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Lesley Ferris
Chair, Professor, Department of Theatre
Areas of Expertise
• Directing
• Avante-garde and gender performance
• 20th Century theatre history
Lesley Ferris is a director and scholar. Her research interests are focused
on gender and performance, carnival, and the use of masks. Her books include
Acting Women: Images of Women in Theatre (Macmillan,1990) and Crossing
the Stage: Controversies on Cross Dressing (Routledge, 1993). She has
published numerous essays the most recent being ""Cooking Up
the Self': Booby Baker and Blondell Cummings 'Do' the Kitchen" in
Interfaces: Women / Autobiography / Performance / Image, edited by Sidonie
Smith and Julia Watson (University of Michigan Press, 2002). In July 2002
she presented a paper entitled "Performing New York: Drag Kings Memorialize
9-11" at the XIV World Congress of International Federation of Theatre
Research in Amsterdam. In March 2003 she presented " On the Streets
of Notting Hill: Carnival as/is Theatre" at the Mid America Theatre
Conference in Indianapolis. From 1979-1984 she was the Artistic Director
of the York and Albany Theatre in London. She served as the head of the
drama program at Middlesex University in the late 1980's where she helped
co-found the M.A. in Performance Art. In 1982 she received a playwriting
award from the Arts Council of Great Britain for her script Subjugation
of the Dragon, which was produced twice in London and once at the University
of Essex. She has chaired departments of theatre at Lousiana State University
and University of Memphis. Lesley has directed over 50 productions both
in Britain and the U.S.A. These include the award-winning Portrait of
Dora (London and Memphis), Angels in America, Part Two: Perestroika (Memphis
and Columbus), Wit (Central Ohio premiere), and Bertolt Brecht's Saint
Joan of the Stockyards (Columbus). Most recently she directed Adrienne
and Adam P. Kennedy's Sleep Deprivation Chamber. She has served as the
Resident Director for the London Theatre Program in summer of 2000 and
2001. The Office of International Education awarded her an Outstanding
Faculty Award in 2002 for her contributions to international education.
Education
• PhD, Theatre Arts, University of Minnesota
• MA, Drama, San Diego State University
• BA, Speech, Drama and English, Mount Union College, Ohio |
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