Laura Chakravarty Box
Assistant Professor of Theater and Dance
Theater and Dance- Department Chair
Affiliated Department(s):
African Studies
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Office:
Runnals 104B
Phone:
207-859-4523
Fax:
859-4533
Email: lchakrav@colby.edu
Mailing Address:
4523 Mayflower Hill
Waterville, Maine 04901-8845
Office Hours:
By appointment.
Semester Schedule
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| Education |
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Ph.D. Theater, University of Hawaii at Manoa
M.A. Drama, San Diego State University
B.A. Linguistics, California State University, Fullerton
Certificate of Acting, Los Angeles City College Theater Arts Academy |
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| Areas of Expertise: |
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North African theater
Theory and criticism
Theater history
Global performance studies
Gender studies
Directing
Acting
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| Professional Information |
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Ms. Box directed Iph...An Adaptation of Euripides' Iphigeneia in Aulis, by Colin Teevan, in November 2002 in Strider Theater. Amy Greenberg '03 was the Assistant Director, Tina Wentzel the Movement Consultant, Jim Thurston the Scenic and Lighting Designer, John D. Ervin the Sound Designer, and Margaret McKea the Guest Costume Designer, with Technical Direction by John D. Ervin, Costume Shop Management by Lisa Caldwell and Stage Management by Amy Greenberg. This production was entered in the Kennedy Center American College Theater Festival, which idenitfies and promotes quality in college-level theater productions. | 
Ms. Box was the director for Company, music and lyrics by Stephen Sondheim, book by George Furth, produced in Strider Theater in February 2004. Paul Machlin was the Musical Director, Tina Wentzel the Dance Choreographer, Jim Thurston the Scenic and Lighting Designer, and Pamela Scofield the Guest Costume Designer, with Technical Direction by John D. Ervin, Costume Shop Management by Lisa Caldwell and Stage Management by Brad Seymour '04.
In the spring of 2005, Ms. Box directed Shakespeare's The Tempest, assisted by Patrick Harner '05, also the Movement Coordintator. Costumes were designed by Jennifer Caprio, Jim Thurston was the Scenic and Lighting Designer, John Ervin the Technical Director, Christine Nilles the Costume Shop Manager, and Xue Zhi Liu '07 the Stage Manager. Ms. Box's directing project in 2006-2007 was the Colby production of Eric Overmyer's On the Verge, or The Geography of Yearning, with Scenic Design by Jim Thurston, Lighting Design by Andrew Yeskoo '07, Sound Design by Philip Crystal '09, Costume Design and Shop Management by Christine Nilles, Dramaturgy by Claire Conger '07, Technical Direction by John Ervin, and Stage Management by Gerrit Lansing '07. On the Verge received eight Kennedy Center/American College Theater Festival Region I nominations for student work, including four acting nominations and nominations for lighting design, sound design, dramaturgy and stage management. In the 2007-2008 season, Ms. Box directed Naomi Wallace's In the Heart of America, assisted by Rishi Chatrath '08 and in conjunction with his production of Wallace's short monodrama, The Retreating World. Entirely student designed, the shows featured scenic and lighting design by Cecelia Cancellieri '11, sound design by Philip Crystal '09, technical direction by Brendan O'Riordan '09, language consultation by Patricia Hong-Phuc Le '10 and stage management by Nicole Crocker '09.
For the fall of 2008, Ms. Box will direct Lorca's The House of Bernarda Alba, in a new translation by Caridad Svich.
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| Other Courses Taught |
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| Course |
Course Title |
| TD 113 |
The Dramatic Experience |
| TD 224 |
Performance History I: Religious and Ritual Drama & Performance |
| TD 349 |
Topics In Dramatic Literature: Ethics and Aesthetics |
| TD 349 |
Topics in Dramatic Literature: Contemporary African Drama and Performance |
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| Current Research |
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In the spring of 2006, Ms. Box conducted sabbatical research and Arabic language studies in Fes and Rabat, Morocco. In 2005, she went to Cairo, Egypt, where she made an informal performance study of the Sufi dance group, Al-Tanoura, and completed courses in Modern Standard and Egyptian Colloquial Arabic. During the summer of 2005, she also returned to the Celebration Barn, in South Paris, Maine, where she joined fellow T&D faculty member Tina Wentzel in an improvisation workshop with Keith Johnstone. In the past, Ms. Box has taken Barn workshops in clowning technique and commedia dell'arte with Julie Goell and Avner Eisenberg, both of whom were Visiting Faculty at Colby in the fall of 2005. Ms. Goell will return to Colby in January of 2007 to direct the musical, The Fantasticks. Ms. Box is in the process of translating a a group of plays by North African women. This work is intended as a companion volume to her first book, which discusses the body of dramatic literature and performance work created by women in Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia and the Maghrebian diaspora since 1960.
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| Publications |
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North Africa’s Performing Women: Notes from the Field. Al-Raida: Women in the Performing Arts in the Arab World (forthcoming 2008). Outrageous Behavior: Women’s Public Performance in North Africa. Meridians: feminism, race, transnationalism 6.2 (2006). Strategies of Resistance in the Dramatic Texts of North African Women: a body of words. New York and London: Routledge, 2005. 'I Will Not Cry': Women's Theatre in the Algerian Diaspora. African Theatre: Women, ed. Jane Plastow, series ed. Martin Banham. Oxford : J. Currey ; Bloomington : Indiana University Press, 2002.
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| Presentations and Lectures |
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The Global Dervish: Appropriation and Transformation in the Transnational Sufi Performance Space. Seminar: Performance and the New Arab World. American Society for Theatre Research. Chicago (November 2006). The 9 Parts of Heather Raffo: Channeling America’s New Wars Through the Arab-American Female Body. Performance Studies International #12 Conference, Queen Mary’s College, University of London (June 2006). From Al-Najeen to Heather Raffo: Theatrical Responses to America's New War. With Andrew M. Volk '05. Association for Theater in Higher Education National Conference, San Francisco, California (July 2005). Outrageous Behavior: Women's Public Performance in North Africa. Creativity, Dissidence, and Women Conference, Arab Women's Solidarity Association, Cairo, Egypt (May 2005). The Wretched. Fighting Terrorism: Ethical and Policy Dilemmas Conference, Goldfarb Center, Colby College (April 2005). Resistance and Transformation: Activist Strategies in North African Women's Theatre. Performing Activism Conference, New England Women's Studies Association, UMass Dartmouth (March 2005). The Flood and the Fire: Apocalyptic Visions and the Mise en Abime in Two Plays Out of North Africa. Performing Africa Conference, Leeds University Centre for African Studies, UK (May 2004). The Flood and the Fire: Social Collapse in the Plays of Maghrebian Women. Women's Studies Colloquium, Colby College (March 2003). The Wretched. Faculty research presentation, Deep Springs College (October 2001). The Wretched. Visions of the Wretched Conference: a homage to Frantz Fanon, Faculty of Letters, University of Tunis I, Manouba, Tunisia (April 2000). North African Women Dramatists. Lecture, Higher Institute of Languages, Tunis, Tunisia (April 2000).
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