Performance Studies: Because I Needed a Way To Better See and Be in this World

Abstract

This reflective essay re-creates two conversations that set my path as a performance studies scholar. The first takes place at the beginning of the last year of my undergraduate degree, when a professor directed me away from law school and toward a communication degree with a performance studies concentration. The second takes place the summer before I began graduate school as I struggled to figure out how to ask Kristin Langellier to be my thesis advisor. I end with a note to my undergraduate professor, thanking him for changing my path. Together, these interactions map my journey to performance.

Keywords:

• Personal narrative
• Performative writing
• Kristin Langellier
• Coming to performance
• Theatre

She would like to thank Stacy L. Holman Jones and the anonymous reviewers for their guidance on previous drafts of this essay.