HOLLY L. DERR 818-800-3270 v [email protected] v http://hollyderr.com

As a director, I create theater characterized by a rich physical life, sociological perspective, deep characterization and real human interactions, using a combination of the Viewpoints and Composition, the tools and philosophies of Epic Theater, and Stanislavsky’s system. As a teacher, I ask students both to imagine and to think, thus empowering them to invest creatively and intellectually in their work and in the world. As a public intellectual, I use the theoretical and analytical tools of the theater to reflect upon broader issues of art, culture, and race and gender politics.

POSITIONS HELD

Oregon Shakespeare Festival, Ashland, OR: Producing Fellow, 2017. Responsibilities included serving on the casting team; participating in season selection; based on interviews with nine department heads, developing and proposing structural changes to the institution to enable the administration to better serve the work being made; co- producing the audiobook of the 2017 production of Julius Caesar; directing The Daedalus Project Variety Show, a community productions event; and facilitating a Decolonization Workshop of plays by Annalisa Dias, an OSF event as part of Southern Oregon University’s Indigenous People’s Day celebration.

Skidmore College, Saratoga Springs, NY: Artist-in-Residence and Director of the Workshop Program, Fall 2014 to Spring 2016. Responsibilities include teaching, directing, and advising directing students on student productions as well as advising first-year students as part of teaching a freshman seminar. Courses Taught: “Production Seminar:” Director of American Medea and Macbeth. Joined for seminar discussions by faculty from the Classics and English departments. (Fall 2014 and Fall 2015). “Introduction to Directing:” Directors, like actors, must develop their own particular process of solving creative problems and collaborating with other artists; yet, because every play and every project is different, they must also be able to adapt that process to ever-changing circumstances. Across genres and periods, however, the job of the director involves some key tasks: to translate written text, theory, actor impulses, and design ideas into a live performance. As part of that process, the director must determine the story she wants to tell, the world in which she will tell it, the people who will embody it, the meaning of the words that are spoken, the movements that will illuminate that meaning, and how the elements of sound, light, set, and costumes can come together with the actors in space and time. This course provides directors the chance to engage in each step of that process both theoretically and practically (Fall 2014). “Special Studies in Acting, Reconstructing Style:” Whereas most Styles classes intend to train actors to perfectly execute the proper curtsey of the period, this class intends to

enable artists to understand the philosophies behind various methodologies and to apply them to texts from both within and outside the period that coincides with that methodology’s creation. Students will learn to work collaboratively with other artists in creating original Play Worlds that both serve the author’s intentions and satisfy contemporary audiences and to master and adapt the skills necessary to create work that investigates and interrogates form rather than reiterates it (Fall 2014). “Introduction to Acting:” This course focuses on the fundamentals of acting: neuromuscular efficiency, existing within given circumstances, playing actions, adapting in the moment, using verbal imagery, and utilizing externals to create character. The first hour of class focuses on physical training. The second two hours involves scene work (Spring 2015). “Intermediate Directing:” In Intro to Directing, we covered play analysis; use of sources and the creation of a “big idea”; creation of a unique playworld; text work; character as relationship; and the use of time, space, light, and sound to tell story. In Intermediate Directing, we will continue to practice those skills while accelerating the rate of production and integrating issues of period and style. During the first of two sections, we work on scenes from three of Euripides’ tragedies (Electra, Orestes, and Helen). In the second section, we focus on Shakespeare. For both sections, every student will act in two scenes and direct one, synthesizing historical understanding, literary analysis, and an understanding of how to tell a story in space and time into a final presentation that includes a specific use of the studio, light, sound, text, and staging in furtherance of a “big idea” (Spring 2015). “Special Studies: Acting/Directing Epic Theater:” A course for actors and directors to explore making Epic Theater according to the principles laid out by Bertolt Brecht. Includes an investigation of Brecht's political theater theories and practices as well as the application of those practices to non-Brechtian texts (Fall 2015). “Speculative Fiction in New Plays (Scribner Seminar):” What specific issues are artists attempting to address using Speculative Fiction? What has historically been the role of live entertainment in performing these genres and what is it now? Students explore these questions through a combination of readings in literary and art theory, history, comparative mythology, gender studies, and new plays, analyzing plays according to their genre and the social, political, and economic questions they raise. The class integrates theory with practice by reading scenes aloud, proposing possible staging and designs, and hosting playwrights, designers, and gore experts to talk about their work. The final project will be an original, short genre play or a paper (Fall 2015). “Advanced Directing Practicum:” Advising Emily Moler on the Black Box Production (Spring 2015), and teaching Hannah Baker and Aaron Ardisson how to create Epic theater (Fall 2016). “Advanced Scene Study:” What is the job of the professional actor? What work can be done on a role outside of rehearsal that will adequately prepare the actor for productive work in rehearsal? Which creative decisions fall to the actor and which to the director and other collaborators? This course provides an experience working on a role as a professional without an acting coach or an acting teacher. Students do preparation outside of rehearsals such as scene analysis, memorization, and research

