Brown University Welcomes Sophia Skiles, New Head Of Acting In Brown/Trinity Program

Brown University's Department of Theatre Arts & Performance Studies is has announced that Sophia Skiles has been named the Head of Acting in the Brown/Trinity Program.

The Brown/Trinity MFA Acting Program is dedicated to training total theater artists and collaborators who share a belief that the purpose of theater is to uplift and acknowledge the inherent multiplicity of the human experience. The 3-year program offers a unique focus on cross-disciplinary study and collaboration; in addition to acting, physical theater, and voice, students study playwriting, directing, and dramaturgy.

Skiles, who will join the Brown/Trinity program in Fall 2021 brings with her "a body of work where the question of the artist and the citizen is mirrored," she explains, "how can we liberate ourselves - our bodies and our imaginations in all our specificities - to co-create a community, a culture where we can all be fully human?" Skiles continues "The Brown/Trinity program is founded on critical consciousness, artistry, and community, I hope to advance and lean into that community and commitment to collective learning in preparation not to succeed in the field as it nominally exists, but to transform it."

Sophia Skiles is a NYC-based Asian-American actor and teacher. She has performed in work directed by Michael Kahn (Helen Hayes nomination for ensemble performance), May Adrales, Anne Bogart, Richard Foreman, Chay Yew, David Herskovits, and Mary Zimmerman with strong ties to Ma-Yi Theater and National Asian American Theater Company. She has over twenty years of experience teaching acting in a wide range of environments: with public school students throughout NYC, pre-college students at Northwestern University's National High School Institute, and high school seniors in Ulster County, NY. She has held teaching positions in undergraduate theater programs at Mount Holyoke College, SUNY Ulster and SUNY Purchase. Sophia is a dedicated community activist, having served on the Steering Committee of the OBIE-Award winning THAW (Theaters Against War) and currently is a Trustee of the New Paltz Central School District Board of Education. Sophia is a member of the 2016 ArtEquity National Facilitator training cohort.

Patricia Ybarra, Chair of the Department of Theatre Arts & Performance Studies welcomes Sophia Skiles saying "this is the ideal time for Sophia Skiles to join the faculty at Brown/Trinity. Her dedication to activism and her aesthetic range as seen in her body of work, along with her commitment to equity, diversity, and inclusion is critical in the current political and cultural climate."

Please Visit Sophia Skiles website for more information: https://www.sophiaskiles.com/

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