Vanessa Marie Campagna

Associate Dean of Teaching, Learning, and Assessment
Associate Professor and Chair, Theatre

310 McMichael Academic 309-457-2332 Visit my website

Biography

Vanessa Marie Campagna holds a Ph.D. in theatre and performance studies from the University of Missouri-Columbia. At Monmouth, she coordinates the dramaturgy concentration within the theatre major, as well as the theatre education Major.

Campagna’s research centers on LGBT representation in American theatre and television, employing queer and feminist theories, and New Historicist methodology to explore the rhetorical purposes of dramatized and mediated representations.

Beyond the College, Campagna serves as senior co-chair of the Mid-America Theatre Conference’s Playwriting Symposium. An accomplished director, singer, dancer and actor, she has garnered professional credits throughout the Midwest.

Completing an undergraduate degree at a liberal arts institution motivated Campagna to teach within that same academic context. She couldn’t be happier to be serving the students of Monmouth!  

Interests

LGBT Theatre and Drama
Theatre for Social Change
Musical Theatre
19th Century Continental European Theatre and Drama
Queer Theory
Feminist Theory
Television Studies
Disability Studies 

Education

Ph.D. Theatre and Performance Studies

Graduate Minor: College Teaching

University of Missouri-Columbia

M.A. Theatre

Theatre History & Dramaturgy concentration

University of Missouri-Kansas City

B.A. Theatre

Acting and Vocal Music Performance concentrations

University of St. Mary 

Courses Taught

THEA 497: Internship in Theatre Arts

THEA 490: Independent Study

THEA 377: Principles of Directing

THEA 372: Career Management

THEA 370: Voice and Movement

THEA 278: Theatre Collaboration

THEA 275: Script Analysis and Dramatic Literature

THEA 273: Modern Theatre History

THEA 272: Classical Theatre History

THEA 171: Introduction to Theatre

THEA 119: Theatre Practicum

INTG 406: Theatre and Social Change

INTG 202: World Drama

INTG 101: Introduction to Liberal Arts

Selected Work

PUBLICATIONS

“Gesturing Toward Queer Utopia: the Children’s World of Paula Vogel’s And Baby Makes Seven.” Journal of Dramatic Theory and Criticism, 31, no. 3 (2017), 107-126.

“Gay is the New Cool: Mass Media Images of Gay America,” LGBT Americans at Risk: Problems and Solutions, ed. Chuck Stewart. Praeger, 2017.

Tony Kushner’s Angels in America: Histories, Futures, and Gay Lives.” Journal of American Drama and Theatre, 26, no. 3 (2014)

“Hope and Repair.” Book Review. Popular Culture Studies Journal, Spring 2014.

“Missouri.” In Proud Heritage: People, Issues, and Documents of the LGBT Experience, 3rd edition, vol. 3, ed. Chuck Stewart. Praeger, 2015.

CONFERENCE PRESENTATIONS

Since those evenings of my childhood … I have had the ‘red and gold’ sickness. I have never recovered. Each curtain going up … the two voids of darkness and light were joined, separated only by the footlights … After all this time, the theatre, where I work now, has not lost its prestige. I respect it. It intimidates and fascinates me … I live in it …” 

- the journals of Jean Cocteau