Wanda Strukus

Wanda Strukus joined the Conservatory in 2014 and is an associate professor of theater. She is a multi-disciplinary artist whose practice and teaching incorporate theater, dance, puppetry, and sound, with a focus on ensemble building and collaboratively created performance.

Her areas of teaching specialization include movement, acting, Viewpoints, composition, and site-specific performance. She has taught, directed, and choreographed for Northeastern University, Marlboro College, UMass Lowell, Boston College, Clark University, and Stonehill College. She was the founding director of the Bachelor of Fine Arts program in contemporary theater at the Conservatory from 2014 to 2017.

Strukus holds a Ph.D. from Tufts University, where her research and practice centered on puppetry and masked performance, an M.A. in theater (playwriting focus) from the University of Arizona, and a B.A. in film studies from Wesleyan University. Her performance projects have appeared in theaters, galleries, parks, and abandoned buildings throughout New England, and she has collaborated with Theatre KAPOW, the Revolving Museum, the Yellow Springs Theater Company, Shakespeare in the Valley, Artists for World Peace, Another Country, Chamber Theatre Productions, Salem Theater Company, Babes with Blades, Chicago Women’s Theatre Alliance, and others. As a cofounder of Two Roads Performance Projects, she coproduced and curated the award-winning site-specific dance festival Dance in the Fells, and created community-engaged works across a wide range of media.

She is an alumna of the Jacob’s Pillow Choreographer/Director Lab, a recipient of a Green Street Studios Emerging Artist Award, and has served on the Medford Arts Council. She was a longtime dancer and collaborator with Daniel McCusker Dance Projects and Brian Crabtree/Crabtree Carabetta Collective, and a dancer/puppeteer with Penny Benson. Her current work focuses on immersive sound installations, which she has created for Sound on Mystic and the Umbrella Art Center Art Ramble.