Kate R. Morris
krmorriswriting@gmail.com
SUMMARY OF ARTISTIC AND TEACHING PHILOSOPHIES
My primary goal in art and education is to establish practices that equally approach critical thinking and creative making using social, global, and historical contexts. My first intellectual impulse is toward language and narrative, my second is visual; how writing performs simultaneously on the page as well as in other modes: spoken or performed, and what opportunity interdisciplinary practice creates for students, artists, and performers alike.
EDUCATION
School of the Art Institute of Chicago
MFA, 2016, Writing, Concentration on play text and performance score, poetry, installation
University of Montana
MA 2014, Theatre, Concentration on Devised and Collaborative Theatre, specifically collaborative methodologies
University of Montana
BFA 2008, Acting, Emphasis in stylistic acting technique and physical theatre
TEACHING
The University of Montana, Missoula
Winter 2020/Summer 2021: Playwriting
A 300-level seminar exploring techniques of writing theatre, performance, and for the screen. Participants leave the seminar with a finished 10-minute play, performance score, and a short film depicting at least one body performing an original screenplay. Texts used to guide this work include Pipeline by Dominique Morrisseau, and multiple works by Adrienne Kennedy, Samuel Beckett, John Cage, and Yoko Ono.
At Large:
Summer 2020: Intro to Script Writing for Stage Screen, and Musical Theatre, Developing Writing and Storytelling for Performance (Remote Learning)
2019 -2020 The American Foundation School of Guadalajara
2019-2020 Full Academic year: 12th grade College Preparatory English, Honors Creative Writing — Literary Magazine
2019 Spring (substitute teaching): 12th grade College Preparatory English, Honors Creative Writing — Literary Magazine
Planning and teaching 12th Grade college prep English curriculum, Creative Writing, and advising the Literary Magazine Sin Fronteras, which won a Superior rating at the 2019 NCTE REALM Awards in the International schools division.
School of the Art Institute of Chicago; Faculty Lecturer in Liberal Arts
2017 Spring: Paper Trace: Play text vs. Performance Score Seminar (UG)
A comparative literature seminar and writing workshop focusing on writing critical essays for college, focusing on dramatic literature and performance art. Students also complete a creative performance-oriented project throughout the semester.
AAP Critical Inquiry Seminar (UG)
A critical thinking seminar focusing on art styles from Modernism to Contemporary art. Students keep portfolios and participate in workshops focused on close-readings of art historical texts, resulting in a critical essay assignment.
2016 Fall: B.O.W.I.E. (English Composition Seminar) (UG)
This course course was my second seminar oriented around David Bowie’s artistic work and career. We read classical and contemporary literature that focused on the body, sexuality, identity, and epistemology, and wrote critical essays discussing them.
AAP Academic Foundations Seminar (UG)
A seminar designed to immerse students in the discipline of critical reading and thinking skills at the college level. We used active learning strategies, including syntopic reading methods, and a 3-stage note taking system to help retain and use the information presented in the reading.
2015 Fall: Turn & Face the Strange: Ourselves & Others Seminar (UG)
Taught as a Graduate Instructor, this course was a preliminary David Bowie-oriented seminar class. Students read classical and contemporary literature focusing on identity in various contexts, and wrote critical and research essays on art and identity.
PERFORMANCES, SCHOLARSHIP, RESEARCH
Burning Coal Theatre Company, Raleigh, NC
2020 co-Playwright On the Roof, in the Tombs: an Embodied Cento; commission, the 19th Amendment Project Festival, written with Prageeta Sharma.
