Bio
Elaine Guo is from Greensboro-High Point, North Carolina with a double major in Political Science and Theater Studies. In her time at Duke, she has acted in Theater Studies productions of She Kills Monsters (Kaliope/Kelly) and GOOD, a new adaptation of Bertolt Brecht's The Good Person of Szechuan (Unemployed Person/Ensemble) written and directed by Theater Studies Artist-in-Residence Rebecca Wahls. Elaine has also worked with student-run productions in Duke Chinese Theater as Associate Director for Mr. Donkey and actor in The Visit, as well as Duke Players's Last Summer at Bluefish Cove (soundboard operator) and Playhouse Shorts (actor). Additionally, she had the incredible honor of serving as a puppeteer for 2024 Theater Studies alum Ivy Sun's Independent Study project Bloom in Rust and reading stage directions for 2024 Theater Studies alum Isa Mellody's Senior Distinction original play, Do I Know You? Outside of theater, Elaine has worked with Duke Chinese Dance as choreographer, Co-Showcase Chair and performer, and with Duke Chinese Music Ensemble as a musician and small group director. She was also a part of the team for Story+ 2022: Curating and Integrating New Visual and Sonic Experiences where she and three other students researched Duke University Musical Instruments Collections, redesigning its museum and creating the DUMIC website. Elaine would like to thank everyone in the Department of Theater Studies and its community for their endless encouragement and support, with special thanks to Professor Jeff Storer, her advisor, whose classes she has taken nearly all of, and who has been a guiding light since she took Acting 145S with him in her very first semester.
Academic Plans
- 1st Major in Political Science (A.B.)
- Concentration: Security, Peace and Conflict
- 2nd Major in Theater Studies (A.B.)
Awards
- 2025 Benenson Award in the Arts
- 2025, 2023 Forlines Family Theater Studies Grant
Mainstage
- She Kills Monsters (Kaliope/Kelly)
Study Away
- 2024 Kyoto JaLS (Japanese Language School)
- 2023 Duke in Los Angeles
- 2023 IES Abroad: Spain & Morocco
- 2023 Peking University, Guangha School of Management