Bess Rowen

• Assistant Professor of Theatre, Villanova University

Dr. Bess Rowen is an Assistant Professor, theatre theorist, historian, and practitioner. She teaches the year-long Dramatic Vision & Form course, which introduces students to theatrical theory, furthers analytical approaches to interpreting theatre and performance, and hones academic writing skills. Her first book, "The Lines Between the Lines: How Stage Directions Affect Embodiment" (University of Michigan Press, 2021) focuses on what she terms "affective stage directions," which are stage directions written in ways that engage the physical and emotional responses of future theatre makers. Her next book, which is under advance contract with the University of Iowa Press, focuses on the ways that mean teenage girlhood is overrepresented on stage. She is also working as the co-editor of the in-progress edited volume called The Routledge Companion to LGBTQ Theatre and Performance in North America, alongside Benjamin Gillespie.,

While pursuing her doctorate at CUNY, she was the recipient of an Andrew W. Mellon Fellowship in Public Humanities as well as a Graduate Center Dissertation Fellowship. She is a member of the Actors' Equity Association and has studied acting at Michael Howard Studios, The Berkshire Theater Festival, and The Gaiety School of Acting in Ireland. She has directed, stage managed, and even done a little playwriting. She currently works as an Intimacy Choreographer and continues her training with Theatrical Intimacy Education.

Bess also serves as co-editor of the Journal of American Drama and Theatre. She is on the Executive Board of the Eugene O'Neill Society, where she also holds the position of Conference Planner. She is the co-planner of the Tennessee Williams Scholars Conference, the VP of Membership and Marketing for the Association for Theater in Higher Education, and the Vice President of the American Theatre & Drama Society.

Recent articles can be found in the Journal of Dramatic Theory & Criticism, Theatre Survey, Modern Drama, and The Eugene O'Neill Review, among others. Other avid interests include intersectional Gender & Sexuality theory, modernisms, trauma-informed practices, women playwrights, Irish theatre, and theatre riots.

• –present Assistant Professor of Theatre, Villanova University

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