Colleen Rua
Assistant Professor | University of Florida
Gainesville, FL, UNITED STATES
Colleen Rua's research interests include Latinx theatre, contemporary Puerto Rican theatre, the American musical, and theatre for youth.
Biography
Colleen Rua is an assistant professor in the School of Theatre and Dance and is affiliated faculty in the Center for Latin American Studies and the Center for Arts in Medicine. Her research interests include Latinx theatre, contemporary Puerto Rican theatre, the American musical, and theatre for youth. Her book "Performance, Trauma, and Puerto Rico in Musical Theatre," puts commercial theatre in conversation with community-engaged practice in Puerto Rico, and considers theatre artists as performers of care in response to natural disasters, trauma, and healing.
Areas of Expertise (7)
Theatre for Youth
US Latinx Theatre
The Arts as Recovery and Response to Natural and Unnatural Disaster
Theatre
Contemporary Puerto Rican Theatre
Latin American Theatre
American Musical Theatre
Articles (2)
Defiant Joy and Care-Based Solidarity in Puerto Rican Theatre
Performance Research JournalColleen Rua
2023-05-12
In this article, I draw upon fieldwork I conducted in San Juan, Puerto Rico, as well as Imani Perry’s concept of defiant joy to argue that Y no había luz forms a legacy of solidarity that persists through the mobilization of defiant joy in disaster response. Moreover, in collaborating with each other and with intergenerational communities, Y no había luz creates multidisciplinary performances of care that are characterized by joy, whimsy, and celebration.
Performance, Trauma and Puerto Rico in Musical Theatre
RoutledgeColleen Rua
2023-01-01
This study positions four musicals and their associated artists as mobilizers of defiant joy in relation to trauma and healing in Puerto Rico. This book argues that the historical trajectory of these musicals has formed a canon of works that have reiterated, resisted or transformed experiences of trauma through linguistic, ritual, and geographic interventions. These traumas may be disaster-related, migrant-related, colonial or patriarchal.
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