Scholar Spotlight: Daniel Bird Tobin
“I call myself a theatre archaeologist. Much as archaeologists reconstruct the story of a society from the artifacts they excavate, I build theatrical stories from the artifacts I uncover in my life.”
Daniel Bird Tobin
Assistant Professor of Applied Theatre
Department of Theatre
I am a theatre director, performer, and science communicator. Sometimes that looks like what you might imagine, directing a play like Hamlet in a beautiful theatre space. Other times I’m bringing theatre into unexpected places like a thrift store or a person’s living room. Or I’m collaborating with a scientist on an experimental performance that shares their research with visitors to the lab. Or I might be facilitating a workshop with scientists and researchers where we explore theatre techniques so they can develop their own way of communicating science.
A farmer, a city council member, and a biologist all have different areas of expertise, and we can practice how to bridge those gaps and build common understanding. A lot of my work is about bringing the skills and practice of theatre into non-theatre spaces. This can create a thrilling immediacy and vibrancy to our art form that reconnects with why we all started making theatre in the first place.
Why I do what I do
As an undergraduate studying archaeology, I was working in a lab, doing digs, taking classes, and doing theatre on the side. One day during a dig, I had an “aha” moment while slowly baking under the Mississippi sun. I was holding this molded piece of clay from 3,000 years ago. I could actually feel the imprints of someone’s fingers in this clay, reaching out to me from the past, and I had the realization that the powerful storytelling of theatre could share these magical moments from science with the world. I began pursuing theatre full time, and I’ve spent the rest of my career exploring how to bring my love of theatre and science together.
Currently working on
I have a book coming out in December, The Art of Communicating Science: Presence, Storytelling, and Building Bridges, written with collaborators Patty Raun and Carrie Koehler. In it we share our arts-based approach to working with scientists and researchers. Additionally, this fall I am directing a show called The Crossword Play that will be popping up all over town in October including at the YWCA, Ladies of Charity, and Ijams Nature Center.
