EMMA BILSKI
2020
BA Religious Studies
Comprehensive Course List
RELS 108: Human Spirituality
WRLD 210: International Social Justice
RELS 291: Introduction to Buddhism
RELS 311: Religions of the World
RELS 312: Religions of the World
RELS 340: Global Ethics and World Religions
RELS 372: Global Women's Spirituality
RELS 391: Religion and Spirituality - Van Gogh
RELS 440: Mysticism
RELS 451: Religion, Racism, and Social Justice
RELS 490: Senior Capstone Seminar
RELS 491: Mysticism and Social Justice
Writing Samples
Dramaturgy: The Last Days of Judas Iscariot
In Winter 2019 I had the privilege of working as the Dramaturg on The Last Days of Judas Iscariot directed by Drewe Goldstein at Dogtown Dance in Richmond, VA. This experience allowed me to fully combine my passions into a tangible product - the packet you see below.
Experiential Learning
In Winter 2019-2020 I had the pleasure of serving as Dramaturg for a production of The Last Days of Judas Iscariot at Dogtown Dance in Richmond, VA. For those who may not know, a Dramaturg is a person involved in a production who takes on a research and advisory role. A Dramaturg becomes an expert on the topics explored in the play and presents this information to those involved in the artistic process. Thus, as Dramaturg for The Last Days of Judas Iscariot, I was able to combine my love for the theatre with my educational background in Religious Studies.
For this project, I compiled almost 30 pages of research about important topics in the production. These topics included Biblical history, historical references to Biblical figures, important information about historical characters (such as Freud, Mother Teresa, and Thomas Merton), and even pop culture references from the early 2000s (when the play was originally produced). I took this research and created a visually pleasing, clear, and concise document that was distributed to the creative team to ensure historical and cultural accuracy in the rehearsal process and the final product (a copy of this packet can be found above in the "Writing Samples" section). At the first rehearsal, I took this information and created a presentation for the team; I made a visual aid for this presentation and spoke, discussed, and answered questions on the topic for around three hours. This project was challenging in that it involved the explanation of some very difficult and dense topics to those who knew nothing or very little or nothing about them. It was also very rewarding. At the end of the process, I created an "audience guide" that was distributed digitally to all audience members via QR code (a PDF version is available below). As Dramaturg, I was able to combine my educational background in Religious Studies and Theatre in a real-world situation where I strengthened my skills in public speaking, compiling and editting a large amount of research, and teamwork.