications of generative AI for dramaturgs (effective prompt engineering, pedagogy for the classroom, supporting playwrights) and offer a space to discuss ethics and best practices.

Kristi Good (they/she) is a freelance dramaturg focusing on new work development and Assistant Professor of Dramaturgy at Carnegie Mellon University School of Drama.

Recent undergraduate dramaturgs from The Theatre School (TTS) at DePaul University explore how dramaturgy students shaped their education through innovative practices like multisensory dramaturgy, weekly rehearsal “jams,” and rethinking traditional dramaturgy formats.

Panelists examine what it means to be a “classically trained” undergraduate dramaturg, and how coursework, productions, and navigating institutional structures developed untraditional dramaturgical practices. Speakers discuss institutional structures that have supported and challenged their development, addressing issues such as advocacy in collaborative spaces, curating creative dramaturgy, and career preparation.

The session invites a discussion on implementing practices. This is an open dialogue about rethinking dramaturgy education’s role in building new creative infrastructure.

A Chicago-based dramaturg originally from Florida, Joan Starkey holds a BFA in Dramaturgy & Criticism from DePaul University. They specialize in art history and queerfeminism. sites.google.com/view/joanstarkeydtgy

LeeAnne Nakamura is a recent graduate of DePaul University’s Dramaturgy/Criticism program. She enjoys incorporating her love of pop culture with her dramaturgical work.

Molly Sharfstein is a Chicago-based dramaturg and puppet artist from Santa Cruz, CA. She holds a BFA in Theatre Arts from DePaul University.

Laura Rodriguez Sierra (She/Her) is a Puerto Rican dramaturg and creative who is a recent 2025 graduate from DePaul University in Chicago, IL. She currently volunteers with Books Save Lives, a nonprofit organization that focuses on instilling literacy mainly among youth.

Enjoy finding some lunch on your own. For those new to LMDA, please grab a bite to eat and join us for a meet and greet.

What does the infrastructure of a piece of theatrical text look like? For over 15 years, Dr. Lue Douthit has been teaching her charting exercises worldwide in workshops, rehearsal rooms, and seminars. Charting exercises demonstrate the underlying mechanics of Shakespeare’s plays and new works. Through these exercises, practitioners learn to understand the text in its most essential forms, reminding us that all plays were once new plays, and theatrical text is ultimately a blueprint for our art form. What happens when we examine the basic structure and details of a play? When we look at a play as data?

This panel offers a charting demonstration and a panel discussion about this dramaturgical practice. Translations have always served as a bridge between communities—a way to share stories across culture and language. Through charting modern verse translations, we aim to make Shakespeare’s plays accessible to new audiences.

Alex Vermillion(ze/zir/zirs or they/them/theirs) is a dramaturg, artist, and educator. Zir dramaturgy credits include Deep Purple Wiggle at Theatre Battery (Seattle, WA), blues for miss lucille at the Yale School of Drama; Henry VI, Part III and The Two Noble Kinsmen with Play On Shakespeare; and We Are Proud to Present... at the Yale Cabaret, to name a few. Ze is currently the Public Relations & Communications Manager and freelance dramaturg for Play On Shakespeare. They have been a guest lecturer at universities such as Skidmore College and a guest artist at new play festivals including the Great Plains Theatre Commons.

You can also find their various publications in Theatre History Studies. At Yale, Alex served as Co-Artistic Director of the Yale Cabaret and Managing Editor at Theater magazine. Alex received zir B.A. in English and Theatre at the University of Utah (2016) and their M.F.A. (2020) and D.F.A. (2025) in Dramaturgy & Dramatic Criticism from the Yale School of Drama.

Sally Cade Holmes is a two-time Tony Award-winning producer and thought leader committed to making challenging and innovative entertainment with broad appeal. She currently serves as the Director of Partnerships at Play On Shakespeare in addition to her producing work.

Her Broadway producing credits include Hadestown (Tony Award), The Inheritance (Tony Award / GLAAD Media Award), The Sign in Sidney Brustein’s Window (Tony nomination), Terrence McNally’s Frankie and Johnny in the Clair de Lune (Tony nomination), and Anastasia. Her Off-Broadway credits include Little Shop of Horrors (Drama Desk, Drama League & Outer Critics Circle Awards) and Puffs. In the past she has at Ars Nova's AntFest, New York Musical Theatre Festival, Hot! Festival, and Under The Radar.

She spent the early part of her producing career as Associate Producer at Tom Kirdahy Productions (White Rabbit Red Rabbit, The Jungle, It’s Only A Play) where she was mentored by Tom Kirdahy and the late Terrence McNally. Prior to that, she served as Producing Associate at Williamstown Theatre Festival where she worked on Broadway and off-Broadway productions of The Bridges of Madison County, Fool for Love, Living on Love, The Old Man and The Old Moon, and The Visit.

Sally Cade holds a Masters Degree in Arts Administration with an advanced certificate in Arts Enterprise from Boston University. She received her BS in Theatre Studies with a minor in Religious Studies from the University of Evansville. She has given keynote addresses at the Southeastern Theatre Conference and South Carolina Theatre Conference. She has served as a leader of the Time Warner Foundation WP Producer’s Lab and is a proud Young Leader of The Center, New York City’s Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual & Transgender Community Center.

