Lisa
Porter

LISA PORTER

Lisa Porter is a Professor of Theatre and Dance at the University of California, San Diego, where she has taught since 2005. She is the Head of the MFA in Stage Management, and teaches graduate and undergraduate stage management. She develops and teaches courses related to creativity, neuroscience, disability, and performance. She has taught in the MFA Stage Management program at David Geffen School of Drama at Yale University, and has led international classes in Singapore, Taiwan, and China. Professor Porter works closely with many theater companies in San Diego to devise accessible and inclusive sensory-friendly performances. 

Working in diverse venues on six continents, Professor Porter's career has included international projects with Laurie Anderson, Mikhail Baryshnikov, Anne Bogart, Hal Hartley, Yo-Yo Ma, Silkroad Ensemble, White Oak Dance Project, and Robert Wilson. She has collaborated extensively on multiple intercultural productions with Singaporean director Ong Keng Sen and TheatreWorks Singapore. Her New York and Regional credits include productions with Christopher Ashley, Charles Busch, Jonathan Demme, Richard Foreman, Doug Hughes, Tina Landau, Kenny Leon, Suzan-Lori Parks, Darko Tresnjak, and Mark Wing-Davey. She has also produced and stage managed non-profit and corporate events since 1996.

In 2020, she published the book Stage Management Theory as a Guide to Practice: Cultivating a Creative Approach, co-authored with Narda E. Alcorn. They also wrote the essay We Commit to Anti-Racist Stage Management Education on HowlRound Theatre Commons. Their work has been featured in the New York Times, A Call to Diversify Those Calling the Cues, and American Theatre, Managing the Stage, and Managing Expectations.