Holly L. Derr

  • About MeHolly Derr is a director and professor of theater specializing in the Viewpoints u0026amp; Composition, the performance of gender, and applied theater history. Originally from Dallas, TX, she holds an MFA in Directing from Columbia University and a BA in Theater from The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. She was the founding Artistic Director of SKT Inc., a small, New York based not-for-profit theater, and has directed new plays for Big Dance Theater and the PlayPenn New Play Development festival. Holly has served on the faculties of Marlboro College and Smith College, and has taught and directed at the American Repertory Theater Institute for Advanced Theater Training at Harvard University, The Brown University/Trinity Repertory Theater Consortium, and the California Institute of the Arts. Most recently, Holly presented her original script, American Medea, at Ensemble Studio Theater/LA and directed Twelfth Night at the University of Riverside. Favorite past projects include In the Penal Colony, Speak, The Time of Your Life (as a musical adaptation), The Front Page, and new plays by Gregory Moss, Ann Marie Healy, Timothy Braun, and Colin Denby Swanson.
  • Teaching
    • Research Statement
    • Teaching PhilosophyTEACHING PHILOSOPHY My journey has been characterized by confronting the unknown. I was born and raised in Dallas, TX, and have always been deeply interested in the culture of the South, especially as represented by my Louisianan grandmother and her small town worldview. After attending the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (where one of my favorite classes was The Sociology of the South), I moved to New York City and lived consecutively in Hell’s Kitchen and Dominican Harlem. There I became fascinated by the difference between the politics of multiculturalism and actual life in diverse communities. I moved from there to rural Vermont, where I participated in old- American-style Town Meetings and other New England traditions. Seeking the kinds of adventure I read about in my favorite childhood books (Little House on the Prairie, A Wrinkle in Time), I found real-life adventure by living American culture in its many forms. As a teacher, I try to engage students in this ongoing adventure of discovery. I value the unique contributions of diverse students and help them to start from where they are by bringing their experience to the table, but I also encourage them to embrace the unfamiliar. Whether…
  • Production Photos
    • Sense & Sensibility
    • What Happened While Hero Was Dead
    • Sunrise Coven
    • The Wolves
    • The Story and the Teller
    • Hamlet: Fall of the Sparrow
    • Red Bike
    • SuperTrue
    • Macbeth
    • Comedy of Errors
    • American Medea
    • Harry and the Thief
    • Romeo and Juliet
    • The Metal Children
    • Rimers of Eldritch
    • As Long as Fear Can Turn to Wrath
    • Twelfth Night, or What You Will
    • Ruins
    • Golden Girlsby Louise Page, photos by Jon Crispin
  • Writing
  • December 14, 2015

    A Feminist Guide to Horror Movies, Part 7: New Beginnings

    Originally published by Ms. Magazine on October 27, 2015 Just when you thought it was safe to go back on the Internet around Halloween without being confronted with those pesky feminist analyses of every goth girl, riot grrrl and geek girl’s favorite genre—horror—SHE’S BACK with that darn Feminist Guide to Horror Movies. And this time,…

  • December 14, 2015

    Something is Afoot in DC

    Originally published by HowlRound on October 7, 2015 HowlRound readers and social media revolutionaries may remember an event that occurred in our nation’s capital in February 2014 that became quickly known as the Summit. Convened by Washington Post critic Peter Marks around the issue of gender inequity in theatre, a panel of metro-area artistic directors…

  • December 14, 2015

    Comedy of Errors

    by William Shakespeare Saratoga Shakespeare Company, 2015 photos by Madison Caan costumes by Joan Lawson        

  • December 14, 2015

    American Medea

    written and directed by Holly L. Derr Skidmore College, Fall 2014 sets by Garret Wilson lighting by Jared Klein costumes by Patricia Pawliczak  

  • October 7, 2015

    Advantageous: Feminist Science Fiction at Its Best

    This article was originally published by Ms. Magazine on July 8, 2015. A sighting of that rare bird called feminist science fiction is truly a thing to celebrate. It does exist, sometimes by accident (see Alien), and sometimes on purpose (see almost anything by Octavia Butler). With Advantageous, a film written by Jacqueline Kim and Jennifer Phang,…

  • October 7, 2015

    Beyond the Aristocratic Theater

     (This post was part of the blog salon curated by Jacqueline E. Lawton for the 2015 TCG National Conference: Game Change, originally published in June, 2015. The following questions informed the final plenary session, “Artistic Leadership: How We Change the Game.”) JACQUELINE LAWTON: What was the most game-changing production you’ve seen or created, and why? HOLLY L. DERR: The…

  • October 7, 2015

    Branden Jacobs-Jenkins’ An Octoroon

    Originally published by HowlRound on March 26, 2015 Dion Boucicault’s The Octoroon, first presented in New York in 1859, bears more than a striking resemblance to its better-known stage sister, George Aiken’s adaptation of Harriet Beecher Stowe’s Uncle Tom’s Cabin, which premiered in 1852. Both plays, in their attempts to create sympathy for slaves while also…

  • January 13, 2015

    Oh, THAT Play

    This is hilarious: Oh, THAT Play. via Oh, THAT Play.

  • September 10, 2014

    #Ferguson: They Who Have the Guns Have the Power

     Originally published by tcg on August 27, 2014 (Ed. Note: The following blog salon series will focus on how theatre artists are responding to Michael Brown’s death and the oppression, violence, and resistance happening in Ferguson, MO. This series grew out of a series of discussions between Oregon based theatre-makers Claudia Alick, Mica Cole and Massachusetts based theatre-maker Megan Sandberg-Zakian, and myself. If…

  • September 10, 2014

    Taking “Don’t Fuck It Up” to Heart

    Originally published by The Know Theatre of Cincinnati on July 17, 2014 In preparation for directing Sigrid Gilmer’s Harry & the Thief, I’m reading a book called Harriet Tubman: Myth, Memory, and History. In it, the author, Milton C. Sernott, traces the development of Harriet Tubman as American icon by examining primary sources, children’s books (there are…

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