9:00 am - 6:30 pm
Registration Desk
PIEDMONT
Your first stop at MATC! Check-in to get your credentials. Then, throughout the conference, feel free to come back with questions, to share your experiences in a quick survey, or for lightning discussions between sessions.
9:00 am - 6:30 pm
Quiet Space
ROSWELL
Feel free to use this private space for individuals needing a private moment while at the conference. If the door is locked, please see the registration desk.
ATLANTA A | History 1
Chair: Richard Sautter, McDaniel College
Aaron C. Thomas, Florida State University
"Transmisogyny & Antitheatrical Prejudice: a Mutual History"
Rachel E. Bauer, Sacred Heart University
"Women as Experimental Subjects in Science-Theatre: D.W. Gregory's Radium Girls and Melanie Mamich's These Shining Lives"
ATLANTA C | History 2
Chair: Stefano Boselli, University of Nevada, Las Vegas
Lily Cate Gunther-Canada, University of Minnesota
“Performing Monarchy: The Relationship of London Theatre to the Reception of Mary II”
Erin Bone Steele, Chesapeake Shakespeare Company
"When Pageants Go Wrong: Early Modern Performances and the Royal Audience"
Alan Sikes, Louisiana State University
"Performative Violence and Iconoclasm in the Byzantine Empire, 700 – 900 CE"
SKY WEST - 25th Floor | Practice/Production 1
Chair: Christopher Staley, Texas Tech University
Ron Zank, University of Nebraska at Omaha
“How Did Anything Go? Presenting A Musical Comedy in the Shadow of the 2024 Election”
Daniel C. Dennis, Ohio University
“STARBALL: Building Community in a Participatory Planetarium Musical”
Tamar Neumann, Texas Tech University
“Dramaturgy as Artivism: Raising Dramaturgical Voices to Inspire Action and Change”
ATLANTA D | Pedagogy 1
Chair: Karie Miller, Grinnell College
Workshop: “Shakespeare Lab: Acting/Dramaturgy in Collaboration”
Tom Fish, Kennesaw State University
Emily Kitchens, Kennesaw State University
PEACHTREE | Pedagogy 2
Chair: Slade Billew, Stephen F. Austin University
Workshop: “Deconstructing Directing: Revolutionizing the Training of Directors”
Andrew Roblyer, Independent Scholar
ATLANTA B | Playwriting 1
Chair: Bella Poynton, SUNY Oswego State University
Playwriting Welcome Session
BUCKHEAD | Playwriting [Rehearsal Space A]
LENOX | Playwriting [Rehearsal Space B]
ATLANTA A | History 3
Chair: Nathan Bowman, Benedictine College
Shannon Walsh, Louisiana State University
“‘I have never felt a punch like this’: The Gestus of the Punch”
Svetlana Ostroverkhova, University of Washington
“Public Executions in 19th-century England, France, and Russia: An Evil Performance”
ATLANTA C | History 4
Chair: Robin C. Whittaker, St. Thomas University (Fredericton, NB)
Emily Goodell, Ball State University
“Triangular Prologues: the Political Colonial Stage of British, French, and
Indigenous populations in Quebec 1763-1830”
David Melendez, California State University, Bakersfield
“Mission Theatricality: Land Claims, Romance, and Melodrama in The Rose of the Rancho (1906)”
SKY WEST - 25th Floor | Practice/Production 2
Chair: Cate Heiner, Middle Tennessee State University
Panel: “The Ghost Project: Devising, Hauntology, and Educational Theatre”
Christopher Staley, Texas Tech University
Rebecca Johnson, Texas Tech University
Jared Hansen, Texas Tech University
Michael Logan, Texas Tech University
ATLANTA D | Pedagogy 3
Chair: Andrew Roblyer, Independent Scholar
Workshop: “Transformation: How can my voice support the authentic embodiment of character?”
Brett Radke, University of North Carolina School of the Arts
PEACHTREE | Pedagogy 4
Chair: Slade Billew, Stephen F. Austin State University
Michael Osinski, St. Lawrence University
Exercise/Activity Demonstration: “The Verb Gauntlet”
Alicia Jay, Indiana State University
Exercise/Activity Demonstration: “Theater Students Training AI Chatbots to Build AI Literacy”
Meg Nelson, Florida State University
Job Talk Demonstration: “1930s Female Musical Theatre Choreographers and Their Resistance To Racial Conformity”
ATLANTA B | Anti-Racism 1
Chair: Rebecca Jackson, Regis University
Anti-Racism Roundtable
Jazmine Brown, DEI Strategist formerly at FanDuel and the Ad Council
Marlon Burnley, Playwright/Actor/Director and Assistant Professor of Directing at Kennesaw State University
BUCKHEAD | Playwriting [Rehearsal Space A]
LENOX | Playwriting [Rehearsal Space B]
Enjoy!
