Versión en Español

Conference 2025 Program

Updated June 16, 2025

Wednesday, June 25, 2025

3 pm

Volunteer Orientation

No additional details at this time.

7 pm

Eureka BarThe Dramaturgical Methodology of Make the Dream Real
La Metodología Dramaturgística para Hacer Realidad el Sueño

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.

A woman with purple hair and glasses wearing a colorful striped dress. 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, a handsome older Chicano man, dances atop a stand-up bass wearing a fur-trimmed, red vinyl jumpsuit. 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.

7 pm

Sala de Espectáculos 20th Monologue Festival "Theater in One Voice" 2025 (in Spanish)

CECUT presents this one-person show festival in collaboration with the National Institute of Fine Arts and Literature through the National Theater Coordination. Camila Palom’s "We Can't Swim" comes to us from Teatro del Tolok (Veracruz). At the age of 72, Elena makes a decision for the first time in her life: to learn to swim. During Camila's narration, we observe Elena's journey to free herself from the shackles of customs and traditions imposed by a region that prevented her from fulfilling her dream. Directed by Freddy Palomec Guzmán.

This is a free event.

 

Thursday, June 26, 2025

10:00 am

CECUT: Sala de Juntas de El CuboWhere does a dramaturg fit? ¿En dónde cabe la figura dramaturgista?

This workshop aims to explore how and where a dramaturg fits within the creative infrastructures of our theatre processes. Led by Mexico City based collaborators, Martha Herrera-Lasso (dramaturg) and Rina Rajlevsky (stage director), the session invites dramaturgs, students, and creatives who wish to explore the possibilities of how dramaturgs can improve creative processes.

Light skinned woman in her late thirties, with green eyes and long light-brown hair. Martha Herrera-Lasso has a BA in Playwriting (UNAM, Mexico City, 2009), an MA in Theatre Studies (University of British Columbia, Vancouver, 2012) and a PhD in Performance Studies (University of California, Berkeley, 2019). Her doctoral thesis was on Regionalizing NAFTA: Theaters of Translation in Mexico City and Quebec. Martha currently works as a translator, dramaturg and writer in Mexico City. She specializes in research and storytelling design across different media – film, podcasts, theatre, marketing, immersive experiences, television – as well as linguistic and cultural translation. She also teaches in the Department of Theatre and Dramatic Literature at the National University in Mexico City.

 A woman with round black glasses, short hair with one side shaved and the other curly, a smile, and an outfit consisting of a checkered blazer and a black shirt. Photo credit: Odette Villareal Rina Rajlevsky was born in Mexico City. She holds a BA in International Relations from ITESM and a MA in Systemic Family Psychotherapy from Instituto de la Familia A.C. (IFAC). She began her theater career over 20 years ago and has since participated in more than 35 productions. She is a former director of the Habima Theater Festival who has dedicated several years to teaching in the performing arts field. In 2018, she served as a jury member for the Metropolitan Theater Awards and from 2019, until its last edition, she was the stage director of the ceremony. Currently, she combines her theatrical work with her private practice as a psychotherapist. Additionally, she is launching Dojo Escénico, an acting training space.

10:30 am

SDSU: Dramatic Arts 005BPresentation Session: Theories of Theatre

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

A young white man with short light brown hair.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.


Resurrection Dramaturgy: Re-staging The Moor Street Hamlet
Dramaturgismo de la Resurrección: Re-escenificación de la Hamlet de Moor Street

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.

An Iranian-American woman with brown hair and hazel eyes.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.

SDSU: Dramatic Arts 101Illuminating Dramaturgy with Generative AI: A New Frontier in Creative Infrastructure
Iluminando el dramaturgismo con IA generativa: una nueva frontera en la infraestructura creativa

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.

A white person with asymmetrical, dark curly hair and tattoos on their arms.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.

SDSU: Dramatic Arts 221Beyond the Bounds of Educational Infrastructure
Más allá de los límites de la infraestructura educativa

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 white person with brown hair, a white collared shirt, and a brown vest. Photo credit: Jenn Udoni.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

A Japanese American woman, wearing a green dress, seen from the shoulders up.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.

A white person with metal glasses, butterfly earrings, and a green sleeveless shirtMolly Sharfstein is a Chicago-based dramaturg and puppet artist from Santa Cruz, CA. She holds a BFA in Theatre Arts from DePaul University.

A brown Puerto Rican woman with Dark hair and black blazerLaura 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.

12:00 pm

Caja de ResonanciaWelcome to new LMDA members or Lunch out

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.

SDSU: Dramatic Arts 101Welcome to new LMDA members or Lunch out

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.

1 pm

SDSU: Dramatic Arts Main Stage | CECUT: Sala de Juntas de El CuboShared Opening

Events will take place at both locations with a live stream between the two venues.
  • Welcome (President, Board Chairs, Conference Co-hosts)
  • Kumeyaay blessing and song with Paul Cannon
  • 40th Anniversary Kickoff
2:30 pm

SDSU: Dramatic Arts Main Stage | CECUT: Sala de Juntas de El CuboBreak/Networking

Take a few minutes to grab a drink and get to know someone new!

3:15 pm

SDSU: Dramatic Arts Main Stage | CECUT: Sala de Juntas de El Cubo
Creating Theater on the Mexican Border: Cross-cutting challenges of an artistic process.
Crear teatro en la frontera mexicana: retos transversales de un proceso artístico.

