Catharine Slusar
Department/Subdepartment
- Theater - Arts Program
- Arts Program: Theater - Arts
Biography
Catharine Slusar teaches many different kinds of acting courses, with a focus on the performer and theater creator. She also directs students for the ²ÝÁñ³ÉÈËÉçÇø-Haverford Bi-College Theater Program, and has an ongoing relationship with EM Stanton, a Philadelphia K-8 school where she teaches and directs Shakespeare, often accompanied by students from the Bi-Co.
Slusar’s research blurs the divide between theory and practice, looking to understand the power of the embodied mind through performance. Her interests include examining how performance practice provides a transformation of our notion of self -- socially, politically, and personally. As a director, she likes to play with extreme physicality and often works in several languages.
As an actor, Slusar has performed across the country, as well as in Norway and Russia. She is well known to Philadelphia audiences through her work at Theater Exile, FringeArts, the Arden Theatre Company, InterAct Theatre, The Lantern, People’s Light and Theater Company, and Act II Playhouse. She is a recipient of several awards for her acting, including The F. Otto Haas Award for an Emerging Artist and Barrymore Awards for Excellence in Theater. Recent favorite roles include Martha in Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf, and Prospero in The Tempest.
Slusar has taught acting at Rowan University, University of the Arts, Özel Bilgi Lisesi in Istanbul, Turkey, and at her alma mater, Yale University. She also coaches actors for auditions.