Internationally recognized as a groundbreaking theatre artist, educator and social activist, Joan Lipkin works at the intersection of performance and civic engagement, creating events and dialogues about the most pressing issues of our time including climate change, voting advocacy, disability, racial justice, gender equality, LGBTQ+ experience, gun sense, reproductive choice, and immigration reform.

Prior to the pandemic, she was dividing her time between St Louis, NYC and other parts of the US as well as Eastern Europe.

She regularly creates work with diverse populations, is an expert on rapid response theatre, and has contributed to or produced several national projects including Every 28 Hours, After Orlando and Climate Change Theatre Action.

She has created work with many different populations, including the LGBTQ+ community and their families, seniors, adults with Alzheimer’s and early stage dementia, college students, women with cancer, people with disabilities, survivors of suicide, women who have been sexually trafficked, people in recovery and communities of faith, among others.

Her play, “About that Chocolate Bar”, commissioned by Climate Change Theatre Action and published by The Arctic Cycle in Finding the Light, and has had almost 50 productions throughout the US and the world, including New Zealand and several places in Europe.

Most recently, she created a prototype for college campuses to study climate change and sustainability and create theatrical responses and has worked as a dramaturg about environmental racism with Ashleyliane Dance Company.

Joan founded Dance the Vote, a nonpartisan organization, in 2016 in the belief that voting is our most precious right and the cornerstone of democracy and that the arts are a pivotal way to engage the community. DTV creates graphics, videos and community events and commissions dance pieces to share accurate information and promote voter registration.

Joan is the Producing Artistic Director of That Uppity Theatre Company in St. Louis, Missouri where she founded the nationally acclaimed Alternate Currents/Direct Currents Series, The DisAbility Project, The Louies and Apple Pie. The company has received numerous honors including the IDEA award from Mindseye, John Van Voris Award for Community Service, two What’s Right with the Region Awards, one for Fostering Creativity for Social Change and one for Improving Racial Equality and Social Justice from Focus St. Louis, the Community Enhancement Award from the Governor’s Council on Disabilities, and the Midwest Gala Human Rights Campaign Organization Equality Award.

Joan has received numerous awards including the Lifetime Achievement Award from the St. Louis Theater Circle, a Visionary, The Bud Light Ultra Pride Award, Ethical Humanist of the Year, Leadership for Community-based Theatre and Civic Engagement, and a Woman of Achievement, among others.

Among many publications, her work is included or referenced in Embodied Playwriting: Improv and Acting Exercises for Writing and Devising, The Future is Not Fixed: Short Plays Envisioning a Global Green New Deal, Scenes from a Diverse World, Best American Short Plays, Amazon All Stars, Upstaging Big Daddy: Directing as if Race and Gender Matter, Radical Acts: Theater, Feminist Pedagogies of Change, HowlRound, American Theatre, Theatre Topics, New Theatre Quarterly, Dramatists Guild, National Women’s Studies Association, The Journal of Literary & Cultural Disability Studies, and many other publications. She is profiled in 50 Key Figures in Queer US Theatre.

Her work has been published and presented throughout the United States, Canada, Great Britain, Ireland, Europe, Australia, and Asia, and has been featured on network television, National Public Radio, the BBC and the Associated Press.