Dr. David krasner


Home: (508) 747 4635; cell & text (203) 668 6910
KrasnerD@aol.com
www.davidkrasner.com

Professional Academic Experience

Chair of Theatre, Five Towns College 2018 –Present

Visiting Professor, Tufts University Fall, 2017
• Teaching Graduate Seminar in African American Theatre

Professor & Dean of the School of the Arts, Dean College 2012 – 2017
• Operating a 1 million dollar annual budget (which includes operational costs and salaries)
•65K theatre production budget, allocating four productions; overseeing three programs (Theatre, Communications, and Arts and Entertainment Managements) and two arts course offerings (Art & Music); working with the development department on grants and fundraising
• Overseeing a faculty of six fulltime, three parttime, and multiple adjuncts; work under the Vice President of Academic Affairs; member of the College’s Academic Council
• Serving on various committees for the betterment of the College in areas of faculty governance and student recruitment
• Initiated the senior showcase in New York for agents and casting directors

 

Assistant Professor of Theater, Head, MFA Directing Program, Southern Illinois University, Carbondale, IL 1995-1997
• Graduate Curriculum
• Recruitment and retention

Associate Professor,Head of Acting, Emerson College 2007 - 2012
• Curriculum and Faculty promotion and tenure (9 fulltime faculty, multiple adjuncts)
• Recruitment, retention, and faculty governance

Yale University
Associate Prof. (Adj.) - English, Theater Studies, African American Studies 1997-2007
Director of Undergraduate Theater Studies (1997-2003)
• Undergraduate curriculum and faculty governance; policy agendas.

Visiting Professor, Tufts University 2004
• Graduate Instructor of African American Theatre

 

Assistant Professor of Theatre, University of Idaho 1993-1995
• Instructor of theatre history, acting, and directing

Instructor, American Academy of Dramatic Arts (NY) 1978-1987
• Acting (beginning and advanced)
• Voice, speech, and movement
• Feldenkrais & Alexander Technique

Education:

(1974) B.F.A., Carnegie Mellon University
(Student of Jewel Walker, Edith Skinner, Israel Hicks, B. H. Barry, John Pasquin, Larry Carra, Leon Katz, James Rosenberg, Moshe Feldenkrais, Morty Lawner, Earle Gister)
(1990) M.F.A., Virginia Commonwealth University
(1996) Ph. D., Tufts University

Plays Written:

Lillie and Lou: finalist for the Joseph Kesselring award (1982); presented in a workshop at the Actors Studio in 1983 (directed by Estelle Parsons), and another production directed by Doug Moston also in 1983; another presented at the University of Idaho in 1995.

Membership in Professional Associations:

International Council of Fine Arts Deans
Actors Equity
Screen Actors Guild
AFTRA
Lifetime Member of the American Theatre and Drama Society

NYC Training:

Acting Classes with Paul Mann, Kim Stanley, Barbara Loden, Stella Adler (attended lectures on text analysis), Morty Lawner (Meisner Technique)
Studied Alexander Technique at the Alexander Technique Center and then private lessons w/ Pam Anderson

Directing

Play Directed at Dean College
DNA, by Dennis Kelly, 2013
Plays Directed at Emerson College
As You Like It (Greene Theatre, 2008)
Pancake Stories (Greene Theatre, 2008), an adaptation from the short stories of Breece D’J Pancake
Plays Directed as YaleUniversity:
Fool for Love(April 1998)
The Independence of Eddie Rose, by William S. Yellow Robe, Jr., Yale University Undergraduate Program (Oct., 1998) (see the publication, Seventh Generation: An Anthology of Native American Plays, p. 43, which notes this performance)
HeddaGabler (Feb. 1999)
Top Girls (March 2002)

Plays Directed at Southern Illinois University:
Into the Woods (Spring 1996)
Angels in America, Part 1, (Fall, 1996)
Plays Directed at the University of Idaho:
As You Like It (1994)
Miss Julie (1995)
Plays Directed at the American Academy of Dramatic Art:
Journey of the Fifth Horse (1985)
Journey to the Day (1984)
Under Milkwood (1983)
SzweiBanzi is Dead (1982)
Drums in the Night (1981)
Bintel's Brief (original adaptation) (1980)
The Right Honorable Gentleman (1979)
Story Theatre (1978)

Editorial Advisory Board

Stanislavsky Studies (2014 - )
African American Review (since 1995)
Theatre Annual (1997-2010)
Text & Presentation: Journal of the Comparative Drama Conference (2000-2010)
Theatre Journal (2003-2018)
Theatre Survey (2004-2006)
New England Theatre Journal (since 2005)
ProQuest (online)
Literary Encyclopedia (online)

Teaching Awards & Honors

Betty Jean Jones Award from the American Theatre and Drama Society, 2008, for the best teacher of American theatre and drama.
Twice recipient of the Errol Hill Award from the American Society for Theatre Research (1998, 2002), for the best book on African American Theatre.
Dow Scholar, Michigan State University at Saginaw, April 2003.
Received $2000 Grant to teach an Honors Seminar, "Women in Theatre," at the University of Idaho, 1995.
Hilles Fund (Yale University) six times awarded funds for conference support.