The company Tijuana Hace Teatro has followed a path of creation, production, and connection with its environment for 17 years, exploring both creative concerns and the conditions of the Mexican and border artistic context, while addressing the particular needs of its own model. In this process, the division of labor is a constant, but it is also questioned and explored. Is it possible to separate the work of stage direction from the global decisions of the theatrical experience? Who assumes the role of dramaturg? Is the meticulous division of roles “a luxury” that depends on the production model? These questions aim to open a space for reflection on the multiple possible answers within the landscape of our theatrical practice.

A Mexican man with black hair. Photo credit: Jassiel Santillán.Ramón Verdugo López is a performing artist, producer, university professor and artistic director of the company Tijuana Hace Teatro y Teatro Las Tablas since 2007. He has more than 40 productions as a director, actor and/or theatrical producer, with artistic and academic work participating in festivals, conferences and tours in Mexico, the United States, Spain, Cuba, Brazil, Denmark, China, Armenia and Argentina.

He co-founded and has carried out, for 15 years, the artistic direction, management and production of training, dissemination and scenic creation projects such as the Escuela Binacional de Espectadores THT, that brings together theaters on the Mexico/United States border; Festival Interprepas, dedicated to the dissemination and strengthening of young theater; Jornadas de Teatro Infancias y Juventudes THT, Ibero-American meeting space for creation and reflection; Festival de Teatro Íntimo, that seeks to strengthen creation in independent spaces; Cartografía Escénica, an audiovisual talk program, among others.

He has more than a decade as a university teacher of the Lic. in Theater (UABC), the Lic. in Academic Singing (Ja'sit), and the Taller/Lab THT platform, his company's stage training space. Active member of ASSITEJ International and Ibero-America, Red Miradas México and ANTI; he has been a beneficiary of SACPC, FONCA, PECDA, among others.

Events will take place at both locations with a live stream between the two venues.

4:30 pm

SDSU: Dramatic Arts Main Stage | CECUT: Sala de Juntas de El CuboNew Play Infrastructure for Dramaturgs, Playwrights, and Directors
Nueva infraestructura teatral para dramaturgistas, dramaturgos y directores

How are dramaturgs the perfect artists to build and re-imagine creative infrastructure at this critical moment, especially in the new play sphere? Using the "new play festival" as an example, dramaturgs Patrice Amon, Jeremy Cohen, and Danielle Mages Amato discuss the strengths and pitfalls of that model, and of our current new play infrastructures as a whole, with a focus on the theatre landscape of Southern California. The conversation will raise questions about which transformations are needed—and which may be inevitable—as dramaturgs work to shape the future of our creative infrastructure.

A white woman with salt-and-pepper hair and glasses.Danielle Mages Amato works as the Director of New Plays and Dramaturgy at The Old Globe in San Diego.

A black and white photo of a 50-year old man with glasses and a shaved head.Jeremy Cohen is a nationally renowned director, playwright and new play leader in the Theater field, currently in his 3rd year as Producing Artistic Director of Ojai Playwrights Conference. Previously, he served for 14 years as Producing Artistic Director at Playwrights’ Center in Minneapolis and 7 years as Associate Artistic Director at Hartford Stage. As Founding Artistic Director of Naked Eye Theatre Company in Chicago, Cohen developed/directed more than 15 plays, including several premieres. Other directing credits include work at Actors Theatre of Louisville, The Alley, Alliance, Baltimore Center Stage, Denver Center, Dorset Theatre, George Street Playhouse, Goodman, Kansas City Rep, McCarter, Mixed Blood, New Victory (off-Broadway), Olney, Open Fist, Pasadena Playhouse, Portland Center Stage, Steppenwolf, Theater J, Theater Latté Da, Victory Gardens and Woolly Mammoth. His own plays include a commission for “Malicious Animal Magnetism” at A.C.T. in San Francisco, his adaptation of Lord of the Flies ("Boys Will Be Boys"), among many others. His Off-Broadway production (at The Duke on 42nd Street) of singer/songwriter Jonatha Brooke's “My Mother Has 4 Noses” recently finished touring the U.S., and he's currently writing the book for “Playing With Fire” with music and lyrics by JC Chasez and Jimmy Harry, and developing/directing the musical adaptation of the award-winning documentary “The Gospel of Eureka” with Emily Saliers (of Indigo Girls).

A woman with curly black hair and green shirtMaria Patrice Amon is a director, producer, scholar, and leader. Directing: Pásale Pásale (TuYo Theatre); Hoops (Milwaukee Chamber Theatre); A Skeptic and a Bruja (Urbanite Theatre); Group! The Musical (Passage Theatre); Hoopla! (La Jolla Playhouse POP Tour); Azul (Diversionary Theatre); Mojada (UCSD); Ich Bin Ein Berliner (Theatre Lab); DREAM HOU$E (CSUSM/TuYo Theatre;) Fade (Moxie Theatre); The Madres (Moxie Theatre); Lydia (Brown Bag Theatre Company). Dramaturg: Little Foxes (South Coast Rep); Appropriate (South Coast Rep); Beachtown (San Diego Rep). Patrice was a O’Neil Theatre Center National Directing Fellow, and an Associate Artistic Director at San Diego Repertory Theatre, a 2023 Classical Directing Fellow. In 2017, she founded the Latinx New Play Festival at San Diego REP and continues to produce the annual festival at La Jolla Playhouse. She is a Co-Artistic Director of TuYo Theatre, a LTC Steering Committee member, and a board member for NNPN. Patrice is an associate professor at CSUSM. JD: California Western School of Law. PhD: UC Irvine. www.mariapatriceamon.com

Events will take place at both locations with a live stream between the two venues.

