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MALLORY CATLETT

is a creator, director of performance across disciplines from plays, music/theater, multi-media, installation and opera. 
In teaching, my interest is in how history influences the contemporary landscape and putting students and their work on that historical trajectory.  I love teaching Brecht through the lense of contemporary perofrmance practice.  I know a lot about female playwrights from the 17th and 18th centuries and the work of contemporary Japanese playwright Toshiki Okada. I have a passion for helping students to make thier own work as a way to explore thier ideas in three dimensions and gain the knowledge they are seeking. For me theater is not just an interpretive art form, it is a generative form that can be taught on an undergraduate level. The vast majority of my teaching experience is in studio courses - acting, devising, directing plays, and mentoring/producing student work.

I am interested/available for engagements in academic and institutional settings, either to direct pre-existing texts with students, to make entirely new pieces with students as collaborators or to mentor and curate student created work.

Workshop


Who Are You and What Are We Doing is a customizable workshop/masterclass for advanced undergraduate, MA or MFA students in Theater, Performance or Interdisciplinary Arts, which focuses on the Artist Statement as a jumping-off point for working spatially to explore performative challenges and to work collaboratively to find fresh approaches to creative blockage.

More info here. 


Academic Experience

Visiting Professor, Sarah Lawrence College, NY (2021-22) Guest Lecturer, Bryn Mawr College, PA (2020). Assistant Professor, Department of Theatre Arts, Stony Brook University, Stony Brook, NY (2013-20). Visiting Director,  SUNY Purchance, NY (2007 & 2006). Visting Director, Bard College, NY (2004).

Courses (Undergraduate, Theater Arts Department, Stony Brook University)                
    • Senior Seminar - Course for Graduating Theater Majors focused on Theory and Practice in the development of a final Performance Project. Course Materials include Andrew Cimonet’s Making Your Life as an Artist and Ranciere’s “The Emancipated Spectator”.
    • Experimental Studio  - Course for lower level majors, mi- nors and non majors focused on Composition and Collaboration in the creation of short performances with monthly showings for an audience. The basic principles of Space and Time are taught with an introduction of the Viewpoints and working with light, sound, media and site-specific settings.
    • Projects in Theater - Student New Works Festival - Course for Upper level Majors and Minors to develop independent, faculty mentored projects, in a festival setting. The students write artist and project statements, create rehearsal schedules, meet weekly with faculty mentors, and work with a student pro- duction team. Artistic development and producorial skills are considered in equal measure.
    • Performance Lab - Mainstage Productions: Toshiki Okada’s Current Location. Anne Washburn’s Apparition (Spring 2017). Student Actors and Designers work together alongside the Director and Designers in the full staging of a play with a 2 week performance run.
    • Directing - Upper level Course in staging a play. A director’s methods and ideas are studied along side a play that is staged by the class (i.e Richard Foreman and Machinal by Treadwell/Richard Maxwell and The Danube by Fornes)
    • Play Analysis -Lower Level Course in the close readings of plays (Ibsen, Treadwell, Fornes, Parks and Foreman) for formal structure and historical context.
    • Acting - Mid Level Course in Scene Study that the uses acting vocabularies of Laban’s Efforts and Viewpoints to stages scenes from theatrical texts. Using Okada’s Enjoy and Washburn’s Apparition.
    • Intro to Acting - Lower Level Course that uses Laban’s Analysis and Efforts and that Viewpoints to teach physical and vocal improvisation to stage scenes from Toshiki Okada’s Enjoy.

Academic and Conservatory Theater Productions

2020    
Okada Project (Director) An exploration of three pieces by Toshiki Okada - Eyelids, Curtains and Home Appliances - Created during the covid pandemic across mulitpe platforms with designer Maiko Matsushima and the students.  Bryn Mawr College. 

2018   
Current Location (Director) Play by Toshiki Okada, Translated by Aya Ogawa, Original Score by Sam Beebe. Theater One, Stony Brook University

2017    
Apparition (Director) Play by Anne Washburn. Original Score by Joseph Bohi- gian. Theater Two, Stony Brook University

2007    
Celebrity (Director/Adapter) Devised Performance created in collaboration with the students of the SUNY Purchase Conservatory. Script combined student writing with adapted writings of Andy Warhol. Performing Arts Center,  SUNY Purchase NY

2006    
The Learned Ladies (Director) Play by Moliere. Performing Arts Center, SUNY Purchase NY

2004    
Sandbox (Director) Play by Jacob Berstein-Stern. Bard College, NY


Articles, Books and Introductions

Panels, Presentations, Symposia & Workshops

2018    
Presentation/Paper. Decoder: Cutting up the Reality Studio, 16th Biennial Symposium on Art and Technology. Ammerman Center, Connecticut College, New London, CT.

