Karie Miller (she/they) is an interdisciplinary artist, scholar, and educator specializing in belonging, and the content, behavior, and containers that promote it, primarily through acts of care, play, and joy. For Dr. Miller, theatre is an act of and for community.
Dr. Miller’s artistic projects work with and against the existing theatrical canon and industry to explore performance experiences and gatherings which prioritize the humane experience of spectators and performers alike. Her works include original solo and devised performance (Simultaneity Game, Four People), performance events (CLLAW, FOOBAR), conferences (Mid-America Theatre Conference Pedagogy Symposium), workshops (professional development, consent, improvisation), and a wide variety of celebrations.
Dr. Miller’s pedagogy, informed by emotionally intelligent, feminist, anti-racist, trauma-aware, and somatic practice, aspires to convene equitable and creative learning experiences. She has taught classes in performance, performance-making, performance-writing, histories of performance, dramaturgy, and critical analysis at Grinnell College, Dickinson College, the University of Virginia, and The Ohio State University.
As a performer, director, and teaching artist, Dr. Miller has worked throughout Chicago and the Midwest since 2009, during which time she served as a core Ensemble Member and Community Manager with Sideshow Theatre Company. With Sideshow, she also coordinated and emceed the Chicago League of Lady Arm-Wrestlers as her alter ego, Rockke L. Squelch, for 6 years and served on the founding Board of Directors of the international Collective of Lady Arm-Wrestlers, with whom she emceed the first-ever national SuperCLAW tournament.
Dr. Miller is a certified Artistic Mental Health Coordinator, certified teacher of the Michael Chekhov Technique, and a professional Intimacy Director and Care Specialist. She holds a BFA from Northern Kentucky University, an MFA from the University of Virginia, and a Ph.D. from The Ohio State University. Dr. Miller is also a proud crafter, cook, and sewist, dog parent to Phoebe, latent pianist, aspiring woodworker, clown-in-training, traveler, and avid spectator.