Artist | Scholar | Teacher
I am an Assistant Professor of acting & directing and an affiliate faculty member of African American and Diaspora Studies at Vanderbilt University. As an artist-scholar, I am committed to fostering the growth of each student’s distinct voice while diversifying the classroom to incorporate voices from historically marginalized groups. My training in varying approaches from the Atlantic Theatre Company to the Actors Studio Drama School has shaped my own technique as an actor and director, which also benefits my students in accessing their own artistic autonomy within a given context. My research on Ernie McClintock’s Jazz Acting also greatly influences my approach as an actor, director, and teacher. As such, I understand the theatre as a collaborative space for artists to critically consider the symbiotic relationship between theatre and society. Excavating lost narratives from the Black Arts Movement developed as a result of my doctoral studies at Tufts University. My book, Ernie McClintock & the Jazz Actors Family, revives the legacy of Ernie McClintock (1937-2003), the prolific director, producer, and educator of the Black Theatre Movement whose influence continues to persist in the 21st century. My current projects include co-producing a documentary, Chasing Legacy: Ernie McClintock and the Theatre He Created, and co-editing a Jazz Acting technique book along with Jazz Actor Mary Hodges. My next monograph, Look for the Radicals: Race & Activism in Contemporary Italian Theatre, investigates intercultural progressive Italian theatre and explores Italian identity by contending with racism, homophobia, and sexism.
Headshot: Melissa Hamburg Photography