Dr. Lue Morgan Douthitis the Director of Research and Practice and Co-Founder of Play on Shakespeare, where she oversaw the commission, development, and production of 39 Shakespeare plays in translation. Prior to that, she spent 25 seasons at the Oregon Shakespeare Festival where she was Director of Literary Development and Dramaturgy. She also was the production dramaturg for more than 50 productions, including 15 world premieres and more than a dozen Shakespeare plays. She was the co-producer and co-founder of the Black Swan Lab (2009) at OSF and subsequently produced the Lab until 2016. Lue is the recipient of the 1999 Literary Manager & Dramaturgs of the Americas (LMDA) Prize in Dramaturgy and The Elliott Hayes Award for her work on Lorraine Hansberry’s play Les Blancs. She received her PhD from the University of Washington, her MFA from Trinity University, and her MA from University of Arizona.

Join us at Ski Beach Park for a Beach Bonfire Meet and Greet. We will be serving up some burritos and churros, along with some evening fireworks from SeaWorld!

Hang out with friends, old and new at Eureka! SDSU

For those who requested group transportation when they registered:

• SDSU Bus loads at Campanile Mall Dr. between Lindo Paseo and Hardy Drive.
• CECUT Bus loads from Fransisco Javier Mina beside CECUT.

Things to Do, Places to See, Food to Enjoy

In this panel we will discuss the ways in which the infrastructures found in higher education can be used to foster new play development. By using the preexisting resources present in college and university environments, a unique avenue where professional and student theatre artist can collaborate thrives. Panelists from Indiana University Bloomington’s MFA programs will share successful case studies from their home institution and beyond. In uncertain times for both higher education and professional theatre organizations and in light of the crisis facing new play development in the United States and beyond, potential bridges can bolster all involved.

Sarah Johnson is Assistant Professor of Dramaturgy and Head of the M.F.A. Dramaturgy program at Indiana University Bloomington. Her research focuses on intercultural theatre, new play development, and dramaturgical methodologies. Her writing has been featured in Asian Theatre Journal, Theatre Topics, and multiple edited volumes. She works professionally as a dramaturg with theatre companies across the country. She was a casebook writer for Broadway's Allegiance. In regional theatre, she has provided dramaturgical support for productions with Outpost Repertory Theatre (as Resident Dramaturg), Timeline Theatre, Portland Stage, Colorado Shakespeare Festival, Athena Arts Project, National Women’s Theatre Festival, and several playwriting clients. She serves as an Editor of Review: The Journal of Dramaturgy. Before her time at Indiana University Bloomington, she was the Assistant Professor of Dramaturgy and Head of Playwriting at Texas Tech University and Executive Director and Resident Dramaturg of the WildWind Performance Lab.

Sheridan Schreyer is a Midwestern theatre artist, scholar, and administrator, and is an MFA Dramaturgy candidate at Indiana University Bloomington. Her work centers dramaturgy as a consent-based practice and the creation of intimate narratives. Recently, Sheridan served as a FAIR Literary Management Assistant at the Oregon Shakespeare Festival. She holds a BFA in Music Theatre with a Minor in Psychology from The Hartt School at The University of Hartford and has pursued additional training with the Laban/Bartenieff Institute of Movement Studies (LBMS), Intimacy Directors and Choreographers (IDC), Theatrical Intimacy Education (TIE), and the Association of Mental Health Coordinators (AMHC). Production Dramaturgy credits include The Merry Wives of Windsor (Oregon Shakespeare Festival), Measure for Measure, New Moves/New Directions, Reefer Madness, Reconstructed/Reframed, Too Much Light Makes the Baby Go Blind (Indiana University Bloomington), and Forever Plaid (Indiana University Summer Theatre).

Spencer Wilkes Fields is a dedicated dramaturg and theatre historian who is currently pursuing his M.F.A. in Dramaturgy at Indiana University. Spencer has played a crucial role as the dramaturg and producer for Microburst Theatre Festival as well as the At First Sight Festival. These festival showcased new plays and cemented his love for working on new works. Beyond his work on new plays, Spencer has also made significant contributions as a dramaturg for a diverse range of productions, including Head over Heels, A Midsummer Night's Dream, Mary Zimmerman's Metamorphoses, and Dial “M” for Murder. Apart from his theatrical pursuits, Spencer's passion for knowledge extends to the study of post-colonial francophone theatre. Currently, Spencer's scholarly interests lie in examining the performance of identity within Acadian communities.

Megan Gray Lederman is a theatre artist and dramaturg. Recently, she has been working towards a M.F.A. in Dramaturgy with Indiana University’s Department of Theatre, Drama, and Contemporary Dance. Megan won "Best Drama" for a production she directed at the DC Captial Fringe Festival in 2023. She received two Bachelor of Arts in 2023 from George Mason University, in Theater, Theater Studies and in English, Literature.

