Dr. Richard Neupert, while conducting research in Paris, was interviewed and filmed by Agnes Varda as part of her 2018 gallery exposition on the film Le Bonheur in connection with Varda’s new autobiographical series for French television. At the Avignon international theatre festival in July, Dr. Emily Sahakian presented research on Edouard Glissant's educational theatre and participated in a scholarly roundtable about the festival’s new Caribbean productions. Also in July, Dr. Marla Carlson presented “Pig, Pussy, and Public Sphere: Ann Liv Young’s Elektra” in Belgrade for the International Federation for Theatre Research. In late August, Dr. Sahakian gave a keynote presentation on her 2017 book Staging Creolization: Women’s Theater and Performance from the French Caribbean at the International Congress of Feminist Research in the Francophonie conference in Paris. Earlier in August, Circle Ensemble Theatre presented a staged reading of Dr. John Patrick Bray's new play Plentitude. Doctoral candidate Joelle Arp-Dunham, who serves as the Directing Program Graduate Student Co-Representative for the Association for Theatre in Higher Education, presented her research on two panels at the organization’s 2018 conference: “Towards a More Inclusive Acting Pedagogy: Embodiments of Gender in Practice” and “Going from Protester to Protestee: Who has the Right to Tell a Story?” She also moderated the latter panel, presented “Noodle in Action” in the Adjudicated Acting Exercises Debut Panel, and moderated the panel “How Will Graduate Students Revolutionize Directing?” In April, Joelle played the character “Marmee” in the Circle Ensemble Theatre’s production of Little Women, which she also adapted and produced. Incoming doctoral student Pedro Alvarado participated in the GS LEAD (Graduate Scholars Leadership, Engagement, and Development) Summer Academy at UGA and in July presented “Effective Leadership Characteristics” at the Iota Leadership Conference in Baltimore.