6:00 pm

CECUT: Sala Federico CampbellCelebration of Luis Valdez
Celebracíon de Luis Valdez

Since 2020, four books have been published documenting the life and work of legendary Mexican-American playwright and dramaturg, Luis Valdez: Theatre of The Sphere (2021), The Theater of Luis Valdez (2022), Luis Valdez (2024), and Three Plays by Luis Valdez (2025). We will present a panel featuring Mr. Valdez and three of his scholarly interlocutors for a celebration of his immeasurable contribution to theatrical culture over the eight decades of his life.

Michael is a black-haired, black-bearded man with glasses smiling while leaning against a bookcase.Michael M. Chemers is Professor and Chair of the Department of Performance, Play & Design at the University of California Santa Cruz. He is co-author, with Michael Sell, of Systemic Dramaturgy: A Handbook for the Digital Age (Southern Illinois University 2022). He is also the author of the field-defining Ghost Light: An Introductory Handbook for Dramaturgy (Southern Illinois University 2010, 2nd edition 2023). He was the Founding Director of the Bachelor of Fine Arts in Production Dramaturgy Program at Carnegie Mellon University’s School of Drama from 2007-12 and has been the director of dramaturgy at the UCSC since 2012.

A woman with medium skin tone and long, curly black hair is standing outdoors in front of a white building with black shutters. She is wearing a dark gray dress with a black cardigan over it.Analola Santana is Associate Professor of Theater at Dartmouth College. She is the author of Teatro y Cultura de Masas: Encuentros y Debates (México: Editorial Escenología, 2010) and Freak Performances: Dissidence in Latin American Theatre (University of Michigan Press, 2018), which considers the significance of theatrical practices that use the “freak” as a medium to explore the continuing effects of colonialism on Latin American identity. She is also the co-editor of Theatre and Cartographies of Power: Repositioning the Latina/o Americas (Southern Illinois UP, 2018); Fifty Key Figures in Latinx and Latin American Theatre (Routledge, 2022); Monsters in Performance: Essays on the Aesthetics of Disqualification and The Figure of the Monster in Global Theatre (Routledge, 2022 and 2024), both with Michael Chemers; and Freak Inheritance: Eugenics and Extraordinary Bodies in Performance (Oxford UP, 2024). She has published articles in several journals, including GESTOS, Latin American Theatre Review, Letras Femeninas, Paso de gato, Chasquí, Cuadernos de literatura, Theatre Topics, and Theatre Journal. She works as a professional dramaturg and is a company member of Mexico’s famed Teatro de Ciertos Habitantes.

SDSU: Main StageCharting the Infrastructure: A New Way to Explore Plays
Cartografiando la infraestructura: una nueva forma de explorar las obras

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.

A non-binary person with pink hair wearing all black. Green foliage in the background.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.

A white woman with long, curly red-ish hair. Photo credit: Will Crooks 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.

Woman with salt and pepper hair, glasses, and pumpkin-colored blouse. Mark Mezadourian Hughes, photo creditDr. 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.

7:30 pm

Networking Event

Join LMDA president at a Dinner Out at Ceasar’s Restaurant

Networking Event

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!

10:00 pm

Night cap at Conference Bar

Hang out with friends, old and new at the Stock Bar at Hotel Real Inn

Night cap at Conference Bar

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

 

Friday, June 27, 2025

7:30 am

SDSUBus from SDSU to CECUT

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.
10:00 am

CECUT: Sala Frederico CampbellPlenary Panel: Teatro desde el borde: Prácticas escénicas en Baja California
Theatre from the Edge: Theatre Practices in Baja California

This panel offers an in-depth look at the intrinsic and distinctive ways theatre is created in Baja California — a borderland region defined by its multiculturalism, geographical tensions, and complex social fabric. Far from major institutional centers, theatre in Baja California has evolved through creative strategies rooted in self-management, cultural hybridity, and a deep connection with local communities.

Panelists — including creators, directors, playwrights, and cultural producers — will share their experiences, processes, and the challenges of building a unique theatrical language in a space shaped by constant transit, migration, resistance, and a fluid sense of identity. Through conversation, they will explore production models, collaborative networks, and the artistic visions that define a resilient and powerful theatre scene grounded in its territory.

This panel not only seeks to highlight the voices of theatre-makers in Baja California but also to build bridges with other geographies and ways of understanding stage creation from the margins of the country.

Mexican woman with black dress and blazerPita Zapot Artist, Mexican woman, and explorer of movement at the edge of the established. She merges classical and contemporary dance, performance, and drag in a frenzy of styles and innovative techniques. As a dancer and choreographer, her art challenges conventions and blurs the boundaries between the sacred and the profane. Actress, playwright, and director of Ingrávita Performing Arts in Tijuana since 2016, she has also been a member of the performance collective La Pocha Nostra since 2022.

Mexican man with blue blazer and light button shirt. Gilberto Corrales has worked as a director, playwright, actor, producer, and manager. He holds a degree in Theater from the Faculty of Arts at the Autonomous University of Baja California UABC; he is the general and artistic director of Incendio Producciones (formerly Teatro en el incendio) and has directed more than 40 productions, almost all of them his own.

Mexican man with a t-shirt, black jacket, beard and mustache.Yoall Morales is a graduate in Theatre and Master in Stage and Literary Dramaturgy, actor, playwright, producer and artistic director of the Teatro en Resistencia company. As a director and narrator, he has participated in more than twenty stage projects, festivals, and national gatherings throughout the country.

Mexican woman with black dress and long light brown hairValeria Vega is a Binational Theater Maker, Producer, Cultural Promoter, and Teaching Artist with over two decades of experience.

