Past Borderless Events
How to Devise Theatre That Makes a Difference
Click here to watch How to Devise Theatre That Makes a Difference
Friday, April 15, 2022 at 11:00 a.m. CST on Zoom
A conversation on interview-based community-engaged theatre with Amanda Grace Ewing, director of the University of Michigan Educational Theatre Company (UMetc), an applied social justice theatre company, and Jeffrey Pufahl, a publicly engaged theater scholar in the Center for Arts in Medicine at the University of Florida. Each panelist shared their own experiences and expertise with UI MFA acting candidate Katie Gucik as she begins the process of creating a theatre piece from interviews with students on campus, community members, and professionals who work with survivors and offenders discussing the ongoing epidemic of sexual assault on college campuses.
Moderated by Katie Gucik (MFA acting candidate at University of Iowa) and Jen Shook (theatre and performance history professor at University of Iowa)
Acting Together on the World Stage, Theatre Without Borders, & Social Justice and Performing Arts
Click here to watch Acting Together on the World Stage.
Saturday, April 9, 2022 at 11:00 a.m. CST on Zoom
The University of Iowa Department of Theatre Arts and Theatre Without Borders came together for a conversation with the international team that created the Acting Together Project to document and strengthen the contributions of performance and ritual to social justice and conflict transformation. The Acting Together Project was developed through a unique collaboration between scholars affiliated with Brandeis University and the Theatre Without Borders network of global theatre practitioners. This event celebrated both the 10th anniversary of the Acting Together Project and the University of Iowa’s new Performing Arts & Social Justice Certificate program.
The conversation included: Cynthia Cohen (Director of the Peacebuilding & the Arts Program, Brandeis University); Polly O. Walker (editor of the Acting Together on the World Stage anthologies); Allison Lund (director of the Acting Together on the World Stage documentary); Shahid Nadeem (core-member of Theatre Without Borders, founder Ajoka Theatre, Lahore, Pakistan); Dijana Milosevic (core-member of Theatre Without Borders, director and co-founder, DAH Theater, Belgrade, Serbia); Lisa Schlesinger (University of Iowa Department of Theatre Arts faculty and founding committee member of the new Performing Arts & Social Justice Certificate).
Moderated by David J. Diamond (core-member of Theatre Without Borders, director of the La MaMa Umbria Symposium), with Jen Shook and Rob Ascher.
FUBU Open Mic
Friday, February 18, 2022 at 9:00 p.m.
UnImpaired Dry Bar - Iowa City (125 E. Burlington Street)
Free Admission
An open mic/cabaret in collaboration with the Department of Theatre Arts and Afro House celebrating diverse artistic expression. In the tradition of NYC’s Nuyorican Poets Cafe and D.C.’s Busboys and Poets, this event featured poetry, dance, acting, rapping, and other art forms from Black artists on campus. Headliners included J.D. Kidd, Steven A Willis, Issac Addai, the cast of Isaiah Reeves’ Gwenevere, and more!
This event was hosted in collaboration with the Afro-American Cultural Center and was free and open to the public.
Queer History Roundtable: How we teach each other
Click here to watch Queer History Roundtable: How we teach each other
Saturday, February 12, 2022 at 4:00 p.m. CST on Zoom
In conjunction with Ann Kreitman’s England’s Splendid Daughters, part of the Iowa Directors Festival, a group of artists and scholars held a roundtable discussion of how queer history is shared and taught outside of academic spaces. As marginalized histories have their own methods of preservation and teaching, they discussed the passing of stories, objects, embodied history, and how art is often at the center of this sharing.
Panelists included:
T.J. Dedeaux-Norris (UI assistant professor, painting and drawing)
Kim Marra (UI professor emeritus, theatre arts and American studies)
Christopher-Rasheem McMillan (assistant professor of dance and gender, women’s and sexuality studies)
Aiden Bettine (community and student life archivist residency librarian, University of Iowa; LGBTQ Iowa Archives & Library)
Elizabeth Rodriguez Fielder (assistant professor, English department)
Moderated by Ann Kreitman (playwright and director of England’s Splendid Daughters)
This event was hosted in collaboration with the Pride Alliance Center.
Meeting the Moment: Cuba Then & Now
Click here to watch Meeting the Moment.
Saturday, February 5, 2022 at 4:00 p.m. CST on Zoom
The Department of Theatre Arts hosted a panel discussion about Cuban performance, art, and cultural memory in conjunction with María Irene Fornés’s Letters from Cuba.
Panelists included:
Natalie Villamonte Zito (director of Letters from Cuba)
Orlando Lopez (Cuban-American actor in Letters from Cuba, playing the roles of Gerardo/Jerry)
Elizabeth Rodriguez Fielder (assistant professor, English department)
Caridad Svich (award-winning playwright, translator, and editor)
Fredo Rivera (art and architectural historian, assistant professor of art history at Grinnell College, and drag performer)
Moderated by Rob Ascher (dramaturg of Letters from Cuba)
This event was hosted in collaboration with the Latino Native American Cultural Center.