Explore on your own.

This is a gathering space for folks to meet and chat about current topics of interest.

Known by a variety of descriptors, documentary performance (verbatim theatre, ethnodrama, theatre of witness, etc.) engages with the lived human experience in deeply personal ways. It asks for text (oral history, personal interview) and testimony (email, journal, diary, newspaper, and other first-person accounts) as it frames reality for its participants and audiences in a theatrical medium. The artistic exploration of these real experiences delves into questions at the heart of dramaturgical practice. A few of those questions include: How do we shape and reshape the questions we ask in the research process in order to discover the right story? How do research and its multiple meanings shift in its theatrical presentation, and what are our ethical responsibilities when presenting reality in theatre? What is the unique role of the dramaturg in devising documentary performance? This 60 minute workshop, based in part on a semester-long course in verbatim theatre practice, will invite participants to engage with these questions and others as we create and share “documentary microperformances.”

Shelley Graham is a professor, writer, and dramaturg with a BA in theatre education, an MA in theatre history and criticism, and an MFA in theatre pedagogy and dramatic writing. Over the past two decades, she has worked as a dramaturg and education director for several institutions including Pioneer Theatre Company and Utah Lyric Opera. She also served for seven years as the resident dramaturg at the Covey Center for the Arts in Provo, Utah. She is currently Dramaturgy Supervisor and adjunct faculty at Brigham Young University, where she has been for just over a decade. She is passionate about teaching young dramaturgs and playwrights, and mentoring students in their own artistic discoveries. Her personal artistic and scholarly practice focuses on musical theatre script development and dramaturgy for devised theatre. Her creative work often explores women’s experiences in the complicated intersections of faith and performance in Western history. She is currently in collaboration with Tony Award-winning producers on a new musical, developing a verbatim theatre piece about return-to-faith journeys, and doing production dramaturgy for multiple productions for BYU Theatre.

Enjoy a local meal with friends. If you need some suggestions, check out our recommended Things to Do list.

Grab your headphones and comfy shoes for a site-specific, immersive soundwalk that takes you on an urban odyssey exploring the built environment and natural world around La Jolla Playhouse and UC San Diego. This poetic, meditative, and innovative work offers new ways of seeing and listening as it navigates you through the physical, cultural, and geographical landscapes we inhabit, in search of the extraordinary amidst the mundane.

To experience the soundwalk, you will download a custom-built app and bring your own mobile device and headphones. The experience starts in front of the La Jolla Playhouse box office at the Potiker Theatre . From there, the app will guide you through known and lesser-known paths, shedding a new perspective on familiar places. Your location and movements will conjure the sound and text you are hearing. To prepare for and download the experience, please go to www.59acres.com.

Marike Splint is a Dutch French-Tunisian theatre maker based in Los Angeles, specializing in creating work in public space that explores the relationship between people, places, and identity. She serves as an Associate Professor in the Department of Theater at UCLA. www.marikesplint.com.

20% off discount with code: LMDA2025 Click here to purchase tickets.

In the summer of 2008, five young girls of color and their white fathers show up at a community center. With emotions ranging from excited to downright suspicious, some are more ready than others to embark on this adventurous – albeit misguided – father-daughter bonding program. Over their time together, the fathers and daughters navigate the joy and confusion of childhood amidst myriad challenges: burgeoning friendships, unfulfilled crushes, intergenerational struggles, grief, financial insecurity and the frustration of not being seen for who you truly are.

Eliana Theologides Rodriguez is an exhilarating new voice whose work centers on young women and the complexities of race, heritage and family. Indian Princesses is based on a real-life father-daughter YMCA program she participated in as a child – which still exists today under different names.

25% off discount with code: LMDA2025. Click here to purchase tickets.

In The Odyssey, Penelope’s long wait is rewarded when her husband Odysseus returns home 20 years after leaving to fight in the Trojan War. Will the same be true for Jane in modern-day Brooklyn, 20 years after her husband left for work one fateful September morning? Maggie Burrows directs this poetic and touching play about longing, hope, and the myths we tell ourselves just to get through the day. The Janeiad, a wry contemplation of the evocative power of storytelling, marks the Globe’s third collaboration with Anna Ziegler, following The Wanderers and The Last Match.

Hang out with friends old and new at Eureka! SDSU

For those who requested group transportation when they registered:

• SDSU Bus loads at Campanile Mall Dr. between Lindo Paseo and Hardy Drive.
• CECUT Bus loads from Fransisco Javier Mina beside CECUT.

This debut panel will offer an opportunity for undergraduate and graduate (or recently graduated) students new to conferencing to present a provocation about a dramaturgy project. Each of the selected student panelists will present for 8 minutes on their project. This will be followed by a short Q&A session to allow the audience to engage with the presenters. Dan Smith and KJ Martinson host.

Presenters include: Ransom Allen, Kelsie Ramos, Arushi Grover, Thomas Underdal, and Claire Dettloff.