Started her acting career in 1999 and has since participated in numerous productions with companies such as Grupo Ojo, Las Diablas, Teatro de León, Tijuana Hace Teatro, Optika Moderna, and Camino23. As of 2024, she serves as Family and Cross-Cultural Program Manager at The Old Globe.

10:00 am
11:30 am

SDSU: Dramatic Arts 221Using the Infrastructure of Higher Education for New Play Development
Utilizando la infraestructura de la educación superior para el desarrollo de nuevas formas de juego

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.

A white woman with brown shoulder length hair wearing glasses.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.

A white woman with long red hair.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).

A white man with brown hair wearing a blue button up shirt and glassesSpencer 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.

A white woman with blue eyes and brown curly hair in a green shirt against a white background. 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.

11:50 am

CECUT: Sala de VideoLocal Efforts Exploring Mexican Playwrights, Latine Artist Development, and Cross-Border Collaboration (en Espanol)
Esfuerzos locales que exploran a los dramaturgos mexicanos, el desarrollo de artistas latinos y la colaboración transfronteriza

This panel will explore the impact of work done in San Diego that fosters bilingual, bicultural, binational theater: Voces en el Umbral is a two-day festival of Mexican playwrights in San Diego, honoring the likes of Victor Hugo Rascón Banda, Elena Garro, and Óscar Liera; the Camino23 Collective is a space for training and supporting Latine theatre artists, culminating with a public workshop of a play; the SD/TJ Exchange: The Reemergence of the U.S./Mexico Word Exchange is a cross-border collaboration that engages US based Spanish-speaking playwrights to develop and present a new translation of contemporary Mexican plays through a 10-day residency.

  A white Latino man with a short gray goatee wearing a brown fedora hat and a gray buttoned down shirt. Photo credit: Michael Palma. Daniel Jáquez ,

he/him, is a director, theater-maker, producer, and translator of plays. He has directed and produced shows Off and Off-Off Broadway, across the United States, and internationally. Jáquez has translated plays by award-winning Mexican playwrights and is published by Routledge Press, NoPassport Press, The Mercurian, and Asymptote. His translation, Rarámuri Dreams, was selected for the 2020 Columbia University School of the Arts International Play Festival.

Jáquez was commissioned by The Old Globe Theatre to devise, write, and direct plays for community celebrations of Día de Muertos. He is founder of Camino23 Collective and TuYo Theatre, organizations that center Latinx theatre artists and audiences in San Diego.

Jáquez is a member of The Latinx Theatre Commons Steering Committee and a Trustee of Diversionary Theatre, the third oldest LGBTQIA+ theater. He worked in NYC as Advisory for The Lark's México/U.S. Playwright Exchange, Director and Co-Founder of Unit52 (Intar Theatre), Director of INTAR/Jerome Foundation’s New Works Lab Festival, Artistic Director of Calpulli Mexican Dance, and Interim Artistic Director of Milagro (Portland, OR).

Jáquez earned an MFA in Directing from the American Repertory Theater/Moscow Art Theater Institute at Harvard University and a BS in Mathematics from the University of Texas. www.danieljaquez.com

.

Mexican woman sitting down with a coffee mugValeria Vega is a binational theatre artist, teaching artist, producer and cultural promoter. She has participated in numerous plays as a member of different theatre companies such as Grupo Ojo, Grupo Las Diablas, Tijuana Hace Teatro, Optika Moderna, and Camino23.

Latino man with light skin. Photo: Edgar MerazDaniel Serrano is a Research Professor at the Tijuana School of Arts at the UABC. He holds a PhD in Arts. He is a playwright, actor, and director. He has won the National Playwriting Award.

The image is a close-up, black-and-white portrait of a middle-aged man with a strong, serious expression. He has a broad face with prominent features, including a full beard and mustache that are peppered with gray. His hair is short, wavy, and also shows signs of graying, particularly at the temples and top. Gaspar Orozco is a poet and career diplomat. He currently serves as the Cultural Attaché at the Mexican Consulate General in San Diego.

CECUT: Sala de Juntas de CENDOARTGrowing Literacy Through Theatrical Means
Fomentando la alfabetización a través del teatro

This workshop focuses on the structure and methodology of the nonprofit organization, Books Save Lives, in relationship to Augusto Boal’s theory and pedagogy of Theatre of the Oppressed. Participants in the workshop will expand their knowledge on literacy and how it relates to performance and theatre. The workshop aims to offer solutions on rebuilding community structures through literacy exposure and training.

A brown Puerto Rican woman with dark hair and a black blazer. Laura Rodriguez Sierra (She/Her) is a Puerto Rican dramaturg and creative who is a recent 2025 graduate from DePaul University where she majored in Dramaturgy and Criticism at The Theatre School and accomplished a double major in Media and Cinema Studies along with a minor in English Literature. During her time in university, Ms. Rodriguez Sierra has developed theories around what she terms "everyday dramaturgy" and "experiential dramaturgy." From her theoretical development, she has built strong connections to literacy and continues to experiment with new methods that introduce literacy through multidisciplinary performance and dramaturgy to a wide audience. Being a bilingual young woman who has held a profound love towards reading, writing, and art since a child, Ms. Rodriguez Sierra is excited to start her career investing her time with creative underrepresented youth.

12:30 pm

SDSULunch

Explore on your own.

1:30 pm

SDSU: Dramatic Arts 221Networking and Conversation Circle

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

CECUT: Comedor ArcoirisRegional Lunches

If you registered for a regional lunch, join a table that matches your region or surrounding area to meet others and chat about current topics of interest.

We will have a few additional lunches available for purchase at the info desk at Sala Federico Campbell.

