VenuS Opal Reese Assistant Professor Office: JO 4.634 Phone:  972-883-2013 Email:  opal@utdallas.edu

Areas of Specialization:
Movement Theatre, solo performance, playwriting, directing, Spoken Word, Performative scholarship, social construction/new historicism, and Hip-Hop Popular culture.

Education: 
2002 Ph.D., Directing and Theory and Criticism, Stanford University, Stanford, CA.
2001 MA, Drama, Stanford University, Stanford, CA.
1997 M.F.A., Acting and Movement Theatre, The Ohio State University, Columbus, OH.
1994 B.F.A. Theatre (Cum Laude), Adelphi University, Long Island, NY.

PUBLICATIONS
2004 Contributor, Harvard University Project/Oxford University Press, 2004 African American Biography, Florence Mills.

02/01 Author, Callboard Magazine, San Francisco, CA. A New American Art Form--in the Melding: Hip-Hop Theatre.

PRODUCTIONS
2003 Playwright, 14th Annual National Black Theatre Festival, Winston-Salem, NC. "Redemption: a Collision of History and Memory in Four Breaths."
2003 Playwright/Director/Performer, "The Hair Monologues," the Moore Theatre, Central District Forum for Arts and Ideas, Seattle, WA.
2002 Collaborator, Tydeus/Chorus, Will Power's "The Seven," PS122, Hip-Hop Theatre Festival, NY
2001 Playwright, "Redemption: A Collision of History and Memory in Four Breaths Bay Area Playwrights" Festival, San Francisco, CA
2000 Assistant Director, "Fences," TheatreWorks, Palo Alto, CA Director: Harry Justin Elam, Jr.
2000 Creator/Performer, "Sprit: A Promise of Flesh Transcended in Three Movements and Two Rests," AfroSolo, San Francisco, CA. This piece was cited in the Bay Guardian as one of the "GreatSolo Flights of 2000."

AWARDS AND HONORS
09-02 American Theatre Magazine, Hip-Hop Theatre, "The Seven"
2002 Critic Choice Awards, Best Ensemble, Best Score, and Best New Play," The Seven," San Francisco, CA.
2001 Bay Guardian "Great Solo Flights of 2000," San Francisco, CA.
2000-2001 Watts Artist-in Residence, Hip-Hop Culture Scholar, Yerba
Buena Center for the Arts, San Francisco, CA