Erica Stevens Abbitt

Erica Stevens Abbitt - Professor of Theatre History, Nature of Theatre, Canadian Theatre History, and Theatre from the Twentieth Century to the Present Day

A native of Montreal, Erica Stevens Abbitt has worked as a theatre practitioner in Canada, France, Britain, New Zealand and the United States.  She studied acting at Mountview Theatre School in London, received a BA in Political Science from McGill, an MA in Theatre from California State University (Northridge) and a doctorate in critical studies from the School of Theater, Film and Television at UCLA. Before coming to Windsor, she taught at Pepperdine University in southern California.

Her performance credits include the BBC television series OPPENHEIMER, as well as stage roles in London, and Off-Broadway. She served as Assistant Director at the Mark Taper Forum in Los Angeles, and was Executive Director at Kentucky’s Playhouse in the Park. Her writing credits include plays for children, translations, the book for a musical on the life of Sojourner Truth (with composer Nyna Shannon Anderson) and SHELTER, a play based on her experience with the homeless in Manhattan.  For the University of Windsor, she directed staged readings of Jenny Erpenbeck's CATS HAVE NINE LIVES (co-sponsored by the Goethe Institute) and Naomi Wallace's A STATE OF INNOCENCE (for the Centre for Social Justice).

Prof. Stevens Abbitt is a long-standing member of the Women and Theatre Program for ATHE (Association for Theatre in Higher Education). Her research interests include girl culture, theatre pedagogy, theatre for social change and feminist theatre. Her articles have been published in THEATRE JOURNAL, THEATRE TOPICS, JOURNAL OF DRAMATIC THEORY AND CRITICISM,  PERFORMANCE RESEARCH, AMERICAN THEATRE MAGAZINE and SIGNS: JOURNAL OF WOMEN AND CULTURE.  In 2012, she was the recipient of the University of Windsor OPUS Faculty Award. Her book "The Theatre of Naomi Wallace: Embodied Dialogues" (a compilation of scholarship and resources on the political playwright co-edited with Scott T. Cummings) was published by Palgrave Macmillan in 2014. She recently served as Director of the Humanities Research Group.

Contact Information:
esabbitt@uwindsor.ca