Asynchronous Debut Panel Presentations:

• Reconstructing Suffering: Hanoch Levin on the Polish Stage by Lilah Peck

Dan Smith is Associate Professor of Theatre Studies at Michigan State University, where he teaches dramaturgy and theatre history courses and contributes to Department of Theatre productions as a dramaturg and director. He recently spent the spring 2025 semester as the Martha Daniel Newell Visiting Scholar at Georgia College and State University. Dan’s career as a dramaturg was shaped in Chicago, most notably at Caffeine Theatre, where he served as Associate Artistic Director/Resident Dramaturg from 2010-2012. He has published scholarly and creative work in such venues as L’Esprit Créateur, Translation Review, Performing Arts Resources, The Mercurian, Brecht Yearbook, and Theatre Topics. Dan is working on a book manuscript, tentatively titled Dramaturgies of Translation: Collaboration, Convention, and Critique. Currently serving on the LMDA Executive Committee as co-VP for University Relations, he has previously served in several offices for the Dramaturgy Focus Group in the Association for Theatre in Higher Education and as editor of the journal Theatre/Practice. He is also a three-time Jeopardy! champion (episodes aired 2009).

Karen Jean Martinson, PhD, (she/her/hers) is an Assistant Professor of Dramaturgy at Arizona State University. Her scholarly and creative work explores the intersection of contemporary USAmerican performance, consumer culture, neoliberalism, and processes of identification. She also writes and talks (constantly) about dramaturgy and dramaturgical thinking.

In this interactive workshop, a continuation of last year’s panel on archiving dramaturgies, we take up the questions we started to ask last year, such as: How do theatre archives preserve the work of dramaturgs? What place does a dramaturg’s work have in an archive? What might a dramaturg’s archive look like? How do we care for and prepare our work to be archived? How does theatre, which as a field is so invested in the ephemeral, account for the importance of capturing the production process within its archives? How does one dramaturg the creative infrastructure of the archive?

LaRonika Thomas is a professional dramaturg, producer, and writer, LaRonika worked in arts education, literary management, and dramaturgy in Chicago and in the Baltimore/DC area as well as an Assistant Professor of Theatre at Washington College, where she teaches courses in dramaturgy, theatre history, and performance studies. She completed her Ph.D. at the University of Maryland, College Park, where she developed a theory of civic dramaturgy on performances of urban planning, cultural space and cultural policy, and the role of art and culture in 21st century Chicago. She currently serves as the Conference Planner-Elect for the Association for Theatre in Higher Education’s (ATHE) Dramaturgy Focus Group (DRFG), where she organizes panels and events that address topics of concern to theatre scholars. More information is available on her website: laronikathomas.com

When They Left, the Dust Remembered: Land Based Dramaturgy and the Fleshly Archive
Cuando se fueron, el polvo recordó: dramaturgismo terrestre y el archivo carnal

This presentation unfolds as a storymap and brings my own recent investigations as a land based dramaturg into conversation with several land-based works in progress by Indigenous artists who are working to draw Tkaron:to audiences into relationship with the fraught histories embedded within the cellular structure of Tkaron:to’s manicured greenery, crumbling concrete, and towering cellblocks.

Based in Tkaron:to where she was born and largely raised, Jill Carter is an Anishinaabe-Ashkenazi theatre-practitioner, researcher and educator at the University of Toronto.

The Dramaturgy of Identity-Driven Theatre Making: Ty Defoe and All My Relations’ Skeleton Canoe
El dramaturgismo de la creación teatral impulsada por la identidad: La canoa esquelética de Ty Defoe y todos mis parientes

A presentation by Ojibwe dramaturg, Sierra Rosetta, on Ty Defoe and All My Relations' Skeleton Canoe that was performed at the Chicago International Puppet Festival in 2025. Rosetta discusses the roles of the five kinds of dramaturgs that were involved in this identity-driven performance: audience, cultural, theatrical, designers, and playwright, as well as a deep dive into the intersection of Ojibwe identity and performance. This presentation builds on the LMDA publication by Rosetta of the same name.

Sierra Rosetta is an Ojibwe theatre artist and scholar currently completing a PhD in Theatre and Native studies at Northwestern University. She is also a freelance dramaturg, playwright, and arts journalist.

Dramaturgy in Progress: The Tohono O'odham Community College Comedy Club
Dramaturgismo en progreso: El Club de comedia del Tohono O'odham Community College

A comedy club was recently formed at the Tohono O'odham Community College, giving students the opportunity to develop their own material, at their own pace. Through generative dramaturgy, centering student interests, three different forms of comedy emerged: scripted scenes, stand-up monologue and improvisation. The content is a work in progress, to be revealed at this presentation!

Roweena Mackay teaches theatre at the Tohono O'odham Community College and the University of Arizona. She recently dramaturged and co-directed Antigona 3.0 with Borderlands Theater in Tucson.

View Mingei Museum exhibits anytime today between 10-5pm; free when you note you are with the LMDA conference

TikTok is Dead, Long Live TikTok. In the shadow of the death and hasty revival of popular short form video platform TikTok, the landscape of digital content has changed rapidly, as has our relationship to it. According to an NEA study, in 2022 just 4% of American adults attended a live play. Meanwhile, according to a 2024 Pew Research study, 33% of Americans use TikTok, 47% use Instagram, and an even larger 83% regularly use YouTube. Add to this the 2024 American for the Arts findings that 46% of Americans consider social media content creators artists.

