Bios

If you are looking for a way to introduce Valerie:

Valerie Clayman Pye is Chair of the Department of Theatre, Dance, and Arts Management at Long Island University Post (LIU Post) and an Associate Professor of Theatre who specializes in making Shakespeare accessible and training other actors to do the same. Valerie is the Artistic Director of the Post Theatre Company and teaches acting, voice and speech, and Shakespeare in Performance. She is also an intimacy choreographer/director and is Associate Faculty with Theatrical Intimacy Education, a consulting group that specializes in researching, developing, and teaching best practices for staging theatrical intimacy. She holds a PhD in Performance Practice, Drama and an MFA in Staging Shakespeare from the University of Exeter, where she worked with Shakespeare’s Globe and the Royal Shakespeare Company. She also holds an MFA in Acting from Brooklyn College. Valerie’s research focuses on actor training pedagogy, Shakespeare’s Globe, Shakespeare tourism, and on practice-as-research (PaR). Her article, “Shakespeare’s Globe: theatre architecture and the performance of authenticity” is among the most-read articles in the journal Shakespeare. Valerie is a professional actor and director whose work has reached audiences in over twenty countries. As a voice and speech coach, Valerie has worked in theatre, film, and television coaching Academy, BAFTA, Emmy, and Golden Globe Award nominees. Her book, Unearthing Shakespeare: Embodied Performance and the Globe (released by Routledge in January 2017) is the first book to consider what the unique properties of the reconstruction of Shakespeare’s theatre can contribute to both the training of actors as well as to the performances of Shakespeare’s plays. She is the co-editor of Objectives, Obstacles, and Tactics in Practice: Perspectives on Activating the Actor (with Hillary Haft Bucs), which was released by Routledge in December 2019, and Shakespeare and Tourism (with Robert Ormsby; Routledge 2021). Valerie was named a 2018-2020 LabWorks Artist at the New Victory Theatre in NYC and was the lead creative artist on “Shakespeare’s Stars”, an immersive, multi-media, multi-sensory performance for babies and their caregivers (Spellbound Theatre), which was featured in The Wall Street Journal and had its Off-Broadway premiere in May 2023 at the New Victory Theatre. Her most recent book, with Robert Myles, is Innovation & Digital Theatremaking: Rethinking Theatre with ‘The Show Must Go Online’ was released by Routledge in 2023.

For a brief introduction, suitable for academia:

Valerie Clayman Pye, Ph.D. is an Associate Professor of Theatre in the School of Performing Arts and Chair of the Department of Theatre, Dance, and Arts Management at LIU Post, where she teaches acting, voice and speech, and Shakespeare in Performance. Valerie’s research focuses on actor training pedagogy, Shakespeare’s Globe, Shakespeare tourism, and on practice-as-research (PaR). Her article, “Shakespeare’s Globe: theatre architecture and the performance of authenticity” is among the most-read articles in the journal Shakespeare. Valerie is a professional actor and director whose work has reached audiences in over twenty countries. Her book, Unearthing Shakespeare: Embodied Performance and the Globe (released by Routledge in January 2017) is the first book to consider how the unique properties of the reconstruction of Shakespeare’s theatre can contribute to both actor training as well as to Shakespeare in performance. She is the co-editor of Objectives, Obstacles, and Tactics in Practice: Perspectives on Activating the Actor (with Hillary Haft Bucs), which was released by Routledge in December 2019, and Shakespeare and Tourism (with Robert Ormsby; Routledge 2021). Her essays have appeared in Shakespeare, Teaching Shakespeare, PARtake: The Journal of Performance as Research, New England Theatre Journal, Theatre Topics, and several essay collections. Her most recent book, with Robert Myles, is Innovation & Digital Theatremaking: Rethinking Theatre with ‘The Show Must Go Online’ was released by Routledge in 2023. Valerie currently serves on the Governing Council of the Association for Theatre in Higher Education and is also Vice President for Conference 2024.

For a brief introduction, suitable for practice-based projects:

Valerie Clayman Pye is an actor, director, author, and academic who specializes in Shakespeare, heightened text, and new works. She is an Associate Professor of Theatre and Chair of the Department of Theatre, Dance, and Arts Management at LIU Post where she teaches acting, voice and speech, and Shakespeare in Performance, and heads the BFA Shakespeare Track. Valerie is also the Artistic Director of the Post Theatre Company and is a professional actor and director whose work has reached audiences in over twenty countries. As a voice and speech coach, Valerie has worked in theatre, film, and television coaching Academy, BAFTA, Emmy, and Golden Globe Award nominees. Her book, Unearthing Shakespeare: Embodied Performance and the Globe (released by Routledge in 2017) is the first book to consider how the unique properties of Shakespeare’s Globe can contribute to both actor training as well as performances of Shakespeare’s plays. When she isn’t focusing on Shakespeare and devising new works of her own, Valerie has worked extensively on new play development, alongside writers such as Reginald Rose (Twelve Angry Men). Valerie was named a 2018-2020 LabWorks Artist at the New Victory Theatre in NYC and was the lead creative artist on “Shakespeare’s Stars”, an immersive, multi-media, multi-sensory performance for babies and their caregivers (Spellbound Theatre), which was featured in The Wall Street Journal and had its Off-Broadway premiere in May 2023 at the New Victory Theatre. Her most recent book, with Robert Myles, is Innovation & Digital Theatremaking: Rethinking Theatre with ‘The Show Must Go Online’ was released by Routledge in 2023. Valerie is an Intimacy Choreographer/Director and Associate Faculty with Theatrical Intimacy Education.