LYNN DEBOECK portrait
  • Adjunct Instructor , Gender Studies
  • Associate Professor (Clinical), Gender Studies
  • Associate Professor (Clinical), Theatre
  • Adjunct Instructor, Honors College

Research Statement

My research is focused on three main areas: maternal subjectivity in drama, movement theory and directing approaches.  As a scholar with a ten-year directing record, I am pragmatic about all my research interests and endeavor to make sure that they support my practice of theatre making.  For example, looking at maternal subjectivity has fueled my feminist-driven desires to give a theatrical voice to those marginalized and therefore has affected my play selection and directing approaches.  Theatre’s enormous capacity to tell the untold stories drives me to pursue scholarship about the varied histories of subjects as well as the history of performance itself in order to direct actors toward revelatory performances.  Maternity in particular involves a shifting of subjectivity that provides a model for how actors must move within the characters they adopt.  In addition, while my early theatre training has steeped me in more psychological theories of acting, I find movement is often a more productive catalyst in the rehearsal space and so delving into the work of theorists such as Bogart, Laban and Chekhov helps to create more options for me as a director.

Creative Research

  • I directed a production of Euripedes' "Helen" for the Classical Greek Theatre Festival's 50th Anniversary production. Performance, completed 09/2021.
  • “Lynchpin,” (Lynn Deboeck- playwright and director), 10th Annual Edward Lewis Festival, Salt Lake City Main Library Performance, completed 02/10/2019.
  • I wrote and directed a play originally titled, "The Lynchpin Life," which is now just called "Lynchpin" about the life of Ida B. Wells. It is now a staple in the curriculum of a history of journalism course in Communications. Commission, in progress 10/29/2018.
  • “A Girl Walks into a Bar” (role: Jan) by Mary Clohan at the Mid-America Theatre Conference, Playwriting Symposium, 2017. Performance, completed 03/15/2017.
  • “The Hardest Thing” (role: Mary) by Taran Hayes at the Mid-America Theatre Conference, Playwriting Symposium, 2017. Performance, completed 03/15/2017.
  • Directed "Seven Homeless Mammoths Wander New England" by Madeleine George at Ottawa University in February, 2016. Performance, completed 02/21/2016.

Presentations

  • "Marginalized Maternity: Sacrifice, Service and the Privilege of Being a Mother" at Association for Theatre in Higher Education annual Conference. Conference Paper, Presented, 07/2022.
  • "Repairing Rehearsal: Aiming for Fewer Mis-steps & Back-steps" at the Association for Theatre in Higher Education annual Conference. Presentation, Presented, 07/2022.
  • “The Show Must Go On?” Working Group, American Society for Theatre Research (ASTR), October 2021. *Virtual Panel. Presentation, Presented, 10/16/2021.
  • “Empowerment Committee Survey Presentation,” a part of “ASTR Field Conversation: What Happens to Theatre and Performance Departments Post-Covid?,” American Society for Theatre Research (ASTR), November, 2020 *Virtual Conference. Presentation, Presented, 11/12/2020.
  • “Teaching with Liveness Grant Project,” Institutional Collaboration Roundtable. Association for Theatre in Higher Education (ATHE), August, 2020. *Virtual Conference. Presentation, Presented, 08/02/2020.
  • “Igniting the Internal Flame: Powering up Students,” Association for Theatre in Higher Education (ATHE), July, 2020. *Virtual Conference. Conference Paper, Presented, 07/23/2020.
  • “Telling Your Story with Your Center,” Utah Theatre Association (UTA) DramaCon 2020 Conference, University of Utah. Other, Presented, 01/18/2020.
  • “Contingency Reserves for Adjuncts,” Adjunct Labor Field Conversation. American Society for Theatre Research (ASTR), November, 2019. Conference Paper, Presented, 11/09/2019.
  • "Who You Are is How You Move: Laban Movement Analysis"--workshop. Other, Presented, 01/18/2019.
  • “Pregnant Subjectivities,” Swollen: Ordinary to Extraordinary Pregnancy and Maternity Working Group; American Society for Theatre Research (ASTR) Conference; November, 2017. Conference Paper, Refereed, Presented, 11/18/2018.
  • "Offering New Scripts to Combat Rape Culture Apathy". Conference Paper, Refereed, Presented, 08/04/2018.
  • "The Revolt of Mothering". Conference Paper, Refereed, Presented, 08/03/2018.
  • "The Tailspin of the Lecture--And Perhaps a Way to Pull Out". Conference Paper, Refereed, Presented, 03/17/2018.
  • "Consumed Vessels: A History of Pregnancy on Stage". Other, Presented, 03/17/2018.
  • We’ve Had a Virtual Problem Here-- A paper on the challenges one faces teaching theatre online. Conference Paper, Accepted, 03/17/2017.
  • “The Architecture of the Moment: Movement and Eliciting Silent Connection,” Association for Theatre in Higher Education (ATHE) Conference; Aug.,2016. Presentation, Presented, 08/06/2016.
  • “The Tricky Business of Gestational Conventions,” Women and Theatre Program (WTP) pre-conference; August, 2016. Conference Paper, Presented, 08/05/2016.
  • Directed a production of a play entitled, “Eat,” by Tabita Cercea as a part of the Mid-America Theatre Conference Playwriting Symposium, 2016. Other, Presented, 03/11/2016.