into the play and the role, while class time is devoted to working with other actors and a professional director (Spring 2016). “Director as Collaborative Artist:” Each of three units consist of three new plays, written, directed, and acted by students, who learn how to collaborate when they as the individual artist ARE the originator of a project, to collaborate when they as the individual artist ARE NOT the originator of a project, as well as what the job of the writer is, what the job of the director in the context of a project that s/he did not originate is, and what the job of the actor is when working for writers, for directors, and as the originators of their own projects (Spring 2016). “Workshop Productions:” Students learn how to engage in meaningful research and apply that research to a production, how to create a rehearsal schedule, how to create a floor plan, and how to engage in constructive critiques with their peers (Spring 2016). Advising Senior Projects: Advised directing students (Spring 2014); acting students (Fall 2015); and playwriting students (Spring 2015). Independent Studies: Advising a Film/Media Studies Independent Study in which student worked on integration of visual media in Macbeth (Fall 2015); worked with actor on monologues First-Year Experience: Advised 14 freshmen on all-college requirements Majors: Advised approx. 15 majors per semester Workshop Program Director: Produced student-directed season of 4 plays per semester, including soliciting and reviewing proposals, selecting the season with a committee, supervising casting, helping students create rehearsal schedules, and helping to solve creative and administrative challenges. Producer, Special Event: “Staging the Supernatural:” Brought Stephanie Cox-Williams (gore expert), Mac Rogers (playwright), Joan Jubett (director), Andrea Hairston (playwright and professor), and Adam Szymkowicz to campus. Participants attended “Speculative Fiction in New Plays” class, had lunch with students, and participated in a panel discussion. Students worked with Jubett to stage a scene from Romeo and Juliet and Zombies as part of the evening event.

University of California at Riverside, Riverside, CA: Guest Director (Fall 2012), an expressionist production of The Metal Children, by Adam Rapp.

Chapman University, Orange, CA: Guest Director, Rimers of Eldritch (Spring 2012), by Lanford Wilson, and Instructor in “Styles”.

University of California at Riverside, Riverside, CA: Guest Director (Winter 2011), directed a rave-inspired Twelfth Night on the main stage and created a thirty-five minute version for a tour to underserved communities as part of the Gluck Fellows Arts Education Outreach Program.

California Institute of the Arts, Valencia, CA: Guest Director (Fall 2010), Ruins, a new musical in which a family’s past overtakes their present, by Brittany Knupper.

American Repertory Theatre Institute for Advanced Actor Training at Harvard University, Cambridge, MA: Viewpoints Instructor & Guest Director (2006-2010). Instructor: in the Viewpoints, a philosophy of movement translated into a technique for creating movement on stage; and Composition, a practice of arranging components of theatrical language into a cohesive work of art for the stage (undergraduate intensive for Harvard students, January 2010; full semester course for 2nd-year graduate students, Fall 2009; one-month workshop for 1st- and 2nd-years, Fall 2007). Directed workshop of a new play based on the Faust myth, Marlowe’s Dr. Faustus, the Virginia Tech shootings, and the music of Robert Johnson as part of the “Bake-Off:” a collaboration between 2nd-year MFA student actors at the ART and Brown University Literary Arts MFA playwriting students (Fall 2007). Directed workshops of two new plays based on Kleist’s Penthiselea and the Wonder Woman mythology as part of the “Bake-Off” (Fall 2006). Directed The Front Page: by Ben Hecht & Charles MacArthur, 2nd-year production (Fall 2006).

