University of New Orleans
Faculty
UNO Ireland: Writing Workshops & Creative Arts
June – July 2017
Courses taught: Intensive Scriptwriting; Acting Styles
In addition to providing separate instruction in scriptwriting and acting, I coordinated weekly public showings of works-in-progress, using collaborative methods to develop work for both courses.
Taught in residence at University College Cork, Ireland.
All courses taught with combined undergraduate and graduate students.
University of New Orleans
Instructor
August – December 2016
Courses taught: Introduction to Playwriting
From syllabus: “Plays have been around for an incredibly long time. The script, as an historical artifact, predates the actor, the director, the scene designer. This isn’t to say the playwright is any better than their fellow artist. It is to say, the script is an essential part of theatre’s development, therefore also an essential part of developing the theatre artist. Playwriting is the very beginning of drama. The Sound of Music tells us that this is a very good place to start.”
Pop Culture Association /
American Culture Association
Presenter: National Conference
March 2016
Paper title — Mirrors to Mirrors: Metadrama and Reflexivity in Shakespeare and “Boogie Nights”
Paper abstract: Hamlet, Richard III, Much Ado About Nothing, and adaptations like 10 Things I Hate About You gave Shakespeare a noticeable impact on 1990’s cinema, but other great films of that era were equally influenced by this master dramatist. Through analysis of character and plot, I prove that the inverted world of Boogie Nights, where porn-stars are heroes and mainstream prudes are villains, bears a striking resemblance to the inversions found in the forest of Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream, a place where devoted lovers confuse the objects of their desires, and a Queen lies down with a transformed beast. In a letter from 1611, Sir Thomas Bodley, founder of Oxford’s Bodleian Library, requested that plays, along with almanacs and daily newspapers be banned from the halls of his newly formed institution. In short time, Shakespeare’s twisting and turning of the plots of Plautus and other historical writers would bring legitimacy to the craft of drama. Shakespeare made extensive use of meta-theatrical techniques later identified by Richard Hornby. These same techniques would later be used by Anderson to elevate a tale that could easily be dismissed as gaudy nostalgia into an award-winning drama. If the “purpose of playing… both at the first and now, was and is, to hold as ‘twere the mirror up to nature,” (Hamlet 3.5.20-23) then the playing of Boogie Nights holds up a funhouse mirror to Shakespeare and to itself, twisting and turning to highlight its creator’s authority.
University of New Orleans
Co-teacher
August 2015 – May 2016
Courses taught: Acting I
For two semesters, I substituted for instructors Meghan Shea and Sarah Beth James
University of New Orleans
Graduate Assistant
August 2014 – May 2017
On campus: Assist in the recruitment and management of prospective students for the UNO Ireland summer study abroad program, and assist the Program Coordinator and Academic Director as necessary.
In residence: Manage the educational and travel experiences of fifty students and faculty during four weeks in Cork, Ireland.