Laura Tesman, Assistant Professor and Director of Theatre Program
Office: Columbine 2045
Phone: 262-4083
E-mail: ltesman@uccs.edu

My expertise in theatre is both scholarly and practical. In terms of research, my areas of expertise are the history of women in theatre with particular focus on the late 19th and early 20th centuries; 16th and 17th century English and European theatre, and performance theory. I am currently working on a book based on my dissertation entitled Re-Fashioning Gender for the Modern Stage: Four Women Playwrights at the Dawn of the 20th Century. In terms of practice, my strengths are in acting technique, movement for the actor, acting styles, and directing. I consider myself an artist and scholar and enjoy both acting and directing for TheatreWorks and within the region. I have directed productions of Italian American Reconciliation, The Dispute, Bloody Poetry, the original theatre piece Petticoats & Pistols (which I also wrote/adapted) Vinegar Tom, Metamorphoses (nominated for a PAPAAs Award for Best Production), and most recently Caucasian Chalk Circle.  In recent years I have performed in productions of Dancing at Lughnasa (Christine), The Rainmaker (Lizzie, for which I won the 2006 Gazette Best Actress Award), Streetcar Named Desire (Stella), The Cherry Orchard (Varya), and The Good Woman of Szechuan (Shen Te/Shui Ta, for which I won the 2001 Gazette Best Actress Award).  I am also an Associate Company Member at Curious Theatre in Denver where I’ve worked in a variety of capacities: as an Assistant Director/Dramaturg on I Am My Own Wife and An Almost Holy Picture and Dramaturg on The War Anthology and The Long Christmas Ride Home among others, playwright for their annual fund-raiser Denver Stories, and as an instructor for their youth playwrighting program Curious New Voices.

Courses I Teach:
THTR 100: Introduction to Theatre
ID 101: Freshman Seminar
THTR 202 & 203: Acting Workshop I & II
THTR 302 & 303: Advanced Acting Studio I & II
THTR 328: Women in Theatre (cross-listed with WMST 390)
THTR 321: History of Theatre II
HUM 399: “Bad Girls” (?)
HUM 399: Art and the State
HUM 399: Philosophical Filmmakers
THTR 940: Independent Study
Various VAPA and Theatre Special Topics Courses such as "Art & Yoga," “Burlesquing Vinegar Tom,” “Gertrude Stein, Cubism & Jazz,” "Metamorphoses," "Chalk Circle, Music & Masks"