Brown University/Trinity Repertory Company Consortium New Play Festival, Providence, RI: Guest Director (Spring 2007). Directed Common Decency, by Ann Marie Healy: a collaboration between 2nd-year Trinity MFA acting students, a Brown PhD student dramaturg, a Brown Literary Arts MFA student playwright, and Brown University undergraduates. Artistic Director: Bonnie Metzgar; Producer: Rick Dildine.

Smith College, Northampton, MA: Visiting Assistant Professor, Fall 2005 – Spring 2006 and Visiting Lecturer, Fall 2008 – Spring 2010. Responsibilities included teaching, directing, and advising directing students on student productions. Courses taught – Performance: “Acting I: Viewpoints and Composition:” a philosophy of movement translated into a technique for creating movement on stage, and a practice of arranging components of theatrical language into a cohesive work of art for the stage (Spring 2010). “Acting I:” an introduction to the Method of Physical Actions of Konstantin Stanislavsky (including the translation, interpretation, and adaptation of his System in cultural, historical, and political terms) applied to scene work, first on the plays of three contemporary female playwrights and then on scenes from Greek tragedies. (Fall 2008 and Spring 2006). Courses taught – History and Theory: “American Drama:” a course tracing the sometimes competing, sometimes complimentary, forces of morality and mercantilism on the American Theater. Beginning with the theater of the Colonies and the early days of Independence; moving through Westward expansion, the Civil War, Industrialization, Depression, and workers' rights movements; continuing through the Golden Age of Broadway, the Civil Rights movement, the identity-politics driven decades of the 70s, 80s, and 90s; and including the present day, the course investigates the interplay of commercial and

social realities in defining what makes American Theater American. (Spring 2006, Fall 2009, Spring 2009). “Theater History, Greeks to the Restoration:” an historical investigation of theater, drama, and performance from Ancient Greece to the 18th century. Context provided by studies of the Poetics and Rhetoric of corresponding periods. Aimed to enable students to interpret plays based on in-depth textual analysis and grounding in historical factors (Fall 2005, 2008, and 2009). “Theater History, 1800s to the Present:” an historical investigation of theater, drama, and performance from the 1800s to the present. Context provided by studies of the Poetics of each playwright with an emphasis on form. Aimed to enable students to interpret plays based on in-depth textual analysis and grounding in historical factors (Spring 2006, 2009, and 2010).

Marlboro College, Marlboro, VT: Professor of Theater (Fall 2002 – Spring 2005). Courses Taught – Performance: “Acting II/Directing:” a sequential course following Acting I which included work on scenes by Shakespeare, Bertolt Brecht, and Richard Foreman, using the acting and directing techniques of Kristin Linklater, John Barton, Brecht, and Foreman. Students alternated roles as actors and directors, working on each segment from both angles in the course of the semester (Spring 2005). “Speak:” student performers, designers (set, costume, light, & sound), an assistant director/dramaturg, and stage manager adapted Laurie Halse Anderson’s novel about adolescent development into a play. Course included study of female adolescent psychology through reading and discussion of works by Carol Gilligan and Dr. Mary Pipher, and training and practice in the Viewpoints & Composition (Spring 2005). “Acting I:” an introduction to the Method of Physical Actions of Constantin Stanislavski (including the translation, interpretation, and adaptation of his System in cultural, historical, and political terms) applied to scene work on the plays of Sam Shepard, Constance Congdon, Claire Chaffee, Charles L. Mee, Jr., and Sophie Treadwell (Fall 2002, 2003, and 2004). “Viewpoints & Composition:” training in the Viewpoints, a philosophy of movement translated into a technique for creating movement on stage, and composition, a practice of arranging components of theatrical language into a cohesive work of art for the stage (Fall 2003 and 2004). “Directing Seminar:” students learned how to compose in space and time with a theatrical vocabulary by directing a one-act play for the public; doing scene work for class from Shakespeare, Brecht, and Beckett; reading What is Scenography? by Pamela Howard and A Director Prepares by Anne Bogart, and doing two written theoretical projects on directing and scenography (Spring 2003 and 2004). “The Time of Your Life:” student performers, designers (set, costume, light, & sound), composers, a musical director, choreographer, assistant director, and stage manager explored the culture of 1939 San Francisco and made a musical adaptation of William Saroyan's play (Spring 2004). “Making Scenes:” a studio from which actors, dancers, visual artists, directors, designers, playwrights, composers, and technicians generated performance experiments. The