2016    
Guest Speaker: City Council Meeting, Gallatin Participatory Performance Class, New York University, New York.

2015    
Panel. Urban Dramaturgy: new tendencies in contemporary American dramaturgy. With Peter Eckersall, Andrew Kircher, and Jeff Stark moderated by Bertie Ferdman. Presented in collaboration with the Literary Managers and  Dramaturgs of the Americas (LMDA). Martin E Segal Theater, CUNY, New York City

2015    
Panel. Co-Creation: International Best Practices, City Council Meeting, Changing Places Conference, Theater Frascati, Amsterdam. NL 2013 Salon. Created in collaboration with artists Clare Patey, Matthew Moore, Aaron Landsman, Helen Paris, Leslie Hill, Mark Wilson and Bryndis Snaebjörnsdóttir exploring Participatory Art Practices. Hosted by the ASU Art Museum, ASU Gammage and the Socially Engaged Practice Initiative at ASU with support from the British Arts Council. Phoenix, AZ

2013   
Panel. Dread Scott: Decision with Dread Scott, Clifford Owens, Lawrence Graham Brown and Roc Belizaire.  Revolution Books, New York City.

2012     
Presentation. This Was The End: Proust and Optics in Performance, Conference on Memory and Emotion in the Disciplines. Stony Brook, NY.

2010   
Excerpts & Panel. SPOTLIGHT: CATALONIA Discussion with Playwrights + Directors + Translators, Prelude Festival, Martin E Segal Theater, CUNY, New York City

2009   
Panel. Artists, Critics and Beyond, a conversation. Literary Managers and Dramaturgs of the Americas and Stony Brook University, CUNY, New York City.

2008   Panel. Producing Meaning: New Media, Technology & the Role of Dramaturgy with Jay Scheib, Morgan von Prelle Pecelli, Marianne Weems & Victor Weinstock, moderated by Peter von Salis. Prelude Festival, Martin Segal Theater Center, CUNY, New York City

2006   
Workshop. Joan Littlewood, The Theatre Workshop and Laban, Lincoln Center Directors Lab, New York City

2003    
Symposium. The First 100 Years: The Professional Female Playwright, recovering the past to transform the future, Association for Theater in Higher Education Conference, New York City

2003    
Panel. Producing Joanna Baillie. North American Society for the Study of Romanticism Conference. New York City.

2002    
Symposium. The First 100 Years: The Professional Female Playwright. American Airlines Theater. A New York  Humanities Month Event, New York City. Archived at the New York Public Library for the Performing Arts.

2000   
Presentation. Incorporating the Theoretical: Hélène Cixous and the production dramaturgy of Eurydice Plays Dead. Literary Manager and Dramaturgs of the Americas Debut Panel at Association for Theater in Higher Education  Conference, Seattle.

2000    
Panel. Ménage a Trios: Dramaturgs, Directors and Designers, Literary Manager and Dramaturgs of the Americas at  Association for Theater in Higher Education Conference, Seattle.

1999    
Panel. Time and Rehearsal, Literary Manager and Dramaturgs of the Americas at Association for Theater in Higher Education Conference

1998      
Workshop. Viewpoints Blackbox Theater, School for Contemporary Arts, Simon Fraser University

Academic Service and Committees

2014 - 2020   
Student New Works Festival Committee, Stony Brook
2014 - 2020   
Student New Works Festival Mentor, Stony Brook
2013 - 2020   
Mentored 11 Student Works through Independent Study and Student Festival, Stony Brook
2017 - 2018    
Mentored 5 Independent Studies in Assistant Design - Lights, Sound, and Costumes, Stony Brook
2016 - 2018    
Affiliate Faculty of cDACT (Consortium for Digital Arts, Culture & Technology), Stiny Brook
2016                
Workshop on Laban for Singers in the Opera Program, Stony Brook
2015 - 2016    
Theater Arts, Curriculum Committee, Stony Brook
2014                
Search Committee for Computer Science/cDACT Hire, Stony Brook