Skip to main content

Valleri J Robinson

Profile picture for Valleri J Robinson

Contact Information

4-122 Krannert Center
500 S. Goodwin Ave.
500 S Goodwin M/C 072
Urbana, IL 61801

Associate Professor

Biography

Valleri Robinson  is Associate Professor of Theatre at the University of Illinois. Her courses include 20th Century Russian Theatre, Historiography and the Actress, Contemporary Theatrical Forms, Dramaturg’s Workshop, and Script Analysis. Professor Robinson’s areas of research include Russian-American cultural exchange, Cold War performances, transnational theatre historiography, and Chekhov in translation and adaptation. Her book,Russian Culture and Theatrical Performance in America, 1891-1933(Palgrave Macmillan 2011) examines the influences of Russian performance styles on modern American theatrical production. Her articles and reviews appear inContemporary Theatre Review, Slavic and East European Journal, Theatre History Studies, Theatre Journal, Contemporary Drama,  and The Journal of American Drama and Theatre. Recent essays also appear ‘To Have or To Have Not’: New Essays on Commerce and Capital in Modernist Theatre, edited by James Fisher (2011), and The Routledge Companion to Stanislavsky, edited by R. Andrew White (2013). Dr. Robinson has been featured as the Keynote Speaker at theatre conferences at the University of Madison-Wisconsin (lecture entitled, “The Cold War, Whispering Campaigns, Office Bombs and the Theatre Historian,” 2012) and The Ohio State University (lecture entitled, “Chekhov the Russian Export: Russian Productions of Chekhov in the U.S.” 2010). She received the 2012 American Theatre and Drama Society Faculty Research Travel Award for work on her current manuscript,Cold War Performances: Soviet Performances in America after Stalin. She received a Fulbright award to work with Nikolai Kolyada at the Kolyada Theatre in Ekaterinburg, Russia in 2014. In addition to her research, she has worked as a professional dramaturg with many companies and playwrights in the U.S. Dr. Robinson is an affiliate faculty member of the Department of Slavic Languages and Literatures and the Russian, East European, and Eurasian Center.

Additional Campus Affiliations

Associate Professor, Slavic Languages and Literatures
Associate Professor, Russian, East European and Eurasian Center
Affiliate Research Scholar, Russian, East European and Eurasian Center

Recent Publications

Robinson, V. (2023). Javor gardev’s productions in the bulgarian repertoire. Critical Stages, 2023(27).

Robinson, V. (2021). Review: A. Kureichik's Insulted. Belarus. Worldwide Readings. Theatre Journal, 73(3), 427-429. https://doi.org/10.1353/tj.2021.0085

Robinson, V. J. (2016). Adapting Chekhov: A Primer for Dramaturgs. In M. C. Finke, & M. Holquist (Eds.), Approaches to Teaching the Works of Anton Chekhov (pp. 74-81). (Approaches to Teaching World Literature). Modern Language Association.

Robinson, V. J. (2016). Foreign Performing Artists. In E. J. Blum, C. Burnidge, E. Conroy-Krutz, & D. Kinkela (Eds.), America in the World, 1776 to the Present: A Supplement to the Dictionary of American History Charles Scribner's and Sons.

Robinson, V. (2016). Review: L. Senelick's Stanislavsky: A Life in Letters. Theatre Survey, 57(01), 146-148. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0040557415000654

View all publications on Illinois Experts