ARTISTIC STAFF


Earth Matters on Stage ~ Ecodrama Playwrights Festival & Symposium 2009 is a presentation of the University of Oregon Theatre Arts Department and the University Theatre 2009 Season. 

Students at the graduate and undergraduate levels, together with faculty and artistic associates staff the Festival.

Theresa J. May, Artistic Director and co-founder of Earth Matters On Stage, is Assistant Professor of Theatre Arts and participating faculty of Environmental Studies at the University of Oregon. She teaches acting, dramatic literature, and critical theory, including interdisciplinary courses in theatre and ecology. In 2006 she directed Trojan Women on the Robinson Stage, and in 2007 brought Lotus Lessons to the Arena theatre. As founding director of Theatre in the Wild, Seattle, she produced earth-based site-specific drama that aimed to nurture human connection with the natural world. Theresa co-convened the regional conference "Theatre in an Ecological Age" in Seattle in 1991, and is co-author of the book Greening Up Our Houses: A Guide to a More Ecologically Sound Theatre (Drama Books, 1994). Her “Remembering the Mountain: Grotowski’s Deep Ecology” appears in Performing Nature:  Explorations in Ecology and the Arts. Theresa’s articles have appeared in Theatre Topics, New England Theatre Journal, The Journal of Dramatic Theory and Criticism, On Stage Studies, American Drama, and Theatre Studies. She is currently working on a book, Earth Matters On Stage: Ecology in American Theatre. 

Jennifer Schlueter, dramaturg, is Assistant Professor of Theatre Arts at the University of Oregon.  She is Co-artistic Director of the for/word company, which produced her adaptation play based on the life of Anne Morrow Lindbergh: North. Constructed from Lindbergh’s diaries, letters, novels, and memoirs, as well as those of Charles Lindbergh and Antoine de Saint-Exupèry, it was staged at the American Theatre Company, Chicago. June 2008.  Jennifer has served as dramaturg for A Movie Star Has to Star in Black and White at New York University; and for the world premiere of Brain Rotman’s Dominion at the Theatro Technis, London, 2005. Her “Patronage and Playwriting: Richard B. and Jeanne Donovan Fisher's Support of Charles L. Mee.” Was published in Angels in American Theatre. She has also published articles and reviews in Theatre Journal and the Journal of American Theatre and Drama. 
Photograph of Theresa Dudeck

Theresa Robbins Dudeck, Literary Manager, and director of Song of Extinction, is a 2nd year PhD student and Graduate Teaching Fellow in the Department of Theatre Arts.  She received her MA in Theatre from California State University at Northridge.  Theresa founded/directed Beach Kids on Broadway, a youth theatre company, in Manhattan Beach, California, and during its 5-year existence, collaboratively put together 14 musical revue productions.  She is a member of Actors’ Equity.  Dancing in the European tour of 42nd Street and headlining as a lead singer/dancer on Cunard Cruise Lines are two favorite performance experiences.  Theresa is also a member of the Screen Actor’s Guild and has worked in the film industry as an actress, stand-in, and voiceover artist. She teaches acting, and working on her disseration about the work of Keith Johnstone.

Damond Morris, Production Manager, is a 1sr year PhD student in Theatre Arts at the University of Oregon. His MA Thesis addressed solid waste management in theatre practice. Prior to coming to UO Damond was Artistic Director of Shakespeare Northwest in Mount Vernon, WA.

Kathy Thomas, Graduate Assistant, is a PhD student in Theatre Arts at the University of Oregon, where she is researching consumer protest theatre.  

Bobby Vrtis, director of Atomic Farmgirl, is a secpmd year PhD student in Theatre Arts at the University of Oregon, where he teached acting, and writing his disseration on acting theory. Previously he has directed Arabian Night, Only Ten Minutes to Buffalo and an original adaptation of Anton Chekhov's Three Sisters called Masha at the University of Oregon as well as Eleemosynary, Twelfth Night and Tartuffe at Longwood University in Virginia. Thank you all for coming, please enjoy the show

Festival Judges: Winners of the Playwrights Contest will be selected by a panel of nationally recognized theatre professionals (see Judges) including:


Larry K. Fried, Artistic Director of the 2004 EMOS Festival at Humboldt State University, is an actor, director and author. He was the Artistic Director of the 2004 Ecodrama Festival. In Eugene he has acted and directed for the Lord Leebrick Theatre, and is publisher of the Natural Choice Directory for Willamette Valley. He created and organized the regional conference "Theatre in an Ecological Age" in 1991, and is co-author of the book Greening Up Our Houses: A Guide to a More Ecologically Sound Theatre (Drama Books, 1994). Formerly Co-Director of Theatre in the Wild, Larry was also a founding member of The Living Newsreal Theatre, Seattle; and Directing/Literary Intern with the Seattle Group Theatre, once one of the premier multi-cultural theatres in the country.