Languages

  • Spanish, basic.

Publications

  • Lynn Deboeck & Ed. William Boles (2022). Negotiating the Fifth Wall. Bloomsbury Methuen Drama. Published, 07/19/2022.
  • Lynn Deboeck & Eds. Jen Harrison, Holly Wells & Erica Dymond (2022). The Momboy: Maternal Tomboys on Stage. Lexington Books. Published, 07/19/2022.
  • “The Momboy: Maternal Tomboys on Stage,” Reclaiming the Tomboy: Posthumanism, Gender Representation, and Intersectionality Eds. Jen Harrison, Holly Wells & Erica Dymond. Lexington Books, Forthcoming (November 2021). Published, 11/01/2021.
  • “Feminist Resistance to the Coded-Male Auteur-Director,” Staging Feminist Futures Roundtable,” Frontiers: A Journal of Women’s Studies, Volume 41.2, Eds. Wanda Pillow, Cindy Cruz & Kimberly Jew. University of Nebraska Press, pp. 119-121, September 2020. Published, 09/01/2020.
  • Lynn Deboeck & Sarah Youssef (2020). Close Encounters of an Intimate Kind: Gender and Performance During COVID-19. [Website/Blog] Vol. 76, URL http://genderforum.org/. Published, 08/14/2020.
    http://genderforum.org/
  • “The Culinary Coding of Gender Construction: Simplicity Rhetoric in Cookbooks from the Little Blue Book Series,” antae: A Journal on the Interspaces of English Studies, Volume 7, No. 1 (June, 2020), 27-41. Published, 06/01/2020.
  • Drs. Miriam Chirico & Kelly Younger (2020). Lynn Deboeck: "Sweat by Lynn Nottage--Exercise" in "How to Teach a Play: 75 Exercises for the College Classroom". Vol. 1, Blooomsbury Methuen. Published, 01/01/2020.
  • Valerie Clayman Pye & Hilary Haft Bucs (2019). Lynn Deboeck: "The Tag-tic that Works" in "Objectives, Obstacles and Tactics in Practice: Perspectives on Activating the Actor". Vol. 1, Routledge. Published, 12/02/2019.
  • Dr. Arpita Ghosh (2019). Lynn Deboeck: “Staging Mothers: Toward a Fuller Maternal Representation” in "Lifting the Mantilla: Unveiling the Mystique of Motherhood". Authors Press. Published, 04/01/2019.
  • Linda Roche (2019). Lynn Deboeck: "Lilian Hellman" in "American Literature in Context". ABC-CLIO. Accepted, 01/01/2019.
  • Linda Roche (2019). Lynn Deboeck: "them" in "American Literature in Context". ABC-CLIO. Accepted, 01/01/2019.
  • Lynn Deboeck (2018). Turquoise - Review. (pp. 247-249). Vol. 70. Theatre Journal. Published, 06/15/2018.
  • Lynn Deboeck (2018). Sharon Pollock: First Woman of Canadian Theatre, Edited by Donna Coates. University of Calgary Press, 2015. (pp. 271-272). Vol. 70. Theatre Journal. Published, 06/15/2018.
  • “Performative Reviews and Phantom Audiences,” PARtake:The Journal of Performance as Research 1, Issue 1 (2016): University of Colorado at Boulder. Published, 10/19/2016.
    http://www.partakejournal.org/current-issue