Representative Sample of Roles

2011 Eddie Carbone, A View from the Bridge, Buzzards Play Production, Wareham, MA
The performance can be seen on YouTube
(DavidKrasner.AViewfromtheBridge)
2009 Ernest in Bedroom Farce, by Alan Ayckbourn, Plymouth Community Theatre
2008 Staged Reading for Blue Fire on the Water, a play about the Katrina Crisis, BostonCenter for the Arts, dir. Maureen Shea
2007 Staged Reading of TheWaldorf Conference, role of Harry Cohn, Emerson Stage, dir. Maureen Shea
1988-1990 MFA Program in Acting (VCU) (sample of roles)
Boyet inLoves Labor’s Lost
Donald in Christopher Hampton’s The Philanthropist
1987 Within the Year, original play by Sheila Walsh, at the American Theatre for Actors, 314 W 54th St. NY, leading role opposite Catherine Burns, Academy Award nominee.
1986 Peter in The Wise Have Not Spoken, by Paul Vincent Carroll, 18th St.Playhouse, New York
1885 Lorenzo in The Merchant of Venice, The Jewish Repertory Theatre
Son in an (NYU) Independent Film, Going to War
1984 Gloves, an original play by me, 28th St.Playhouse, New York

1983 Roy, in Domino Court, Ensemble Studio Theatre, New York
1980-2 Actor member of the company of the New York Theatre Exchange
Sample of major roles —
Andy Kragler, in Brecht’s Drums in the Night
Andy Mayo in O’Neill’s Beyond the Horizon
1979 National Television commercial for Enderin, an aspirin product
1978 Baal, in Brecht’s Baal, New York Theatre Workshop/Wonderhorse Theatre
1977 Ensemble in Megan Terry’s Comings and Goings (touring)
1976 The Son in Drew Kalter’sThe Farewell Party, an original play, The Theatre for the New City (Jane St.)
1975 Original Children’s Musical, Try Not to Love Such a Country, The New Federal Theatre, New York
1974 Stanley Kowalski, A Streetcar Named Desire, Pittsburgh Summer Playhouse/Red Barn Theatre, directed by Norman Rene (director of Prelude to a Kiss)
1973 Alabama Shakespeare Festival:
Don Juan in Much Ado About Nothing
Macduff in Macbeth
Corin in As You Like It

Sample of Classes Taught

Acting & Directing (Advanced, Intermediate, Beginner – Graduate and Undergraduate level)
Voice & Speech (nine years at the American Academy of Dramatic Arts)
Shakespeare: advanced seminars in acting and directing
Theatre and Philosophy: advanced seminar on the intersection of theatre and philosophy
Dramatic Theory and Criticism: advanced seminar from the Greeks to the present
African American Theatre, Drama, and Performance (Graduate and Undergraduate): advanced seminar from minstrelsy/African Grove Theatre to the present, examining drama and performance studies

Survey of Theatre and Drama: introductory lecture course, history of theatre and examining selected dramatic literature and performance
Five American Playwrights: advanced seminar on Mamet, Shepard, August Wilson, Kushner, and Vogel
Five British Playwrights: advanced seminar on Pinter, Stoppard, Bond, Churchill, and Sarah Kane
Ibsen, Strindberg, and Chekhov: advanced seminar on the playwrights and their impact on modern drama
Expressionism: advanced seminar examining German Expressionism and Brecht, and their influence on American Expressionism.
Edward Albee: advanced seminar

