English

Senior Professor of English and Part-time Creative School Special Projects Assistant

Chris White received a BA in Theatre from the University of Colorado in Boulder, took additional training in acting at the Lee Strasberg Theatre Institute in Los Angeles, and earned an MFA in Dramatic Writing from New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts. Her short film Mud Lotus (writer/director/producer) was an official selection at the New Hampshire, Cincinnati, Copper Mountain, and Albany Film Festivals. Her feature-length screenplays Pain Management and Weasel in the Icebox each made first cut at the Sundance Screenwriters Lab; Weasel in the Icebox won an Award of Merit at the Women's Independent Film Festival.

White's plays have been produced at 13th Street Repertory, 18th Street Playhouse, Manhattan Theatre Source, and the NYU’s Goldman Theatre in NYC; regional theatres including Horizons Theatre in Washington DC, Phoenix Theatre and Indy Fringe Basile Theatre in Indianapolis, and Bloomington Playwrights Project in Bloomington, IN; the Edinburgh Festival Fringe in Scotland and the Adelaide Fringe In Australia; and several US universities. Dramatic works include Rhythms (Helen Hayes winner for Outstanding New Play), Thespian (published by Smith & Kraus in Best Ten-Minute Plays of 2011), Two-Character Play (published by Allyn & Bacon in Explore Theatre digital textbook, and Sin Eater (commissioned by Hollins University).

Her debut novel The Life List of Adrian Mandrick was published by Touchstone Books (Simon & Schuster) in spring of 2018, noted one of the best books of 2018 by the Chicago Review of Books, and favorably reviewed by The New York Times Book Review: "...a stunning climax. [...] White’s life- affirming conclusion reminds us that endangered species aren’t the only ones that need to change and adapt in order to survive."

In addition to her regularly offered upper-level writing workshops in Playwriting and Screenwriting, Introduction to Creative Writing, and Senior Seminar in Dramatic Writing, courses have included: First-Year Seminars on adaptation and on dramatic literature in performance, an upper-level writing course in adaptation; and a course on gender and sexuality in plays and film. She has served as director of the Film Studies program in numerous years, as well as associate chair of the English department.

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