Dani Snyder teaches courses in theatre history, dramatic theory, contemporary theatre, postcolonial performance, and directing; she oversees the BA program at Illinois Wesleyan University, advising budding directors, playwrights, dramaturgs, arts managers, drama teachers, theatre scholars, performance artists, and students who know they love theatre and are still working out their precise career aspirations.  Prior to joining the Illinois Wesleyan University faculty in the Fall of 2008, Dr. Snyder taught at Pace University and New York University.  As a veteran teaching artist and researcher in arts education, she has taught at North Star Academy (Newark), Clara Barton High School (Brooklyn), Graphic High School of Communication Arts (Manhattan), the Lab School (Bronx), PS 167 (Brooklyn), and the Upham’s Corner Charter School (Boston).

Dr. Snyder’s professional theatre work focuses primarily on community based performance, new play development, and adaptations of classical texts.  Her devised work with young people has been performed in New York at the Public Theatre and the HERE Arts Center. She has been an artistic associate of Boston Theatre Works , where her directing credits include Maria Irene Fornes’ Molly’s Dream and John Kuntz’ My Life With the Kringle Kult and she produced several years of the Unbound festival of new plays.  A founding member of New York City’s Present Tense Theater Project, Dr. Snyder directed the ensemble’s premiere original work, Monster.  She has worked regionally with the Barrington Stage Company, Lyric Stage Company of Boston, New Repertory Theater, Boston Playwright’s Theater, Coyote Theater, Gloucester Stage, Hangar Theatre, Other Side Productions, Playwrights’ Platform, Peabody House Theatre Cooperative, Shadowboxing Theatre Collaborative, and the Williamstown Theatre Festival, as well as internationally with Misery Loves Company of Prague, Czech Republic.  She is a member of Actor’s Equity Association.

Dr. Snyder’s research focuses on applied theatre; her dissertation The Rules That Rule Their Worlds: Urban youth deconstruct their antagonists through Theatre of the Oppressed examines the sense teenagers make of their relationships with the authorities in their lives through their engagement with antagonistic characters they create in original interactive theatre pieces.  Her article “Educating the ‘Coed’ For Activism: Using theatre for social change to de-mystify power structures with first year female undergraduates” has been published in the International Journal of Learning.  Dr. Snyder has presented her work at numerous regional, national, and international conferences including Pedagogy and Theatre of the Oppressed, MATC, NWSA, and ATHE.  She is the recipient of a 2006 American Association of University Women Community Action Grant.  Her current project, American Antagonisms, uses community based performance to examine social antagonism in contemporary America.