STRAUSS

Scholar / Artist Bio

​

Skye is currently a doctoral candidate in the Interdisciplinary PhD in Theatre and Drama at Northwestern University.

Her research explores the connection between practice and theory, examining how the material world tells stories. Her dissertation uses "thing theory" and performing object scholarship to explore how design and its attendant objects participate in the collective creation process.  She argues that they serve as valuable sources of inspiration and catalysts for artistic growth and change.  For the companies she studies, backstage play fosters onstage moments that provide intense emotional and affective experiences for the audience. 

Prior to joining the Interdisciplinary PhD in Theatre and Drama at Northwestern, Skye worked as a professional costume designer and technician in Chicago.  Since graduate school, her creative work as a maker has shifted from costuming to puppetry. She is also a decade-long "circus amateur" in solo and duo static trapeze (remember that the etymological origin of the word is "to love!")

​

Of course, her creative work now includes writing!  She has shared her work in multiple panels at ATHE and participated in the Puppetry and Material Performance working group at ASTR. She has published a performance review in Puppetry International, a book review in Theatre Topics, and has an chapter in Theatre Artisans and Their Craft: The Allied Arts Fields from Focal Press. 

Skye Strauss earned her B.A. in Theatre with University Honors and Honors in Theatre at the University of Alabama at Birmingham and her M.A. in Theatre and Performance Studies from Queen’s University Belfast (Northern Ireland) as a Rotary Scholar.

​

When she is not on campus, she can be found building magical things or hanging upside down at the circus.

© 2023 Adapted from the Design Template by Thomas Rider. Proudly created with Wix.com