Madeline B. Charne
West Philadelphia • 917-747-7256
Education
Yale School of Drama, New Haven, CT
Masters of Fine Arts in Dramaturgy with a concentration in Artistic Producing and Theater Management
Research concentrations in Disability and Theater and Community-Based Theater
Current DFA Candidate working on her dissertation prospectus
Swarthmore College, Swarthmore, PA
Bachelor of Arts with High Honors in Theater and English Literature, June 2014
GPA of 3.91; Phi Beta Kappa
Institute of Family Professionals, Philadelphia, PA
Trauma Awareness Practitioner Certification
Teaching and Youth Experience
Founder and Lead Educator, New Voices in Theater Program at Yale (Fall 2018- Spring 2020)
Initiated a playwriting workshop and mentorship program for 30 local New Haven high school students.
Developed a two-year curriculum for monthly master classes and a writing retreat for high school writers.
Lead workshops, classes, writing retreats, and virtual writing communities.
Systematized the program and secured five years of funding for future leader
Teaching Artist, 1812 Productions, Walnut Street Theatre, Wilma Theater, Theater Horizons, Lantern Theater Company, Long Wharf Theatre (Summer 2016-Present)
Teach a variety of workshops in playwriting, acting, improvisation, and sketch comedy at public, private, magnet, and charter schools.
Develop curriculum to match the learning needs and developmental standards of individual schools.
Curricula have included: playwriting for adults with autism; acting for students with developmental disabilities; viewpoints technique for a performing arts school; satire for intercity classrooms; playwriting from history and current events; and more.
Lead Instructor, Yale Young Global Scholars (Summer 2019)
Designed and taught seminars to groups of international high school students as a part of both the Literature, Philosophy, and Culture and Creative Art and Media sessions.
Seminars included: disability studies, contemporary feminism, camp aesthetics, and arts activism
Mentored groups of 20-30 student artists as they created capstone projects
Led large group discussions of high school students responding to lectures by Yale Professors of Philosophy, Literature, Dance, and Political Sciences.
Production Stage Manager, Dwight-Edgewood Project (Summer 2018)
Coordinated theater activities for eight middle school playwrights and early professionals over the course of a four-week intensive, designed around 52nd Street Project curricula.
Guided and mentored a middle school playwright over a weekend playwriting retreat.
Organized and ran technical rehearsals and performances of eight fully designed original plays, written by middle schoolers and acted, designed, and directed by Yale School of Drama students.
Teaching Artist, Dramaturg, Teaching Apprentice, Philadelphia Young Playwrights (Fall 2015- Summer 2017)
Progressed from assistant teacher to co-teacher and lead teacher in a variety of classrooms and course contexts, including magnet, charter, private, and neighborhood schools and full year, one semester, and single workshop courses on playwriting, devising, and playmaking.
Worked with individual young playwrights to develop their monologues and plays.
Mentored playwrights through the rehearsal and development process by working as a liaison between them and the directors.
Created connections between student playwrights and local theater companies, including serving as a dramaturg for a collaboration between PYP and Found Theatre Co.
Expanded the Middle School Monologue Festival to include development workshops for runner-ups as well as running workshops, revising days, and a fully staged festival for the competition winners.
Compiled a searchable, curated database of student work from the past 25 years.
Production Manager/Technical Director, Walnut Street Theatre Summer Camp (Summer 2016)
Organized a staff of counselors, interns, and assistants in the staging of existing work and the creation of original work by children aged 6-16 for both the black box theater and mainstage.
Ran all production meetings and technical rehearsals for all six productions.
Supervised a team of four interns and mentored them in areas of stage management and technical design.
Arts Activism and Community Engagement Experience
Accessibility Advisor, Yale Cabaret, New Haven, CT (2020-Present)
Gathered resources and crafted original language to create a document for best accessibility practices for presenting live and non-live works online at the Cab. This document serves as a resource for members of the Cabaret leadership and producing teams as they develop their work.
Hired and trained a team of four Accessibility Assistants who continue to work closely with individual producing teams to ensure the rehearsal and production process remains accessible for artists and audiences.
Co-Founder and Co-Coordinator, Disability Empowerment for YSD (DEFY), Yale School of Drama (2017-Present)
Created an affinity group that serves disabled artists at YSD. This group makes accessible spaces of community and support by and for disabled artists, while simultaneously advocating for the creation of more accessibility measures and produce the work of disabled artists.
Crafted external messaging related to the group. Communicated with faculty, staff, deans, and students around issues of accessibility, disability, and exclusion.
Working Member, Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion Working Group and Equity Diversity and Inclusion Symposium Committee, Yale School of Drama (2017-Present)
Facilitated full school (300+ people) discussions around issues related to EDI at the School of Drama.
Proposed changes to the curriculum, hiring practices, admittance practices, and financial aid practices to the deans. Saw many of the proposed changes through to completion, including working on both hiring and admittance committees that evaluated the diversity of incoming students and faculty.
Oversaw the use of $10k a year to bring in artists, scholars, and innovative administrators to speak to the student body as a part of the EDI Symposium series.
Community Partnership Fellow, Long Wharf Theatre (2017-2019)
Originated the role of Community Partnership Fellow through my work as dramaturg and facilitator on American Unicorn, an original play written and performed by recent refugees.
Created a series of storytelling workshops at the New Haven Free Public Library’s five branches in conversation with branch librarians.
Worked with organizations such as Connecticut Mental Health Center, Integrated Refugee and Immigrant Services, Youth2Youth, Tower One Tower East, and the New Haven Youth Commission to create original, ensemble-created performance pieces for the Long Wharf Main Stage. Facilitated storytelling and movement workshops, built connections between organizations, stitched together creative pieces and original writing into multiple scripts, and ran rehearsals.
Crafted a comprehensive guide to the playmaking practice Elizabeth Nearing, the Manager of Community Partnerships, and I developed to be passed along to future stewards of the project and to other Public Works National Partners.
Participant, Public Works Convening, The Public Theater (Summer 2018)
Articulated concepts of equity, inclusion, and access in conversation with 35 leaders in the field of community-based theater convened in New York City to ruminate on ways to change the regional theater model to one that is more rooted in the communities we serve.
Helped to brainstorm the ways in which the Public Works model of community created theater work can be expanded across the country.
Selected Administrative Experience
Associate Editor, Theater Magazine (2018-Present)
Develop journal articles with scholars, critics, playwrights, and theater makers.
Edit existing articles and plays to ensure they conform to the journal’s style guide.
Propose upcoming articles, forums, roundtables, and special issues.
Work with Duke Press to ensure articles conform to style guidelines and to bring issues to press along tight production and marketing schedules.
Manage a team of 3 editors and coordinate deadlines, schedules, permissions, and contracts for a pool of over a hundred writers, artists, photographers, and critics each year, many of whom live internationally and/or require accommodations.
Directors of Development, Director’s Gathering (2015-2017)
Wrote foundation grants to support specific projects and the general operation of the organization.
Devised and implemented a comprehensive three-year development plan for future growth.
Worked closely with the executive director to brainstorm the future shape and mission of the organization.
Ran donor events and stakeholder meetings
Development Assistant, 1812 Productions (2015- 2017)
Wrote government, foundation, and corporate grants to support the general operations of the theater.
Researched and proposed new grants and grant-funded projects.
Coordinated and executed fundraising campaigns, including a launching a capital campaign.
Brainstorm, plan, and run fundraising events, including an annual gala and quarterly donor events.
Communicated monthly with an active and involved board of directors.