Amy Meyer

Visiting Lecturer in Theatre Studies

Contact
Email:
am138@wellesley.edu
Department
Theatre Studies

I am a performer, director, historian, and teacher, and I’ve worked in Boston for over a decade. I am a longtime Artistic Associate with the physical theatre troupe imaginary beasts. I’m also a co-founder of Spectacle Collective, a company that creates and produces multidisciplinary performances that bring classical music, circus arts, and physical theatre into conversation with each other.

I have taught courses in acting, movement, voice, contemporary American plays, sport as performance, theatre history, dramatic literature and theory, and circus and culture. As a practitioner, I am interested in highly physical traditions. I do work in movement-based devised theatre and train in partner acrobatics, aerial silks, and flying trapeze.

My research bridges the fields of theatre, circus, dance, and transfeminist theory. In particular, my areas of interest are acrobatic performance, gender in performance, and risk in performance. My scholarship aims to illuminate the ways that moving bodies onstage can shape sociocultural attitudes towards identity.

I am excited to join the Wellesley community and offer my perspective as a theatre lover and theatre maker fascinated by how heightened physicality and ensemble-created staging can “speak” in performance. I look forward to engaging with Wellesley students in the spirit of inquiry and collaborative exploration!

Education

  • B.A., Connecticut College
  • M.A., Tufts University
  • Ph.D., Tufts University

Current and upcoming courses

Stadium as Stage: Examining Sport as Performance

WRIT188

Since the earliest days of public competition, sports have shaped conversations about social relations, power structures, and cultural values. Athletic performances express who we are individually and collectively, embodying the stories we tell about ourselves. This course explores how sports both reflect and influence our understandings of race, gender, class, sexuality, nation, ability/disability, religion, and more. We’ll examine these subjects through the lens of major events like the Olympic and Paralympic Games, the Super Bowl, and the Boston Marathon, and of sports ranging from soccer to figure skating to wheelchair basketball. We’ll consider how art, commerce, and politics mingle on the athletic stage. We’ll compare sports and the performing arts, thinking about the narratives that we construct from these events and the role that spectators play in shaping them.
More Info

  • "Real World" Experience On and Off Stage

    THST104

    Exposing students to the live theatre in the Boston area and encouraging lively discussion of the productions is the focus of this introductory course. Scripts will be read and rigorously analyzed in the classroom. Women's presence in the arts, contemporary issues as seen on stage and the history of theatre in society will all be addressed by the group.The syllabus will be fluid and drawn from classical, musical and contemporary offerings each year. Visiting artists in all the disciplines will augment discussions. Attendance at productions will be arranged for Thursday evenings and paid for by the Theatre Program. This is an opportunity to have a hands on, up close and personal interaction with those who write, design, direct and act in the theatre..