Mark O'Maley

Assistant Professor of Theatre Arts & Dance

MFA-IA - Goddard College
BA - University of Massachusetts Amherst

Biography

An instigator of space, bodies, and ideas - Mark received his bachelor’s degree from the University Without Walls program at the University of Massachusetts Amherst, and his Master of Fine Arts in Interdisciplinary Arts at Goddard College - both of which were self designed degrees. He is the production manager for the Vermont Governor’s Institute on the Arts, and an Assistant Professor at Franklin Pierce University in New Hampshire. He firmly remains a dyed-in-the-wool Boston Red Sox fan.

Working in installation art, lighting & scenic design, and architectural lighting - Mark has a fascination with how people use and inhabit space. He is the recipient of the Independence Foundation Fellowship in the Arts, and his work has been recognized with Barrymore Award nominations by the Theater Alliance of Greater Philadelphia for POETIC LIFE/THE CHOICES WE MAKE with Philadelphia Young Playwrights (‘New Approaches to Collaboration’) and for PLANETARY ENZYME BLUES with New Paradise Laboratories (‘Outstanding Lighting Design’). Additionally his work has been recognized as "Best Lighting Design" of the season by Philadelphia Weekly for MISSION TO MERCURY for Pig Iron Theatre Company, BRITNEY'S INFERNO with Headlong Dance Theater, and THE GATE with Brian Sanders' Junk was given honorable mention. The Boston Globe named his work on FUN HOUSE MIRROR at Boston Playwrights’ Theater one of the “10 Best” for the season. Most recently Mark’s short dance film with Liz Staruch & Victoria Zolnoski - THE CAMERA BETRAYS YOU - received four awards at the 2011 American College Dance Festival and was chosen for the Northeast Region Gala performance, and his photography was recently part of HIPSTOGRAPHS: EXPERIMENTS IN HI-FI LO-FI at Atlanta’s Gallery M.

Over a thirteen year span in Philadelphia he designed a wide range of projects with and for venues & artists including Reactionaries, New Paradise Laboratories, Headlong Dance Theater, The Union League of Philadelphia, Pig Iron Theater Company, Prince Music Theater, Rennie Harris Puremovement, Lenape Regional Performing Arts Center, The Mural & The Mint, Delaware Theatre Company, Walnut Street Theatre, Nichole Canuso Dance Company, Contemporary Stage Company, Megan Bridge, PIMA Group, Brat Productions, The Bald Mermaids, Group Motion Multi-Media Dance Theater, Chris Aiken, The Grand Opera House, <fidget>, Jessica Warchal-King, Amtrak's 30th Street Station, Moxie Dance Collective, Danny Hoch, The Wilma Theater (danceBOOM!), & The Painted Bride.

In New York City his credits include off-Broadway at LaMaMa E.T.C. & The Pearl Theatre Company, as well as designs at P.S. 122, Dance Theater Workshop, Brooklyn Academy of Music, Ohio Theater/Ice Factory Festival, The Joyce Theater, Flea Theater & HERE Arts Center.

Nationally and internationally his credits include work with and for American Repertory Theater, Northlight Theatre, River North Chicago Dance Company, Opera House Arts/Stonington Opera House, Spencer/Colton Dance, 7 Stages, SummerStages Dance, Peter Bingham, Theater At Monmouth, Daniel Nagrin, Pilobolus, David Dorfman, Boston Playwright's Theater, Ishamael Houston-Jones, Portland Stage Company, Gloucester Stage Company, Harris Theater for Music & Dance (Chicago), Boston Center for the Arts, Penobscot Theater Company, SpeakEasy Stage Company, Chris Aiken, KJ Holmes, Orpheum Theatre/PhoenixStages, Naples Philharmonic Center, Dance Chicago, the United Kingdom's Brighton Festival, Edinburgh Festival Fringe, & Sadler Wells' (West End), Italy's Ravenna Teatro and Colombia's Festival Imberoamericano de Teatro de Bogota.

Mark has been a guest artist at Concord Academy, Millsaps College, Germantown Academy, Harriton High School, Abington Friends School, Milton Academy, Harvard University, Conestoga High School, Indiana University of Pennsylvania, Texas State University at San Marcos, Ursinus College, Russell Sage College, University of the Arts, Temple University, and the University of Massachusetts Amherst. Additionally Mark has served on the faculties of Lower Merion High School, West Chester University of Pennsylvania, and Arcadia University.


Courses Taught:

Undergraduate
Experiencing the Arts
Stagecraft 1 & 2
Sceneography 1-4
Lighting Design 1 & 2

Teaching Interests 
Progressive Pedagogy/Active Learning 
Student designed majors
Learning by doing
Visual & Performing arts role in the liberal arts
Learning disabilities/differences

University Service
Faculty Affairs Committee
Admissions ambassador
Humanities Faculty search committee

Recent Presentations:

  • American College Dance Festival - Muhlenburg CollegeAllentown, Pennsylvania. 2011
    "Talking Across The Tech Table: The Choreographer/Designer Conversation" with professor Liz Staruch, West Chester University

  • Society of Dance History Scholars Conference "Dance and The Social City" - University Of The Arts Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. 2012"The City's Landscape Of Movement" with professor Maria Urrutia, University of the Arts; professor Leslie Elkins, Rowan University; professor Silvana Cardell, Georgian Court University, Andrew Buss, Director of Public Programs for the Office of Innovation and Technology - City of Philadelphia; professor Pablo Meninato, Philadelphia University

  • Goddard College Plainfield, Vermont. 2013 "Apart From Everything Else; This Is The Picture"

Recent designs:

  • "Soul Cry" - lighting designer. Russell Sage College - Troy, New York
  • "The Livingstone Project" - lighting and projection designer. Indiana University of Pennsylvania - Indiana, Pennsylvania
  • "99 Days" - video installation Franklin Pierce University - Rindge, New Hampshire
  • "The Camera Betrays You/The City Belies You" - director/designer West Chester University, West Chester, Pennsylvania & Goddard College, Plainfield, Vermont
  • "Conclave" - art installation. Plainfield, Vermont
  • "comparer des pommes avec des oranges" - art installation. Plainfield, Vermont
  • "Requiem For Droz or, The LeWitt Project" - performance installation. West Chester University, West Chester, Pennsylvania & Goddard College, Plainfield, Vermont
  • "Upswell" - art installation. Plainfield, Vermont
  • "Ezerbet: The opera" - lighting designer Main Street Landing - Burlington, Vermont
  • "Interview" - lighting & scenic designer Franklin Pierce University - Rindge, New Hampshire
  • "Vanishing Point" - lighting designer Franklin Pierce University - Rindge, New Hampshire
Mark O'Maley