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- Fringe Theatre Festival
Clemson University Symphonic Band
November 23rd, 2009 at 8:00 pm - As the top auditioned group of wind and percussion musicians at Clemson University, the Symphonic Ba Learn More...
Clemson University Choral Ensembles
December 1st, 2009 at 8:00 pm - The Department of Performing Arts introduces its new choral director, Justin Durham, in a program of Learn More...
Clemson University Symphony Orchestra
December 3rd, 2009 at 8:00 pm - Popular orchestral hits fill this winter program, from the “Waltz” and “Polonaise” of Tchaikovsky’s Learn More...
The Spirit of Christmas
December 8th, 2009 at 8:00 pm - The Spirit of Christmas takes you on a magical journey to a winter wonderland of fun and festive che Learn More...
Tony DeSare, vocalist
January 14th, 2010 at 8:00 pm - Singer, pianist, and songwriter Tony DeSare has earned critical acclaim for his performances at the Learn More...
Theatre Faculty
Dr. Mark Charney
Dr. Mark J. Charney recently joined Department of Performing Arts as the Director of Theatre and Professor of Playwrighting, after chairing the Department of English for three years, his home base since 1987.
Dr. Charney fell in love with Clemson University in 1974, when he began as a freshman English major in the Department of English, graduating in 1978 with a Bachelor of Art in English. After earning his Master of Art degree at the University of New Orleans, he returned to Clemson for two years as an instructor, heading again to New Orleans in 1982 to earn his Ph.D. from Tulane University where he concentrated on business and technical writing, rhetoric, film, theatre, and Modern American literature. In 1987 he was appointed an assistant professor of English in the department, teaching everything from Modern Drama and Great Directors, to Screenwriting and Contemporary Drama and Text Analysis.
As the liaison between the Department of English and the Department of Performing Arts, Dr. Charney has also directed plays for the university and the community, among them Machinal, Cloud Nine, Look Homeward, Angel, A. . . My Name is Alice, Three Postcards, Landscape of the Body, subUrbia, Marat Sade, Forum, and original scripts such as Nor the World's Law and Falling to Earth among many others. His recent adaptation of The Decameron Project was advanced to the Kennedy Center's regional festival and played for two weeks at the C Venue at the Fringe Festival in Scotland.
He began teaching workshops in theatre criticism through the Kennedy Center/American College Theatre Festival in the early 90's, served as vice chair of Region IV conference from 1997-2000, and as chair in 2003. He worked closely with the Kennedy Center and Dan Sullivan for the first five National Critics Institute held at the Kennedy Center each April at the National Festival, and has been serving as National Coordinator of the Critics Institute and Dramaturgy Initiative.
Dr. Charney has published a critical study of the works of Southern writer Barry Hannah through Twayne Publishers and several articles, most of them about theatre or theatrical productions in magazines such as Theater Symposium, Southern Theatre and Film Quarterly. He worked as a theatre critic for Creative Loafing in Greenville, S.C. for six years, and recently interviewed Michael Kahn of The Shakespeare Theatre for a cover story for Southern Theatre and an article in The Upstart Crow.
He has recently put his energies into playwrighting. Along with the award-winning The Decameron Project, Dr. Charney is completing a male dysfunction" trilogy. The first, 37 Stones or the Man Was A Quarry, won the Centre Stage Playwrighting Award, and will be produced professionally in Washington D.C. at Charter Theatre. The second, Double Hernia, recently had readings Off Broadway at the American Place Theatre and in Washington D.C., and he is presently finishing part three, AUTO IMMUNITY.
Recently, Dr. Charney won the Frank A. Burtner Award for Excellence in Advising, the Gentry Award for Distinguished Teaching in the Humanities, the Thomas Green Clemson Award for Excellence, and the 2002/2003 and 2004/2005 Board of Trustees Faculty Excellence Awards, all at Clemson. Other awards include both the Brass and Gold Medallions of Honor for his work with the Kennedy Center/American College Theatre Festival.
He also works as a reader and administrator with the O'Neill Playwright's Conference each summer, and is helping with several initiatives there, bringing faculty to Connecticut, and writing plays each summer. He is a member of the theatre company Imminent Eye, based out of Connecticut and New York.
E-Mail Dr. Mark Charney
