I'm Madeline - a theater professor, director, writer, and scholar based in Santa Barbara, CA.

I earned my doctorate at the Universtity of California, Santa Barbara and have been teaching in higher education since 2017.

I’m passionate about storytelling, teaching, and the profound human connections found in the theater.

Madeline Fanton

Educator, Artist, Scholar

CV

  • 2024 Ph.D. Theater, Dance, and Performance Studies

    UC Santa Barbara

    Dissertation: Acts of Forgetting: World War I and Nationalism in Performance


    2018 M.A. Theatre History, California State University, Northridge (Honors)            

    Thesis: Performing Re-Imagined Memories: Signatories and the Centenary of the Easter Rising        

    2013 B.A. Drama, University of California, Irvine (Cum Laude)

  • Westmont College

    2025 Adjunct Professor

    Theatre History I (Spring 2025)


    2024 Visiting Assistant Professor

    Great Literature of the Stage (Fall 2024)

    Great Literature of the Stage: Race and Gender (Fall 2024) 


    2023 Artist-Scholar in Residence

    Great Literature of the Stage (Fall 2023)


    University of California, Santa Barbara

    2020-2024 Teaching Associate 

    Race, Gender, and Performance (Fall 2022)

    Introduction to Acting (Spring 2020, Summer 2020, Winter 2022, Summer 2022, Winter 2024)


    2019-2022 Teaching Assistant 

    Performance in Global Contexts: Europe (Winter 2023)

    Play Analysis (Winter 2021)

    Dance Appreciation (Winter 2020, Fall 2021)

    Performance in Global Contexts: Asia (Fall 2020, Summer 2021)

    Performance in Global Contexts: Africa and the Caribbean (Fall 2019)


    California State University, Northridge

    2017 Teaching Associate

    Actors and Acting (Winter 2017, Fall 2017)


  • CONFERENCE PARTICIPATION

    2024-2025 “Back into Civvies: The Soldier’s Return as Technology of Forgetting on the Broadway Stage, 1919-1924,” Publication Development Forum, American Theatre and Drama Society (October 11, 2024), MATC (March 2025)

    2020, 2021 “Memorial Misfire: Pershing Park as Failed Performative,” In Memorium Working Group, American Society for Theatre Research (November 2020 and November 2021)

    2017, 2018 “Now that I’m dead, there’ll be changes”: Death as Resistance in The Remains of Maisie Duggan, Rituals of the Dead: Extraordinary Acts of Embodiment Working Group, American Society for Theatre Research (November 16-19, 2017) and CSUNPosium Student Conference (April 7, 2018)

    2017 “Paddy on Stage: Whiteface and the Making of Irish Whiteness in the Gilded Age” Midwest Popular Culture Association (October 18-22, 2017)

    INVITED WORKSHOPS and LECTURES

    2025 “From ABD to the Rest of Your Life,” Department of Theater, UC Santa Barbara


    2020 “Developing a Strong Thesis” and “Writing about Performance,” Department of Theater, University of California, Santa Barbara (November 2020)

    2018 “Contemporary Irish Drama: Enda Walsh’s The Walworth Farce,” Department of Theater, California State University, Northridge (February 2018)


    2017 “How to Find Great Contemporary Plays,” Department of Theater, California State University, Northridge (September 15, 2017)

  • 2024 Interdisciplinary Play Reading Series:

    Ada and the Engine by Lauren Gunderson 

    The Thanksgiving Play by Larissa Fasthorse, Director (Westmont College)

    2024 Student Showcase: Scenes from Proof by David Auburn, Director (UC Santa Barbara)

    2023 Poor Clare by Chiara Atik, Director (Westmont College)

    2023 Student Showcase: Scenes from Becky Shaw by Gina Gionfriddo, Director (UC Santa Barbara)

    2022 Student Showcase: Scenes from Proof by David Auburn, Director (UC Santa Barbara)

    2022 Romeo and Juliet, Education Director (Naked Shakes)

    2020 Immortal Longings, Education Director (Naked Shakes)

    2019The Winter’s Tale, Assistant Director (Naked Shakes)