Lloyd International Honors College

Dr. Dan Friedman

Honors/Let's Learn!

Dr. Dan Friedman is a playwright, director, theatre historian, grassroots organizer and educator. He co-founded of the Castillo Theatre in New York City and is its and artistic director emeritus. Friedman is a lead organizer of Performing the World, a conference that brings together performance activists, artists and scholars from all over the world. He is also on the faculty of the East Side Institute and managing producer of its podcast, “All Power to the Developing.”

Friedman holds a doctorate in theatre history from the University of Wisconsin and has researched, written and spoken extensively on theatre, culture and politics.  He has authored or co-authored 18 plays and, in addition to his work at the Castillo Theatre, has directed at La Mama, the Nuyorican Poets Café and at various New York City colleges.

He  is editor of The Cultural Politics of Heiner Muller (Cambridge Scholars Press); Still on the Corner and Other Post-Modern Political Plays by Fred Newman (Castillo); and co-editor of Theatre for Working Class Audiences in the US, 1830-1980 (Greenwood Press). His most recent book, Performance Activism: Precursors and Contemporary Pioneers, was published by Palgrave in  2021.  He is co-founder, with Dr. Lenora Fulani, of UX, a free community-based school of continuing development in New York, where he served as associate dean for a decade.  Friedman has taught theatre and writing courses at York College and Baruch College, both part of the City University of New York; Queensborough  Community College; the Princeton Writers Center; and Harvard University.  He has been a guest teacher at the University of Texas, El Paso and the University of North Carolina, Greensboro.  He is currently the program manager of “Let’s Learn!” www.danfriedmannyc.org