DTSA

Kelly Aliano

KELLY ALIANO (Level II) is a third-year student in the program. She has presented at the Performance Studies International conference and as part of a working group at ASTR 2010. She teaches Intro to Theatre at Hunter College and has stage managed many productions here in NYC. In addition, she is an avid video game player. Her video game credits include: Halo 3, Halo: Reach, Modern Warfare 2, and Beatles: Rock Band. She is very happy to be the Professionalization Rep on the 2010-11 DTSA Board. She looks forward to working with everyone in the future.

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Nicole Boyar

NICOLE BOYAR (Level II) is a Graduate Teaching Fellow at Brooklyn College. Her research focuses on US popular entertainments and formations of social class during the nineteenth century. She has presented her work at ASTR, ATHE, and ALA, and serves as the Graduate Representative to the American Theatre and Drama Society. Prior to joining the PhD program, Nicole received an MA in Theatre from Hunter College and a BA in English from Columbia.

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Rick DesRochers

RICK DESROCHERS (Level III)  is an Assistant Professor of Theatre at Long Island University CW Post, and an Associate Artist at the PlayPenn New Play Development Conference of Philadelphia.  He has served as the Literary Director of New Play and Musical Development for the Joseph Papp Public Theater/New York Shakespeare Festival and The Goodman Theatre of Chicago, as well as the Artistic Director of the New Theatre in Boston.  DesRochers has published articles in The Journal of Popular Culture, The Drama Review, and TheatreForum amongst other academic journals, and is currently under contract by Continuum for a new book on the popular stage entitled Going on the Offensive: The Legacy of American Vaudeville in Contemporary Comedy. He has taught in theatre departments across the country including the New York University Tisch School of the Arts Dramatic Writing Program, New School University, and Emerson College. DesRochers holds a Master of Fine Arts degree in stage direction and dramaturgy from the University of Massachusetts at Amherst, and is currently working on his dissertation at the Graduate Center, City University of New York on the socio-cultural impact of the New Humor in US vaudeville during the modernist era.

Ryan Donovan

RYAN DONOVAN (Level I) is a first year student. He graduated from the New School with a BA in Liberal Studies and then spent the next few years dancing professionally in musicals across the country. A career highlight was the 50th Anniversary tour of West Side Story featuring the original Jerome Robbins choreography. Research interests include musical theatre, queer theatre, and dance history.

Andrew Friedman

ANDREW FRIEDMAN (Level I) researches contemporary experimental performance. His writing has been published in Western European Stages, Theatre Journal, and in the forthcoming anthology Baseball and Class (McFarland).  Most recently, he presented “The Human Puppet in Vegard Vinge and Ida Müller’s productions of A Doll’s House, Ghosts, and The Wild Duck” at the 2011 Puppetry and Post-Dramatic Performance Conference.  He is co-artistic director of the NYC theatre collective the Riot Group, and teaches theatre history and acting at The City College of New York.

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Donatella Galella

DONATELLA GALELLA (Level II) is in her third year of the doctoral program in Theatre. She earned her BA from Amherst College where she double-majored in English and Theatre & Dance. Her work in the literary departments of Arena Stage and the Vineyard Theatre inspired her interest in non-profit theatre, its relationship to Broadway, and new American plays. Most of her research so far has been in the field of musical theatre, and she has given papers on superhero musicals at several conferences. Donatella has published reviews in PAJ: A Journal of Performance and Art and Slavic and Eastern European Performance. She currently teaches at Brooklyn College and serves as the production manager of PAJ.

María Cristina García

Barrie Gelles

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BARRIE GELLES (Level I) joined the GC doctoral Program in Theatre in the fall semester of 2010. She is currently writing her thesis in order to complete her MA in Theatre from Hunter College.  She has a BA from Sarah Lawrence College where she was fortunate enough to have a truly unique educational experience.  Barrie has taught Theatre 101 at Hunter College and continues to serve as a guest lecturer in classes within their theatre department.   In addition to Barrie’s scholarly pursuits, she directs theatre throughout New York City.  She is the artistic director of Communicable Arts and the founder of the Union Hall Drama Club—in both of these projects, she is blessed to work with talented and inspiring actors and playwrights.  Barrie’s main areas of interests include American Musical Theatre, Shakespeare in Performance, and Acting and Directing in Theory, Training, and Practice.  When she isn’t studying theatre, making theatre, or attending theatre, she is learning Yiddish.

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Benjamin Gillespie

BENJAMIN GILLESPIE (Level I) is a first year doctoral student at the The Graduate Center. Benjamin holds an MA in Theatre Studies from York University in Toronto, where he also received his BA with Honours. His research currently focuses around related interests in queer theatre/theory, aesthetic philosophy, North American (USA/Canada/Mexico) performance art and the Modernist Avant-Garde. Benjamin has presented for multiple conferences, including the Association for Theatre in Higher Education (2011), the Canadian Association for Theatre Research (2011) and Performance Studies International (2010). Benjamin’s work has been published in the Canadian Theatre Review, Canadian Dimension and in the forthcoming anthology TRANS(per)FORMING Nina Arsenault: Body of Work/Body of Art, edited by Judith Rudakoff from Intellect Press. Benjamin is currently working on two research projects: one surrounding the performance work of Toronto-based queer artist Jess Dobkin, and the other focussing on the plays and essays of Gertrude Stein and their influence and usefulness in contemplating and tracking queer theatre and performance histories. He is currently the Events and Outreach Coordinator at the Center for Lesbian and Gay Studies (CLAGS).