2:50 pm

SDSU: Dramatic Arts 221Text, Testimony, and Theatricality: Dramaturgical Strategies for Documentary Performance
Texto, testimonio y teatralidad: estrategias de dramaturgismo para el Performance documental

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.”

A white woman with long dark hair. Photo Credit: Margaret MowerShelley 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.

CECUT: Sala de VideoPresentation Session: All the World's a Stage (Todo el mundo es un escenario) (en Espanol)

A dramaturg in television (Una dramaturgista en televisión)

What is the place of dramaturgs beyond theater? What can we bring to television? A dramaturg at Canal Once, Mexico's first public channel, offers her experience.

A woman with long black hair wearing a blue denim jacketDramaturg, scriptwriter, and researcher at Canal Once as well as an embroiderer.


Imaginaries: A bridge between community theater and stage creation ( Imaginarios: Un puente entre el teatro comunitario y la creación escénica)

This presentation shares the creative journey linking the community-based theater activities at Casa Hogar Vida Joven A.C. with the artistic process behind the stage production Imaginarios. The piece emerged from a theatrical dramaturgy developed through workshops and questionnaires with the performers, all inspired by interactions with the children of Casa Hogar Vida Joven. The playful exchange and communal bonds formed in this experience became the seed for the creative process. We believe such collaborations expand the playwright’s toolkit, positioning them as a bridge between collective lived experiences and the aesthetic creation of a staged work.

A white person with black beard Yoall Morales is a graduate in Theatre and Master in Stage and Literary Dramaturgy, actor, playwright, producer and artistic director of the Teatro en Resistencia company. As a director and narrator, he has participated in more than twenty stage projects, festivals, and national gatherings throughout the country.


How to make a cross-border mask (¿Cómo hacer una máscara transfronteriza?)

On my time working with masks for the stage, I’ve discovered that my city’s maskmaking scene is young and lacks a foundation to consolidate itself amongst Tijuana’s theater scape.This motivated me to to find a way to create my own identity around the masked figure. On this talk, I share my experiences working as a local maskmaker in theater and film.

A white woman with dark hair and a black blouse. Photo credit: Michelle Hipólito.Itamar Dominguez is an artist from Tijuana, Baja California. She graduated in Theater from the Autonomous University of Baja California (UABC). Her practice encompasses different disciplines, such as mask making, directing, acting, and visual arts (video art and photography). Through her artistic practice, she has established herself as a multidisciplinary creator who uses theater as her primary tool for experimenting with artistic pieces.

CECUT: Sala de Juntras de CENDOARTBuilding the New Play Pipeline: Literary Management as Creative Infrastructure
Construyendo la nueva red de teatro: la gestión literaria como infraestructura creativa

“The Pipeline” is one of the most common phrases used to describe how new plays find their way to production. But who builds and maintains that pipeline? Literary Managers, Directors of New Work, and Institutional Dramaturgs, that’s who. From creating a commission to setting a submission policy to facilitating a new works festival and so much more, the individuals in these roles are instrumental to the journey and life of new plays. The panelists, representing a wide variety of experiences, will each present a brief case study of their work building new play infrastructure. Following these case studies, panelists will discuss good practices, successful strategies, and impressions on the state of the industry. Key questions to consider might include: how the recent closures of several development opportunities impacts the work; how to build successfully authentic relationships with playwrights when there are limited production slots, opportunities for shared resources (and shared scouting?); and more.

A white woman with brown hair, glasses, and a big smile. Photo credit: Caitlin StromAnne G. Morgan (she/her/hers) is an award-winning dramaturg and arts leader. She currently works as the Programs Director for the National New Play Network, an alliance of professional theaters that collaborate in innovative ways to develop, produce, and extend the life of new plays.

Across her career, Anne has earned the respect of colleagues, peers, and artists for her ability to marry high-level visioning with in-the-weeds administrative acumen, her collaborative and curious spirit, and her thorough and iterative process design. With over a decade of experience in arts administration, program facilitation, story analysis, and theater production, Anne is a hard working, flexible, creative, passionate artist and leader.

As a dramaturg, Anne works regularly with the Playwrights Realm, the Playwright's Lab at Hollins University, Great Plains Theatre Conference, the Kennedy Center, and more, as well as collaborating with playwrights individually. She serves as Board Co-Chair for Literary Managers and Dramaturgs of the Americas.

Anne received the 2019 Elliott Hayes Award for Outstanding Achievement in Dramaturgy for her innovative design and stewardship of Shakespeare’s New Contemporaries, the American Shakespeare Center's new play program. With ASC, Anne dramaturged new plays by L M Feldman, Mary Elizabeth Hamilton, Anchuli Felicia King, Emma Whipday, and Amy E. Witting. Prior to her leadership of that program, Anne ran the Literary Department at the Eugene O'Neill Theater Center from 2012 - 2017, where she worked on new plays by David Auburn, Bekah Brunstetter, A. Rey Pamatmat, among others.

Internationally, Anne has brought her expertise to the Baltic Playwrights Conference, the Latvian Academy of Culture, and the Lithuanian Academy of Music and Theatre. Closer to home, she has taught at the University of Connecticut and the National Theater Institute.

Anne lives with her husband and daughter in Vermont.

