Co-director, with Jenny Wanasek, of The Center for Applied Theatre (CAT – www.centerforappliedtheatre.org), co-founded the Theatre and Social Change focus group of ATHE with Doug Paterson, has been a member of PTO for over 20 years, hosted the 9th PTO conference in Milwaukee, previously served on the PTO Board from 2011-2018, and was editor of issues 4-6 of the PTO Journal. He began his study of TO with Augusto Boal in 1992 and has conducted workshops and training sessions for educators, administrators, students, activists, theatre-makers, and community organizations in the U.S., Australia, Canada, and Europe. Jenny and Mark were teaching artists in Milwaukee Public Schools for 18 years and continue to work with educators and youth. In addition, they offer interactive and collaborative workshops that use techniques drawn primarily from the TO and The Virtues Project to provide provocative and transformative learning experiences, invite open dialogue, develop creativity, explore power and privilege, identify problems, and actively test solutions for real life implementation. CAT is committed to challenging social and political systems, imagining just and humane societies, and designing actions to generate community, fight internal and external oppressions, and transform the world.
Mark has published and lectured widely on theatre and social activism, chronicled the development of collective theatre in Challenging the Hierarchy: Collective Theatre in the United States (Greenwood Press, 1992), co-authored with Jenny Wanasek a chapter in Come Closer: Critical Perspectives on Theatre of the Oppressed (Lang, 2012), and co-authored “Shaking the Hands of Our Mentors” in the first issue of the PTO Journal. Incidentally, he holds an MFA in Directing and a Ph.D. in Theatre History from the University of Minnesota, is a 7th Degree Black Belt in Karate, and has over 35 years of university teaching experience. His current side gig is as a storytelling coach and workshop leader with Ex Fabula.