Louise Smith
Associate Professor of Theatre

B.A., Antioch College; M.A., Antioch University.

About

Louise is an actor, writer, director and teacher, whose solo work has been presented nationally and internationally. She has collaborated and appeared in works by Ping Chong since 1980; has been a member of Otrabanda Company since 1977; has appeared in New York in works by Julie Taymor, Anne Bogart, Liz Swados, Meredith Monk, and The Talking Band. She played the lead role in Working Girls, a film by Lizzie Borden.

Her regional Theatre credits include Milwaukee Rep, Portland Stage, Seattle Group Theatre, Trinity Rep, and Manhattan Theatre Club. She received a 1990 Bessie Award for her work in Ping Chong’s Brightness, and grants for her own work from NYSCA, Franklin Furnace, and Art Matters. She was a 1992 Jerome Fellow playwright-in-residence at the Minneapolis Playwright’s Center and is a 1995 recipient of a NEA collaborative artists fellowship with Ping Chong. She has taught in workshops and residencies at Lafayette, Carleton, Montclair State College, and NYU Experimental Theatre Wing.

Louise has remained an active professional while teaching at Antioch. She continues to work in Minneapolis and New York theater communities. In 2003 she won an Obie Award for her work with the Talking Band, and toured with Meredith Monk in her collaborative work with Ann Hamilton, Mercy . She has also written three full-length original musicals for the local youth theater YS Kids Playhouse which performs every summer in the Antioch Amphitheater.

Louise is interested in the role of theatre in the community, and she has worked with Appalshop and Antioch to produce large, community-based productions. More recently, she has begun to integrate her interest in psychology and counseling with her love of the theatre by pursuing a Masters degree and licensure as a community counselor. Louise sees theatre as a tool of transformation, for the individual and for society.

Read Louise Smith's profile in the Antiochian's Community Profiles section.