Brenda Bakker Harger is a theatre director (MFA, Carnegie Mellon University), Improviser, and Teaching Professor at Carnegie Mellon University’s Entertainment Technology Center where she teaches Improvisational Acting and leads diverse interdisciplinary projects which encompass a variety of technologies (VR, AR, XR, haptics, mobile, etc). Even so, her stance on technology will always be: there is no amount of technology that can fix a bad idea. Improv provides the tools that generates those ideas, the structure to relate narrative and experience, and the paradigm for smooth collaboration.
Bakker Harger also teaches in the Carnegie Bosch Institute in CMU’s Tepper School for international business executives to address leadership, marketing and communication practices through improvisational storytelling; and in Human Computer Interaction at CMU for improv as applied to design. She has conducted workshops nationally and internationally on improv, innovation, narrative and design.
As an improviser, Brenda has performed with Pittsburgh Theatresports and SAK Theatre, and she is also director of a unique award winning Theatre Company at Carnegie Mellon, which uses interactive theatre to address controversial issues in the workplace. Bakker Harger’s directing has focused primarily on new works, including directing and developing plays as technologically based Interactive experiences including Virtual Meditation #1 (Humana Festival) , and Full Spectrum (Ensemble Studio Theatre, New York). Recent Projects include exploring the intersection between Twitch and Improv, using live theatre to inform best practices in VR, and creating a theatre piece on gun control combining improv and mobile for Games For Change (New York).
