Castillo Theatre Announces New Artistic Director

The Castillo Theatre will announce the appointment of Dan Friedman, Ph.D. as its artistic director on Sunday, April 4 at 3:30 p.m. at the Castillo Theatre, 543 West 42nd Street (between 10th and 11th Avenues). He was preceded in this position by Fred Newman, who retired in 2005.

Dan Friedman brings his deep and unique history in community and political theatre to this new role. He has been active in political, experimental and community-based theatre since the late 1960s. He helped to found Madison, Wisconsin's Theatre-in-the-Park and New York City's Theatre Collective and Workers' Stage, before becoming a founder of Castillo, the All Stars Project's experimental political theatre, more than a quarter of a century ago. Since 1989, Friedman has served as Castillo's dramaturg. He has directed the All Stars' youth theatre, Youth Onstage!, and been dean of its free theatre training program, the Youth Onstage! Community Performance School. A playwright who has written or co-written 15 plays, he holds a doctorate in theatre history from the University of Wisconsin, and has taught theatre, public speaking and writing at Baruch College, Queensborough Community College, York College, and the Fashion Institute of Technology in New York City.

Friedman is the editor of The Cultural Politics of Heiner Müller, (Cambridge Scholars Publishing, 2007), Müller in America (Castillo Cultural Center, 2003), and Still on the Corner and Other Postmodern Political Plays by Fred Newman (Castillo Cultural Center, 1998), and co-editor, with Bruce McConachie, of Theatre for Working Class Audiences in the United States, 1830-1980 (Greenwood Press, 1985). He has written for such publications as The Drama Review, Modern Drama, Communications from the International Brecht Society, and Back Stage.

Friedman was among the activist artists who established the Castillo Theatre in 1984. Privately funded from the beginning, Castillo has become known for creating theatre that is avant-garde, topical and entertaining. Its work features improvisation, the plays of Fred Newman, Heiner Müller and others, and it serves as a multi-racial home for Black theatre. Castillo is a program of the All Stars Project, Inc., along with its youth programs: the All Stars Talent Show Network, the Development School for Youth, Becoming Producers, and Youth Onstage!

What: Castillo Theatre Announcing New Artistic Director
Where: Castillo Theatre, 543 West 42nd Street, (between 10th & 11th Avenue)
When: Sunday, April 4, 2010 3:30 p.m.