Mark Charney

Professor Emeritus

Mark Charney served as Director of Theatre for the Department of Performing Arts and Chair of English at Clemson University for many years before retiring as a Professor Emeritus and accepting the role of Director of the School of Theatre and Dance at Texas Tech University. A past Chair for Region IV, a past member of the National Selection Team, and for 19 years, National Coordinator of Institute for Theatre Journalism and Advocacy/Dramaturgy for KCACTF, Mark just finished a 19-year job as Associate Director of the National Critics Institute for the O'Neill Theatre Center. He is also on the National Board of NAST (the National Association of Schools of Theatre and Artistic Director of the International Association of Schools of Southeast Asia. Charney came to Lubbock in 2012, immediately setting goals for the School of Theatre and Dance to rise to new levels of academic success by arranging for students to attend the Tennessee Williams Festival in Provincetown and creating experiential education programs such as WildWind Performance Lab and the Marfa Intensives. Working with fellow faculty members and students, he has cultivated community outreach programs, a theater program for autistic students through the Burkhart Center known as the BurkTech Players, and helped the department become the TTU School of Theatre & Dance for the 2015-2016 school year. Last year, he led the first full found space season, taking plays all over the community. He is proud of the new recently-hired Head of MFA Playwriting, Pulitzer Prize-nominated Rebecca Gilman, and the new Distinguished Visiting Professor, Pulitzer Prize winner Doug Wright.