course was co-taught by two theater professors, a visual arts professor, and a music professor who helped foster and shape projects carried out by teams of students (Fall 2003). “Intermediate Acting:” application of psychological theater techniques, the Viewpoints, and composition techniques to a variety of forms, including Greek drama, Expressionism, Epic Theater, and Modern theater. The course included an introduction to other acting training, including those of Bertolt Brecht and Jacques Le Coq (Spring 2003). “Scene 9:” development of a new play through workshop to production with student actors, stage managers, designers, an assistant director, and dramaturg. Class time took the form of source work, production and design meetings, and analysis of rehearsals; rehearsals happened evenings and weekends (Spring 2003). Courses Taught – History and Theory: “Modernism:” focusing on the visual and performing arts in Europe and Russia that bridge World War I, the class considered the proposition that modernism is a "hybrid of irrationalism and technicism" which lent itself, even contributed, to the rise of fascism. Co-taught with Professors of Music and Cultural Studies (Spring 2004). “Manifestos:” a study of the plays and public declarations of the intentions and motives of European theater artists from 1850-1950, including Nietzsche, Wilde, Maeterlinck, Strindberg, Tzara, Breton, Cocteau and Sartre (Fall 2003). “Revolutionary Dramaturgies:” a study of four revolutionary play-forms (those of Euripides, Georg Buchner, Bertolt Brecht, and Heiner Mueller and Charles L. Mee, Jr.) in the context of the government, politics, and economics of their times (Athens 5th Century B.C., Germany 1830s, Berlin 1920s, and Germany & U.S. 1950s and ‘80s). Analysis of plays focused on revolutionary structure and subversive content in relation to the dominant political, historical, and philosophical ideologies surrounding their creation (Spring 2003). “Script to Stage to Screen:” a study of scripts from different historical, cultural, and stylistic backgrounds (including A Doll’s House, Uncle Vanya, Romeo and Juliet, For Colored Girls Who Have Considered Suicide When the Rainbow is Enuf, Waiting for Godot, and Awake and Sing) from the perspective of performance artists (actor, director, designer, etc.). Examples of the works in performance (usually video) were critically examined. Co-taught with Paul Nelsen, professor of theater (Fall 2002). Courses Taught – Other: “20th Century World:” an examination of the major historical events of the twentieth century and the roles they have played in shaping our world, with the treatment of women and the environment during the period as major undercurrents. Co-taught with Professor of Biology for the World Studies Program (Spring 2004). Committee Member: Curriculum Committee, which considers a broad range of questions pertaining to the curriculum: proposed changes in course offerings; the need or advisability of adding new positions to the faculty or of allocating positions differently; the definition and description of open regular positions; changes in academic regulations; and curricular issues referred by the whole faculty or raised by faculty or students or the Registrar (elected).

First Two Years Committee, which considers questions pertaining to the first two years of study at Marlboro, including advising and preparation for study on Plan of Concentration (appointed). Dean’s Advisory Committee, which advises the Dean of Students on student business and on the application of College and Town Meeting regulations (appointed). Plan Sponsor: The Plan is a coherent two-year program of study that may have multi-disciplinary components, the first year being devoted to courses that are preparatory to Project work; the second to the Project, a major paper or set of papers based on library or field research or a presentation in the performing or creative arts. Students work closely with one or two faculty sponsors who guide and evaluate their individual study. I have sponsored Plans on the theories and methods of Bertolt Brecht, Constantin Stanislavski, Anne Bogart, Vsevold Meyerhold, and Augusto Boal, and taught tutorials and seminars on those topics as well as on 20th Century Directors; The Creative and Theoretical Works of Helene Cixous; Anarchist Theory and Theater; The Arts in Secondary Education; Playwriting; Symbolism, Surrealism, and the Absurd; Narrative in Radio Documentary; and Acting, Dramaturgy, and Directing the Plays of Sam Shepard.