Borderless: I'm Writing to You Today
I'm Writing to You Today
Created by Ann Kreitman
August 18-September 26, 2021
(original premiere April 1-30, 2021)
I'm Writing to You Today was an environmental audio experience that led you through campus in the footsteps of our queer ancestors. Listeners were able to go alone or in pairs to reimagine campus as the backdrop for historical queer love letters. This outdoor experience began at the University of Iowa Theatre Building (200 N. Riverside Drive, Iowa City, Iowa) and lasted approximately one hour. The podcast was available for digital download on Apple Podcasts and Spotify.
I'm Writing to You Today was a gift to the LGBTQ+ community of Iowa, celebrating the fact that we always have and always will find our path to love.
This experience was created in collaboration with the Pride Alliance Center.
Ann Kreitman is a first year MFA candidate in directing and certificate candidate in Gender, Women's, and Sexuality Studies. Ann has presented work in Chicago, New York City, and Philadelphia, and specializes in creating original theatrical events with a focus on lesbian and queer history-telling and mythmaking. She is an associate member of the Stage Directors and Choreographer's Society and formerly served as the Co-Artistic Director of (re)discover theatre. Her portfolio can be viewed at annkreitman.com.
Borderless: Celebrating Indigenous Theatre
Sunday, November 15, 2020 at 1:00 p.m. CST on Zoom
"Celebrating Indigenous Theatre” was a roundtable and Q&A session with renowned Indigenous theatre artists: Ty Defoe (Giizhiig, Ojibwe + Onieda Nations), Mary Kathryn Nagle (Cherokee Nation of Oklahoma), Madeline Sayet (Mohegan), and Rhiana Yazzie (Navajo). This conversation was moderated by Morgan Grambo, MFA ‘20, and was produced in conjunction with the Latino Native American Cultural Center’s Native American Heritage Month events.
A conversation about the past, present, and future of Indigenous theatre.
“Celebrating Indigenous Theatre” was open to university students, faculty, and staff. This event was held in collaboration with the Latino Native American Cultural Center.
Borderless: Ghost Limb
Virtual Reading and Post-Show Discussion
Saturday, October 4, 2020 at 4:00 p.m. CST on Zoom
Ghost Limb
By Marisela Treviño Orta
Consuelo’s son, Javier - an artist and activist - is forcibly disappeared by the military dictatorship of Argentina in 1977. She now must race to find him. Marisela Treviño Orta’s haunting play Ghost Limb draws upon the myth of Persephone and Demeter to call forth the story of the lives of those destroyed by the Dirty War.
This piece includes violent descriptions of war and torture.
Marisela Treviño Orta is a graduate of the Iowa Playwrights Workshop, a Core Writer at the Playwrights’ Center, and under commission by Audible. Her awards include the 2006 Chicano/Latino Literary Prize in Drama, 2009 Pen Center USA Literary Award in Drama, 2013 National Latino Playwriting Award, and 2019 Kendeda Finalist. Her plays have been presented at Arizona Theatre Company, Brava Theater, Halcyon Theatre, Kitchen Dog Theater, Milagro, New Jersey Repertory Company, Oregon Shakespeare Festival, and Shotgun Players. Her produced plays include Braided Sorrow, Ghost Limb, Heart Shaped Nebula, Somewhere, The River Bride, Wolf at the Door, and Woman on Fire.
This event was held in collaboration with the Latino Native American Cultural Center.
Diverse Voices: Reconciliation
Public Reading and Post-Show Discussion
Sunday, March 8, 2020 at 4:00 p.m. in the Alan MacVey Theatre
Reconciliation
By Marisa Carr
In a dystopian future, the United States government has initiated a “Truth and Reconciliation” process with Indigenous peoples – and lack of compliance is a federal crime. One woman with nothing left to lose challenges the charge of “Failure to Reconcile” and fights for her life. Is reconciliation possible? And if so, at what cost?
Marisa Carr is playwright who recently transplanted to Chicago after a decade in the Twin Cities. Her work has been presented and/or produced by theaters including: The Guthrie, Pillsbury House + Theater, the Playwrights’ Center, Intermedia Arts, and Pangea World Theatre. Selected recent awards and honors include: Scratchpad at the Playwrights' Realm (2019-2020), P73 Finalist (2019-20), Bay Area Playwrights’ Festival Finalist (2019), McKnight Fellowship in Playwriting Finalist (2019), Jerome Artist Fellowship Finalist (2019), Lila Acheson Wallace Playwriting Fellowship Semi-finalist (2019), Berkeley Rep Ground Floor Residency (2018), Forward Flux Three New American Plays Commission (2018), Minnesota State Arts Board Artist Initiative Grant (2017), Playwrights’ Center Many Voices Fellow (2016-17), Naked Stages Fellow at Pillsbury House + Theater (2015), and “Best New Political Playwright” (Lavender Magazine, 2014). Marisa is also Co-Founder/former Artistic Director of the Turtle Theater Collective, a Twin Cities-based company committed to producing high-quality, contemporary work that explores Native experiences and subverts expectations about how and when Native artists can create theater. She is Turtle Mountain Ojibwe from the Turtle clan.
Post-show discussion curated by Morgan Grambo, MFA '20.