Erica Vannon, Stage Director
Erica Vannon is a director, producer, and movement designer. Her directing credits include work with Collaboraction, The Poetry Foundation, Promethean Theatre Ensemble, Twenty Percent Theatre, Broken Nose Theatre, Shimer College, Governors State University, and Chicago Fringe Festival. Erica served as Co-Founder of Knife & Fork, a theatre company dedicated to social practice around food, feminism, and body politics. She also served as Co-Artistic Director of Blank Line Collective, a physical theatre company based in Chicago until 2010.
Erica is currently pursuing an MFA in Directing from The University of Iowa. She holds a BA in Theatre Arts with a concentration in Directing from the University of North Texas and a Graduate Laban Certificate of Movement Analysis (GL-CMA) from Columbia College Chicago.
Erica is currently pursuing an MFA in Directing from The University of Iowa. She holds a BA in Theatre Arts with a concentration in Directing from the University of North Texas and a Graduate Laban Certificate of Movement Analysis (GL-CMA) from Columbia College Chicago.
In the News
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"Created by Dani Bryant and directed by Erica Vannon, [Gender Breakdown] is a funny, poignant and enraging exploration of size-ism, racism and sexism in the theater, and how these “isms” are deployed against women who have the nerve to try to break the boxes of stereotyping. In all, the cast succeeds mightily on two fronts: The call for change is loud, clear, unapologetic and needed. It is also a marvelous piece of theater." --Catey Sullivan, Chicago Sun-Times, Gender Breakdown at Collaboraction "While the tone set by many plays was rather humorous, they all held powerful underlying critiques of society. Whether it be from the riotously and righteously feminist Spanx You Very Much, each sketch forced you to think about social issues in its own unique way." --Chicago Stage Standard, Spanx You Very Much at Collaboraction Sketchbook "....the choreography [is} particularly memorable, turning the women into everything from a large warship to a gang of menacing suitors." --Marissa Oberlander, Chicago Reader, The Penelopiad by Margaret Atwood "Last Meal Man" is a "most compelling" (Chicago Tribune) "powerful" (TimeOut Chicago), "frightful and fascinating" (NewCity) "festival highlight"(The Reader). --Last Meal Man at Collaboration Sketchbook "Director Erica Barnes captures this mood piece's flight from consensual reality by inverting the theater-in-the-round format: audience members sit huddled in the center of an unfinished Pilsen loft space while the action whirls around them...but Barnes's format suits the story's sense of perpetual, ungrounded motion." --Keith Griffith, Chicago Reader, Disgrace by John O'Keefe |
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Episode 15 – Erica Vannon /February 5, 2017 Director Erica Vannon is drawn to the kind of work that makes you “giggle into a bit of horror.” Or stand up and scream like you’re at a football game. Or cry (a lot (if you’re me)). She produces the impossible, like a devised opera performed in a hotel room or a 3 minute dance piece with 47 performers. |