Elizabeth Osborne
Elizabeth Osborne has a Ph.D. in Theatre and Performance Studies from the University of Maryland, College Park, an M.F.A. in Dramaturgy from Brandeis University and a B.A. in Theatre from Illinois Wesleyan University.Her research interests focus on US theatre history and historiography, particularly the Federal Theatre Project, the relationship between theatre and its surrounding community, theatre and labor and the intersections of theatre, math and science. She will continue to explore the connections between performance, myth, memory and identity in her next book project. Osborne has presented her research at the annual conferences of the International Federation of Theatre Research, Performance Studies International, the Mid-America Theatre Conference, the Association of Theatre in Higher Education, the American Society for Theatre Research, the International Conference on American Theatre and Drama, the Film and Literature Conference, the F. Scott Fitzgerald Conference, Theatre Symposium, the International Conference on Arts and Humanities, the American Literature Association and the American Comparative Literature Association. She received the Robert A. Schanke Research Award (2010) for her paper, “Storytelling, Chiggers, and the Bible Belt: The Georgia Experiment as the Public Face of the Federal Theatre Project.”Her work has been published in the Journal of American Drama and Theatre, Theatre Symposium, Theatre Journal and Theatre History Studies and she has entries in The Facts on File Companion to American Drama, The Greenwood Encyclopedia of African American Literature, The Greenwood Encyclopedia of Ethnic Literature, The Encyclopedia of Early Republic and Antebellum America and The Cambridge World Encyclopedia of Stage Actors and Acting. Her book, Staging the People: Community and Identity in the Federal Theatre Project, was published in Palgrave Macmillan’s Theatre and Performance series (2011) and her co-edited volume (with Christine Woodworth), Working in the Wings: New Perspectives on Theatre History and Labor, will be part of the Theatre in the Americas series at Southern Illinois University Press (forthcoming 2015).Osborne was the Conference Planner for the American Theatre and Drama Society (2009, 2010), the Co-Chair of the Mid-America Theatre Conference Theatre History Symposium (2011, 2012) and is currently the Conference Coordinator and Second Vice-President for the Mid-America Theatre Conference. She also planned and coordinated the American Theatre and Drama Society Graduate Student Fellows preconference in 2013. Osborne is a Board Member for the American Theatre and Drama Society, a member of the Editorial Board for the Journal of American Drama and Theatre and the Book Review Editor for the Journal of Dramatic Theory and Criticism.Osborne has worked in dramaturgy and outreach on a number of professional and university productions, including the Chicago premiere of The Cripple of Inishmaan, Northlight Theatre’s Master Class, and the University of Maryland productions of Romeo and Juliet and Assassins. She also taught theatre and drama to children for Creative Kids/Interact Story and the Institute of Reading Development and created study and outreach guides for New Repertory Theatre, Northlight Theatre and Brandeis University. She pioneered a hybrid version of Introduction to Theatre for Non-Majors at FSU, and teaches graduate and undergraduate courses in Dramaturgy, US Theatre History and Historiography, Contemporary US Theatre, Popular Entertainments and Women in US Theatre.
Areas of Responsibility
Theatre and Performance Studies
Education
Ph.D., University of Maryland, College Park, Theatre and Performance Studies
M.F.A., Brandeis University, Theatre/Dramaturgy
B.A., Illinois Wesleyan University, Theatre
Teaching Areas
Introduction to Theatre for Non-Majors (Hybrid & Electronic), Dramaturgy, US Theatre History and Historiography, Contemporary US Theatre, Popular Entertainments, Women in US Theatre
Research Areas
Federal Theatre Project; US Theatre History and Historiography; Intersections of Community, Theatre, and Identity; Performance and Memory; Performance and Labor; Dramaturgy; Theatre, Science, and Math.
Select Scholarly/Creative Works & Awards
- Staging the People: Community and Identity in the Federal Theatre Project, Palgrave Macmillan Press (2011).
- Working in the Wings: New Perspectives on Theatre History and Labor, Co-edited with Christine Woodworth, Southern Illinois University Press (forthcoming 2015).
