THE WAY OF THE NEOGRIOT: A JOURNEY TOWARDS A TRUE AFRICAN AMERICAN THEATER

The Africa at Noon seminar series will hold virtually this semester. All are welcome. Click here to join the event on Zoom. You may find the dial-in information here. Please note that this is a webinar, and guests’ videos will not be visible.

Date/Time: March 24, 2021 – 12pm CT (5pm UTC)

Speaker: Mark Hairston

Presentation Description
In this presentation – part personal narrative, part artistic statement – theater artist and UW-Madison professor, Mark H. (a.k.a. The NeoGriot) offers a special glimpse into his life and work as he recounts how the empowering journey to uncover and reclaim a lost personal history led him on a mission to draw on that same history in developing his own unique African American theater, one firmly rooted in and guided by both African and American philosophies and practices.

Brief Bio 
A native of Washington, DC, Mark H. is a director, performer and educator with a primary focus on American theater and theater of the African diaspora. His directing highlights include Julius Caesar, The Escape; or, A Leap for Freedom, King Lear, The Cherry Orchard, The Henry Dumas Project, and Dontrell Who Kissed the Sea. Along with directing, Mark has worked extensively as a professional actor with some of the nation’s leading theater companies. His most recent theater credits include We Are Proud to Present a Presentation… (Artistic Producer) and Ms. Blakk for President (Assistant Director to Tina Landau), both with Steppenwolf Theatre Company, as well as Deep Blue Sea (Dramaturg), a special collaboration with dance legend Bill T. Jones. Mark received his BFA in Acting with high honors from Rutgers University, and is a graduate of the MFA Directing program at Columbia University School of the Arts, where he was the Dean’s Fellow and studied under the mentorship of Anne Bogart and Brian Kulick. He was classically trained at Shakespeare’s Globe Theatre in London.