Scholarly Articles in Journals

“Expectation, Melancholy, and Loss: Funnyhouse of a Negro and Dutchman in 1964,” Theatre Journal, forthcoming, March 2019.
“Harold Pinter and Postmodern Jewish Philosophy,” Modern Drama 56.4 (Winter 2013): 498-520.
“The Genius of Bob Cole,” African American Review 44.1-2 (Spring/Summer 2011): 9-11.
“DarkTower and the Saturday Nighters: Two Directions in African American Drama,” American Studies 49: 1/2 (Spring-Summer 2008): 5-30.
"African American Theatre: State of the Profession," special 50th anniversary issue, Theatre Survey 47.2 (November 2006): 191-2.
"The Theatre of Shepard Randolph Edmonds," New England Theatre Journal 16 (2005): 21-42.
"Forum on African American Theatre," Theatre Journal 57.4 (December 2005): 585-87.
"What is a Black Play: American Theatre and African Diaspora," conducted by Harry Elam, Text and Presentation: The Journal of Comparative Drama 24 (2003): 161-191.
"Migration, Fragmentation, and Identity: Zora Neale Hurston's Color Struck and the Geography of the Harlem Renaissance." Theatre Journal 53.4 (December 2001): 533-550.
"Deviancy in a Deviant Society: The Labeling Process in Miguel Piñero'sShort Eyes." Text & Presentation: The Journal of Comparative Drama 19 (1998): 70-9.
"Walter Benjamin and the Lynching Play: Allegory and Mourning in Angelina Weld Grimké'sRachel." Text & Presentation: The Journal of Comparative Drama 18 (1997): 64-80.
"Re-writing the Body: Aida Overton Walker and the Social Formation of Cakewalking." Theatre Survey 37.2 (November 1996): 66-92.
"'The Mirror Up To Nature': Modernist Aesthetics and Racial Authenticity in African American Theatre, 1895-1900." Theatre History Studies 16 (June 1996): 117-140.
"Whose Role Is It, Anyway?: Charles Gilpin and the Harlem Renaissance." African American Review 29.3 (Fall 1995): 483-496.
"Realism in Theory: Ibsen's Silent Debt to Hermann Hettner." Text & Presentation: Journal of the Comparative Drama Conference 26 (1995): 61-66.
"Parody and Double Consciousness in the Language of Early Black Musical Theatre." African American Review 29.2 (Summer 1995): 317-323.
"Theory, Contrast, and Opposition: Hermann Hettner’sDas Moderne Drama and the Hegelian Dialectic." Text & Presentation: Journal of the Comparative DramaConference 25 (1994): 47-52.
"The Symbolic Function of Sleeping and Awakening in Chekhov’s Uncle Vanya." Theatre Studies 39 (1994): 5-18.
"Charles S. Gilpin: The Actor before the Emperor." The Journal of American Drama and Theatre 4.3 (Fall 1992): 62-75.

Scholarly Articles in Books

“Drama in the 1960s,” Cambridge Companion to American Literature: 1960s, forthcoming, 2018.
“Forward,” Acting in the Academy: The History of Professional Actor Training in US Higher Education, by Peter Zazzali, Routledge, 2017.
“Stanislavsky’s System, Sense/Emotion Memory, and Physical Action: American Interpretations of the System’s Legacy,” The Routledge Companion to Stanislavsky, Andy White, ed., Routledge 2013.
“The Real Thing,” Beyond Blackface, University of North Carolina Press, ed. W. Fitzhugh Brundage, 2011.
"Method Acting: Strasberg, Adler, Meisner,"Twentieth-Century Actor Training, Alison Hodge, ed. London: Routledge, 2010, 2nd edition.
"Coming-of-Age on the Rez: William S. Yellow Robe's The Independence of Eddie Rose and the Native American Bildungsdrama," Native American Drama, edited by S. Wilmer, University of Arizona Press, 2009.
"Jitney," The Cambridge Companion to August Wilson, ed. Chris Bigsby, Cambridge UP, 2007, 158-168.
"Early Black Female Dramatists," an Introduction to African American Female Dramatists, ed. Philip Kolin, Routledge, 2007, 9-27.
"Calamity," an Introduction to essays on Considering Calamity: Methods for Performance Research, ed. Linda Ben-Zvi& Tracy C. Davis, Tel Aviv: Assaph Books, 2007, 1-12.
"Drama of the Harlem Renaissance," The Cambridge History of the Harlem Renaissance, ed. George Hutchinson, CambridgeUniversity Press, 2007, 57-70.
“Stonewall, 'Constant Historical Progress,' and Angels in America: The Neo-Hegelian Positivist Sense," Tony Kushner: New Essays on the Art and Politics of the Plays, ed. James Fisher, McFarland 2006, 98-111.
"Empathy and Theater," Staging Philosophy: New Approaches to Theater and Performance, edited by David Krasner and David Z. Saltz, University of Michigan Press, 255-77.
“Introduction,” Staging Philosophy (co-writer), see above.
"EugeneO'Neill: American Drama and American Modernism," Blackwell Companion to Twentieth-Century American Drama, Krasner, ed. London: Blackwell, 2005, 142-158.
“Introduction,” Blackwell Companion to Twentieth-Century American Drama, see above.
"Dialogics and Dialectics: Bakhtin, Young Hegelians, and Dramatic Theory," Bakhtin: Ethics and Mechanics, edited by Valerie Nolan, Northwestern University Press, 2004: 3-31.
"Black Salome: Exoticism, Dance, and Racial Myth," and "Afterward: Change is Coming," African American Performance and Theater History: A Critical Reader, Elam & Krasner, ed. (Oxford, 2001): 192-211, 345-350.
"Method Acting: Strasberg, Adler, Meisner,"Twentieth-Century Actor Training, Alison Hodge, ed. London: Routledge, 2000, 129-50 (1st edition).
"I Hate Strasberg: Method Bashing in the Academy," an Introduction to Method Acting Reconsidered, Krasner, ed. (St. Martin's 2000): 1-40.
"'The Pageant Is the Thing': Black Nationalism and The Star of Ethiopia," Performing America, J. Ellen Gainor and Jeffrey Mason, ed., University of Michigan Press, 1999, 106-22.
Biographical Entries of Bob Cole and Will Marion Cook in American National Biography. OxfordUniversity Press, 1999, (Cole) 203-4, (Cook) 390-1.