ATLANTA A | History 5
Chair: Scott Magelssen, University of Washington
Madeline Fanton, Westmont College
“Back into Civvies: The Soldier’s Return as Technology of Forgetting on the Broadway Stage
1919-1928”
Elaine Hendriks Smith, Florida State University
“Expanding Expressionism: Riots as Anti-theatrical Theatre in Weimar Germany”
Inga Meier, Stephen F. Austin State University
“Knockin’ On (An Indifferent) Heaven’s Door: Susan Sontag, Sarajevo, and Waiting for Godot”
ATLANTA C | History 6
Chair: Dave Peterson, Niagara University
Greer Gerni, University of Missouri-Kansas City
“Greater Than the Sum of Her Parts: Alla Nazimova and the Feminist History of Psychological
Realism in the United States”
Lily Shell & Anna Gebarski, University of Wisconsin-Madison
“‘Until you see it:’ Revisiting My Name Is Rachel Corrie After the 2024 Gaza Solidarity Encampments”
Richard Sautter, McDaniel College
“Lingering Effects: Looking back 30 years to Coriolanus”
SKY WEST - 25th Floor | Joint Session: Practice/Production 3 & Playwriting 2
Chairs: Kassy Skoretz, Anoka Ramsey Community College
Justin Maxwell, University of Orleans
Roundtable: “Getting Started: how writers go from nothing to something”
Justin Maxwell, University of New Orleans
Franky Gonzalez, Independent Artist
Bella Poynton, SUNY Oswego State University
Greg Romero, University of Houston
ATLANTA D | Pedagogy 5
Chair: Karie Miller, Grinnell College
Workshop: “When We Don't Know: Teaching Democracy"
Kathy Privatt, Lawrence University
PEACHTREE | Pedagogy 6
Chair: Slade Billew, Stephen F. Austin State University
Roundtable: “The Edinburgh Festival Fringe Can Be Your Classroom, or The Pedagogical Benefits of the Edinburgh Fringe”
Amy Fritsche, Kent State University
Karin Maresh, Washington & Jefferson College
Ian Garrett, York University
Xela Batchelder, Fringe University
BUCKHEAD | Playwriting [Rehearsal Space A]
LENOX | Playwriting [Rehearsal Space B]
ATLANTA A | History 7
Chair: Emily Goodell, Ball State University
Stefano Boselli, University of Nevada, Las Vegas
"Nomadic Comics from Page to Performance: Copi’s Irreverent Characters as Staged by Alfredo
Arias and Les Lucioles"
Yuko Kurahashi, Kent State University
"Violence, Pains, and Anger behind the Victorious Comedy: Ossie Davis’s Purlie Victorious"
Robert Shimko, University of Vermont
“‘A Trying Man’: Reassessing Will Eno’s Thom Pain (based on nothing)”
SKY WEST - 25th Floor | Practice/Production 4
Chair: Julian Stetkevych, Elon University
Roundtable: “Directing & Rehearsal Process with the Michael Chekhov Acting Technique”
Brett Radke, University of North Carolina
Lana Sugarman, University at Buffalo
Julia K. Moriarty, Missouri State University
Ryan Scoble, West Virginia University
ATLANTA D | Pedagogy 7
Chair: Karie Miller, Grinnell College
Workshop: “‘All Aboard’ / ‘Will You Buy?’: Understanding Tactics Through Play!”
Matt Durland, Michigan State University
Workshop: “How I am spicing up one of Uta Hagen’s Object Exercises”
Johanna Pinzler, Marymount Manhattan College
PEACHTREE | Pedagogy 8
Chair: Slade Billew, Stephen F. Austin State University
Elaine Hendriks Smith, Florida State University
“The 4 Rs: Community Building starts in the Syllabus”
Michael Logan, Texas Tech University
“Improv Curriculum for Theater Majors: Why ‘Yes and’ Needs to be Part of Every Actor’s Vocabulary”
Jordan Mattson, Florida State University
“Fat Pedagogy in the Theatre Classroom”
Jim Davis, Kennesaw State University
"‘I can’t just perform or just do what I want. I have to think and methodically plan this out’:
Evolving Attitudes and Beliefs of First-Semester Theatre Majors”
BUCKHEAD | Playwriting [Rehearsal Space A]
LENOX | Playwriting [Rehearsal Space B]
Enjoy!
Learn More About Hot Topics Here!
PEACHTREE
Hosted by Elaine Hendriks-Smith, Associate Conference Planner
Have you ever wanted a 60-second soap box to talk about your niche research, issues in the
field, or live theatre? This is your chance. This hosted discussion will allow you the space to
speak your mind and connect with others in conversations you can take to the Fellows Opening
Night Reception! All conference attendees are invited!
SKY BALLROOM EAST - 25th Floor
Welcome to MATC 2025! You are invited by MATC leadership to reunite with friends and colleagues, meet new academics and practitioners, and celebrate the MATC fellows. Complete with toasts, a beautiful view of the city, and hors d'oeuvres inspired by our host city.