Elizabeth Brendel Horn (she/her) is an Associate Professor of Theatre at the University of Central Florida. Her creative interests include Theatre for Youth and Young Audiences; Personal Narrative and Devised Theatre; Applied Theatre; and Arts and Wellness.
As an educator, Elizabeth teaches in the Theatre for Young Audiences MFA program in partnership with Orlando Family Stage (formerly Orlando Repertory Theatre), and teaches undergraduate courses in Script Analysis, Creative Drama, and Theatre for Young Audiences. During 2021-2022, she worked on the university level to support faculty integrating High Impact Practices into courses as the HIP Faculty Fellow of the Division of Student Learning and Academic Success. In 2023, Elizabeth was the inaugural recipient of The Barbara Truman Award in Blended Teaching by the UCF Center for Distributed Learning, in recognition of her achievements as a mixed mode course instructor. UCF College of Arts and Humanities recognized Elizabeth's teaching with the Excellence in Graduate Teaching Award (2020), Excellence in Undergraduate Teaching Award (2022), and a Teaching Incentive Program award (2023). Elizabeth’s credits as a director, applied theatre artist, teaching artist, and facilitator of devised theatre include First Stage Academy (Milwaukee, WI), Alliance Theatre Education (Atlanta, GA), Adventure Theatre and ATMTC Academy (Glen Echo, MD), The Coterie (Kansas City, MO), Orlando Family Stage (formerly Orlando Repertory Theatre), Dr Phillips Center for the Arts, and Orange County Public Schools. Elizabeth's current applied theatre focuses on arts and wellness, and includes: "Mind Matters," a new plays and curriculum initiative about mental health for high school students; and the "Jeanette M. Gould Traveling Theater," a theatre-based program facilitated by UCF students with pediatric hospital patients. Her most recent directing credits include the Theatre for the Very Young productions Dinosaur Dance Party, The Teddy Bears’ Picnic and Yo, Ho, Ho! Let’s Go! with Orlando Family Stage. As a playwright, Elizabeth is published with YouthPLAYS (Elektra, Medea), along with the plays in development Pitter Patter; Antigone and Ismene; and Swallowed (an existential crisis). Elizabeth has shared research about applied theatre, devising, diversity, and body image and the young actor in over forty presentations at national and international conferences, professional theatres, and universities. She is published with Theatre Topics; Research in Drama and Education; TYA Today; Youth Theatre Journal; Reflective Practice; Storytelling, Self, Society; Teaching Artist Journal; and Canadian Journal of Disability Studies. Her first book, Activated Script Analysis (Routledge, 2023), explores ensemble-based play, devised theatre strategies, and creative expression in the script analysis classroom. UCF acknowledged Elizabeth's research and creative activity with a Research Incentive Award in 2021. Prior to her appointment at UCF, Elizabeth served six years as Artistic Director of the Timber Creek Thespians, where she directed Metamorphoses, Doubt, Oedipus Rex, Elektra, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, A Servant of Two Masters, Rabbit Hole, Urinetown, Legally Blonde, Chicago, Anything Goes, The Wizard of Oz, and Little Shop of Horrors. Elizabeth mentored over twenty student-directed productions during her tenure with Timber Creek Thespians, and her students performed by invitation at Florida Thespian Festival and the Orlando International Fringe Festival. Elizabeth has served on the boards of TYA/USA and Florida Theatre Conference (Theatre for Youth division chair). She was awarded the Johnny Saldaña Outstanding Professor of Theatre Education by the American Alliance for Theatre and Education (2021) and the Tom Behm Award in Theatre for Youth by Southeastern Theatre Conference (2020). Elizabeth holds an MFA in Theatre for Young Audiences from UCF and a BFA in Musical Theatre from Brenau University with the Gainesville Theatre Alliance. |