About
I am jointly appointed as Assistant Professor in the Department of English, and the Department of Romance and Classical Studies at Michigan State University where I teach courses on theater, performance studies, film, Italian language and Italian culture. My forthcoming book, The Theater of Narration: From the Peripheries of History to the Main Stages of Italy (Northwestern University Press, 2021), explores a form of contemporary solo theater in its historical, political, and performative dimensions. I have published on this practice in several peer-reviewed journals and edited collections including Theatre History Studies, Annali d’Italianistica, and Spunti e ricerche among others. My research has been supported by a year-long Fulbright grant to Italy, and Harvard’s Mellon School for Theater and Performance Research.
Publications
Book
The Theater of Narration: From the Peripheries of History to the Main Stages of Italy. Northwestern University Press. Forthcoming, Summer 2021.
Recipient of 2020-21 TOME Award, MSU (Toward an Open Monograph Ecosystem)
Refereed Journal Articles
“The Lasting Influence of Dario Fo and Franca Rame.” Theatre History Studies. University of Alabama Press, Vol. 36 (2018): 257-277. (Essay republished in Remembering the Consummate Playwright/Performer: Essays on Dario Fo. Scuderi, Antonio, ed. Leicester, UK: Troubador, 2018: 101-21.)
Frau, Ombretta and Juliet Guzzetta. “’Il blog è mio e lo gestisco io:’ Dominio di genere nel web italiano” (My Body, My Blog: Gender Domination on the Web in Italy). gender/sexuality/italy Vol. 2 (2015): 75-90, http://www.gendersexualityitaly.com/il-blog-e-mio-e-lo-gestisco-io-dominio-di-genere-nel-web-italiano/.
“At Work, at Home: Women, Labor, and Laura Curino’s Olivetti Plays.” Annali d’Italianistica. Special Issue “From Otium and Occupatio to Work and Labor in Italian Culture.” Vol. 32 (2014): 291-306.
“Oratory and the Public Sphere: Hearing Italy through Narrative Theater.” Spazio filosofico 2 (Summer 2011): http://www.spaziofilosofico.it/en/numero_02/1139/oratory-and-the-public-sphere/.
“A Presentation of Herself: Laura Curino’s Passions in Everyday Life.” Spunti e ricerche. Special Issue on Studies in Modern Italian Theatre. Vol. 25 (2010): 116-130.
Refereed Book Chapters
“Dominique Morisseau’s Blood at the Root: Intersectionality and the Jena Six” in Critical Perspectives on Contemporary Plays by Women: The Early Twenty-First Century. Eds. Penelope Farfan and Lesley Ferris. University of Michigan Press. Forthcoming.
“Ethical Considerations in Ascanio Celestini’s Radio clandestina” in La riflessione etica nel teatro italiano contemporaneo, (The Ethical Reflection in Contemporary Italian Theater). Cristina Perissinotto and Patrizia Piredda, eds. Napoli: Guida Editori, 2019: 233-257.
“A Voice of Her Own: Feminism and Subjectivities for a Modern Santa Bàrbera.” A Window on the Italian Female Modernist Subjectivity: From Neera to Laura Curino. Ed. Riccobono, Rossella M. Newcastle, UK: Cambridge Scholars, 2013: 187-201.
Anthology Entry, Book Review
“The Women of Laboratorio Teatro Settimo and the Divina project (1989-1998)” in Routledge Anthology of Women’s Theatre Theory & Dramatic Criticism. Eds. Catherine Burroughs and J. Ellen Gainor. Forthcoming.
Donatella Fischer, editor. The Tradition of the Actor-Author in Italian Theatre. London: Legenda, 2013. Reviewed in Theatre Annual: A Journal of Performance Studies. Vol. 67 (Fall 2014): 80-82.
Projects
Works in Progress
Franca Rame and the Labor of Female Creativity. Monographic study of Franca Rame as a public intellectual, activist, and politician in addition to her creative work, with an examination of the additional labor frequently involved for women in intellectual and artistic production.
Olivetti. Translation with critical introduction of Laura Curino’s Camillo Olivetti: Alle radici di un sogno. Milan: Baldini & Castoldi, 1998 and Adriano Olivetti: Il sogno possibile. Milan: IPOC, 2010. Translation of Camillo Olivetti used in performance at the Italian Cultural Institute, New York, NY: 26 Sept 2013.
