BIOGRAPHY

Francesca Spedalieri received her PhD in Theatre from The Ohio State University. She is a scholar, translator, and theatre maker. Her research interests include theatre and performance studies; translation/adaptation; Italian/Italian diasporic literary and cultural studies; and queer feminist theories. Her work focuses on performance, social justice, and activism. She investigates the positionality of performance in relation to transnational social movements, as well as the tensions between artmaking and social justice in theatre production, criticism, and canon formation. Many of her publications focus on contemporary theatre, particularly on the works of contemporary theatre practitioners.

Her scholarly writings have been published in TheatreForum, Performance Research, Theatre Journal, Delos: A Journal of Translation and World Literature, La Riflessione Etica nel Teatro Contemporaneo Italiano (ed. Cristina Perissinotto and Patrizia Piredda, 2018), and Remembering the Consummate Playwright/Performer: Essays on Dario Fo (ed. Antonio Scuderi, 2019). Her book chapters include “Inside Palermo: Economic Disenfranchisement and Gender Inequality in Emma Dante’s mPalermu” published in the edited collection Feminist Women Playwrights: The Twenty First Century (ed. Lesley Ferris and Penelope Farfan, U. of Michigan Press, 2020). Her translations of Emma Dante’s plays appear in mPalermu, Dancers, and Other Plays (2020).

Her theatre practice is fundamental to her research and teaching. It focuses on new (often collectively created or devised) works connected with social justice projects. Recent projects include serving as a dramaturg for All These Activists by Bradley Cherna – a play that examines contemporary youth activism and gun violence – and a translation/adaptation of Stefano Massini’s 7 Minutes, which centers on contemporary labor unions. The play was commissioned by New York City-based company Waterwell.

For more on her work: www.spedalieri.com