There is an appetite for art, and people consider themselves to be engaging with it. By exploring this flexion point of media consumption through a dramaturgical lens, we can better understand the creative infrastructure undergirding other industries, how they are evolving, and how consumption and engagement changes along with it.

Lindsay L. Barr is a Pittsburgh based dramaturg and arts administrator. A graduate of Carnegie Mellon University, she has worked locally with Pittsburgh Public Theater and City Theater.

Padra Crisafulli creates theatrical experiences as a sound designer, composer, director, and generative artist. They are drawn to mixing the unexplainable with the unavoidable.

Sara Sotelo (she/her/ella) is a Chicana scholar/artist currently studying for her MA in Performance studies at UC Santa Barbara. She has been a dramaturg for 4 years, working with fantastic artists. She holds a BA in History and Education from UC Santa Cruz. Her studies encompass monsters and their relationship to cultural studies!

Aggie Woodbury (she/her) is an artist focused on process-driven storytelling and collaborative, impactful work. She holds a BFA in Dramaturgy from Carnegie Mellon and is now a Creative Producer at a Brooklyn-based design agency.

Recuperating performance pasts to (re)build community connections
Recuperando el pasado escénico para (re)construir conexiones comunitarias

(Re)building college and community connections by recuperating the shared stories of performance history. Working with students in our college and public library archives, we learned that our town and gown spaces once functioned much more as shared audiences—yet many of their shared performances had eluded our performance histories because they often looked less like “plays” and more like parades, dances, pageants, or even swimming competitions. Delving into those histories, and the way that those pageants captured and perpetuated the earlier communities’ sense of themselves and how they wanted to be remembered, we found surprising throughlines and nuances of gender, race, and other identities not evident at first glance. Imagining this one institution and its surrounding peoples’ experience as a model, we ask how can others voyage into recuperating the less documented performative past in order to build a more collaborative future?

Jen Shook teaches at Grinnell College; her practice lives at the intersections of performance, literature, cultural memory, Indigenous studies, community engagement, and digital liberal arts.

Bridges Between Worlds: Developing Interactive Lobby Experiences Through Dramaturgy and Design
Puentes entre mundos: Desarrollo de experiencias interactivas en vestíbulos mediante la dramaturgia y el diseño

This presentation reflects on my role as a dramaturg for Arizona State University's production of Sometimes the Rain, Sometimes the Sea by Julia Izumi. In collaboration with the director, we crafted an interactive lobby display that introduced the audience to the themes of love and narratives from children's literature which were central to this production. To help the audience connect with these themes, I designed an interactive art installation that invited them to engage sensorially with the concept of love featuring love letters from the performers and a story corner featuring Hans Christian Andersen tales that are woven throughout the play's narrative. Alongside these lobby elements was a spatial design that featured toys and play manipulatives that encouraged audience members to engage in play which was controlled by a character Little One. Through these elements, the lobby experience extended the dramaturgical infrastructure of the production, drawing the audience into the world of the play and preparing them for the performance ahead.

Thomas Underdal is an interdisciplinary theatre maker, educator, and scholar. His work as a theatre maker spans the roles of writer, historian, and dramaturg, and designer whose work is situated at the crossroads of theatre for youth and ecological theatre. His research and creative practice center on animal studies, creative dramaturgies for youth, and environmental justice developing pedagogies and dramaturgies for the current and future ecological realities. His creative and scholarly work centers on ecological realities, modern reimaginings, and dramaturgies of joy, imagination, and wonder. Thomas is an MFA Theatre for Youth and Community student at Arizona State University. He is also the current Play Works Coordinator for AZ Thespians.

He recently completed his applied project, The Beanstalk Project developing methods of developing new work by, for, and with youth populations through classical fairy tales. His new play, The Boy Who Planted Seeds had a reading at Arizona State University and Childsplay this February. Some of his other recent work includes fairy tale girls (ASU Theatre Lab). Kingdom (ASU Theatre Lab, Childsplay Theatre Academy), The Plays that Goes Boom! Pow! (Childsplay Theatre Academy Commission) and a theatre for the very young play, Fox Needs a Nap (Arts on the Horizon 2022 Finalist). Thomas also developed an Earth Day Celebration featuring the premiere of two of his new ecological theatre for youth plays, The Isle of Beasts and The Girl and the Mountain, and a multimedia piece, Eco-Fables, and other tales of the forest.

