Faedra Chatard Carpenter

Assistant Professor
Head of History/Theory Area
Director of MA/PhD in Theatre and Performance Studies

301.405.6246
2815 Clarice Smith Performing Arts Center
fcarp@umd.edu

Education/Training: Ph.D. in Drama, Stanford University, 2005; M.A. in Drama, Washington University, 1994; B.A. in English, Spelman College, 1992.

Areas of Specialization/Interest: American Performance and Dramatic Literature (with concentrations in African American and Latina/o American Dramatic Literature and Performance); Critical theories of Race, Gender, and Sexuality; Dramaturgy; Racial Iconography

Professional Affiliations: Current: Recurring Guest Dramaturg for CenterStage, Advisory Editor in Drama for Callaloo, Nominating Committee member for ASTR (2008-2010), member of American Society for Theatre Research (ASTR), member of Association for Theatre in Higher Education (ATHE), member of Literary Managers and Dramaturgs of the Americas (LMDA). Former: Dramaturg for Fresh Flavas (ACTCo's new play development program); Helen Hayes Award Judge; Resident Dramaturg/Literary Manager of Crossroads Theatre Company; Literary Associate/Dramaturg of Arena Stage; Production Dramaturg for the African Continuum Theatre Company, TheatreWorks, New Perspective Theatre, Black Women Playwrights Group, and the Young Playwrights Theatre.

Representative Productions:

Professional Dramaturgy (for over 30 plays) includes: Locomation (in-progess) for the Kennedy Center Theater for Young Audiences; Fabulation, or the Re-Education of Undine and Joe Turner's Come and Gone at CenterStage, The Amen Corner at ACTCo; Fences at TheatreWorks, Spirit North at Crossroads (World Premiere); Long Day's Journey Into Night and The Odyssey (American Premiere) at Arena Stage. Directing projects at Stanford University include: Cloud Tectonics by Jose Rivera, The Camp by Griselda Gambaro, and On the Hills of Black America by Keith Josef Adkins.

Representative Publications/Research Activities:

"Addressing 'The Complex'-ities of Skin Color: Intra-racism and the Plays of Hurston, Kennedy, and Orlandersmith." Theatre Topics, Vol. 19.1, March 2009; "(L)activists and Lattes: Breastfeeding Advocacy as Domestic Performance" in Women & Performance: A Journal of Feminist Theory, 2006; "Hip-Hop Interviews" with Joan Morgan and Gwendolyn Pough in in Callaloo: A Journal of African Diaspora Arts and Letters, 2006; and "Robert O'Hara's Insurrection: Que(e)rying History" in Text and Performance Quarterly, 2003 and reprinted in Black Queer Studies: A Critical Anthology, 2005.

Honors and Awards: Research and Teaching Fellowship, Stanford University; Invited Lecturer.