A white woman with salt-and-pepper hair and glasses.Danielle Mages Amato holds an MFA in Dramaturgy and a PhD in Drama and Theatre from the University of California San Diego. She currently works as the Director of New Plays and Dramaturgy at The Old Globe in San Diego. She is a past president and board member of the Literary Managers and Dramaturgs of the Americas. Danielle spent four years as the dramaturg and literary manager of The Studio Theatre in Washington, DC. At the Globe, Danielle has overseen six years of the Powers New Voices Festival and has dramaturged world premieres of plays by Sam Hunter, JC Lee, Matthew Lopez, Itamar Moses, Anna Ziegler, and others. She is the author of The Hidden Memory of Objects, a novel published by Balzer+Bray/HarperCollins.

with Lynde Rosario, Amber Bradshaw, and Adrian Centeno

CECUT: Sala de LecturaDramaturgy World Café
Café del mundo del dramaturgismo

Across the globe, we find different understandings of the craft of the dramaturg and paths to becoming one. International connections are important for the sharing and borrowing of working methods, broadening our understanding of the role and its possibilities.This interactive session uses the World Café methodology to foster collaborative and forward-looking discussions involving the exchange of ideas and experiences from diverse perspectives. We hope participants will be inspired to reframe their points-of-view and imagine alternative strategies and actions to take.

Southeast Asian woman with shoulder-length dark hair.Juliet Chia has over 25 years of experience in the performing arts as a dramaturg, lighting designer, production manager and artistic producer. Previous artistic collaborators include: Target Margin Theatre, La MaMa, Kristin Marting, Alex Timbers, Taylor Mac and Young Jean Lee. She was a member of the HERE Artist Residency Program and a recipient of the Allen Lee Hughes Fellowship and the NEA/TCG Career Development Programme. Her career has taken her to major international arts organisations, including Glimmerglass Opera, the Guggenheim Museum, the Singapore Arts Festival and Esplanade - Theatres by the Bay. She was Deputy Artistic Director at Singapore Repertory Theatre where she led artistic programming and production. Currently based in Singapore, she freelances as a dramaturg as well as a life and leadership coach for arts workers.

Kemi is a Black femme who wears glasses, her hair is often changing colours and lengths. Kemi King (she/her) is a writer, director, dramaturg, producer. She is the Artistic Director of YIKES Co. founded in her second year of undergrad. Working within her practice, Theatre of Critical Care, Kemi emphasizes relation and exploration in her work. This work takes from abolitionist principles in care and disability justice in order to resist formal inclusion. Over the years she has collaborated with several arts organizations such as Intermission, Outside the March, Black Theatre Workshop, and New Harlem Productions. Kemi loves experimental work and different interpretations on what theatre and the performing arts can be.

A white woman with sunglasses wearing a white tank top laughing in front of some brightly colored homes in South Africa. Emma Bilderback is a freelance dramaturg and AEA Stage Manager. She is a graduate of the University of Amsterdam’s International Dramaturgy program, where she researched the connections between our contemporary world and the theatrical works of Ancient Greece. She is a Co-Vice President of Anti-Oppression for the Literary Managers and Dramaturgs of the Americas. She is also a member of the Ring of Keys and the Digital Development Project. Her loves in the theater are musical theater, Theatre of the Oppressed, Greek tragedy/comedy, adaptation dramaturgy, and the pieces where those intersect. She also loves exploring dramaturgy in other storytelling forms, like video games and opera. She is a resident of New Jersey.

4:10 pm

CECUT: CinotecaTo Find a Genealogy (en Espanol)
Para encontrar una genealogía

Choosing a tradition with which to engage, choosing our lineage, our origin, is perhaps one of the most important decisions for any artist, in any discipline, in any place, at any time. Dramaturgy in Mexico is a young practice. Not only because there isn't such an evident tradition of Mexican dramaturgy, but because those of us who practice it are mostly young and know that it's not so easy to adapt/import the Germanic or Anglo-Saxon tradition of playwriting to the context and production model of current Mexican theater. In that sense, we are in a sort of orphanhood with respect to our origins. But "the origin is a whirlpool in the river of becoming," says Benjamin. The paradox speaks for itself, citing a German to distance oneself from the Germanic tradition. But in my experience, from the independent to the institutional, this is how this profession is in this context: paradoxical.

A Mexican man with dark curly hair talking at the micSimón Franco studied Dramatic Literature and Theater at UNAM, specializing in directing. He also completed a research residency on collective creative processes at the University of Buenos Aires under the guidance of Jorge Dubatti and Didanwy Kent. He has developed as a stage director, dramaturg, researcher, and filmmaker, mostly with the collective La Compañiasauria. He is currently the dramaturg for Mexico's National Theater Company.

Dinner Out

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

5:40 pm

Dinner Out

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

6:00 pm

UCSD near LJP59 Acres: a speculative soundwalk Optional Site-Specific Performance
59 ACRES - un paseo sonoro especulativo

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.

A woman with brown hair, brown eyes and olive skin, wearing a black top. 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.

7:30 pm

La Jolla PlayhouseIndian Princess by Eliana Theologides Rodriguez Optional Show

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.

CECUT: Sala Federico Campbell (Auditorium)Performance & Presentation

TuYo Theatre's Pásale Pásale

Set against the backdrop of the bustling Bayfront Swap Meet, Pásale Pásale is an immersive new musical that transports audiences into a vibrant world where laughter, music, and solidarity reign supreme. When Señor Muchacosas decides to raise vendors' fees, a wave of anxiety sweeps through those already struggling to make ends meet. However, amidst the uncertainty, audiences become active participants in the journey towards self-determination, standing in solidarity with the vendors as they navigate the challenges ahead. Explore the development of TuYo Theatre's new musical with the artists and creators.