Library Instruction from the Classroom to the Rehearsal Room
Instrucción bibliotecaria desde el aula hasta la sala de ensayo

Librarians are key partners in training performing arts students to create risk-taking, rigorous, research-informed work. However, there exists a gap, in theatre and performance as well as in library and information science literature, addressing library instruction pedagogy for these students. A recent instruction-themed special issue of Performing Arts Resources, the publication of the Theatre Library Association, seeks to fill this gap by presenting articles from a number of performing arts librarians at a range of institutions that propose pedagogical approaches to teaching creative research to performing arts students, within the library and beyond. During this presentation, I will briefly introduce the special issue of PAR and then turn to my own contribution to the issue as a case study. My article, titled “Collaborating With Artist-Mentors: Library Instruction in the Rehearsal Room,” proposes that librarians collaborate closely with artist-mentors in order to foster knowledge of and enthusiasm for library resources in the rehearsal room.

Rye Gentleman is the Librarian for Performing Arts in the Division of Libraries at New York University. He holds a PhD from the Theatre Arts & Dance department at University of Minnesota and a Master’s in Library and Information Science from San Jose State University. His writing has been published in TDR/The Drama Review, Theater, Performing Arts Resources, and in the anthology Fifty Key Figures in Queer US Theatre (Routledge). His current projects include co-curating Archives Onstage, a collaboration between NYU Libraries and the Skirball Center, and researching a dissertation-based book project that explores real and imagined links between transgender and transhumanism through the work of trans artists and asks what trans theory might contribute to ongoing conversations about the figure of the human.

Veterans of musical theatre, all with Broadway credits, will discuss their experiences developing musical theatre as well as San Diego’s history as an incubator for nationally and internationally visible musicals. Stephen Brotebeck will discuss the New Musical Initiative at San Diego State University. Eric Keen-Louie will share the highlights of his work on musicals at two Tony award-winning theatres in San Diego. Kim Heil will share her experience as Associate Artistic Director of the Old Globe. Moderator Gabriel Greene will share his work on musicals as director of artistic development and dramaturg at San Diego’s La Jolla Playhouse.

Gabriel Greene joined La Jolla Playhouse’s artistic staff in 2007, and currently serves as their Director of Artistic Development. During his tenure, he has shepherded the development of dozens of new plays and musicals, including works by Pulitzer Prize winners, Tony Award winners and a former US poet laureate. Prior to the Playhouse, he was the Literary Manager at Chicago’s Steppenwolf Theatre Company. Goosebumps Alive, his immersive adaptation of R.L. Stine’s best-selling novels (co-written by Tom Salamon) premiered at The Vaults (London). With Alex Levy, he co-wrote Safe at Home, which premiered at Mixed Blood Theatre (Ivey Award) and has since been produced at Arizona State University, Kitchen Dog Theatre (Best Theater Production of 2023, D Magazine) and University of Houston. B.A.: University of Michigan. M.Phil: Trinity College Dublin. B.F.F.: Mia Fiorella..

Stephen Brotebeckis the Director of the School of Theatre, Television, and Film and a Professor of Musical Theatre at San Diego State University in the prestigious MFA Musical Theatre program. Stephen also served as the Interim Artistic Director of Diversionary Theatre (San Diego) and as the Artistic Director for the Okoboji Summer Theatre (Iowa). On Broadway, Stephen served as the Movement Associate on the Tony® Award winning production of Peter and the Starcatcher. In addition he served as an Assistant Director on the Broadway premiere of Ghost The Musical. Off and Off-Off Broadway: Breaking The Shakespeare Code and St. Francis (Excellence in Directing Award) at the New York International Fringe Festival, The Shark Play, The Maltese Walter, The Space Behind Your Heart and Greasemonkey (World Premiere). Regional directing and choreography credits include The 2012 Kennedy Center Spring Gala, Midnight at the Never Get, Head Over Heels, Girlfriend, The Loneliest Girl In The World (Diversionary Theatre), Ghost, The Musical (Finger Lakes Musical Theatre Festival), Peter and the Starcatcher, Spamalot, And The World Goes ‘Round, and I Love A Piano (Farmers Alley Theatre). MFA Penn State; BFA Western Michigan University. www.stephenbrotebeck.com

Eric Keen-Louie (he/him/his) joined the Playhouse in September, 2018, after seven years at The Old Globe, where he started as Associate Producer and later became Associate Artistic Director. At the Globe, he helped guide nearly fifty productions, including the pre-Broadway productions of Bright Star, Allegiance and the Tony Award-winning A Gentleman’s Guide to Love and Murder. He co-created the theater’s new play development initiative The Powers New Voices Festival and helped launch the arts engagement programs Community Voices and Globe for All. Keen-Louie spent three years at The Public Theater as the Assistant to the Associate Producer and then Director of Special Projects, working on world premieres by Richard Nelson, Suzan-Lori Parks, and Stephen Sondheim, as well as the Tony Award-winning Broadway revival of Hair and the creation of The Mobile Unit. Independently, he produced Kingdom and the GLAAD Media Award-winning when last we flew. He also assisted Broadway producer Margo Lion on Hairspray and Caroline, or Change. He is a recipient of The Edward & Sally Van Lier Arts Fellowship for Producing and an alumnus of American Express’ Leadership Academy. He serves as Secretary for the National Alliance of Musical Theatre’s Board of Directors and chairs the organization’s Inclusion, Diversity, Equity, and Accessibility Committee and New Works Committee. He graduated with a B.A. in Dramatic Literature from New York University and an M.F.A. in Theatre Management and Producing from Columbia University, where he received a Dean’s fellowship. He shares his commute to La Jolla with his husband Anthony Keen-Louie, an administrator in student affairs at UC San Diego. He is a proud third-generation Chinese-American.

