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