A man and woman performing on a set that looks like a swap meet with audeince surrounding them. TuYo Theatre is dedicated to creating and producing theatre in the San Diego area that tells stories from and by diverse Latinx perspectives. Incorporated in 2017, Tuyo Theatre launched a inaugural season including productions of Self Conchas by Crystal Mercado and Wendy Maples in partnership with Bocón, Fade by Tanya Saracho in partnership with Moxie Theatre, and Un- a world premiere ensemble play about citizenship status and documentation; workshops including the San Diego/Tijuana Playwright Exchange in partnership with the Universidad Autónoma de Baja California and The Lark Play Development Center, and a workshop of papá Está en La Atlántida/our Dad Is in Atlantis by Javier Malpica and a translation by Jorge Ignacio Cortiñas.

TuYo Theatre has produced three major, community-centered, immersive theatre productions: On Her Shoulders We Stand, Las Cuatro Milpas, and Pásale Pásale. Each of these shows have engaged a large network of participating artists including Veronica Marquez. The shows worked in collaboration with other small arts organizations, larger theatres, and public high schools and universities. The impact of each show was unique but universally held in strong positive reception by audiences as evidence by the number of first time theatre goers among our audiences.


Portal | Amá (Interactive workshop/Performance | Taller interactivo y Performance)

Portal is a transborder platform for somatic experiments around healing and transformation in dancemaking/dance education in San Diego and Tijuana, led by three women with over 25 years of experience in stage creation, choreography, and somatic and dance education. Their collaboration has fostered a dialogue between two cities and countries, forming a community of dancers and movers.

Here, performances are a continuation of dancemaking, fusing choreography and improvisation. Before the performance of Amá, the audience will be guided through simple somatic techniques and invited to dance with dance–transcending the separation between performers and spectators–in order to remember that, in essence, we are water. At the bilingual post-performance discussion, a conversation will emerge on the intersection between bodies and borders. They will also share the dramaturgical processes that guide their work.

Jess Humphrey, a registered Somatic Movement Therapist, makes dance to tap into the profound healing potential of human beings moving together through the tenderness and vulnerability that the creative process provokes.

Briseida López Inzunza is a Mexican choreographer, dancer, actress, and teaching artist in Tijuana. As resident teacher in the dance program at San Diego State University (SDSU), her work explores movement as a means of dialogue with space and the body.

Miroslava Wilson, originally from Hermosillo, Sonora, has lived in Tijuana since 2007. She is a certified Somatic Movement Educator from the Body Mind Movement Center and studies Cultural Biology and Participatory Collaborations at Matríztica.

8:00 pm

The Old GlobeThe Janeiad by Anna Ziegler or All’s Well that Ends Well Optional Show

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.

10:00 pm

Hang out at Conference Bar

Hang out with friends old and new at Eureka! SDSU

Bus back to SDSU from CECUT

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.

 

Saturday, June 28, 2025

7:30 am

CECUTBus from CECUT to The Old Globe

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.
8:15 am

SDSUBus from SDSU to The Old Globe

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.
9:00 am

Old Globe: Seuss RoomLMDA Debut Panel

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.

A white man with blond hair and dark glasses sitting outdoors in winter. Photo credit: Dan Smith. 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).

A woman with purple hair and glasses wearing a colorful striped dress. 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.

Old Globe: Board RoomArchiving Dramaturgies as Creative Infrastructure
Archivar dramaturgismos como infraestructura creativa

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?

A white woman with long brown and grey hair, wearing glasses with clear acrylic frames.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

Old Globe: Hattox HallPresentation Session: Indigenous Theatre (Teatro Indígena)

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.

A woman with light brown skin and brown hair holds touches a large, shining, red Christmas light. Her hair is pulled back into a bun. She wears large-framed glasses and red lipstick. She is smiling quizzically.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.

A mixed-race Ojibwe/White woman with long curly brown hair wearing a blue floral dress. Photo Credit: Stephanie Tumbleson 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!

A white woman with dark brown eyes and long hair. 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.

10:00 am

Mingei Museum Visits

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

CECUT: Sala Federico CampbellGhost Light: Dramaturgy in Mexico (bilingual)
Luz Testigo: Dramaturgismo en México(bilingüe)

Michael Chemers and Analola Santana will describe the burgeoning development of dramaturgy "south of the border" and discuss its overlaps with US dramaturgical practice, theory, and teachings. They will also explore Michael Chemers' Ghost Light, translated by Martha Herrero-Lasso into Luz Testigo, which has become the standard teaching text for the emerging discipline of dramaturgy in Mexico.

Michael is a black-haired, black-bearded man with glasses smiling while leaning against a bookcase. Michael M. Chemers is Chair and Professor of Dramatic Literature at the University of California Santa Cruz and author of Ghost Light: An Introductory Handbook for Dramaturgy.

A woman with medium skin tone and long, curly black hair is standing outdoors in front of a white building with black shutters. She is wearing a dark gray dress with a black cardigan over it. Analola Santana is Associate Professor of Theater at Dartmouth College. She is the author of Teatro y Cultura de Masas: Encuentros y Debates (México: Editorial Escenología, 2010) and F reak Performances: Dissidence in Latin American Theatre (University of Michigan Press, 2018). She works as a professional dramaturg and is a company member of Mexico’s famed Teatro de Ciertos Habitantes.

10:15 am

Old Globe: Craig Noel GardenPotato Chip Dramaturgy
Dramaturgismo de patatas fritas

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.

A white woman with long brown hair and a purple blouse.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.

A friendly face with a slight beard and long dark hair.Padra Crisafulli creates theatrical experiences as a sound designer, composer, director, and generative artist. They are drawn to mixing the unexplainable with the unavoidable.

A smiling young woman with long dark hair and glasses.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!