Kim Montelibano Heil, CSA is Casting Director, a Producer, and Consultant in theatre and entertainment. She currently serves as the Associate Artistic Director at The Old Globe, having previously served as the Artistic Producer & Head of Casting. Most recently she was the Associate Producer and Casting Director for San Diego Repertory Theatre, and prior to that she was the Education Director at San Diego Junior Theatre.  Kim has also acted as a Consultant to Moonlight Stage Productions, and to San Diego State University’s New Musical Initiative.  She currently serves on the Board of the National New Play Network, and has also served on the boards of Diversionary Theatre and Blindspot Collective.  Kim was one of the inaugural Ambassadors for the San Diego Theatre Alliance, formed in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. As a passionate advocate of Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion, Kim is a member of the artEquity BIPOC Leadership Circle. Kim holds an M.A. in Performance Studies from New York University.

Our proposal will introduce our CFP for an edited collection on Dramaturgy and Devising. In this interactive and collaborative session, four career dramaturgs who also happen to be academics will work to demystify the process of submitting to a scholarly book or journal. We will host a casual working session where we can answer questions and provide mentorship and support for people interested in crafting a submission to this collection, or who just want to learn about the publication process. If you’re a dramaturg working in the field of devising, we want to hear about your projects and your process! We welcome those who have written pieces in process that are in search of a publication, those who work in devising but haven’t thought about how to write about it, and/or those who might want co-writers… all are welcome! Our emphasis is on making publication accessible by demystifying the process, so that we might cultivate a robust field of submissions representing all facets of our LMDA membership.

Karen Jean Martinson, PhD, (she/her/hers) is an Assistant Professor of Dramaturgy at Arizona State University. Her scholarly and creative work explores the intersection of contemporary USAmerican performance, consumer culture, neoliberalism, and processes of identification. She also writes and talks (constantly) about dramaturgy and dramaturgical thinking.

Jen Shook teaches at Grinnell College; her practice lives at the intersections of performance, literature, cultural memory, Indigenous studies, community engagement, and digital liberal arts.

Jane Barnette is a Professor and the Head of Dramaturgy at the University of Kansas. She writes about and specializes in adaptation dramaturgy.

Dr. Oona Hatton is an Associate Professor in the Department of Communication Studies at San José State University and co-Artistic Director of Davis Repertory Theatre.

This workshop will walk participants through the submission process of LMDA's journal, Review, and explore the journal's many options for sharing writing on the field and practice of dramaturgy. We will overview the journal sections and walk through the process of submitting, reviewing, editing, and publishing. The workshop will include a chance to brainstorm submissions, receive feedback from editors, and share resources for academic writing. Feel free to bring an abstract or draft of an article, an idea, or a curiosity about academic publishing.

Sarah Johnson is Assistant Professor of Dramaturgy and Head of the M.F.A. Dramaturgy program at Indiana University Bloomington. Her research focuses on intercultural theatre, new play development, and dramaturgical methodologies. Her writing has been featured in Asian Theatre Journal, Theatre Topics, and multiple edited volumes. She works professionally as a dramaturg with theatre companies across the country. She was a casebook writer for Broadway's Allegiance. In regional theatre, she has provided dramaturgical support for productions with Outpost Repertory Theatre (as Resident Dramaturg), Timeline Theatre, Portland Stage, Colorado Shakespeare Festival, Athena Arts Project, National Women’s Theatre Festival, and several playwriting clients. She serves as an Editor of Review: The Journal of Dramaturgy. Before her time at Indiana University Bloomington, she was the Assistant Professor of Dramaturgy and Head of Playwriting at Texas Tech University and Executive Director and Resident Dramaturg of the WildWind Performance Lab.

Allison Backus is a Boston-based dramaturg. She is the Resident Dramaturg at Merrimack Repertory Theatre and the Vice President of Publications at LMDA, where she co-edits Review: the Journal of Dramaturgy. She has an MA in Theatre and Performance from Queen Mary University of London and a BA in English from Boston University.

25% off discount with code: LMDA2025. Click here to purchase tickets.

In The Odyssey, Penelope’s long wait is rewarded when her husband Odysseus returns home 20 years after leaving to fight in the Trojan War. Will the same be true for Jane in modern-day Brooklyn, 20 years after her husband left for work one fateful September morning? Maggie Burrows directs this poetic and touching play about longing, hope, and the myths we tell ourselves just to get through the day. The Janeiad, a wry contemplation of the evocative power of storytelling, marks the Globe’s third collaboration with Anna Ziegler, following The Wanderers and The Last Match.