Letters to the Editor, Interviews

“Whose Method?” Times Literary Supplement, 29 October 2010: 6.
“The Ones Who Came First,” New York Times, 25 Jan. 2009: 2, 38.
"Classic Fours," New York Times, 6 March 2005, Art Section, 4.
"Behind the Blackface," Letter to the Editor, American Theatre, April 2004: 3.
"Grotowski: Hardly an Exception," Letter to the Editor, New York Times, Arts and Leisure, 27 August 2000, 2.

"Method Acting and Shakespeare," Letter to the Editor, Chronicle of Higher Education, September 3, 1999, B13.
"Should Peer Gynt Also Be Denied?" Letter to the Editor, New York Times, Sunday, 2 February 1992, Arts & Leisure Section.
"Stupid Plays and Other Things,” Letter to the Editor, TDR 39.4 (Winter 1995): 14-15.
Interview: "Charlotta Kauffman - Actress in According to Coyote." Native Playwrights" Newsletter 3 (Fall 1993): 9-12.

Conference Papers

“Jazz Acting,” Univ. of Kansas, September 29, 2007, invited speaker to the graduate symposium.
“Aaron Douglas and the Arts of the Harlem Renaissance,” Univ. of Kansas, September 30, 2007, invited speaker.
“Tell Your Story: The Legacy of August Wilson,” Univ. of Maryland, March 2007, invited speaker.
“August Wilson in Retrospective: A Circumscribed Black Space,” Modern Language Association, 2006.
“Publishing American Society" for Theatre Research, 2006
“Publishing for Senior Scholars,” Association for Theatre in Higher Education, 2006
All-Conference Respondent for a conference on "Calamity," sponsored by NorthwesternUniversity (by invitation), September-October, 2005.
"Directing and Theory," Association for Theatre in Higher Education, 2005.
“Stonewall, 'Constant Historical Progress,' and Angels in America: The Neo-Hegelian
Positivist Sense,"
Conference on American Drama, Kansas City, March 3-5, 2005
"Authenticity and Experience: Zora Neale Hurston's 'Characteristics of Negro Expression' (1934) and Black Performance," Association for Theatre in Higher Education, 2004. "Fresh Prints" series (by invitation).
"Avant Garde Now!" Association for Theatre in Higher Education, 2004.
Presiding Chair (2 Panels) “Realism and Anti-Realism in American Drama,”Modern Language Association, December 2004. Also, liaison to Modern Language Association for the American Society for Theatre and Drama.
Presiding Chair and Respondent: "Modernism and American Drama and Theater," Modern Language Association, 27 December 2003. Also, liaison to Modern Language Association for the American Society for Theatre and Drama.
"Jumping at the Sun: Reassessing the Life and Works of Zora Neale Hurston," BarnardCollege, Oct. 2-5 2003(by invitation).
"Performers and the Harlem Renaissance," Chicago Humanities Festival: The Life of Eubie Blake, June 21-26, 2003 (by invitation—I also served the festival for a week as daily guide, introducing speakers and moving the proceedings along).
"African American Theatre: A Roundtable Discussion," Comparative Drama Conference, OhioStateUniversity, April 25-27, 2002 (by invitation).
"Blood and Seed: August Wilson's Piano Lesson," University of Maryland, Conference on Slavery and African American literature, April 2002 (by invitation).
"Directing The Independence of Eddie Rose," Indians' Indian, Conference at CornellUniversity, March 2002 (by invitation).
"Alain Locke and Dramatic Theory," American Society for Theatre Research, November 2001.
"Shuffle Along and the Quest for Nostalgia," American Studies Association, November 2001).
"Men in Black and White: The Heavyweight Prizefight of 1910," Association for Theatre in Higher Education, August, 2001.
"Workshop: Meisner Technique," Association for Theatre in Higher Education, August 2000.
"Black Performance and the Harlem Renaissance: Nationalism & Identity in African American Theatre," Graduate Colloquium, TuftsUniversity, December 2, 1999.
"The Poetics of Silence: Subtext in HeddaGabler." Ibsen Society, Association for Theatre in Higher Education, Toronto (July, 1999).
"Directing: A Workshop." Association for Theatre in Higher Education, Toronto (July, 1999)

