Joyce Lu

Associate Professor of Theatre
With Pomona Since: 2008
  • Expertise

    Expertise

    Joyce Lu teaches contemporary drama and performance. She specializes in applied theatre, movement, Asian and Asian American performance, with expertise in guiding people to devise autobiographical, self-revelatory work. A certified Feldenkrais Method practitioner, she has danced with Body Weather Laboratory in Los Angeles and Christine Germain & Dancers in the Bay Area. She also dances with Burat Wangi, the Balinese dance and music ensemble directed by I Nyoman Wenten and Nanik Wenten. Joyce is the founder and director of LA Playback Theatre Company. She is a former member of the Living Arts Playback Theatre Ensemble in the Bay Area and is currently pursuing training in psychodrama.

    Research Interests

    • Race & U.S .Contemporary Performance
    • Use of Playback Theatre in Equity, Diversity, and Inclusivity Work
    • Intersections of Performing Arts, Generative Somatics, and Healing Justice

    Areas of Expertise

    • Applied Theatre
    • Somatics Movement Arts
    • Devising Theatre
    • Asian Diasporic Performance
    • Race Theory
    • Solo performance
    • US Contemporary performance
  • Work

    Work

    “Forward Facing Feldenkrais: How the Method Might Move us,” interviewed by Nancy Wozny
    For Never Stop: The Artistry of Self-Care and Creativity for Lifelong Embodied Performance, Feldenkrais Awareness Summit, October 30, 2021

    “Individual Freedom and Collective Liberation.” Presentation for the Feldenkrais Guild of North America Conference, 11. Sept 2021. Zoom.

    "The Grace of Resisting: Art against the Institution" and performance script of Grace Needs a Mirror. Ngũgĩ in the American Imperium. Edited by Timothy J. Reiss. Trenton & Asmara: African World Press, 2021.

    "Moving Tradition: Alleluia Panis and Kularts." California Dreaming: Movement and Place in the Asian American Imaginary. Honolulu: University of Hawai'i Press in association with UCLA Asian American Studies Center, 2020.

    “Body Weather Laboratory Los Angeles: An Interview with Roxanne Steinberg & Oguri,” in The Routledge Companion to Butoh Performance, Ed. Bruce Baird & Rosemary Candelario, 2018

    “Unimaginable Change.” SenseAbility: a newsletter of applications of the Feldenkrais Method of somatic education by Guild Certified Feldenkrais Practitioners. 56 (Spring 2012): 4-5.

    "Tribal Fever," American Theatre. May/June 2005

    Selected Performances

    Playback Theatre Performances, Pangaea Playback Theatre, Directed by Hannah K. Fox, for Dailey Innovations, Inc. equity training and team building at various organizations, including MacMillan Publishing and Howard University, 2020-2021

    Playback Theatre Performance, Pangaea Playback Theatre, Directed by Hannah K. Fox, Tele’drama International Psychodrama Conference, online, 2020

    Playback Theatre Performances for various diversity equity and inclusivity trainings, Oakland Freedom Theater, in-person and online, 2019-2020

    Corps Étranger ll, Directed by Christine Germain, Tangente Danse, Montréal, 2017

    The Distance is Beautiful / La Distance la Plus Courte Entre Deux Points n’est pas Une Ligne Droite, Lead Dancer, Directed by Oguri and Lola González, Grand Park, 2017

    Grace Needs A Mirror, original devised performance, Directed by Barry Shabaka Henley, Highways Performance Space, 2016

    Mare Ibrium, directed by Hirokazu Kosaka and Oguri, Grand Performances, Los Angeles, 2015

    Remembering Again, choreography and dance with Christine Germain & Diana Lara, San Francisco International Arts Festival, Fort Mason, San Francisco, 2015

    Settlement, performer, (collaboration between Los Angeles Poverty Department and Stay If Only Temporary (Brussels), directed by Hans Van den Broeck and Anuschka Von Oppen, The Box Gallery, Los Angeles, 2014

    A (micro) history of world economics, danced, with Los Angeles Poverty Department, directed by Pascal Rambert, Pershing Square, Los Angeles, 2014

    Mare Ibrium, directed by Hirokazu Kosaka and Oguri, Grand Performances, Los Angeles, 2015

    Remembering Again, choreography and dance with Christine Germain & Diana Lara, San Francisco International Arts Festival, Fort Mason, San Francisco, 2015

    Settlement, performer, (collaboration between Los Angeles Poverty Department and Stay If Only Temporary (Brussels), directed by Hans Van den Broeck and Anuschka Von Oppen, The Box Gallery, Los Angeles, 2014

    A (micro) history of world economics, danced, with Los Angeles Poverty Department, directed by Pascal Rambert, Pershing Square, Los Angeles, 2014

    Cold Dream Colour: A Dance Homage to Louis Le Brocquy, Dr. Oguri & Morleigh Steinberg, Works & Process Series, Guggenheim Museum, New York, 2013

  • Education

    Education

    Ph.D., University of California, Berkeley

    M.F.A., University of Hawai’i at Manoa

    B.A., Occidental College

    Recent Courses Taught

    • Basic Acting: Acting for Social Change
    • Basic Acting: Tools and Fundamentals
    • Intermediate Acting
    • Applied Theatre: Playback Theatre and Theatre of the Oppressed
    • Race and Contemporary Performance
    • Staging our Stories: Contemporary Asian American Drama
    • Movement for Actors and Others
    • Devising Theatre
    • Performance Theory/Criticism/Praxis