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Joe Heissan

JOE HEISSAN (Level III) is writing his dissertation on devised theatre and Theatre de Complicite. He is currently teaching Script Analysis at Marymount Manhattan College.  For the past two years, Joe was a Writing Fellow at The City College of New York.  He also taught courses there–including Introduction to Theatre, Acting I and III, Directing II, and Theatre History I–and directed two department productions (Information for Foreigners by Griselda Gambaro and The Imaginary Invalid by Molière) and a workshop adaptation of The Trial by Kafka. Joe comes to the CUNY Graduate Center with an A.B. in drama (and pre-med) from Vassar College, an M.A. in theatre from Northwestern University, and an M.F.A. in directing from Carnegie-Mellon University. In the past, he served on the DTSA Board, first as Treasurer and  then as 1^st Vice President, as well as the Department’s ad-hoc committee on alumni relations.

Debra Hilborn

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DEBRA HILBORN (Level II) is a Communication Fellow at the Bernard L. Schwartz Communication Institute, Baruch College, CUNY and an adjunct in the Communication Studies department at Baruch. Her research focuses on medieval devotional performance, material culture, and subjectivity, and she’s presented papers on these topics at ASTR, ATHE, the International Congress on Medieval Studies, Puppetry and Postdramatic Performance: An International Conference on Performing Objects in the 21^st Century, and the CPRACSIS International Theatre Conference in Thrissur, India. She also works as the Graduate Research Assistant in the GC’s Office of Research and Sponsored Programs. Her MA in Theatre is from Hunter College.

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Stefanie A. Jones

STEFANIE A. JONES (Level II) has a Bachelor’s of Science from the University of Wisconsin, Madison, and is a Ronald E. McNair Scholar, a Herfurth-Kubly graduate, a writer, educator, and critic. Areas of interest are sociology of culture; critical race theory; and popular culture in the age of neoliberalism. SAJ teaches Introduction to Theatre at Hunter College, and has presented papers at the Mid-America Theatre Conference and the Black Theatre Network Conference.

Sascha Just

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aSASCHA JUST (Level II): Her main research interest is Soviet Cinema of the first half of the twentieth century with a focus on the function of theatricality in cinema. Inspired by Sergei Eisenstein and Maya Deren, she has begun to research the relationships between performance rituals and cinema. This has led her to her current project The Beautiful City: Tradition and Change of Performance Practices since Hurricane Katrina. In her filmmaking Sascha emphasizes abstract and rhythmic aesthetics, expressing her love for jazz and early Russian cinema. She holds a B.A. in Film & Video Production from The City College of New York, an M.A. in Theatre History and Theory from Hunter College, and she has trained in Method Acting with the late Salem Ludwig of the Actors Studio. Sascha is the Managing Editor of Western European Stages and frequently teaches Introduction to Theatre at Hunter College. Her production credits include Theater heute, Nachtkritik, KinoKarate, Slavic and East European Performance, Western European Stages, and Text & Presentation.

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Andrew Kircher

ANDREW KIRCHER (Level I) has an MA in Theatre History from Brooklyn College and a BA in Theatre / Management Science Microeconomics from the University of California, San Diego. He is a teaching fellow with the Theatre and Performance And Interactive Media Arts (PIMA) departments at CUNY Brooklyn, and is also the Associate Producer for the Under the Radar Festival and devised work at the Public Theater. In the past he has produced, presented, and designed with Ars Nova, the Public, Trinity Rep, and Les Freres Corbusier. He is a member of the Doctoral Theatre Student Association (as representative to the Graduate Council) and the ATHE Latino Focus Group. Interests and writing topics include Don Juan Catholic mythology, digital performance, and creative commons licensing.

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Brad Krumholz

BRAD KRUMHOLZ (Level I) entered the program after almost two decades of professional ensemble theatre practice. While he focuses on his academic life, he is taking a long-term leave of absence from his position as co-founder and artistic director of NACL Theatre (North American Cultural Laboratory). Since founding the company in 1997, he has created and directed almost all of its performances, co-directed the NACL Catksill Festival of New Theatre for ten seasons, and established the company’s theatre center in the Catskills as a retreat home for alternative theatre creators. As director and teacher, he has toured across the US and to Canada, England, Italy, Serbia, Bulgaria, and Romania. He has worked in the field of ensemble experimental theatre since 1991, first as a student at Odin Teatret in Denmark, and then with Richard Fowler of Canada’s Primus Theatre. After a semester of holding an adjunct faculty position teaching acting at City College, he is now a teaching fellow at Hunter College. His article, “The Problem of Movement Theatre” is published in the Allworth Press book, Movement for Actors, and his article “Locating the Ensemble” will appear in the forthcoming Methuen Press book, Encountering Ensemble.

