Alison M. Mahoney (they/she) is a PhD candidate in Theatre and Performance Studies. Their dissertation, “Nonspeaking: Performances of Crip Collectivity” explores the ways disability performance collectives reconfigure the relationship between speech and personhood through performance.
Alison is also a theatre director and creative access worker. Most recently, they directed the regional premiere of Will Arbery’s play Corsicana at PittStages, incorporating access aesthetics throughout the production. (Listen to a WQED podcast interview about Corsicana). They are currently working as the access coordinator for Sensorium Ex (dir. Jay Scheib and Jerron Herman), a new opera by composer Paola Prestini that centers questions of disability and voice. Sensorium Ex will premiere in May 2025 at the Common Senses Festival in Omaha.
Alison was the founding Artistic Director of New York-based Bluelaces Theater Company, which creates sensory theater for neurodiverse young audiences. Alison directed the devising processes for Bluelaces’ productions Out There! (2015) and SUDS (2018), which was produced at the American Repertory Theatre and at Lincoln Center Education. Under Alison’s artistic direction, Bluelaces received the Winnifred Ward Award for Outstanding New Children’s Theatre Company from the American Alliance for Theatre in Education (AATE) in 2019. Alison has worked with many arts and culture organizations as an arts administrator, access consultant, and teaching artist, including Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts (New York), Trusty Sidekick Theatre Company (New York), Museum, Arts, and Culture Access Consortium (MAC) (New York), CO/LAB Theater Group (New York), Stage Beyond (Derry, Northern Ireland), and Evolve Coaching (Pittsburgh).
Alison’s scholarship has been published in Theatre Research International and Theatre Survey, and they have presented at several national and international conferences. They hold an MA in Contemporary Performance Practice from Ulster University (Derry, Northern Ireland) and a BS in Theatre and Gender Studies from Northwestern University (Evanston, Illinois).
Research Interests
Disability Studies, Crip Theory, Queer and Feminist Theory, Contemporary Performance, Participatory Theatre, Freak Studies
Education & Training
- M.A. Contemporary Performance Practice, Ulster University (Derry, Northern Ireland), 2020
- B.S. Theatre, Theatre for Young Audiences concentration, Northwestern University (Evanston, IL), 2014
- B.S. Gender Studies, Northwestern University (Evanston, IL), 2014
- Disability Arts New York Bootcamp (with Dr. Simi Linton and Dr. Kevin Gotkin, New York, NY, 2019)
- Training for Artists and Administrators in Creative Aging, The Creative Center at University Settlement (New York, NY, 2018)
- Training in Sensory Theatre for Autistic Audiences (with Tim Webb and Claire De Loon of Oily Cart, New York, NY, 2015)
