Irene Loy
Image credit: Elayna Snyder
Irene Loy is a theater maker, creative nonfiction essay writer, and university arts administrator living in Salt Lake City while she finishes her doctoral studies. She holds an MFA in Dramatic Writing from the University of New Mexico and an MA in Speech and Hearing Sciences from Indiana University-Bloomington. She has lived abroad in Canberra, Australia, and Vienna, Austria, and domestically in several US states.
She is the Research and Communications Director with Improv Medicine, an applied improvisation troupe, collaborating on improv workshops, classes, and performances. She was a short form team member with Santa Fe Improv and has practiced improv since 2016.
She has published a peer-reviewed article on psychogenic voice disorders in The Voice and Speech Review, a blog series titled Desire Multiplied on HowlRound, and several other blog posts on Truity, Live Taos, and Elephant Journal. Her first poetry chapbook, I’VE NAMED THE GODDAMNED RAVENS, was published in July 2023 by Common Meter Press. She has studied archetypes with Janet Rodgers at Virginia Commonwealth University, The Expressive Actor with Michael Lugering, and devised theatre with Imaginary Beasts, Tricklock Company, and Dell’Arte International.
Praxis statement:
Irene’s praxis begins with solo practice, as personal, embodied experience is core to her practice as research. Her solo practice centers on Archetype Play - embodying archetypes through mantras, psychological gestures, improvised and repeated movements and vocalizations, monologue and dialogue - and Applied Improvisation - the application of lessons from improvisation practice to daily life. Next, she facilitates workshops for other adults, so they may also play with embodying archetypal energies and practicing improvisation. The premise is that practice in workshop settings prepares adults for a greater sense of playfulness in their daily lives - just as meditation practice on the cushion or on retreat helps one to live a more centered daily existence. Alongside solo practice and workshop facilitation, Irene’s praxis includes reflective writing. This takes the form of autotheory essays, in that her personal experience with this praxis leads to insights, which she translates into creative nonfiction essay writing.
Current research interest:
Irene is interested in developing a feminist theory of humor with Archetype Play and Applied Improvisation as its foundations of praxis. From Jung, we know that archetypes are part of the collective unconscious and are therefore accessible to everyone. However, Jung was a product of his time, and while archetypal energies are timeless, there is a need for a 21st century articulation of relevant Archetype Play. Thus, from the panoply of archetypal energies accessible to human beings, Irene’s dissertation research focuses on embodied practice with the Receiver and Trickster archetypal energies in particular.
The focus of Irene’s dissertation is how we get the sacred joke about ourselves through embodied play. In particular, the push is toward applying improvisation to our rigid self-concepts/egos/identities, resulting in a more playful sense of self. Her feminist theory of humor is an interdisciplinary, embodied study pulling from Feminist Phenomenology, Buddhist Psychology, Autotheory, Play Theory, and Archetype Theory. Her collection of five autotheory essays, Getting the Sacred Joke About Ourselves: Receiving Trickster Wisdom in our Daily Lives, written as a companion to her dissertation, argues: taking oneself less seriously is a vital 21st century resilience skill.