Bio: James Beauregard Ashby is a relatively recent PhD graduate from the Centre for Drama, Theatre and Performance Studies at the University of Toronto, a puppet artist, a union activist, and a sometime sessional lecturer. His dissertation was entitled From the Inside Out, from the Outside In: Devised Puppet Theatre in Toronto. His other research interests include devised theatre more broadly, new work development, practice-based research, research-based practice, video games, and the semiotics and dramaturgy of professional wrestling. He has addressed topics related to Canadian puppetry at a number of American and Canadian conferences and has been an online critic and the official visiting puppetry scholar—not to mention a balcony puppeteer—for the Puppets Up! International Puppet Festival in Almonte, Ontario. Ashby is also the cofounder and co-artistic director of Bricoteer Experiments Theatre, a Toronto-based devised puppet theatre company, and the immediate past president of the Ontario Puppetry Association.

PhD Dissertation: From the Inside Out, from the Outside In: Devising in Canadian Puppet Theatre

Teaching and Research Interests:

• Puppet Theatre
• Devised Theatre
• New Work Development
• Practice-Based Research
• English-Canadian Drama and Theatre
• Theories of Drama and Performance
• Popular Theatre Traditions
• Professional Wrestling
• Video Games

For more information, have a look at my résumé.