Physical Dramaturgy: An Embodied Approach to Exploring Shakespeare’s Text Through Devising and Collaborative Creation

Doreen Bechtol earned her MFA in Shakespeare and Performance from Mary Baldwin University (2012) and a BA in Theatre, English, and Education from Western Michigan University (1994). She is now a Professor and Co-Director of the Shakespeare and Performance MLitt/MFA program at Mary Baldwin University in partnership with the American Shakespeare Center. She currently serves as the resident movement consultant and physical dramaturg at the American Shakespeare Center. As a collaborative theatre maker, Doreen directs and choreographs classical theatre and devises original work. Professional directing credits include Antigone at the American Shakespeare Center, Julius Caesar at Starling Shakespeare Company, and Macbeth at Hoosier Shakespeare Festival. Educational productions include: Cymbeline, Hamlet, Romeo and Juliet, Pericles, Richard III, Two Noble Kinsmen, 1 Henry IV, 1 Henry VI, Much Ado About Nothing, Macbeth at the American Shakespeare Center; Metamorphosis, Blood Wedding, Love of the Nightingale, Marie Antoinette, Eurydice at Flertcher Collins Theater; Language of Angels at the University of Virginia. Devised educational productions include: Quinze, 81 Minutes, Oh So Tender, CDQ, Between Beats, Syzergy, #ThursdayNext, and The Old Man with Enormous Wings. Doreen recently performed as Lady Capulet in the Arabic Shakespeare Project's production of R&J: What's in a Name? (2024) at the National Theatre in Prague in collaboration with Prague Shakespeare Company.