"Job Search Panel." Association for Theatre in Higher Education, San Antonio, TX (August, 1998).
"'Ain't I a Dancer?': Ethel Waters' Shimmy Dance and the Working Class." American Society for Theatre Research, Seminar Panel, San Antonio, TX (November, 1997).
"The Banner of Freedom: Marcus Garvey and the Performance of Black Nationalism." Paper on the 1920 UNIA convention. Third Annual Performance Studies Conference, (Atlanta, 1997).
"Mourning, Allegory and the Baroque: Reading Walter Benjamin's Trauerspiel in Angelina Weld Grimké'sRachel." Comparative Drama Conference, University of Florida (March, 1997).
"'Have You Ever Seen Anyone Stick So Close to a Cracker?': Parody and Romance in Williams and Walker's Abyssinia." American Studies Association (November 1996).
"The Shoo Fly Regiment and the Semiotics of Laughter." American Society for Theatre Research, Seminar Panel (November 1996).
"Authority for Graduate Directors." Panel Chair, Association for Theatre in Higher Education (August 1996).
"Aesthetics or Historicity?: Zufall and Notwendigkeit in Mid-Nineteenth Century German Dramatic Theory." Text & Presentation, Comparative Drama Conference, University of Florida (March 1996).
"Native Themes by Non-Native Authors." Association for Theatre in Higher Education (August 1995).
"Diversity in the Canon: The Role of the Dramaturge as Multiculturalist." Association for Theatre in Higher Education (August 1995).
"Re-writing the Body: Aida Overton Walker and the Social Formation of Cakewalking." The First Annual Performance Studies Conference (March 1995).
"Modernist Aesthetics and Racial Authenticity in African American Theatre." Mid-America Theatre Conference (March 1995).
"Signs, Codes, and Parody in Early Black Musical Theatre." National Conference on African American Theatre (April 1995).
"Realism in Theory: Ibsen's Silent Debt to Hermann Hettner." Text & Presentation Conference, University of Florida (March 1995).
"Crisis and Language in Black Musical Theatre at the Turn of the Century." Seminar Panel, American Society for Theatre Research (November 1994).
"The Trickster Image in Native American Drama." Association for Theatre in Higher Education (July 1994).
"Text and Performance Text: Beckett's Endgame as a Paradigm of Conflict." Speech Communication's Association (November, 1994).
"Staging the Body, Voicing the Rage: Aida Overton’s Experimentation in Drama and Dance." American Drama Panel, Northeast Modern Language Association (April 1994).
"Cross-Gender Casting in Shakespeare’s As You Like It." Northwest Drama Conference (February 1994).
"Turn of the Century African American Performers and the Strategy of Cultural Expropriation." American Popular Culture Association (April 1994).
"Theory, Contrast, and Difference: Hermann Hettner’sDas moderne Drama and the Hegelian Dialectic." Text & Presentation Conference (March 1994).
"Deviance in a Deviant Society: Prison Drama and the Labeling Process." Seminar Panel, American Society for Theatre Research (November 1993).
"Problems in Biographing Charles Gilpin." Mid-American Theatre Conference (March 1993).
"Charles S. Gilpin: The Actor before the Emperor." Association for Theatre in Higher Education (August 1991).

