Dr. Joy Brooke Fairfield (she/they) is a professor and media-maker dedicated to supporting projects that aim at collective liberation. Trained as a director, Dr. Fairfield contributes to live performance, independent film/video, and community organizing. Her academic scholarship focuses on cross-platform performances of queer intimacy, consent, and repair in the midst of ongoing indigenous dispossession and racial capitalism. Dr. Fairfield is a member of the Society for Directors and Choreographers (SDC) and an alumnx of the Drama League Director’s Project, Dell' Arte International, Harvard University (BA), New York University (MA) and Stanford University (PhD) where their 2016 dissertation won the Charles R. Lyons Memorial Prize. They edited a special issue on Intimacy Choreography in the Journal for Dramatic Theory and Criticism in 2019 and serves as a guiding faculty member with Theatrical Intimacy Education (TIE) where she educates others on best practices for onstage/onscreen intimacy. Recent directing projects include Earth as Lover: An Ecosex Walking Tour at the Bundesgartenschau in Mannheim, Germany, and Ecosex in the City at P.S. 122 in New York City, with performance artists Annie Sprinkle and Beth Stephens. Local work in Memphis includes intimacy choreography and coordination for theatre and film and co-directing As One, a new opera based on a transgender woman's journey towards peace under the Northern Lights, which was staged at Crosstown Theatre with Opera Memphis.
Recent/ongoing creative collaborations:
- As One (2019), Pretty Little Room (2026)
Knight & Brinegar - Hissifit (2019), Sloppy Bonnie (2021), Doomsurfing (in development)
- Ecosex Walking Tours & Ecosex Weddings (ongoing)
Publications:
Journal Articles (Print)
Fairfield, Joy Brooke. “” in Performance Research 29.6 On Extremis, Spring 2025
Fairfield, Joy Brooke and Veronica Vera. “” in Ecumenica, Spring 2025
Fairfield, Joy Brooke, Heath Pennington, Raja Benz. “” in Theatre Topics, Spring 2025
Fairfield, Joy Brooke. “” in Journal of Dramatic Theory and Criticism, 38, no. 2 (2024): 13-28
Fairfield, Joy Brooke. “" Journal of Consent Based Performance 2:2 (2023)
Fairfield, Joy Brooke. “.” Performance Research 27.1: On Protest (2023).
Fairfield, Joy Brooke and Robin Laverne Wilson. “ PAJ: A Journal of Performance and Art (Vol 44, Issue 4, Dec 2022).
Fairfield, Joy Brooke, Krista Knight, and Barry Brinegar. “.” Studies in Musical Theatre 15, no. 1 (2021): 25–40.
Fairfield, Joy Brooke, and Enzo Vasquez Toral (and Penelope Sumac). “.” Ecumenica 13, no. 1 (2020): 81.
Fairfield, Joy Brooke. “.” Journal of Dramatic Theory and Criticism 34, no. 1 (2019): 67–75.
Fairfield, Joy Brooke, Tonia Sina, Laura Rikard, and Kaja Dunn. “.” Journal of Dramatic Theory and Criticism 34, no. 1 (2019): 77–85.
Book Chapters (Print)
"Not For Profit Pornography and the Benevolent Spectator" in Showing off, showing up: Studies of hype, heightened performance, and Cultural Power. Eds Frederik, L. A., Marra, K., Schuler, C. University of Michigan Press, 2017, pp 255-271
"As Hollow as A Drum: Actor Training the Adishakti Way" in The Theatre of Veenapani Chawla: Theory, Practice, Performance. Ed Shanta Gokhale. Oxford University Press. 2013, pp 277 - 299
"Becoming Mouse, Becoming Man: The Sideways Growth of Princess Mouseskin" in Transgressive Tales: Reading Queer and Trans in Traditional Fairytales, Eds Kay Turner and Pauline Greenhill, Wayne State University Press, 2012, pp 223- 244
"Cuddle Parties™: The Queer Potential of Metonymic Relationality” in Queering Paradigms III: Queer Impact and Practices. Eds Kathleen O’Mara and Liz Morrish, Peter Lang, 2013 pp 201 - 229
Education
MA in Performance Studies (NYU);
BA (Harvard)
