Thinking Cap Theatre's Artistic Director Nicole Stodard Ph.D talks with Brian Herrera, Associate Professor of Theatre at the Lewis Center for the Arts at Princeton University, and Anne Garcia-Romero, Associate Professor of Theatre in the Department of Film, Television, and Theatre at the University of Notre Dame. BRIAN HERERRA's BIO Brian Herrera is, by turns, a writer, teacher and scholar - presently based in New Jersey, but forever rooted in New Mexico. Brian's work, whether academic or artistic, examines the history of gender, sexuality and race within and through U.S. popular performance. He is author of The Latina/o Theatre Commons 2013 National Convening: A Narrative Report (HowlRound, 2015). His book Latin Numbers: Playing Latino in Twentieth-Century U.S. Popular Performance (Michigan, 2015) was awarded the George Jean Nathan Award for Dramatic Criticism and received an Honorable Mention for the John W. Frick Book Award from the American Theatre and Drama Society. With Stephanie Batiste and Robin Bernstein, Brian serves as co-editor of “Performances and American Cultures” series at NYU Press. Also a performer, Brian's autobiographical storywork performances (including I Was the Voice of Democracy and TouchTones) have been presented in venues large and small across the United States, as well as Beirut and Abu Dhabi. Brian is a longstanding contributor to the Fornés Institute, a project committed to preserving and amplifying the legacy of María Irene Fornés. He has also worked closely with ArtEquity, an organization committed to creating and sustaining a culture of equity and inclusion through the arts; with Theatrical Intimacy Education, a group researching, developing, and teaching best practices for staging theatrical intimacy; and with The Sol Project, an initiative dedicated to producing the work of Latinx playwrights in New York City and beyond. He serves on the Director's Council of the DramaLeague and on the boards of Clubbed Thumb and Bard at the Gate. Brian is presently at work on several scholarly book projects: Next! A Brief History of Casting, a historical study of the material practices of casting in US popular performance; Starring Miss Virginia Calhoun, a narrative portrait of a deservedly obscure early 20th century actress/writer/producer; and Fornés in Context, an anthology (co-edited with Anne García Romero and under contract with Cambridge University Press) documenting the life, work and legacy of playwright María Irene Fornés. He also publishes the #TheatreClique Newsletter. ANNE GARCIA-ROMERO'S BIO Anne García-Romero’s plays include: Staging the Daffy Dame, Lorca in New York, Mary Domingo, Provenance, Paloma, Earthquake Chica, Mary Peabody in Cuba, Desert Longing, Juanita's Statue, Girlus Equinus and Santa Concepción. Her plays have been developed and produced most notably at the New York Shakespeare Festival/Public Theatre, the Eugene O'Neill National Playwrights Conference, The Goodman Theatre, Denver Center Theatre, The Mark Taper Forum, Hartford Stage, Borderlands Theater, National Hispanic Cultural Center, Nevada Repertory Company, Los Angeles Theatre Center, Kitchen Theatre, and South Coast Repertory. She has also written for Peninsula Films, Elysian Films and Disney Creative Entertainment. Her translation of The Gröholm Method by Jordi Galcerán has been produced in Los Angeles and London. She's been a Jerome Fellow at the Playwrights Center of Minneapolis as well as a MacDowell Colony fellow. She is an alumna of Chicago Dramatists and of New Dramatists in New York City. She is a founding member of the Latinx Theatre Commons, where she contributes to The María Irene Fornés Institute.

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