PhD Students
Anna Dulba-Barnett
PhD student
MA: Theatre – University of Montana
BA: Theatre Studies – Jagiellonian University, Cracow, Poland.
Research Interests:
Theatre as a medium of healing; role of theatre in oppressed and colonized communities; points of connection between Polish and Native American theatre; intercultural theatre.
Awards:
Award for Outstanding Graduate Student Presentation at the University of Montana Faculty and Graduate Student Research Conference.
Dramaturgy:
Happy by Robert Caisley, Pentecost by David Edgar, Cherry Orchard by Anton Chekhov, Oni by Witkacy, Dream Play by August Strindberg.
Publication
Listen/Eist: Documentary Theatre Monologues from the Gathering: Collected Oral Histories of the Irish in Montana
Anna Dulba-Barnett (PhD, 1st year) holds a BA in Theatre Studies from Jagiellonian University, Cracow, Poland (2007) and MA in Theatre from the University of Montana (2012). She co-edited Listen/Eist: Documentary Theatre Monologues from the Gathering: Collected Oral Histories of the Irish in Montana, a verbatim theatre project, and authored one chapter in Listen/Eist as well. Her dramaturgical credits include Happy by Robert Caisley, Pentecost by David Edgar, Cherry Orchard by Anton Chekhov, Oni by Witkacy, Dream Play by August Strindberg. While at the University of Oregon, she will further her research on theatre as a medium of healing and theatre’s role in forming identity within oppressed communities.
Liz Fairchild
PhD candidate
MA: Creative Writing, University of East Anglia
BA: Theatre Arts, Humboldt State University
Research Interests: Theatre of the Oppressed, Brecht, public theatre, feminism and intersectionality, adaptation, and science fiction for the stage.
Accomplishments: Arts and Humanities Research Council Tuition Scholarship at University of East Anglia, Kennedy Center Irene Ryan acting nomination, MA dissertation shortlisted for the Curtis Brown award.
Recent Production Credits:
Performance: Mantisse, Home for the Hellidays, Red Handed, Feeding Frenzy, Waste Management (48 Hour Film Project), School for Scandal (Lady Teazle), Street Scene (Mrs. Hildebrand, Ensemble), Laramie Project (Rebecca Hilliker, Reggie Fluty, Kristin Price, ensemble).
Direction: Mantisse (48 Hour Film Project), Regarding Robert Chang (HSU 10 Minute Play Festival).
Publications: The Missouri Review, “A Heavy Breath” July 2011
Ellen Kress
PhD candidate
MA: Theoretical Linguistics- University of Oregon
BA: Theatre, Linguistics- University of New Mexico
Director- Machinal by Sophie Treadwell January 2019, University Theatre
Research Interests: cognitive processing of language and non-verbal communication in performance, verbatim and documentary theatre, digital platforms for theatre, and physical ensemble-based devising of new works.
Memberships: Founding member- Mud & Wine Theatre Collective; GTFF Theatre Steward;; VP for Operations, Graduate Teaching Fellows Federation, Linguistic Society of America- member; American Society for Theatre Research- member; Faculty at Upstart Crow Children’s Theatre
Awards: Winner- Panel presentation “Performative Lady Power” at 8th Annual Graduate Research Forum; Special “Opps” travel award- Summer 2018
Recent Production Credits:
Performance: Mr. Burns: a Post-Electric Play (Colleen), Sonrisa Del Coyote (ensemble), SILA (ensemble)
Direction: The Language Archive (UNM); AD- Mary Zimmerman’s Metamorphoses (UNM)
Stage Manager– The (Curious Case of the) Watson Intelligence (UO Summer SOUP), Assistant Stage manager- Gnit (UO Summer SOUP)
Waylon Lenk
Ph.D. candidate
MFA: Dramaturgy – Stony Brook University
BA: Theatre Arts and German Studies with a Performance Emphasis – Lewis & Clark College
Research Interests: Indigenous adaptions of Shakespeare, Native dick jokes, cartography
Awards and Professional Memberships: Native Artist Development Grant from The Evergreen State University Longhouse, Oregon State University Vice-Provost of Student Affairs grant for First Nations Readings, Puffin Grant, Advocates for Indigenous California Language Survival grant for Stories of Our People. Member of the Indigenous Performing Arts Alliance and the Literary Managers and Dramaturgs of the Americas.
Recent Dramaturgy Credits: Henry IV Pts. 1& 2 (translation by Yvette Nolan for the Play On! Shakespeare translation project), Off the Rails (Oregon Shakespeare Festival production to open in 2017), Richard II & The Winter’s Tale (Shakespeare Dramaturgy Resident at the Oregon Shakespeare Festival).
Waylon Lenk is Karuk from the villages of Ka’tim’îin and Taxasúfkara. He is currently working on his Ph.D. in Theatre Arts at the University of Oregon, and the dramaturg on Yvette Nolan’s translations of Henry IV Parts 1and 2 for Play on!. He has worked at the Oregon Shakespeare Festival’s as a dramaturg on Off the Rails, The Winter’s Tale and Richard II. He has presented work as a dramaturg and director at Oregon State University’s Native American Longhouse Eena Haws, and as a storyteller at Portland Public Schools, the Piggyback Fringe Festival in Wakefield, Quebec, and at the Sycuan Band of the Kumeyaay Nation’s U.S. Grant Hotel. His work approaches Native theatre from his positions as a dramaturg and a pikváhaan, or Karuk storyteller. As a dramaturg he actively promotes the work of Native playwrights and is involved research to extend the boundaries of what is considered “Native theater.” As a pikváhaan he uses tools from the field of theatre to (re)activate his people’s body of literature. His work has been funded by Oregon State University, Advocates for Indigenous California Languages, and the Yurok Tribe. He holds an M.F.A. in Dramaturgy from Stony Brook University, and a B.A. from Lewis & Clark College.
Peyman Shams
PhD Candidate (Biography forthcoming)