Neil Scharnick tenured, promoted: Dr Neil Scharnick
Neil Kristian Scharnick (PhD’15) has been granted tenure as a member of the Theatre faculty at Carthage College in Kenosha, WI. He has also been promoted to the rank of Associate Professor.
Scharnick, who teaches theatre history and play analysis, also coordinates Carthage’s New Play Initiative, through which Carthage commissions a new work by a prominent, award-winning playwright annually. He directs the commissioned work every third year, and his productions have all received honors from the Kennedy Center American College Theatre Festival. In addition to performing at the festival, Dr. Scharnick has also taken his last two plays abroad, presenting one at Smock Alley Theatre in Dublin, Ireland, and another at the CrisisArt Festival in Arezzo, Italy.
One of Carthage’s new play commissions was an authorized translation of a modern Hindi classic: Mohan Rakesh’s masterpiece, ONE DAY IN THE SEASON OF RAIN, translated by UW professor Aparna Dharwaker and Vinay Dharwadker–now available through Penguin Modern Classics.
The New Play Initiative is just one way Dr. Scharnick advances his department’s commitment to new and innovative work. He created and frequently teaches a class called Ensemble and Experimental Theatre in which students learn alternative or unconventional approaches to theatre-making. And the plays he has directed in his fifteen years at Carthage range from popular musicals (THOROUGHLY MODERN MILLIE; INTO THE WOODS) to classics old and new (Brian Friel’s TRANSLATIONS; Dryden’s MARRIAGE A LA MODE) to truly experimental work (Van Itallie’s THE SERPENT; Caridad Svich’s THE BREATH OF STARS, commissioned by Carthage).
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