Lisa Porter

Biography

LISA PORTER (MFA, Yale School of Drama) is a Professor of Theatre and Dance and has been the Head of Stage Management at UCSD since 2005. Professor Porter is a freelance stage manager working internationally and regionally in many diverse venues. Recent projects include The Continuum: Beyond the Killing Fields at the Victoria Arts Centre in Melbourne, Australia and three cities in Brazil. In June 2012, she will continue her collaboration with Singaporean director Ong Keng Sen and TheatreWorks Singapore as the production stage manager of the world premiere of Lear Dreaming at the Singapore Arts Festival.

Ms. Porter has toured extensively, both nationally and internationally, with productions by Robert Wilson, Mikhail Baryshnikov's White Oak Dance Project, Laurie Anderson, Anne Bogart, Richard Foreman, and David Gordon. On Broadway, she has worked on The Lion King and Les Miserables. She stage managed Bang On A Can's multimedia work The New Yorkers (directed by Barry Edelstein) at the Brooklyn Academy of Music and has collaborated on many productions with Singaporean Director Ong Keng Sen in Singapore, Japan, Australia and Europe. She stage managed Mark Wing-Davey's production of Henry V for the New York Shakespeare Festival in Central Park, as well as Off-Broadway productions at the Public Theatre and Playwrights Horizons with directors Tina Landau, David Warren, Richard Foreman, and Kenny Leon. She has many regional credits, including productions at the La Jolla Playhouse, Old Globe and Yale Repertory Theatre with directors Doug Hughes, Darko Tresnjak, Christopher Ashley, and John Rando. Ms. Porter has also worked as assistant director, unit production manager, and associate producer on three films by independent filmmaker Hal Hartley, including The Girl From Monday, which premiered at the Sundance Film Festival in 2005. She served as Managing Director of Mr. Hartley's production company, Possible Films, from 2002-2004.

In 1991, Ms. Porter received a Watson Fellowship, which allowed her to study theatre management at the Royal National Theatre in London and the Laterna Magika in Prague, and to work on the world premiere of Athol Fugard's Playland at the Market Theatre in Johannesburg. She was a visiting faculty member at the Yale School of Drama from 2002-2004.

Ms Porter's other research includes interdisciplinary collaboration in the performing arts. She is currently investigating Laurie Anderson's Moby Dick, Ong Keng Sen's Desdemona, and Hal Hartley's Soon and exploring collaboration in the context of interdisciplinary and cross cultural environments.