A smiling young white woman with blonde hair.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.

Old Globe: Seuss RoomPresentation Session: Building Community (Construyendo comunidad)

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?

A smiling woman with dark curly hair in a blue dressJen 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.

A white man in a white t-shirt with a jean jacket.

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.

A white trans masculine person with brown hair wearing a blue shirt.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.

Old Globe: Hattox HallMusical Theatre Development in San Diego
Desarrollo del Teatro Musical en San Diego

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. Moderator Gabriel Greene will share his work on musicals as director of artistic development and dramaturg at San Diego’s La Jolla Playhouse.

A white man with graying brown hair and a short beard. Photo credit: Jenna Selby. 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..

A white person with blonde hair in a grey button down shirt
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

Chinese-American man in a grey blazer with stylish hair and a broad smile.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.

11:30 am

Old Globe: Hattox Hall | CECUT: Sala de VideoHot Topics!

Dan Smith and KJ Martinson host an event where speakers present a provocative question, assertion, issue, or project with which they are passionately engaged to initiate conversations and collaborations, or to address pressing issues for our community. Speakers have just five minutes each to open a door onto their topic. These presentations are sure to spark a rousing conversation at the end.

There will be a live stream between the two venues.

Speakers include: Nena Martins, Jack Truman, Thomas Underdal, Alissa Kulsky, LaRonika Thomas, Claire Dettloff, Jared Sprowls, and Suzi Elnaggar.

A white man with blond hair and dark glasses sitting outdoors in winter. Photo credit: Dan Smith. 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).

A woman with purple hair and glasses wearing a colorful striped dress. 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.

1:00 pm

Lunch

Grab a bite to eat at Lady Carolyn’s Pub and join in one of the conversations in the Craig Noel Garden. Or explore Balboa Park’s options like Panama 66 or the Mingei Cafe.

Old Globe: Craig Noel GardenLunchtime Discussion: Dramaturgy and Devising: CFP Conversations
Dramaturgismo y creación colectiva: conversaciones del CFP

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.

A woman with purple hair and glasses wearing a colorful striped dress. 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.

A smiling woman with dark curly hair in a blue dressJen Shook teaches at Grinnell College; her practice lives at the intersections of performance, literature, cultural memory, Indigenous studies, community engagement, and digital liberal arts.

A white woman with dark auburn hair and red glasses in a purple jacket.Jane Barnette is a Professor and the Head of Dramaturgy at the University of Kansas. She writes about and specializes in adaptation dramaturgy.

A smiling White woman with glasses and a ponytail, wearing dangling earringsDr. 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.

Old Globe: Craig Noel GardenLunchtime Discussion: LMDA Review: A Submission Workshop
Revisión de LMDA: un taller de presentación

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.

A white woman with brown shoulder length hair wearing glasses.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.

A white woman with long brown hair and glasses, wearing a purple dress. Photo credit: Lauren Backus 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.

2:00 pm

The Old GlobeThe Janeiad by Anna Ziegler Optional Show

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.

CECUT: Sala Federico Campbell¿Dónde están los dramatrugistas? Where are the dramaturgs?

This question opens up possibilities for connection. Many times, we take on roles that we don’t know how to name, yet we still do them because they feel important to the creative/theatrical process. This talk, which starts from very concrete questions, can help us realize that we might already be doing dramaturgical work without even knowing it.

Peach background, a mexican woman with short black hair, dressed in black with white spots. Alejandra Anzorena is a writer, dramaturg, and performing artist. She holds a Bachelor's degree in Literature and Drama from UNAM. She is the creator of GRAFÍA, a series of traveling creative writing workshops that explores storytelling through sensory experience.

2:15 pm

Old Globe: Craig Noel GardenHistory and Historical Research as Dramaturgical Infrastructure
Historia e investigación histórica como infraestructura dramaturgística: un panel en dos partes

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?

A person with short brown hair and hazel eyes, wearing a navy button down and standing against a white background. 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.

A Black male wearing a gold porkpie hat.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.

A white woman with long brown hair and a purple blouse.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.

Latina with brown hair.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.

Old Globe: Seuss RoomHip Hop it Don’t Stop: An Exploration of Outreach and Development
Hip Hop it Don't Stop: una exploración de la difusión y el desarrollo

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.

A man with a shaved headWind 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.

White Mexican Woman with reddish brown hair and a blue dress.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.

A mixed-race Filipino person with wavy brown hair and freckles wears a white collared shirt and smiles against a blurred background of cherry blossoms. 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.

Old Globe: Board RoomPresentation Session: Artistic Access (Acceso Artístico)

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.

A Filipinx American woman with long grey hair. Photo credit: Norm DeGuzman.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.

A person with brown hair wearing a red shirt. Photo credit: Cathy BroderickCurrently 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.

3:45 pm

Old Globe: Hattox Hall | CECUT: Sala de Video Annual General Meeting

The Annual General Meeting will take place at the Old Globe with a live stream to CECUT.

5:15 pm

Break / Change / Explore Time

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.

Tijuana Dinner / Bar Meet-up

Enjoy dinner on your own or with some friends! We suggest La Cantina de los Remedios, a good local restaurant near the two conference hotels.

5:30 pm

Old Globe: Craig Noel GardenTour of The Old Globe Optional

No additional details at this time.

7:00 pm – 10:00 pm

Mingei MuseumBanquet and Honoring Luis Valdez

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.

CECUTOptional Show Musical Performance TBA

No additional details at this time.

10:15 pm

Bus back to CECUT from Old Globe

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.
11:00 pm

Close out at Conference Bar for the diehard!

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

User login