Book Reviews

Vaudeville Melodies: Popular Musicians and Mass Entertainment in American Culture, 1870-1929, forthcoming in American Historical Review, 2018.
Analytic Philosophy and the World of Play, by Michael Y. Bennett, forthcoming in Theatre Journal, March 2018 issue.
Tragedy and Dramatic Theatre, by Hans-Thies Lehmann, Theatre Journal 69.1 (March 2017): 121-2.
Tragic Modernities, by Merian Leonard, and Adorno and Modern Theatre, by Karoline Gritzer, Theatre Journal 63.3 (Sept. 2016): 499-501.
Art, Vision, and Nineteenth-Century Realist Theatre: Acts of Seeing, by Amy Holzpfel, Theatre Survey 57.2 (May 2016): 284-6.
The Theatrical Public Sphere, by Christopher Balme, Theatre Journal 67.4 (Dec. 2015): 749-50.
The Cambridge Companion to African American Theatre, Harvey Young, ed., TDR, 2014.
Whiting Up: Whiteface Minstrels and Stage Europeans in African American Performance, by Marvin McAllister, African American Review, 2014.
August Strindberg: A Biography, by Sue Prideaux, and the two-volume translation of Strindberg’s plays, commissioned by Theatre Journal 65.4 (Dec. 2013): 605-7.
Acting: The Gister Method, by Joseph Alberti, Theatre Topics 23.1 (March 2013): 111-2.
Philosophy and Thespians: Thinking Performance, by Freddie Rokem, Modern Drama 55.2 (Summer 2012): 280-3.
Swing Along: The Musical Life of Will Marion Cook, by Marva Griffin Carter, African American Review 44.1-2 (Spring/Summer 2012): 285-86.
The Art of the Actor: The Essential History of Acting, from Classical Times to the Present Day, by Jean Benedetti, &Stanislavski in Practice: Exercises for Students, by Nick O’Brien, Theatre Topics, September, 2011.
Alain Locke: The Biography of a Philosopher, Leonard Harris & Charles Molesworth, African American Review 43.4 (Winter 2009): 759-760.
Slave Songs and the Birth of African American Poetry, by Lauri Ramey, African American Review 43.4 (Winter 2009) 760-61.
Stanislavsky in America, by Mel Gordon, Theatre Topics 20.2 (Sept. 2010): 193-4.
Theatre Arts on Acting, Laurence Senelick, ed., Theatre History Studies 30 (2010): 262-4.
The Scene of Harlem Cabaret: Race, Sexuality, Performance, by Shane Vogel, Modernism/Modernity 17.2 (April 2010): 445-6.
Ira Aldridge: The African Roscius, African American Review 43.1, BernthLindfors, ed. (Spring 2009): 202-3.
The American Play, by Marc Robinson, Theatre Journal 62.1 (March 2010): 126-7.
Forgeries of Memory and Meaning: Blacks and The Regimes of Race in American Theater and Film Before World War II, Theatre Research International, 2010.
The Stanislavsky System of Acting, Rose Whyman, Theatre Journal 61.2 (May 2009): 343-4.
Babylon Girls: Black Women Performers and the Shaping of the Modern, by Jana Brown, American Historical Review (June 2009): 793-4.
Rethinking Tragedy, ed. Rita Felski, Theatre Journal 60.3 (October 2008): 514-15.
Theatre of Estrangement: Theatre, Practice, Ideology, by SilvijaJestrovic, Theatre Survey, May 2008.
Bodies in Dissent: Spectacular Performances of Race and Freedom, 1850-1910, by Daphne A. Brooks, Nineteenth-Century Context 30.2 (July 2008).
Before Harlem: The Black Experience in New York City before World War I, by March S. Sacks, African American Review 41.3 (Fall 2007): 575-6.
Henrik Ibsen and the Birth of Modernism: Art, Theater, Philosophy, by TorilMoi, Theatre Journal 59.3 (Oct. 2007): 540-1.
Blackface Cuba, 1840-1895, by Jill Lane, Theatre History Studies 27 (2007): 160-2.
Staging Race: African American Performers at the Turn of the Century, by Karen Sotiropoulos, African American Review 40.2 (Summer 2006): 378-78.
Print and the Poetics of Modern Drama, by W. Worthen, &Harold Pinter and the Twilight of Modernism, by Varun Begley, Theatre Journal 58.3 (October 2006): 524-26.
Bertolt Brecht's Dramatic Theories, by John J. White, &Staging History: Brecht's Social Concepts of Ideology, by Astrid Oesmann, Theatre Survey 47.2 (Nov. 2006): 337-41.
The Fire This Time: African American Plays for the Twentieth-First Century, African American Review 40.1 (Spring 2006): 185-7.
The Past as Present in the Drama of August Wilson, by Harry Elam, Theatre Research International 31.2 (March 2006): 103-4.
Essays on Twentieth-Century German Drama and Theater, edited by Hellmut Hal Rennert, Text and Presentation:Journal of Comparative Drama 2004 (2005), 215-219.
Making Americans: Jews and the Broadway Musical, by Andrea Most, Modern Drama XLVIII.1 (Spring 2005): 217-219.

