Home > Faculty & Staff : Prof Megan Lewis
Megan Lewis
Department Affiliations
Narrative
• Multidisciplinary educator with a passion for inspiring intellectual curiosity and advocating for the performing arts as a powerful force for social change • African film, theatre & performance scholar concerned with the staging of national identity, gender, and race in a variety of performance media---from monuments and public pageants to traditional staged texts to documentary and narrative film • Teaching passions: African film, politics of performance, non-Western performance traditions, genderplay
Specialties
- Theatrical and public performances of race, gender and nation in South Africa
- African film & cinema
- Video production, scriptwriting, voiceovers, digital cinematography & digital editing
Educational Background
- Ph.D.: Theatre Arts, Univeristy of Minnesota, Minneapolis, MN, 2001.
- M.A.: Theatre, Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, MD, 1994.
- B.A.: English Literature, Kenyon College, Gambier, OH, 1991.
- Certificate: Digital Filmmaking, New York Film Academy, New York, NY, 2003.
Publications
- Lewis, Megan. "Activist Theatre Meets Activist Film: Michael Kelly’s Operation Lysistrata (2006) and John Walter’s Theater of War (2008)." Forthcoming (2010)
- Lewis, Megan. "Trekking through the Laager: Peter Van Heerden’s Performance Art in Democratic South Africa. (Forthcoming)." ASTR 2009
- Lewis, Megan. "Coming Out in Grahamstown (Forthcoming)." Theatre Journal (2009-2010)
- Lewis, Megan. "(Un)Patriotic Acts of an Imagined Community: The 2008 Klein Karoo Nasionale Kunstefees." Theatre Journal 60:4 (Dec 2008): 654-659. Link Download
- Lewis, Megan. "Operation Lysistrata: Inspiring partnership between two activist forms - theatre and documentary film." Film Review (3 Nov. 2008): Link
- Lewis, Megan. "Past, Present and Future: A Tense South Africa Performs.." Performing Arts Journal 30:2 (May 2008): 93-101. Link Download
- Lewis, Megan. "Review of 25th anniversary Grahamstown Festival." Theatre Journal 52:2 (May 2000): 280-283. Link Download
- Lewis, Megan. "“De/Re-Constructing Borders: Afrikaner Language, Mythology and Nostalgia in the New South Africa’s Drama.”." Text & Performance March (1998): Download
- Lewis, Megan. "Review of 1997 Grahamstown Festival." Theatre Journal 50:1 (March 1998): 105-107. Link Download
Research Activities
- Performing In/Outside the Laager: Afrikaner/White Settler Performance in Theatre & Public Life: Current
- Africa in Film/Film in Africa: Current
- Staging the Afrikaner in South African Theatrical & Public Life: 1994 - 2001
- Cross-dressing Women in Siglo de Oro Spanish Comedias: 1992 - 1994
Creative Activities
- Documentary Videographer: The Gilgamesh Project, Spring 2010
- Director/Filmmaker: The Vagina Monologues, MPIRG, 2009
- Documentary Filmmaker: theatre e3, 2005 - Present
- Board Member: Theatre Novi Most, http://www.theatrenovimost.org
- WAT-U-SI: Short film, 2003
- Sacred Mirrors: Short film, 2003
Professional Activities
- Virgo Visions: President of video production and creative communications services company , 2003 - Present
- Saatchi & Saatchi: Senior Copywriter & Video Producer , 2001 - 2004
- State of Minnesota: Public Relations , 1999 - 2001
Awards
- Course Transformation Program Grant, CLA-OIT, 2009 - 2010
- International Travel Grant, Summer 2009
- The Institute for Global Studies Faculty Travel Grant, University of Minnesota , MN, 2007 - 2008
Courses Taught
- TH1101: Introduction to Theatre
- TH1102 Drama & the Media
- TH3171-2 Engaging Theatre History
- TH4177 Dramatic Literature
- TH8111: Theatre History - Ancient Origins
- OLLI: Africa in Film/Film in Africa
Alternative Output Formats