MT+NYC Collaborative, Montana and New York City
2019 Dramaturg The Buffalo Play, productions in Missoula ,Montana and in Manhattan, NY
2018 Writing Consultant Fall Writers Retreat
2017 Writing Consultant Fall Writers Retreat
BetweenTheLines Theatre, Missoula, MT
2018 Playwright In The Snow, full production
School of the Art Institute of Chicago
2016 Artist/Author Crone, book installation with pen, ink, wood, thread, and paper; Sullivan Galleries
Performer The Sea is Represented by an Irregular Shape, performance installation by Mark Booth, Sector 2337
2015 Performer/Creator Guest/Stranger, performance, New Blood Festival IX
Performer/Creator Apportition, performance, ManiFest
Absinthe and Zygote Reading Series, Chicago
2016 Author/reader Crone, (at A&Z #33, “Many Hands Clapping”)
2014 Performer A&Z #19, “Talking Back”
Chicago Poets Theatre Festival
2016 Actor Turn On the Heat, by A.A. Fair, play by Dodie Bellamy, dir. Kevin Killian, Links Hall
Red Rover Reading Series, Chicago
2016 Writer/Performer Experiment #93: Exhaustion and Solidarity
Chicago Rhinoceros Theatre Festival
2015 Director/Playwright Saul/Meredith, Open Brood Collective
Co-Director Go F*** Yourself, play, by Beau O’Reilly, Curious Theatre Branch (CTB)
Co-Director Quick, play, by Beau O’Reilly, CTB
Actor Go F*** Yourself, play by Beau O’Reilly, CTB
University of Montana
2014 Author “Writing in Devised Theatre,” (MA Thesis)
Instructor Introduction to Theatre (UG)
Teaching Assistant Physical Performance Skills II (UG)
Artist Jelly Shoes, performance with audio, Media Arts Spring Expo
2013 Director Memory Play, a collaboratively devised play and Practice-as-Research Project
Instructor Introduction to Theatre (UG)
Teaching Assistant Theatre History I & II (UG), Dramatic Literature (UG)
Playwriting I & II (UG), Physical Performance Skills I (UG)
The Montana Repertory Theatre’s Missoula Colony
2014 Playwright Church (now titled In Judea), reading
2013 Playwright Party Cat, short works reading
2012 Playwright Everybody in Missoula Says I Love You, reading
2010 Playwright Some Girls Let it Bleed, short works reading
2009 Playwright Ménages Terror! reading
2007 Playwright Graceful Exits, reading
Missoula Fringe Festival
2013 Creator/Performer Fake yr Death in 6 Lonesome Steps, play, multiple performances at DDC and ZACC
Viscosity Theatre
2014 Dramaturg Mystery Mark, collaborative performance/media installation
2013 Dramaturg ThisIllusionment, collaborative theatre play, dir. Rebecca Schaffer, writ. Josh Wagner
Downtown Dance Collective, Missoula, MT
2011 Playwright Venn Diagrams (or The Bee Play), produced during artist’s residency, dir. D. Marie Long
PUBLICATIONS
2020 “What About Me That’s Stunted,” Funny Looking Dog Quarterly, Winter 2020
2016 Present Tense Pamphlets: Before, During, and After “Talking Back,” Contributor, Northwestern University Press
2016 Collected Literary Magazine: The Vanishing Body, Editor-in-Chief
2016 “Crone Print 1,” micro-play and poem image, Infinity’s Kitchen, http://infinityskitchen.com
For F Newsmagazine, 2016-2017
“Wabash Lights Merge Technology, Public Infrastructure, Art,” Arts Journalism, August 2016 (web and print)
“Symposium on Art Words Raises Questions About Assessment” News, July 2016 (web and print)
“Art and Academia Perform in the ‘Present Tense’,”Arts Journalism, May 2016
“Remembering Charlotte Moorman at Northwestern’s Block Museum,” Exhibition Review, May 2016 (web and print)
“The Gossip Pomeranian: St. Patrick’s Day,” Humor, March 2016
2015 Collected Literary Magazine: Tectonics, (Junior Editor)
2015 “Snow Retrospeculation,” image poem, Hound Literary Magazine
2014 “Aral Sea: Redacted,” Duende Literary Magazine
CONFERENCE PRESENTATIONS, LECTURES, & WORKSHOPS
2015 “Simultaneous Text, Image, and the Micro Play,” Lecture, School of the Art Institute of Chicago
2015 “Keeping a Journal: Writing for Mental Health,” Lecture, School of the Art Institute of Chicago
2014 “Writing through the Bogart/Overlie Viewpoints,” Workshop, Columbia College, Chicago
2014 Saul/Meredith, staged reading, New Play Symposium, Mid-American Theatre Conference
2014 “Physical Improvisation,” Workshop, Montana State High School Thespian Conference
2014 “Writing Memory Through our Bodies,” Paper, University of Montana Graduate Research Conferenc
2013 “Intro to Viewpoints,” Workshop, MT High School Thespian Conference
AWARDS
2016 Student Leadership Award, The School of the Art Institute of Chicago
2016 MFA Writing Post-Graduate Fellowship, $1500, juried by Bhanu Kapil
2014-2016 New Artists Foundation Scholarship, The School of the Art Institute of Chicago
2014-2016 Writing Fellowship, The School of the Art Institute of Chicago
2014 Outstanding Presentation Award, University of Montana Graduate Student Research Conference
2012-2014 Graduate Teaching Assistantship, University of Montana School of Theatre and Dance
2011 Dramatist’s Guild Grant, $1,000 to Montana Repertory Theatre’s Missoula Colony