Powerhouse Theater/New York Stage & Film, Vassar College, Poughkeepsie, NY: Directing Instructor (Summer 2003). Taught nine hours of weekly class and supervised collaborations between student playwrights and actors.

General Consulate of the Netherlands, New York, NY: Organizer, Rotterdam City Council Delegation, Cultural Research Trip (Summer 2002). Coordinated trip for delegates from Rotterdam investigating the integration in the arts of multi-cultural agendas and new audience development, including meetings at the Brooklyn Academy of Music with Jayme Koszyn, Director of Education and Humanities; the Public Theater with Donna Walker-Kuhne, Director of Community Affairs; the New York City Board of Education with Sharon Dun; the Network of Cultural Centers of Color with John Thorpe; the Castillo Cultural Center with Gabrielle Kurlander, President, All-Stars Project; and 651 An Arts Center with Maurine Knighton, Executive Director.

SKT, Inc., New York, NY: Producer (1996-2002). Founded non-profit theater company to provide young theater professionals with the opportunity to practice their crafts, develop their skills, and gain exposure and experience in the arts community; to develop a theater audience of eighteen- to thirty- five-year olds; and to increase awareness of women’s issues and provide opportunities for female artists. Responsibilities included selecting and creating projects, raising funds, casting, and coordinating tech, board of directors and staff, marketing, advertising, press, insurance, theater and equipment rental, front of house, and opening night.

Produced seven full productions, three workshops, and two reading series, including “Towards a Feminist Theater”, to find a working definition of feminist theater (if it exists, what it is, how to find it, and how to create it), and “Chicks: Power & Community,” about women’s communities and the power structures that define them.

The Public Theater/New York Shakespeare Festival, New York, NY (1996-1998). Assistant to the General Manager: responsibilities included preparation of contracts, budgets, play commissions, and payroll; assisting with daily management of season’s eight to twelve shows, including paying bills, preparing box office statements, and arranging travel and housing; and daily tabulation of wraps/grosses/advance sales and house seats for the Broadway show Bring in Da Noise, Bring in Da Funk. Administrator, Classic Colloquium Speak the Speech: The Language of Shakespeare in Contemporary America (NYSF), September 1997, coordinated publicity, ticket sales, catering, house seats, travel and housing, internet broadcast, live audio and video feed to second space, transcription, and front of house.

The League of American Theatres and Producers, New York, NY (1995-1996). Assistant Membership Services Director, 1996-1997: Part of a newly created department of the trade organization representing Broadway theatres and producers nationally. Responsibilities included managing new web site—overseeing design, programming, content, and publicity; organizing committees on Customer Service, Government Relations, LORT/League Relations, Intra-Industry, and Education issues; working with the National Touring Theatre Council to coordinate conferences, events, and promotions; and assisting on publication of Broadway Presents (a national theatre magazine) and the League Line (an industry newsletter). Assistant to the Executive Director, September 1995-February 1996: provided clerical support for the Executive Director and staff.

DIRECTING

Know Theatre of Cincinnati, Cincinnati, OH. SuperTrue, by Karen Hartman, 2017. Harry and the Thief, by Sigrid Gilmer, Summer 2014.

Oregon Shakespeare Festival, Ashland, OR. The Daedalus Project, variety show, 2017. Expectations, School Visit Program, featuring Equity actors performing for middle- and high-school students, 2017.

Ashland New Plays Festival, Ashland, OR. What We Were, by Blake Hackler, Fall 2017. King of the Yees, by Lauren Yee. Spring 2016.

Saratoga Shakespeare Company, Saratoga Springs, NY. Comedy of Errors, by William Shakespeare, Summer 2015.

Skidmore College, Saratoga Springs, NY. Macbeth, by William Shakespeare. Fall 2015. American Medea, by Holly L. Derr, Fall 2014.

Opera House Arts at Stonington Opera House, Stonington, ME. Romeo and Juliet, by William Shakespeare. Summer 2014.

University of California at Riverside, Riverside, CA. The Metal Children, by Adam Rapp , Fall 2012. Twelfth Night, by William Shakespeare. Winter 2011.

Chapman University, Orange, CA. Rimers of Eldritch, by Lanford Wilson. Spring 2012.

