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Sue Hamilton Ed.D., is a 2025 graduate of the Ed.D. program in Educational and Professional Practice at Antioch University.

Dissertation Committee:

Richard Kahn, Ph.D., Committee Chair

Emiliano Gonzalez, Ph.D., Committee Member

Albert Erdynast, D.B.A., Ph.D., Committee Member

Keywords

Queer theatre, social justice theatre, queer theory, feminist theory, storytelling, Performers, social justice, gender, gender performativity, gender expression, nonbinary, Transgender, lesbian, gay, bisexual, LGBTQ+, autoethnography, organic gender theatre theory

Document Type

Dissertation

Publication Date

2025

Abstract

This study uses autoethnography to examine the role gender plays in Los Angeles social justice theatre storytelling. Chronicling my autoethnography as a queer, nonbinary artist and social justice theatre practitioner, I will examine gender through the context of my social justice theatre company, Artists Rise Up Los Angeles (ARULA), by analyzing selections of its original, politically focused, professional stage plays performed from 2017 to 2019, utilizing ARULA’s emerging themes of gender expression and inclusion. ARULA was born out of a determination to create original social justice theatre storytelling to understand and transform reality by bringing theatrical expression to the environment in which we were living, in response to the 2016 United States presidential election. The study itself deconstructs how complex issues of gendered storytelling and gender performativity by transgender and nonbinary individuals have been openly performed within ARULA and how the production of those gender stories aimed to create social change as a way to combat anti-gender ideology and anti-transgender liberation in modern culture. Through autoethnographic research, I include myself as research-participant-storyteller and use queer theory as a framework in which to discover how gender in theatre may allow for complex issues to apply toward cultural and social justice. This dissertation is available in open access at AURA (https://aura.antioch.edu) and OhioLINK ETD Center (https://etd.ohiolink.edu).

Comments

ORCID No. 0009-0006-0359-9962

Bio:

Dr. Sue Hamilton (they/them/theirs) is founder and producing artistic director for Artists Rise Up Los Angeles, a social justice theatre company. An international artist and for three decades, they have directed and produced numerous theatre productions as well as live shows for the Walt Disney Company and short films for ABC Television Discovers. Dr. Sue teaches acting at Sue Hamilton Studio in Los Angeles and around the world. In addition to a Doctorate in Education and Educational Practice, they also hold a Master of Arts in Education, Leadership and Change, and a Bachelor of Arts in Liberal Studies, all from Antioch University. Dr. Sue also has a degree in Acting, their very first love. Their dissertation, A New Normal: An Autoethnographic Analysis of Gender Complexities in Los Angeles Social Justice Theatre Storytelling uses autoethnography to examine the role gender plays in L.A. social justice theatre storytelling; it examines gender through the context of ARULA, by analyzing selections of its original, politically focused, professional stage plays performed from 2017-2019, utilizing ARULA’s emerging themes of gender expression and inclusion. Their book, Have Fun Or Quit: Letters to My Acting Students, has become a sought-after portable pep-talk for actors who seek self-awareness and ongoing joy in their work. Dr. Sue Hamilton is an avid traveler, and lives in Long Beach, CA, and Hawaii, with their wife, adult kid, and two small hounds.

Links:

https://artistsriseupla.com

https://suehamiltonstudio.com

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