Hope Bernard

Dr. Hope Bernard is a passionate arts educator and theatre professional. Growing up in the desert of Southern California, she started studying theatre in college and obtained a B.A. in Communications with a Theatre Arts emphasis from Biola University in La Mirada. Hope then studied Theatre Arts at California State University, Northridge. After receiving an M.A., she moved halfway across the country to the Midwest to study at Bowling Green State University in Ohio. (Fun fact: Hope was the first person in her family, after many generations, to leave California!) In the Theatre Ph.D. program, she studied Performance Studies which examines the performances in everyday life. After graduating, Hope began working in professional theatre as a wardrobe supervisor. She worked behind the scenes at Barter Theatre in Abingdon, VA, Flint Repertory Theatre, and Michigan Shakespeare Theatre, taking care of the costumes and helping actors with quick costume changes between scenes. Returning to the college classroom during the pandemic, Hope has taught a wide array of courses including Script Analysis, The Theatre Experience, Intro to Film, Acting, and Improv. She currently teaches Drama and Film Courses at WCC and loves the excitement of the enthusiastic students and the collegiality of the faculty and staff. Hope lives in Saline with her husband Mark. They can usually be found watching YouTube fail videos and eating Impossible Whoppers from Burger King under the watchful eye of Spumoni, their feisty 18-year-old grey-striped cat. Hope loves musicals and dancing.

PhD in Theatre, Bowling Green State University

MA in Theatre Arts, California State University, Northridge

BA in Communications, Biola University

PEER-REVIEWED ARTICLES

“Women’s Spaces: Weight, Loss, and Opera.” The Projector: Film and Media Journal. Fall 2010.

“Fictional, Factual, and Flying Space: Throwing at the Theatre in The Author on the Wheel.” Forum: The Postgraduate Journal of Culture and the Arts, Issue 10, May 2010.

“Imagination and the Spaces of the Corseted Body: Gaston Bachelard and the Images of Home” Reconfigurations: A Journal for Poetics & Poetry / Literature & Culture, Volume 3, November 2009.

PEER-REVIEWED BOOK REVIEWS

Double Book Review: Dancefilm: Choreography and the Moving Image by Erin Brannigan and Site Dance: Choreographers and the Lure of Alternative Spaces edited by Melanie Kloetzel and Carolyn Pavlik. Theatre Annual Volume 65, 2012.

Book Review: City/Stage/Globe: Performance and Space in Shakespeare’s London by D.J. Hopkins. Theatre Survey, Volume 51, Issue 1, May 2010.

Book Review: Imagining Shakespeare by Stephen Orgel. Theatre Journal, Volume 58, Issue 2, July 2006.

WEB-BASED ARTICLES, SELECTED

“Supporting Trans Students in the Community College Classroom: The Crucial Work of a Professor.” Medium. August 2023

“The Cops Came During My Acting Class: Neurodiversity From a Professor’s Point of View.” Medium. August 2023

“Confessions of a Theatre Wardrobe Professional: Zippers, Sweat, and Ego.” Medium. August 2023

ACADEMIC CONFERENCE PRESENTATIONS

“Technology in Prison Education” presenter for the roundtable: “Navigating the Rise of Antisocial Curiosity in the Digital Age." March 2018 Pop Culture Association Conference, Indianapolis, IN

“When Audiences Attack: The Thrown Object as Prop” April 2009 Theatre Symposium, South Eastern Theatre Conference, Winston-Salem, NC

“Imagination and the Corseted Body: Bachelard and the Images of Home” Feb. 2008 Battleground States: The Body and Culture, Bowling Green, OH

“The Female Body on the Operatic Stage” Nov. 2007 National Communication Association Conference, Chicago, IL

“Crossing the Performer/Spectator Divide” March 2007 Battleground States: Intersections of Poetics and Politics, Bowling Green, OH

“Rotten Tomatoes: Audience Participation at the Theatre” March 2007 Theatre History Symposium, Mid-America Theatre Conference, Minneapolis, MN

Writing for Theatre Practitioners, Roundtable Participant Aug. 2006 Association for Theatre in Higher Education Conference, Chicago, IL

Panel Moderator, “Five Solo Performances of Embodied Cultural Identity” Feb. 2009 Battleground States: The Future, Bowling Green, OH