Son of Semele Ensemble Company Creation Festival, Los Angeles, CA. As Long as Fear Can Turn to Wrath, adapted by Holly L. Derr from John Steinbeck’s Grapes of Wrath, January 2012.

Warner Loughlin Studios, Los Angeles, CA. Semi-staged reading of American Medea, by Holly L. Derr, August 2011

Ensemble Studio Theater Los Angeles, Atwater Village, CA. Semi-staged reading of American Medea, Gates McFadden, artistic director, December 2010.

California Institute of the Arts, Valencia, CA. Ruins, a new musical by Brittany Knupper, Fall 2010.

PlayPenn New Play Development Conference Philadelphia, PA. House of Gold, by Gregory S. Moss, 2008.

Brown University/Trinity Repertory Company Consortium Providence, RI. Common Decency, by Ann Marie Healy, New Play Festival, 2007.

American Repertory Theatre Institute for Advanced Actor Training Cambridge, MA 2006- 2007. Sixsixsix, by Gregory Moss, “Bake-Off” with Paula Vogel nd The Front Page, by Ben Hecht and Charles MacArthur, MFA 2 -Year Production The Wild Big Girls, by Ann Marie Healy, “Bake-Off” with Paula Vogel Get Your Troy On, by Enrique Urueta, “Bake-Off” with Paula Vogel

Smith College, Northampton, MA 2005-2010. American Medea, by Holly Derr (workshop)

A Brief Narrative of the Extraordinary Birth of Rabbits, by Colin Denby Swanson (workshop) The Wire, by Leah Ryan (reading) Golden Girls, by Louise Page

Marlboro College, Marlboro, VT 2002-2005. Speak, an adaptation by Holly Derr of the novel by Laurie Halse Anderson The Time of Your Life (original musical adaptation), based on the original play by William Saroyan Scene 9 (world premiere), by Henry David Clarke

Columbia University New York, NY 1999-2002. Anatomy of Isabelle: A Reconstructed Production, adapted from New Anatomies by Timberlake Wertenbaker The Vagina Monologues Spring 2001 and 2002, Eve Ensler When We Dead Awaken, Henrik Ibsen Monsieur X: Here Called Pierre Rabier, an adaptation of the Marguerite Duras memoir, War Hundreds of Collisions, an original piece based on the theories of John Cage Doors, an autobiographical piece about the director based on the theories of Thadeusz Kantor Hollywoodland, Tim Braun In the Penal Colony, an adaptation of Franz Kafka’s short story

SKT, Inc., New York, NY 1996-2002. Director and Producer: Miller Theatre: Co-production of The Vagina Monologues, by Eve Ensler, Spring 2002 with Columbia University Horace Mann Theater: Co-production of Anatomy of Isabelle: A Reconstructed Production, adapted from New Anatomies by Timberlake Wertenbaker, with Columbia University The Looking Glass Theatre: Cymbeline, William Shakespeare Surf Reality: The Trojan Women, adaptation from versions by Charles L. Mee, Jr., Brendan Kennelly, and John Barton The Connelly Theater: Why We Have a Body, Claire Chaffee The John Houseman Theater: Like It Is, Johnathan F. McClain Two Summer reading series of plays by women exploring what feminist theater is, how we find it, and how we make it, Summer 1998 and 1999 Producer: 29th Street Rep: Floating Redundant, Kimberly Howard The Connelly Theater: The Philanderer, George Bernard Shaw 45th Street Theater: Goldfish, Joshua Shelov

Big Dance Theater, New York, NY 2005.

The Most Recent History and Most Lamentable Tragedy of the 8ees (‘80’S) Passover, Sortof: directed new piece (text by Henry David Clarke) in Play Play Faster Faster festival. Another Telepathic Thing: assisted Annie-B Parson and Paul Lazar on remount rehearsals for performances at the Walker Arts Center, Minneapolis, MN, 2002.