Dramaturgs’ dealings with historical research take many forms and are so integral to the practice of dramaturgy that we might say they provide a core part of the discipline’s infrastructure. In fact, dramaturgs’ engagements with history are so central to the basic framework of our practice that it may feel that they barely merit commenting upon. Yet, this element of dramaturgical practice— our work on and with history— provides the basis for some of our most impactful artistic, civic, and cross-disciplinary collaborations. This discussion will invite panelists (and attendees) to (re)consider the relationship between dramaturgy and history. How can and do dramaturgs use history to reimagine the canon, to advocate for new works that amplify marginalized histories, and to contribute to critical conversations around history and its uses in and beyond the theatre?

Caitlin Kane (they/she) is an Assistant Professor of Theatre History and Dramatic Criticism at Kent State University. As an artist-scholar, Kane’s research centers on feminist, queer, and trans approaches to staging history that deepen and complicate our understandings of contemporary social issues.

Khalid Y. Long, PhD is Associate Dean of Research and Creative Endeavors in the Chadwick A. Boseman College of Fine Arts at Howard University. Dr. Long teaches various courses, from theatre history and dramaturgy to dramatic criticism, global performance, and Black cultural production.

Lindsay L. Barr is a Pittsburgh based dramaturg and arts administrator. A graduate of Carnegie Mellon University, she has worked locally with Pittsburgh Public Theater and City Theater.

Dr. Daphnie Sicre is a multi-hyphenated theatre artist. She is a director-dramaturg-scholar-educator who shares a deep passion for Black and Latine perspectives in theatre, especially AfroLatinidad.

Supporting and empowering artists of all ages is central to building, sustaining, and reimagining theater and arts organization infrastructures. This panel explores the unique and rhythmic journey of Hip Hop it Don’t Stop: A Memory’s Mixtape , a new play in development with San Diego-based community arts organization Bocón. The panel, comprised of playwright Wind Dell Woods, Bocón Theater’s Artistic Director Crystal Mercado Rosure, and other theater artists, will discuss the development process of this new play and how Bocón uses a community-based approach to support, train, and develop work for audiences of all ages.

Wind Dell Woods is a playwright, theater artist, and scholar. His research is centered on Hip Hop aesthetics in contemporary theatre. Woods is an Associate Professor of Theatre Arts at the University of Puget Sound.

Crystal Mercado Rosure is Assistant Professor of Visual and Performing Arts Education at Cal Poly, San Luis Obispo and Artistic Director of Bocón, empowering youth through storytelling and performance.

Yari Cervas is a director, dramaturg, and teaching artist exploring the alchemy of hyphenated-identity in pursuit of intergenerational healing through the ritual of theatre.

Navegaciones: El viaje de desarrollo teatral de una dramaturgista filipina en San Diego
Navigations: A Pinay Playwright’s Play Development Journey in San Diego

From flooding to funding, San Diego Pinay playwright Thelma Virata de Castro shares her 2024 developmental workshop journey for her play Never Be Poor. When her residency with Blindspot Collective was scratched due to historic January 2024 flooding, de Castro rebuilt her residency using a variety of community and grant resources. Through a partnership with San Diego Writers, Ink, she led an AAPI writing workshop, which culminated in Making Space, Taking Space , a public reading funded by California Humanities. With a grant from the William Male Foundation, de Castro created her own developmental play workshop which was modeled after her experience workshopping her play Penumbra, which was commissioned by The Old Globe Theatre. She built a welcoming space for fellow AAPI writers and Filipina/o/x artists, and brought together United AAPI Artists, The FilAm Film Collective and other community groups. Her presentation includes guidance for other artists on funding, acquiring an artistic team, workshopping, and community building.

Thelma Virata de Castro is a San Diego based Filipinx playwright, dramaturg, and teaching artist whose work explores identity and belonging.

The Importance of Jewish Dramaturgy: Reflections of an Accidental Specialist
La importancia de la dramaturgismo judía: reflexiones de un especialista accidental

Through a retrospective on the last decade working as a Jewish dramaturg, I seek to explore the need for such work. Delving into the loaded and coded details that support the importance of minoritarian dramaturgy and mindfully bringing one's whole self into the room.

Currently a PhD candidate, Haia R’nana Bchiri has worked in theatre in a variety of roles for two decades, and as a dramaturg for over ten years.

The Annual General Meeting will take place at the Old Globe.

Take a walk around Balboa Park, for there are always interesting people and street performers to watch. Or you can take this opportunity to get a ride back to change for the banquet.

Meet at the Craig Noel Garden for a tour of the Old Globe led by LMDA conference host Danielle Mages Amato!

Help us celebrate LMDA’s 40th anniversary, the end of our first bi-national conference, and the honoring of Luis Valdez, a pioneer in the Chicano Movement who founded El Teatro Campesino and laid the pathway for Chicano Theater today. We will also be announcing the winners of the Leon Katz Award for teaching and mentoring and Elliot Hayes Award for outstanding achievement in dramaturgy.

For those who requested group transportation when they registered:

• SDSU Bus loads at Campanile Mall Dr. between Lindo Paseo and Hardy Drive.
• CECUT Bus loads from Fransisco Javier Mina beside CECUT.

One last time to hang out with friends and celebrate a great weekend at Eureka! SDSU