Eero Laine
PhD
Director of Graduate Studies
Director of Graduate Theatre
Assistant Professor
Research Topics
Theatre Studies
Education
- PhD, The Graduate Center, City University of New York
- MA, New York University
- BA, St. Cloud State University
Bio
Eero Laine is the Director of Graduate Studies and an Assistant Professor in the Department of Theatre and Dance at the University at Buffalo, State University of New York. His first book Professional Wrestling and the Commercial Stage, engages the often peculiar performance form of professional wrestling to examine issues of labor, class, and the financial and global influence of live, popular entertainment. Eero is a co-editor of Performance and Professional Wrestling (2017), Professional Wrestling: Politics and Populism (2020), and Sports Plays (2022). His research has been published in GPS: Global Performance Studies, Performance Research, The Popular Culture Studies Journal, RiDE: Research in Drama Education, Text & Performance Quarterly, Theatre Journal, Theatre Topics, TDR: The Drama Review, and Women & Performance: A Journal of Feminist Theory, among others. He is the editor of the Journal of Dramatic Theory and Criticism and is one of the co-editors of Lateral, the journal of the Cultural Studies Association. At UB he teaches graduate and undergraduate courses in theatre history and theory and has directed Sophie Treadwell’s Machinal, Anne Washburn’s 10 Out of 12, and Jaclyn Backhaus’ Men on Boats.
Current Research
Books
Eero Laine and Broderick Chow, editors. Sports Plays. New York: Routledge, 2022.
Sharon Mazer, Heather Levi, Eero Laine, and Nell Haynes, editors. Professional Wrestling: Politics and Populism. Calcutta: Seagull Books/University of Chicago Press, 2020.
Eero Laine. Professional Wrestling and the Commercial Stage. New York: Routledge, 2020.
Broderick Chow, Eero Laine, and Claire Warden, editors. Performance and Professional Wrestling. New York: Routledge, 2017.
Recent Articles and Chapters
Eero Laine and Peter Zazzali. “Redirecting Canonicity: PhD Exams and Actor Training.” Troubling Traditions: Canonicity, Theatre, and Performance in the US, edited by Lindsey Mantoan, Matthew Moore, and Angela Farr Schiller. New York: Routledge, 2022.
Broderick Chow and Eero Laine, “Bad at Sports: An Introduction.” In Sports Plays, edited by Broderick Chow and Eero Laine. New York: Routledge 2022.
Broderick Chow and Eero Laine, “Afterword: Theatre, Sports, and Value.” In Sports Plays, edited by Broderick Chow and Eero Laine. New York: Routledge, 2022.
Shawn Chua, Sozita Goudouna, Adham Hafez, Eero Laine, Sarah Lucie, Juliana Martins Rodrigues de Moraes, Malin Palani, Rumen Rachev, and Leah Sidi. “Theatre Essentials in Three Acts: Collaboration, Care, Time." Theatre Topics 31, no. 2 (July 2021): 99–111.
Taylor Black, Shawn Chua, Eero Laine, Milton Lim, Rumen Rachev, Soo Ryon Yoon. “ElastiCity: Performance Studies and Theme Parks.” GPS: Global Performance Studies 4, no. 1 (2021).
Eero Laine. “No Men, No Boats: Directing and Dance Dramaturgy for Jaclyn Backhaus’ Men on Boats.” Theatre/Practice 8 (2020).
Eero Laine and Janet Werther. “Rehearsing Men on Boats: A Dialogue.” Theatre/Practice 8 (2020).
Felipe Cervera and Eero Laine. “The Planet, Everyday: Towards Collaborative Performance Studies.” Text and Performance Quarterly 40, no. 1 (2020): 90–107.
Eero Laine. “Kayfabe: Optimism, Cynicism, Critique.” In Professional Wrestling: Politics and Populism, edited by Sharon Mazer, Heather Levi, Eero Laine, and Nell Haynes, 192–206. Enactments. Richard Schechner, series editor. Calcutta: Seagull Books/University of Chicago Press, 2020.
Broderick Chow and Eero Laine. “Between Antagonism and Eros: The Feud as Couple Form and Netflix’s GLOW.” Women & Performance: A Journal of Feminist Theory 29, no. 3 (2019).
Eero Laine. “World Building in the WWE Universe.” In #WWE: Professional Wrestling in the Digital Age, edited by Dru Jeffries, 25–46. Bloomington, IN: Indiana University Press, 2019.
Jonathan Chambers, Eero Laine, K. Frances Lieder, Diana Looser, Beth Osborne, Heather Nathans, Danielle Rosvally, Kristen Wright. “What Comes Next?: Graduate Education, Contingent Labor & Professional Possibilities.” Theatre Topics 29, no. 2 (July 2019): 85–102.
Eero Laine. “Form and Violence: Beyond Theatrical Content.” The Routledge Companion to Theatre and Politics, edited by Peter Eckersall and Helena Grehan, 254–256. London: Routledge, 2019.
Maaike Bleeker, Eero Laine, and Sean Metzger. “How PSi Works: The Practice of Performance Studies.” Critical Stages (June 2019).
Claire Warden, Broderick Chow, and Eero Laine. “Working Loose: A Response to ‘Donald Trump Shoots the Match’ by Sharon Mazer.” TDR: The Drama Review 62, no. 2, T238 (Summer 2018): 201–215.
David Allen and Eero Laine. “The Integrated Spectator: Theatre Audiences and Pedagogy.” Research in Drama Education 23, no. 4 (2018): 598–612.
Eero Laine. “Professional Wrestling Scholarship: Legitimacy and Kayfabe.” The Popular Culture Studies Journal 6, no. 1 (2018): 82–99.
Felipe Cervera, Shawn Chua, João Florêncio, Eero Laine, and Evelyn Wan. “Thicker States.” GPS: Global Performance Studies 1, no. 1 (2017).
Eero Laine. “Stadium Sized Theatre: WWE and The World of Professional Wrestling” in Performance and Professional Wrestling, edited by Broderick Chow, Eero Laine, and Claire Warden, 39–47. London and New York: Routledge, 2017.
Editorships
Editor: Journal of Dramatic Theory and Criticism
Co-Editor: Lateral, the journal of the Cultural Studies Association