Manhattan Ensemble Theater, New York, NY 2002. The Golem, H. Leivick: assistant director to Lawrence Sacharow

Williamstown Theater Festival, Williamstown, MA 1995. Magnificent Yankee, Emmet Lavery: assistant director to Peter Hunt Dinah Was, Oliver Goldsmith: assistant director to Alice Jankell Director of Special Projects: Why We Have a Body, Claire Chafee F.M., Romulus Linney Women of Manhattan, John Patrick Shanley

PlayMakers Repertory Company, Chapel Hill, NC 1994. Beauty and the Beast, by Tom Huey: assistant director to Michael Wilson

Lab! Theater, Chapel Hill, NC 1992-1995. Measure for Measure, William Shakespeare Holy Ghosts, Romulus Linney Grant at Windsor, Adam LeFevre Back Bog Beast Bait, Sam Shepard Top Girls, Caryl Churchill

PUBLICATION

HowlRound.com “Dispatches from LALA Land: The Road to New Writing” “The Evolution of Asian American Theater in Los Angeles” “Adventures in the OC: South Coast Repertory’s Studio SCR” “On the Fringes of Hollywood: HFF13” “California Women Got It On Lock: An Interview with Seven Female Artistic Directors” “In a World Where Everyone Has Vocal Training” “The Proto-Grunge Philosophy of Anton Chekov’s Platonov” “The The Antaeus Antaeus Company Company” “We Need to Talk about Katy Perry: Orientalism in Pop Culture” “Diversity and its Discontents in Southern California Theater” “Los Angeles Latina/o Theater es Muy Bueno” “Women’s Voices Theater Festival: A Weekend in the Emerald City” “Something is Afoot In Washington DC” “Lynn Nottage Talks Research, Collaboration, and the Fracturing of America” “Branden Jacobs-Jenkins’ An Octoroon”

“Playwrights Who Write For Television” “Bro Theatre: A Dangerous Dynamic” “Feminist Theatre: What Does it Do and How Does it Do It?” “Truthful Intelligence: A Play About Power and Politics” “Roe and the American Revolutions Cycle at OSF: Dramatic, Present, and Human” “Ethnodrama and Her Opponent: The Drama in the Data” “Addressing Environmental Topics in Theater by Using Greenturgy” “Does Your Theatre Have a Patriarchy Problem?”

The Atlantic “The Pervading Influence of Uncle Tom’s Cabin on Pop Culture” “What Really Makes a Film Feminist?”

The Huffington Post “The Blood of Carrie: A Feminist Review”

Bitch Media “Pink Flag: What Message Do Pussy Hats Really Send?” “Digging Into Gender and Comics at SDCC” “Is Wonder Woman too Muscular for the Silver Screen?”

Ms. Magazine Blog “Advantageous: Feminist Science Fiction at its Best” “A Feminist Retelling of Sovereinty” “Damnit Mamet” “Miss Julie and the Timeless Art of Slut Shaming” “Where Have You Gone, Sarah Connor?” “Gender Flipping in Hollywood” “All Woman Shakespeare: A Dying Tradition?” “Gina Gionfriddo’s Rapture, Blister, Burn” “The New Evil Dead: A New Lesson in Masculinity. And Tree Rape.” “Guillermo del Toro’s Mythical Mamas” “Trains, Porters and a Woman’s Blues” “Feminist Guide to Watching Horror Movies, Parts I - IX” “Lynn Nottage Brings 80 Years of Women, Race and Hollywood to the Stage” “New Fire from Cherríe Moraga” “Playing With Gender” “The Personal is Political and Always Has Been: SITI Company’s The Trojan Women” “Playwright Alice Childress: An African American Classic Finds New Life” “Porgy and Bess: Without the Sexism and Racism?” see more at http://msmagazine.com/blog/author/hollyderr/

WRITING/ADAPTATIONS

The Internet Plays: “A Short Play Written on the Occasion of the Assassination of Osama bin Laden,” “Internet Dating: A Play,” “A Woman and her Doctor” As Long as Fear Can Turn to Wrath, an adaptation of John Steinbeck’s Grapes of Wrath Warriors Don’t Cry, an adaptation of Melba Patillo Beals’ memoir of the integration of Little Rock High School (in process) American Medea, using the structure and characters of Euripides’ play with text from the letters, trials, and news coverage of Susan Smith, Andrea Yates, Darlie Routier, and Deborah Green; read at Ensemble Studio Theater LA’s Sunday Best, December 2010 Speak, an adaptation of the novel by Laurie Halse Anderson The Time of Your Life (original musical adaptation), based on the original play by William Saroyan Anatomy of Isabelle: A Reconstructed Production, a documentary production chronicling unfinished work on a production of New Anatomies (Timberlake Wertenbaker’s play about Isabelle Eberhardt, an early 20th-Century European traveler who converted to Islam and lived among the Sufi Mystics of North Africa), which was interrupted by the tragedy of 9/11 In the Penal Colony, an adaptation of Franz Kafka’s short story Monsieur X: Here Called Pierre Rabier, an adaptation of the Marguerite Duras memoir, War Hundreds of Collisions, an original piece based on the theories of John Cage Doors, an autobiographical piece about the director based on the theories of Thadeusz Kantor

