Donna Wilshire
Member of Actors' Equity, AFTRA, AGVA ( at one time or another)
ONE-WOMAN
SHOWS (Playwright - Actress -
Director)
"The
Goddess and Her Myths" Now called: "Old Wise Tales"
(Selected from complete list:)
Manhattan
Theatre Source (One-Woman Show,
New York City, September 11-12, 2000)
Women
Playwrights Festival (St.
ClementÕs Church, West 46th St., New York City, April 1999)
American
Museum of Natural History (New
York City, March 1997)
New York
Open Center (Manhattan, 1998,
1996, 1991)
Princeton
Theological Seminary (Conference of Society for Values in Higher Ed., March
1997)
University
College (Dept. of Archaeology, Dublin, Ireland, September 1989)
Colorado
College (Colorado Springs, CO,
Spring 1990)
University
of Oregon (Center for Humanities,
1990, 1999)
Montreal,
Strathearn Theater (October 1995)
Hartford
Seminary (Hartford, CT 1990)
Elizabethtown
College (Dept. of Religion, Elizabethtown, PA 1995)
Bucknell
University (Lewisburg, PA 1990)
Mary
Washington College (Fredricksburg, VA 1989)
Calif.
Institute for Integral Studies (San Francisco 1989)
Unitarian
Universalist Church (Central Park West,
Manhattan, 1993)
Other
UUs (Morristown, NJ; Plainfield, NJ; Phila., PA 1998, 1997, 1987)
Rosemont College (Philadelphia, PA 1991)
Oberlin College (Ohio, 1986)
Jamestown College (Jamestown, NY 1988)
York College (NYC)
Le
Moyne College (Syracuse, NY)
Phoenix Art Gallery, (Manhattan)
Rutgers
University (New Brunswick, NJ)
Dougless College (New Brunswick)
Princeton
University (1988)
Ceres Art Gallery
(Manhattan)
Esalen East (Sunapee, New Hampshire)
Drew University (Madison, NJ)
"Molly Bloom"
Equity
Library Theatre (Lincoln Center,
NYC)
Rider
College (Trenton, New Jersey)
Fairleigh
Dickinson Univ. (Teaneck, NJ)
Princeton
University
Rutgers
University
Douglass
College
PLAYWRIGHT
Ð DIRECTOR
"Lysistrata"
(adaptation) -- Rider College (Trenton, NJ)
"Everyman" (adaptation) -- Rider College
Midwestern Synod of Presbyterian Church
Whitworth College (Spokane, WA)
Hanover College (Hanover,
IN)
1st Presbyterian Church
(Indianapolis)
1st Presbyterian Church
(South Bend, IN)
PLAYWRIGHT
"Daughters of
Liberty" -- Produced by Rutgers University (on New Brunswick and Newark
campuses)
DIRECTOR (selected:)
"Arsenic and Old Lace" -- Rider
College (Trenton, NJ)
"The Bald
Soprano" -- Indiana University--Herron School of
Art (Indianapolis, IN)
"Waiting
for Godot" --
Christian Theological Seminary
(Indianapolis, IN)
"The Importance of Being
Earnest" -- Encounter Theatre (Indianapolis, IN)
OTHER
Professional ACTING - SINGING CREDITS (selected:)
Blanche, "A Streetcar Named Desire" -- Bucks County Playhouse, New Hope, PA
Antonia (Quixote's niece), "Man of La Mancha" -- Bucks County Playhouse
First
Masked Woman, Van Itallie's "Adaptation/Next" -- Bucks
County Playhouse
Ann, "All
My Sons" -- Purdue Professional Theatre, West
Lafayette, IN
Birdie, "The Little Foxes" -- Purdue
Professional Theatre, West Lafayette, IN
Doctor, "What Have You Done For Me Lately?" -- Guest
Artist, Rutgers University
Nurse,
"Romeo and Juliet"
-- Guest Artist, Rutgers University
Leonore Fiske, "Ladies in Retirement" -- Guest Artist, Rutgers University
Sonia
Tolstoy, "The Tolstoys" -- Guest Artist, Colorado
College, Colorado Springs, CO
Female
Lead, "The Chairs"
-- Various places for one year, including: St. Peter's Gate, Manhattan;
Bucks County Playhouse,
New Hope, PA; McCarter Theatre, Princeton, NJ
George
Street Playhouse, New Brunswick, NJ
TELEVISION
Supporting roles on "All My
Children" and "One
Life to Live"
RADIO
Host, two-hour daily morning talk-interview show, WXLW Radio,
Indianapolis
Interviewer, two-hour show, WCTC Radio, New Brunswick, NJ
TEACHING
EXPERIENCE (selected:)
Team-taught course, "Goddess of Prehistory" with archaeologist
Marija Gimbutas at
Colorado
College, Colorado Springs, CO
Artist-Scholar in residence:
Theatre and WomenÕs Studies Depts. -- Bucknell University, Lewisburg, PA
Visiting Lecturer, Masters Program on Biodiversity and Andean Oral
Tradition, Lima, Peru
Visiting Lecturer, Dept. of Philosophy, Rutgers University: Dualisms, Oral Tradition
Visiting Lecturer, Oral Tradition (in History of English Language),
Bucks County College, PA
Instructor, Director of Acting Training, Purdue University, West
Lafayette, Indiana
Instructor, Living Theatre Course, Douglass College of Rutgers
University, New Brunswick
Instructor, Theatre History, Directing, and Acting, Rider College,
Trenton, NJ
Instructor, Modern Drama on Stage and Film, Purdue University,
Indianapolis, Indiana
Instructor, Humanities and Art Appreciation--Ancient to Contemporary
Times,
at
Indiana University--Herron School of Art, Indianapolis, Indiana
Lecturer, "So What's so Great About Theatre?" Herron Museum of Art, Indianapolis,
Indiana
Master Acting Class, Fairleigh Dickinson University, Teaneck, NJ
Artist-in-Residence: Jamestown College, Jamestown, NY
EDUCATION
AND TRAINING (selected:)
University of New Mexico, BFA in Theatre, Albuquerque, NM
Teacher training, Hunter College, NYC
Comparative Literature, Graduate School of Hunter College, NYC
Playwrighting, Mason Gross Graduate School of the Arts, Rutgers
University
Studied MIME with Jacques Lecoq, Paris, France
Grotowski's Actors' Laboratory Theatre, Wroclaw, Poland
Studied
acting with Uta Hagen, Herbert Berghof, William Hickey, Aaron Frankel at HB
Studio, NYC
Acting training with Carol Fox Prescott, NYC
OTHER
CAREER-RELATED EXPERIENCES
Director-Producer, Encounter Theatre, Indianapolis, IN
Artistic Director, Theatre Project sponsored by
Community-Action-Against-Poverty, Indpls.
