Lesley Ferris
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Lesley Ferris began the year with a whirlwind five weeks as resident director of the London Theatre Program in August-September 2003. On return to Columbus she served as co-resident director of the Cuba: Performance and Culture program with colleague Dan Gray. Her third trip to Cuba in December was another layer of learning and experiencing the rich variety of Cuban culture and art. In October she directed Catherine Filloux's powerful short play Photographs from S-21 to kick off the OSU Theatre season and to serve as a conference highlight for "Deprivation, Violence, and Identities: Mapping Contemporary World Conflicts." sponsored by Mershon Center and Office of International Affairs.

She presented several papers this year. The first, "Dealing in the 'Real': The Kennedys' Sleep Deprivation Chamber", was at the Mid America Theatre Conference in Chicago in March. She also presented "Race-ing, Erasing, Right-ing, Writing in Kennedys' Sleep Deprivation Chamber" at II International Conference on American Drama: Acting America: The Plays and Players", University of Malaga, Spain, May 18-20; she was the keynote speaker with her paper "Digital Dreaming with Kennedys' Sleep Deprivation Chamber" at "Different Directions: Scenography and Performance Conference", Loughborough University, United Kingdom, July 2-4; and she gave this paper a second time at the SMARTLab Research Center, Central Saint Martin's College of Art and Design, London, July 6.

This summer she published the essay "Horse + Bamboo's Company of Angels", Theatre Forum: International Theatre Journal, (No. 25, Summer/Fall, 2004), pp. 85-90.

During the winter and spring, Lesley spearheaded the department's application for the university teaching award. The efforts were successful and after much work, preparation, and presentation, we received the prestigious "Departmental Teaching Excellence Award."