SELECTED ACTING EXPERIENCE

Marlboro College, Marlboro, VT 2002-2003 (as faculty). Pounding Nails, Eric Bogosian Senses of Place, a film by Matthew Temple

Columbia University, New York, NY 2000-2001. The Winter’s Tale, William Shakespeare, directed by Kristin Linklater Big Love, Charles L. Mee, Jr.

PANELS, SPEAKING ENGAGEMENTS AND CONFERENCE PRESENTATIONS

HuffPost Live Snobs Forum, live from Los Angeles (November 2013): “The Purpose and Limitations of the Bechdel Test”

California State University at Northridge, guest speaker (December 2013): “Women, Work and Family”

HowlRoundTV Panel, live from Los Angeles, CA (December 2013): “Aristotle Was a Man!”

Women, Action, Media! Conference, Los Angeles, CA (March 2013): “Feminism, the Imagination, and the Internet.”

FELLOWSHIPS, SCHOLARSHIPS, and INTERNSHIPS

Oregon Shakespeare Festival Producing Fellowship, 2017. Worked directly with Mica Cole, Repertory Producer; Joy Dickson, Casting Director; and Bill Rauch, Artistic Director.

Stage Directors and Choreographers Foundation Observership, 2011-2012.

Shubert Foundation Fellowship, School of the Arts, Columbia University, 2001. Theater Division Fellowship, School of the Arts, Columbia University, 2000.

George Grizzard Scholarship, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, NC, 1994, Andy Griffith Scholarship, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, NC, 1993.

Williamstown Theatre Festival, Williamstown, MA Summer 1994. Directing Intern, Summer 1995: Assistant Director to Peter Hunt and Alice Jankell; Director of Special Projects; Seminars by John Tillinger, Peter Hunt, Charles Nelson Reilly, Noel Taylor, and David Schweizer. Artistic Intern, Summer 1994: Producer: Special Projects, Staged Readings, Children’s Theatre, and Special Events; assistant to Artistic Director Peter Hunt and Associate Artistic Director Rachel Davidson; participated in the process of selecting shows for staged readings and casting for readings, main stage, and other productions; organized seminars for the workshop component of the festival.

EDUCATION

Composition Master Class “Greek Drama Now” with Anne Bogart, New York, NY May 2010. A workshop with actors, directors, choreographers, designers and playwrights making short compositions of the major Greek tragedies which feel both contemporary and timeless.

Columbia University, New York, NY 2002. MFA in Theater Directing Directing: Robert Woodruff, Anne Bogart, and Andrei Serban Voice and Shakespeare: Kristin Linklater Viewpoints & Composition: Anne Bogart Director, Playwright, Actor, & Dramaturg Collaboration: Anne Bogart Russian Psychological Theater Directing: Slava Dolgatchev American Theater and Drama: Evangeline Morphos Theater Management: Gerald Schoenfeld Dramaturgy: James Leverett Design for Directors: Robin Wagner

Designer/Director Collaboration: John Conklin and Anne Bogart

En Garde Arts, New York, NY 1997. Site Specific Theater Directing: Tina Landau

Commercial Theatre Institute, New York, NY 1996. Producing for the Commercial Theatre 14-week Seminar: Frederic Vogel, Director; guest speakers included Gerald Schoenfeld, Ben Sprecher, Eric Krebs, Alan Schuster, Peter Askin, Randall Wreghitt, Albert Poland, Michael David, and others.

University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, NC 1995. BA with distinction and honors in Dramatic Arts Theater History & Theory: Dr. Milly Barranger Directing: David Hammond and Michael Wilson