Natashya Armer-Giardina
Natashya Giardina
Assistant Part-Time Professor, Department of Theatre and Performance Studies
M. F. A. Acting, Northern Illinois University
B. F. A. Acting, Virginia Commonwealth University
Natashya Giardina has taught in Kennesaw State University’s Department of Theatre & Performance Studies since 2006. Her primary teaching has centered on Arts in Society: Theatre & Performance (formerly Theatre in Society), an introductory course that explores theatre through artistic, historical, social, cultural, and aesthetic perspectives. She has also taught introductory acting for non-majors and is currently teaching Advanced Acting: Styles, an upper-level acting course exploring Commedia dell’Arte, Goldoni, historical style, physical characterization, heightened language, and text-based performance.
In her teaching, Professor Giardina encourages students to move beyond plot and consider what actually happens in performance—the choices made by actors, directors, and designers and how those choices create meaning for an audience. Whether working with students encountering theatre for the first time or actors working with historical style and heightened language, she emphasizes close observation, thoughtful analysis, clear communication, and the connection between theatre and the larger human experience.
Professor Giardina developed the first fully online course in KSU’s College of the Arts, adapting Theatre in Society for online instruction while maintaining its focus on performance and active engagement. The course design became a departmental template for other faculty teaching the course online. Her work in online education has included Quality Matters certification and service as a Quality Matters peer reviewer. In 2017, she received the Kennesaw State University Part-Time Faculty Award.
Her training includes an MFA in Acting and Theatre from Northern Illinois University and a BFA in Acting and Theatre from Virginia Commonwealth University. She also completed intensive international training at the Moscow Art Theatre in Russia and the Oxford School of Drama in England. At the Moscow Art Theatre, she performed in an adaptation of Aristophanes’ The Birds, and her Oxford training culminated in a Theatre for Young Audiences production presented during a three-week run at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe.
Her teaching and creative work extend beyond the university through theatre education and community arts. She has taught theatre, drama, public speaking, and debate at the elementary and secondary levels and has directed and developed original work with young performers. She also serves on the board of Acworth Cultural Arts, where she helps develop and produce theatre, storytelling, comedy, literary, and music programming and works to connect artists and audiences within the surrounding community.
Across her teaching, performance, and community work, Professor Giardina is particularly interested in how theatre helps people see differently, communicate more thoughtfully, and better understand the cultures, communities, and experiences around them.