Rethinking Social Realism: African American Art and Literature, 1930-1953, by Stacy Morgan, Journal of American History 91.4 (March 2005): 1517-1518.
Professing Performance: Theatre in the Academy from Philology to Performativity, by Shannon Jackson, Theatre Journal 57.1 (March 2005): 152-3.
Stories of Freedom in Black New York, by Shane White, American Historical Review (December 2004): 1567-68.
Oprah Winfrey and the Glamour of Misery: An Essay on Popular Culture, by Eva Illouz, African American Review 38.3 (Fall 2004): 539-41.
The Stage Life of Props, Andrew Sofer, Theatre Journal 56.2 (May 2004): 327-8.
From Girl to Woman: American Women's Coming-of-Age Narratives, Christy Rishoi, African American Review37.4 (Winter 2003): 661-2.
Theatre, Society and the Nation: Staging American Identities, S. E. Wilmer, Journal of American History (December 2003): 1438-39.
Modern Bodies: Dance and American Modernism from Martha Graham to Alvin Ailey, Julia L. Foulkes, Journal of American History (December 2003): 1473-74.
Sweet Violence: The Idea of the Tragic, Terry Eagleton, and Agitated States: Performance in the American Theater of Cruelty, Anthony Kubiak, Theatre Survey 44.2 (November 2003): 273-76.
Performer Training: Developments Across Cultures, Ian Watson, ed., and Approaches to Acting: Past and Present, Daniel Meyer-Dinkgräfe, Modern Drama XLVI.2 (Summer 2003): 331-36.
The Performance Art in Africa, Frances Harding, ed., and The Athenian Sun in the African Sky, by Kevin Wetmore, Theater (Yale) 33.3 (Fall 2003): 145-7.
Fangs of Malice: Hypocrisy, Sincerity, and Acting, Mathew Wikander,Theatre Survey 44.2 (November 2003): 282-284.
Stage Fright: Modernist Antitheatricalism and Drama, Martin Puchner, Theatre Journal 55.3 (October 2003): 573-74.
David Mamet in Conversation, Leslie Kane, ed., and Leslie Kane, Weasels and Wisemen: Ethics and Ethnicity in the Work of David Mamet, Modern Drama 45.1 (Spring 2002): 167-171.
Cambridge History of American Drama, Vol. III, Don Wilmeth and Christopher Bigsby, eds., Modern Drama 44.4 (Winter 2001): 491-93.
Writing Himself Into History: Oscar Micheaux, His Silent Films, and His Audience, Pearl Bowser and Louise Spence, and Straight Lick: The Cinema of Oscar Micheaux, J. Ronald Green, American Historical Review 88.4 (March 2002): 1576-77.
A Sourcebook of African-American Performance: Plays, People, Movements, Annemarie Bean, ed.,Modern Drama 43.3 (Fall 2000): 498-501.
The First Black Actors on the Great White Way, Susan Curtis, Theatre Journal52.1 (March 2000): 145-6.
Review Essay: Demons of Disorder: Early Blackface Minstrel and Their World, Dale Cockrell; Scenes of Subjection: Terror, Slavery, and Self-Making in Nineteenth-Century America, Saidiya V. Hartman; Raising Cain: Blackface Performance from Jim Crow to Hip Hop, W. T. Lhamon, Jr., Nineteenth Century Theatre 27.2 (Winter 1999): 137-151.
Digging the Africanist Presence in American Performance: Dance and Other Contexts, Brenda Dixon Gottschild, Theatre Research International 22.3 (Fall 1997): 276-7.
Inside the Minstrel Mask: Readings in Nineteenth-Century Minstrelsy, Annemarie Bean, ed., Theatre Survey 38.2 (November 1997): 169-71.
Performing Brecht: Forty Years of British Performances, Margaret Eddershaw, Modern Drama 40.1 (Spring 1997): 175-78.
The Cambridge Companion to Brecht, ed. Peter Thomson and Glendya Sacks, Modern Drama 39.2 (Summer 1996): 349-51.
Review Essay: August Wilson and the African American Odyssey, August Wilson: A Casebook, and The Dramatic Vision of August Wilson, Sandra Shannon, Theatre Survey 37.1 (May 1996): 146-50.
African American Theatre: An Historical and Critical Analysis, Samuel Hay, Theatre Research International 20.2 (Summer 1995): 170-1.
Zuckmeyer and Hilpert: Partnership in German Theatre, William Grange,Modern Drama 38.1 (Spring 1995): 141-43.
A Doll's House: Ibsen's Myth of Transformation, Errol Durbach: New England Theatre Journal 5 (1994): 124-5.
Dusky Maidens: The Odyssey of the Early Black Dramatic Actress, Jo A. Tanner: Theatre Journal 46.3 (October 1994): 434-5.
Love and Theft: Blackface Minstrelsy and the American Working Class, Eric Lott: Theatre Survey 35.1 (May 1994): 151-53.
Bert Williams: A Biography of the Pioneer Black Comedian, Eric Ledell Smith: Theatre Studies 39 (Spring 1994): 94-5.
Bertolt Brecht’s Art of Dissemblance, Tony Calabro: Modern Drama 26.4 (December 1993): 587-8.
HeddaGabler: Gender, Role, and World, Charles R. Lyons: New England Theatre Journal 4 (Spring 1993): 113-4.

Theatre Reviews

"In the Blood," by Suzan-Lori Parks, Theatre Journal 52.4 (December 2000): 565-567.
"The Hairy Ape," O'Neill, performed by the Wooster Group, Theatre Journal 49.4 (December 1997): 531-32.
"Native Voices: A Festival of Native Playwrights," Native Playwrights Newsletter 8 (Summer 1995): 72-3.
"The Rez Sisters," by Thompson Highway: Theatre Journal 6.3 (October 1994): 399-400.
"Oleanna," by David Mamet: New England Theatre Journal 4.1 (Spring 1993): 131-2.

