kt shorb

Title: Assistant Professor of Theatre
Degrees: B.M., Oberlin Conservatory; M.A., Ph.D, University of Texas

Email: kshorb@allegheny.edu
Phone: 814-332-2308
Office Location: VCCA 307

Spring 2022 Office HoursTuesday, Wednesday & Thursday 11:00am-1:00pm

kt shorb (they/them) is the producing artistic director of the devised theatre troupe that centers queer people of color, Generic Ensemble Company. They hold a BM in Music Composition from Oberlin Conservatory, an MA in Media Studies from the University of Texas at Austin and a PhD in Performance as Public Practice (Theatre), also from UT-Austin. Additional training includes acting and devising with the SITI Company and intimacy direction with Theatrical Intimacy in Education.

kt’s theatre directing focuses on ensemble-devised theatre based on canonical texts and new plays created in collaboration. Theatre directing credits include The Future of Ismael, black girl love: an adaptation project, The Women of ____ (a song, not song), Carmen, 893 | Yakuza, Scheherazade, The Mikado: Reclaimed and Robin Hood: An Elegy. Opera directorial work includes directing fellowships for Wolf Trap Opera and Chicago Summer Opera. kt has acted in many venues including: Victory Gardens Theater, the Electric Lodge, the VORTEX, the Off Center and Mary Moody Northen Theatre.

kt’s scholarship is rooted in critical race studies, queer studies, performance studies, and creative practice-as-research. It examines how queer people of color theatre artists enact heroic and spectacular moments that defy common-sense notions of physics. Their most recent project explored how artists and audiences create moments of time travel through performance. Their current research investigates rehearsal room practices that center queer people of color and instances where communities of color create “something from nothing.” They have taught at St. Edward’s University, UT Austin, and Southwestern University.

kt is currently the Vice President for the Consortium of Asian American Theaters & Artists, the only national service organization for theatre artists of the Asian and Pacific Islander diaspora.