Maddie Williams, Associate Collaborator
Madison Mae Williams (she/her) is a dramaturg, director, and scholar based in the California Central Coast area. Born and raised on Cape Cod, she received her PhD in Theatre and Drama from UC San Diego, and BA concentrating in musical theatre, poetry, and Africana studies from Hampshire College. She is currently an Assistant Professor of Theatre History and Performance Studies at California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo. Maddie has worked with La Jolla Playhouse, the Old Globe, Berkeley Repertory Theatre, South Coast Repertory, Cygnet Theatre, Diversionary Theatre, Dartmouth College, the University of San Diego, the New Cosmopolitans, the Playwrights Realm, Chautauqua Theatre Company, and the Eugene O’Neill Theater Center, among other organizations. She is a proud member of the Literary Managers and Dramaturgs of the Americas and the Black Theatre Network.
What kind of plays are you excited to read?
I am passionate about theatre work that is accessible, radical, and increases visibility and representation for people of marginalized identities. I am especially drawn to works that center Black experiences and/or perspectives of color across genre and style. Some storytelling and genre elements that excite me include the following: narratives of extremes (horror, tragedy, violence); works that play with scale, from solo performances to epics; works with unusual pace, rhythm, temporality—plays that make you endure; subversion and reworking of drawing room and kitchen sink tropes; works in adaptation (classical, Shakespeare, Brecht, among others); narratives around food, eating, drinking, consumption; works that play with structure and form, multimedia/digital texts; musicals and/or plays with music.
Website
madisonmaewilliams.com, @maddiemaew on Instagram
How would you describe your process?
Whenever asked to describe what a dramaturg does, I often return to the following view—a good dramaturg is present to ask questions of their collaborators and of the text, and to help answer questions that arise throughout a creative process. As needed for each individual development process, I may serve as a sounding board, researcher, historian, theorist, and general second eye on a burgeoning new work. I find that my most fruitful collaborations with playwrights come with beginning with a spirit of mutual creative exchange, setting clear expectations and goals at the onset, maintaining consistent communication, and building shared trust.
Location/Time Zone
California Central Coast area (within driving distance for Los Angeles and the Bay Area), Pacific time zone
The Match communication preference
I prefer email and text communication with playwrights for day-to-day comms, regular Zoom or FaceTime calls are also great. If artists happen to be in California and have interest in connecting in person, that is also a possibility!