ROSALIE PURVIS
performance practitioner/educator
Rosalie Purvis (U.S.A., the Netherlands) holds a BA in Literature and Dance from Bard College and an MFA in Theatre Directing from Brooklyn College and a Phd in Performing and Media Arts from Cornell University where her dissertation “Intimate Acts of Translation” focused on intercultural performance methods and translation and border studies in performance. Since 2000, she has worked as a freelance director/performer in New York City where work has been featured at, among others, the Atlantic Theatre’s Second Stage, Theatre for the New City, the Brick Theatre, Dixon Place, the Estrogenius Festival, Teatro la Teo, the Culture Project, Teatro Circulo, 59 East 59, the Puerto Rican Traveling Company, Dance New Amsterdam, 78th Street Theatre Lab and the Brooklyn Arts Exchange. She also creates site specific works, globally. Most recently, she joined Kolkata-based performing arts collective Chaepani and together they have performed at various national borders. She has taught performance and writing most recently at Cornell University, Ithaca College, Presidency College (Kolkata) Jadavpur University (Kolkata), the City University of New York, Mercy College in the Bronx, Pace University, Fairleigh Dickinson University and Marlboro College. She is currently serving as Libra Assistant Professor of English and Theatre at the University of Maine.
SELECTED PROJECTS
A few selected projects by and/or with Rosalie Purvis.
Cornell Locally Grown Dance and Ithaca Dance Collective at CSMAIthaca, 2019
A dance theatre piece about “women - always waiting - in literature”. Created and performed by Rosalie Purvis with dancer Deanna Myskiw and Voices by Avirupa Mukherjee, Debaroti Chakraborty. The poem/script written in collaboration with poet Megan Savage. https://youtu.be/g2Y5toKk32c
Kolkata, 2019
Late for Durga is a bilingual play written and performed by Rosalie Purvis and Debaroti Chakraborty with Chaepani
Touring India and U.S., 2017-2019
A Dance Theatre piece about two women longing for one another from far away. Created with Debaroti Chakraborty
https://youtu.be/BwIjQYMuYPs
https://youtu.be/Wyn6ctD6ReM
Marlboro College, VT, 2014
Melancholy Play by Sarah RuhlDirected by Rosalie Purvis
https://youtu.be/J70KPeSQSig
Touring India - U.S. 2016-2017
A touring multi lingual play about national borders - made with Chaepani, and many other theatre artists and musicians from around the world.
https://youtu.be/gI4071X262o
https://youtu.be/eHjeKMKbQjshttps://youtu.be/xXIKX13hWN4
Kolkata, 2019
Melancholy Play by Sarah Ruhl Directed by Rosalie PurvisPerformed by Chaepani.
Kolkata, 2019
Debaroti Chakraborty’s bilingual adaptation of the short Jose Rivera play - directed by Rosalie Purvis and Debashish Sen Sharma. (Rosalie also plays the role of Daysi)
https://youtu.be/n5hCziu4u8U
https://youtu.be/97c5wXBhE80
Cornell Locally Grown Dance Ithaca, 2015
A short dance theatre piece with Deanna Myskiw
https://youtu.be/SXOsZnxOZdA
The Atlantic Theatre Second Stage, NYC, 2011
You are Confused/Tu Estas Confundido is a bilingual solo show written by Eduardo Leanez and Patrick Horrigan - performed by Eduardo Leanez - Directed by Rosalie Purvis https://youtu.be/wT7_pbw4Jic
Brooklyn College, NYC, 2003
The Good Person of Setzuan by Bertolt Brecht - in a new Translation by Rosalie Purvis and Roxane Heinze. Original music by Jens Boutrup and the company
https://youtu.be/g_vb4cA3Okk
Henry Street Settlement and the Brick Theatre, NYC, 2002-2005
Excerpts from Dance Theatre Based on Greek Myths - Conceived and Choreographed by Rosalie Purvis
https://youtu.be/uG-1oolzCsI
Henry Street Settlement, NYC, 2004
Excerpts from Dance Theatre Love Stories conceived and choreographed by Rosalie Purvis
https://youtu.be/YEo9L6iRugY
Brooklyn College, NYC, 2001
Charlie the Chicken by Jonathan Levy directed by Rosalie Purvis
https://youtu.be/BE8L33_PKlI
Ithaca, 2017
A site-specific dance theatre piece about adoption and intercultural family and migration - choreographed by Rosalie Purvis with Mandy Caughey and Alejandra Rodriguez - multilingual text performed by Chaepani and many others
https://youtu.be/NJH_2Tk0mgs
Dixon Place, 2010
Excerpts from a series of “burlesque/not burlesque pieces created and performed by Rosalie Purvis
https://youtu.be/1kjQojAzXVk
Dixon Place, NYC, 2009
Callous CadBy Tom X. ChaoStarring Tom X. Chao and Rosalie Purvis
https://youtu.be/wgg4z9VwedY
Prospect Dark Nights Series, NYC, 2009
A dance theatre piece choreographed and performed by Rosalie Purvis
Philadelphia Fringe Festival, PA, 2010
A solo show by Alexis Clements
Dance New Amsterdam, NYC, 2010
A solo show by Victoria Libertore Directed by Rosalie Purvis
Brooklyn Arts Exchange, NYC, 2009
My Journey of DecayA solo show by Victoria Libertore
October, 2021
Anon(ymous) by Naomi Iizuka co-directed by Rosalie Purvis and Debaroti Chakraborty, film by Arnab Roy, Music by Gorki Mukherjee, Sound by James David Jacobs, Set by Tricia Hobbs, Costumes by Karissa Cooper, Lights by Scout Hough
Students at the University of Maine collaborated with students at Presidency College in Kolkata and professional actors in India and Nigeria, to create this multimedia performance of Naomi Iizuka's play about refugee experiences.
Student Dramaturgs created a documentary on the making of the production:
View the production:
May, 2021
A virtual performance created by Debaroti Chakraborty for the Naban Earth Weekend based in Santinaketan, West Bengal, held virtually in 2021 due to pandemic restrictions. Part 2 is written and performed by Debaroti Chakraborty and Rosalie Purvis.
Performance and Discussion
“What are all these borders for?” - Root Map
“Both my work as an artist/scholar and artist/activist seeks to (re)create and interpret cross-border engagement. My performance practice inspires my scholarship and my scholarship, in turn, invigorates my practice and pursues new forms of border-defying storytelling that are both bold and intimate. To this day, rather than force diverse and underrepresented experiences into a single, outdated mold, I seek to reinvent the mold — or to deconstruct/shatter it altogether.” - Rosalie Purvis