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Hillary Miller

HILLARY MILLER (Level III) is currently working on her dissertation, “The New York Financial Crisis and the Geographies of Performance in New York City, 1972-1982.” She is a Senior Communication Fellow at the Bernard L. Schwartz Communications Institute at Baruch College, where she also teaches Introduction to Public Speaking. Hillary was one of the co-writers, along with ten other Theatre Program students and Professor David Savran, of “‘Let Our Freak Flags Fly’: Shrek the Musical and the Branding of Diversity,” which was published in Theatre Journal (May 2010). She is at work on an interview feature for a special issue of The Radical History Review, and a chapter about performance in Coney Island for a forthcoming collection on development in Brooklyn. She hails from Flatbush, Brooklyn, and received her B.A. in Theatre and Women’s Studies from Dartmouth College and completed an M.F.A. in Dramatic Writing at NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts.

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Maria Mytilinaki

MARIA MYTILINAKI (Level II) is a dramaturg and translator for the stage. She is a Fulbright scholar and teaches Theatre at the Department of Creative and Performing Arts at the College of Staten Island. She has worked as an editorial assistant for the journal Slavic and East European Performance at the Martin Segal Theatre Center. She studied Theatre in the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, Greece (BA, MA) and Translation Studies in the University of Warwick, UK (MA).

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Shari Perkins

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SHARI PERKINS (Level I) is originally from Fincastle, Virginia. She has worked as a dramaturg, stage manager, and production assistant at regional and on and off-Broadway theatres. Shari earned a BA in Theatre Arts from Cornell University, an MFA in Dramaturgy from the Moscow Art Theatre School/American Repertory Theatre’s Institute for Advanced Theatre Training at Harvard University, and will soon receive an MA from Hunter College. She currently teaches at Hunter College, has taught at Harvard, writes reviews for various online publications, and is currently the Senior Editorial Advisor of Slavic and East European Performance. Shari’s research interests include Russian drama, adaptation studies, and gothic and romantic drama during the long nineteenth century. She likes to discover forgotten people in archives. http://www.shariperkins.com

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Bess Rowen

BESS ROWEN (Level I) recently completed her MA in Performance Studies at New York University, and she graduated from Lehigh University Phi Beta Kappa and Magna Cum Laude with a double major in English and Theatre and a minor in Psychology. She is an Equity Membership Candidate and has studied acting at Michael Howard Studios, The Berkshire Theatre Festival, and The Gaiety School of Acting (The National Theatre School of Ireland). She has also directed, stage managed, and even done a little playwrighting. Bess is currently a blogger for The Huffington Post, an intern with Women & Performance: A Journal of Feminist Theory and an Associate Producer with The Fulcrum Theater. She has an avid interest in stage directions and female playwrights.

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Ben Spatz

BEN SPATZ (Level III) has a B.A. from the College of Letters at Wesleyan University, where he studied with Hope Weissman and Pedro Alejandro. He lived in Poland from 2003-2005 as an ensemble performer with the Gardzienice Theatre Association and a Fulbright Fellow at the Grotowski Institude in Wroclaw. Ben’s research interests in both theory and practice include: performance/practice as research; actor training; ritual studies; drama therapy; theories of embodiment and practice; and the politics of somatic knowledge. Ben is the founder and leader of Urban Research Theater, a small performance research group working at the intersection of song, action, and text. With Maximilian Balduzzi he developed PLAY/WAR (Abrons Arts Center, 2012) and THEATRICALE: A TRAGEDY (Lincoln Center Atrium, 2011). His solo work RITE OF THE BUTCHER premiered at the United Solo Festival (Theatre Row) in November 2011. Ben also teaches Acting 1 at CUNY College of Staten Island and is a CUNY Writing Fellow at Baruch College. For more information, please visit www.urbanresearchtheater.com.

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Dan Venning

Kalle Westerling

KALLE WESTERLING (Level I) is a first-year student in the program, with an MA in Performance and Theatre Studies from Stockholm University in Sweden. He has previously been involved as Research Assistant in a project examining the diva cult around the Swedish pop-icon from the 1950s, Zarah Leander. He has also been practicing theatre and performance with the young queer theatre group KUNQ in Sweden. In 2007, his book La dolce vita was published, dealing with the history of the Swedish drag company After Dark. This project has, since then, been carried on, and Kalle is still obsessing a little with drag queens, especially. His research revolves around how contemporary drag shows can express resistance against heteronormative power and norm structures with the help of different aesthetic strategies. Structures of affects surrounding the event and the audiences’ involvement with it is on the menu right now. He is currently the Secretary for ATHE’s LGBTQ working group.

Melissa Wansin Wong

and Washington University in St. Louis (MA), Jenn spent several years working as a dramaturg and literary manager at Milwaukee Repertory Theatre, Williamstown Theatre Festival, and the Studio Theatre in Washington DC.  A former DTSA President, she has served as anaging editor of Western European Stages, puburnal and Theatre Research International, and taught at Wash U, York College-Cer academic interests include dramaturgy, musical theatre, and pedagogy.