"My Mother Never Said I Should," by Charlotte Keatley: Theatre Journal 45.1 (October 1993): 384-5.
"According to Coyote," by Carlotta Kaufman: Native Playwrights Newsletter 3 (Fall 1993): 8.
"Galileo," Communications from the International Brecht Society 21.1 (May 1992): 31-4.
"Hamlet" & "The Seagull," Theatre Journal 44.4 (December 1992): 528-30.
"The Resistible Rise of Arturo Ui," Theatre Journal 43.4 (December 1991): 530-1.

Series Editor

University of Michigan Press (coeditor, with Rebecca Schneider and Harvey Young) of "Theater: Theory/Text/Performance" (formerly edited by Enoch Brater), beginning 2006.

Seminar Chair

"Representations of Ethnicity." American Society for Theatre Research (November 1995).

Chair, 2000-2006, Black Theatre Association (in conjunction with the Association for Theatre in Higher Education) Debut Panel.

Guest Editor

Journal of American Drama and Theatre 17.2 (Spring 2005), plus Introductory essay, 5-
6.

Dramaturge

Marie Humber Clements's "Now Look What You Made Me Do," at Native Voices: A Festival of Native Playwrights, IllinoisStateUniversity, December, 1994.

Outside Evaluator for Tenure and Promotion

Universities Requesting Dossier Reviews

University of Kansas (2017)
University of California, Santa Cruz (2016)
University of Connecticut (2015)
Villanova University (2011)
Chapman University (2010)
University of Massachusetts, Amherst (2009)
SyracuseUniversity (2009)
University of California, San Diego (2008)
University of California, Riverside (2007)
GeorgetownUniversity (2007)
University of Richmond (2007)
University of Wisconsin, Madison (2006)
University of Virginia (2006)
CarnegieMellonUniversity (2006)
University of California, Irvine (2006)
University of Georgia (2006)
TexasTechUniversity (2006)
Southern IllinoisUniversity (2006)
North DakotaStateUniversity (2006)

ArizonaStateUniversity (2005)
ColumbiaUniversity (2004)
BostonCollege (2004)
University of CentralFlorida (2004)
TexasA&MUniversity (2004)
Franklin&MarshallCollege (2004)
BrownUniversity (2003)
University of Maryland, College Park (2003)
De Paul University (2003)
University of California, Santa Cruz (2003)
University of California, San Diego (2003)
LouisianaStateUniversity (2003)
WesternMichiganUniversity (2003)
University of New Hampshire (2002)
StateUniversity of NY, Stony Brook (2002)
ConnecticutCollege (2002)
Lewis & ClarkCollege (2001)
VirginiaCommonwealthUniversity (1999)
University of Florida, Gainesville (1999)

Evaluator for Book-Length Manuscripts

several more than one manuscript

University of Michigan Press (series editor)
YaleUniversity Press
CambridgeUniversity Press
OxfordUniversity Press
Blackwell Press
Austrian Science Fund
Palgrave
Routledge
University of North Carolina Press

IndianaUniversity Press
University of Alabama Press
University of Minnesota Press
University of Illinois Press
Mayfield Publishing Company
OhioUniversity Press
University of Toronto Press
University of Texas Press

Conference Chair & Coordinator

Conference Planning Committee: Association for Theater in Higher Education, August 2001.
Conference Planning Committee: American Society for Theatre Research, November 2000.
Co-Chair, Mid-America Theatre Conference: March 1997. Theme: Popular Culture and Theatre.
Co-Chair (founder with Harry Elam), The Black Theater Association (BTA) Debut Panel for ATHE (since 1999)

Miscellaneous

2011 Acting Teacher for ArtsBridge – program for high school juniors and seniors interested in majoring in theatre and performance (again in 2012)
YaleUniversity, Whitney Humanities Senior Fellow, 2002-4
ProQuest Reviewer – Online Resource for American Drama
Play Contest Evaluator, 2006 Alexander Onassis Playwriting Festival
Executive Committee, American Society for Theatre Research, 2002-2005
Member of the George Jean Nathan Prize Committee, 2003-2004
Yale’s Fulbright Prize Committee, 2006

Service

Dean: Chair of Search Committees for all faculty hires (musical theatre, acting, film, radio, and arts and entertainment management)
Dean: Curriculum Committee; Rank & Promotion Committee
Emerson: Chair Search Committee, Performing Arts Department, Emerson College (2007-8)
Emerson: PRISM & SCANN – Diversity Committees, Emerson College (2010-2012)
Yale: Several Search Committees for all faculty in the Theatre Program.