Madeline Fanton

Madeline Fanton studied acting at UC Irvine before completing a Master’s degree in
Theater Studies at California State University, Northridge. In 2024, she received her
Ph.D. in Theater and Performance Studies from UC Santa Barbara where her research
examined the relationship between performance, memory, and nationalism in the United
States during the period between the World Wars. She has presented her scholarship at
the American Society for Theatre Research, American Theater in Higher Education, and
the Midwest Popular Culture Association. Her chapter titled “A Soldier’s Journey in
Washington, D.C. : Performance and Forgetting in the Development of a New National
WWI Memorial,” will be included in Public Spaces of Performance, Trauma, Mourning, and
Remembrance: In Memoriam (forthcoming).

Madeline has a wide range of teaching experience from acting to performance studies
to dramatic literature. At Westmont, Madeline teaches Great Literature of the Stage,
Theater History, Race and Gender on the American Stage, and Modern and
Contemporary Drama.

Before coming to Westmont, Madeline served as an Assistant Director and Education
Director for local UCSB theater group, Naked Shakes, helping to bring Shakespeare to
the stage and to local high school students.

On the Westmont stage, Madeline has directed Poor Clare by Chiara Atik and curated
the Interdisciplinary Play Reading Series featuring the work of Lauren Gunderson (Ada
and the Engine) and Larissa Fasthorse (The Thanksgiving Play). She will be directing
again on the Westmont main stage in Spring 2026.