Mark Olsen

Mark Olsen, Chair of the Musical Theatre Program at the New York Film Academy, movement teacher at The Juilliard School, and nationally recognized authority on stage movement and combat. Emeritus teacher and former secretary of the Society of American Fight Directors as well as the former vice-president of the Association for Theater Movement Educators. Appeared on Broadway and toured internationally with mime/mask group, Mummenschanz, and acted in numerous regional theater productions. Directed more than 45 professional and university productions; movement coordinator and fight director for Broadway, Off-Broadway, and regional productions at the Signature Theater, Hartford Stage Company, Long Wharf Theater, Houston Grand Opera, The Alley Theatre, New York Shakespeare Festival, Roundabout, and others. 2010 Drama Desk award for work on Orphan's Home Cycle. Author of The Actor With a Thousand Faces, The Golden Buddha Changing Masks, and Acting: Scene One, co-authored with Steve Broadnax. Formerly head of graduate acting at Penn State School of Theater; also taught at Columbia University, Carnegie Mellon University, University of Houston, Ryerson Theater School (Toronto), Sarah Lawrence College, and New York Public Theater's Shakespeare Lab.