COMMUNITY
SERVICE
Elected, Member of Board of Education, East Brunswick, NJ -- served
three years
Appointed, Mayor's Task Force for Arts in the Community, Plainfield, NJ
Appointed, Commission for the Arts, Plainfield, NJ
PUBLICATIONS
BOOKS
VIRGIN MOTHER CRONE:
Myths & Mysteries of the Triple Goddess
A reconstruction of the pre-Greek religion of
threefold Goddess Hera
whose mate was Herakles not Zeus . A matristic ontology-epistemology.
(Rochester, Vt:
Inner Traditions, 1994) 100
illus. 312 pages
THE VIRGIN'S CHILD DIES AND
IS BORN AGAIN! ALELOO!
The Myth that Created Human Nature
Sequel to VIRGIN MOTHER CRONE.
Collection of myths about the eternal
cycle of Birth-Death-Rebirth that show the reversal of values that
resulted
when matristic societal structures and values were changed to
patriarchal ones.
(forthcoming from Inner Traditions)
AUDIOCASSETTE
VIRGIN MOTHER CRONE:
Invoking the Triple Goddess
Donna performs the three myths that are published in her book.
Original music -- 90 minutes
ARTICLES
and ACADEMIC PAPERS (selected:)
ÒTelling the
Old, Old Story--Text Tradition vs. the Oral TraditionÓ
Paper delivered at Society for Advancement of
American Philosophy, Univ. of Oregon
"The
Uses of Myth, Image, and the Female Body in Re-Visioning Knowledge" in
GENDER/BODY/KNOWLEDGE: Feminist Reconstructions
of
Being and Knowing (Rutgers University Press, 1989)
"The Pregnant
Goddess: A Model for Our Basic
Humanity"
Paper delivered at Brock
University, Ontario, Canada
"Tracing the Motherlines -- Remembering the Future: A World Safe for
Women & Children," in
Voices of Women, Vol 2. No 3,
Summer 1994, 4-9
"Gender Stereotypes and Spatial Archetypes," co-authored with Bruce Wilshire
Anima--Journal of Human Experience, May 1989
ÒTheatre and The Pregnant Goddess," co-authored with Bruce Wilshire
Performing Arts Journal, June 1989
"Telling a Creation Story to Free the Imagination," Creation Spirituality
Magazine, Sept. 1989
"ReMything Genesis--Goddess as Creator: or
Looking With Fresh Eyes at
What's Sacred," Fellowship in Prayer, June 1990
"National Women's Studies Responds to
Racism," New Directions for
Women, 1984
"Women Arrive on Top," Review of Annapurna: A Woman's Place,
New Directions for Women,
Jan. 1981
Interview with philosopher Alison Jaggar, PhD, New Directions for
Women, March 1985
"Theatre of the Marvelous," Journal of Aesthetics & Art Criticism, Summer 1977
"The Theatre of Robert
Wilson," Philosophy &
Social Criticism, V-1, 1978, 49-66
"Science and the Dramatic
Imagination," Performing Arts
Review, IV, 3-4, 1973
"Goals for Educational
Theatre Activities," Dramatics
Magazine, XLI, 6, 1970
WORKSHOPS facilitated (selected):
NEW YORK OPEN CENTER, NYC (3 years)
Performances, workshops, lectures
Susun WeedÕs WISE WOMAN CENTER, Woodstock, NY
(four years)
"Blood
of the Ancients," co-directed with
Susun Weed (4-days -- Labor Day weekend)
"Crone's Crowning" (4 days)
"Maiden, Mother, Crone" (4 days)
"Summer Solstice Celebration" (4 days)
WOMENÕS RITES CENTER, Manhattan (numerous occasions)
WOMANGATHERING
Ð WomenÕs 3-Week Summer Camp (three years)
Performances, lectures, workshops
HEART-OF-THE-GODDESS Center, Leopard, PA (2
years)
Performance and 3-day workshop on
Goddess-as-Crone
Performance and 3-day workshop on Goddess-as-Seed
VOICES OF WOMEN, rural womenÕs camp in Maryland (3 years)
Performances, various workshops
CENTER FOR SYMBOLIC
STUDIES -- New Paltz, NY
Performance
OTHERS:
Montreal Women Artists' Consortium -- Canada
Women's Summer Solstice Camp -- (week) in redwood
forest of northern California
Interweave Center for Wholistic Living (performances,
workshops) -- Summit, NJ
Various Church retreatsÑPagan, Unitarian, Episcopalian