- “Imagined Democracy: The Federal Theatre Project Performs (Native) America, in Experiments in Democracy, edited by Jonathan Shandell and Cheryl Black, Southern Illinois University Press (forthcoming 2015)
- Distinguished Research Award, College of Visual Arts, Theatre, and Dance, Florida State University (2012)
- Robert A. Schanke Research Award, Mid-America Theatre Conference (2010)
- “Storytelling, Chiggers, and the Bible Belt: The Georgia Experiment as the Public Face of the Federal Theatre Project,” Theatre History Studies (31).
- “A Nation in Need: Revelations and Disaster Relief in the Federal Theatre Project,” Journal of American Drama and Theatre (2008).
- “Disappearing Frontiers and the National Stage: Placing the Portland Federal Theatre Project,”Theatre History Studies (29).
- “Yankee Consternation in the Deep South: Worshipping at the Altars of Steel,” Theatre Symposium (13)
- “Dynamo: Hallie Flanagan and the Vassar Experimental Theatre,” Women, Collective Creation, and Devised Performance, edited by Kathryn Syssoyeva and Scott Proudfit, Palgrave Macmillan Press (forthcoming 2015).
- “Hidden in Plain Sight: Recovering the Federal Theatre Project’s Caravan Theatre,” Working in the Wings: New Perspectives on Theatre History and Labor, edited by Elizabeth A. Osborne & Christine Woodworth, Southern Illinois University Press (forthcoming 2015).
- “Waiting in the Wings: Work,” Working in the Wings: New Perspectives on Theatre History and Labor, edited by Elizabeth A. Osborne & Christine Woodworth, Southern Illinois University Press (forthcoming 2015)
- “The Work of Play in Performance,” co-written with Christine Woodworth, Working in the Wings: New Perspectives on Theatre History and Labor, edited by Elizabeth A. Osborne & Christine Woodworth, Southern Illinois University Press (forthcoming 2015).
- “Tallulah Bankhead,” “Maude Adams,” “Katherine Cornell,” “Lynn Fontanne,” “Hal Holbrook,” “Robert Lewis,” “Rose McClendon,” “Margaret Sullavan,” “Laurette Taylor,” “Anna May Wong,” “John Houseman,” and the “Theatre Guild.” In Simon Williams (Ed.), The Cambridge World Encyclopedia of Stage Actors and Acting, Cambridge University Press (forthcoming, December 2014).
- “William Charles Macready.” In C. Bates (Ed.), Encyclopedia of the Early Republic and Antebellum America, M. E. Sharpe (2010)
- “Susan Yankowitz.” In E. S. Nelson (Ed.), The Greenwood Encyclopedia of Multiethnic American Literature, Greenwood Press (2005)
- “Federal Theatre Project Negro Units,” “Ellen Tarry,” “[James] Theodore Ward,” “Hughes Allison,” “Francis H. [Frank] Wilson,” and the “Great Depression and African American Literature.” In H. Ostrom, & J. D. Macy, Jr. (Eds.), The Greenwood Encyclopedia of African American Literature, Greenwood Press (2005)
- “Alice Childress,” “The Wedding Band,” “Polly Pen,” “Susan Yankowitz,” and “Dorothy and DuBose Heyward.” In J. R. Bryer, & M. Hartig (Eds.), Facts on File Companion to American Drama, Facts on File (2003, revised in 2010)
- “Review of Four Days of Fury: Atlanta 1906,” Theatre Journal (forthcoming)
- “Review of The Influence of Tennessee Williams: Essays on Fifteen American Playwrights, Theatre History Studies (Vol. 30)
- “Review of Arthur Miller’s Global Theatre,” Theatre Survey (Vol. 50)
- Dr. Osborne has also presented her research at more than three dozen conferences in the past 12 years, including the annual conferences of the International Federation of Theatre Research, Performance Studies International, the Mid-America Theatre conference, the Association of Theatre in Higher Education, the American Society for Theatre Research, the International Conference on American Theatre and Drama, the Film and Literature Conference, the F. Scott Fitzgerald Conference, Theatre Symposium, the International Conference on Arts and Humanities, the American Literature Association, and the American Comparative Literature Association.