Alumni

Playwright-Director Joe Salvatore to Speak on Verbatim Theater

Joe Salvatore
Joe Salvatore

Alumnus Joe Salvatore, a playwright, director and faculty member of the Program in Educational Theatre at New York University, will present “How Did We Get Here?: Using Verbatim Documentary Theatre to Make Sense of Our Contemporary Political Landscape” on Tuesday, March 20 from 4-5:30 p.m. in Old Chapel.

In 2017, Salvatore collaborated with economist Maria Guadalupe (INSEAD-France) to create “Her Opponent,” a re-staging of excerpts of the 2016 U. S. presidential debates with gender-reversed casting.

Following the success of that production and its subsequent Off Broadway run, Salvatore has created NYU-Steinhardt's Verbatim Performance Lab in the Steinhardt School of Culture, Education, and Human Development, to continue to produce live and mediated verbatim performances that challenge accepted political, cultural and social understandings, while embracing the philosophy that social change emerges from dialogue, not monologue.

Join Salvatore as he shares his experiences working on “Her Opponent” and recent lab projects including “The Lauer / Conway Flip” and “The Moore / Jones Challenge.”

Salvatore, who earned his master’s degree from UMass Amherst in dramaturgy and directing, teaches courses at NYU in ethnodrama, ethnoacting, new play development, applied theatre, and dramatic literature, and serves as the director of the Verbatim Performance Lab.

The Off-Broadway production of “Her Opponent” was nominated for an Off-Broadway Alliance Award for Best Unique Theatrical Experience and has been covered by the New York Times, the Guardian, Teen Vogue, The Hollywood Reporter, out.com, Breitbart, Rush Limbaugh, Fox News, MSNBC and ABC News, among others.

Salvatore’s academic publications include the chapter “Ethnodrama / Ethnotheatre” in Handbook of Arts-Based Research, edited by Patricia Leavy).

He has received NYU’s Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Faculty Award, NYU Steinhardt’s Teaching Excellence Award, and the NYU LGBTQ Student Center’s Dedication to Education Award.