Consciousness, Theatre, Literature and the Arts 2011

Michael Earley  is Professor of Drama, Principal and Chief Executive Officer of Rose Bruford College of Theatre and Performance, one of the UK’s leading drama schools and conservatoires. He was previously Head of the Lincoln School of Performing Arts and Producing Director of the new Lincoln Performing Arts Centre (LPAC), projects which he inaugurated at the University of Lincoln (UK). Professor Earley has also worked in other areas of British theatre:  as Editorial and Publishing Director of Methuen Drama publishers and as Chief Producer of Plays for BBC Radio Drama, where he directed over 50 productions for broadcast.  At Methuen his many different authors included Peter Brook, Harold Pinter, Caryl Churchill, Arthur Miller, Sarah Kane, Edward Bond, Patsy Rodenburg, Lee Hall, Mark Ravenhill, Roy Williams, Patrick Marber, Michael Frayn, Anthony Minghella, the estates of Konstantin Stanislavski, Bertolt Brecht, Noel Coward and Tennessee Williams.

Before moving to Britain in 1990, Michael Earley taught drama and theatre at Yale University, where he was Director of the undergraduate Theatre Studies Program, Assistant Professor of English and taught playwriting and dramaturgy at the Yale School of Drama.  He also taught at NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts, Smith College and the Juilliard School’s Drama Division, where he was head of the Lila Acheson Wallace Playwriting Programe, Dramaturg for the School and a staff director. He was Dramaturg and Literary Manager for The Acting Company, working for directors John Houseman, Alan Schneider and Michael Kahn.  He also worked for Michael Kahn as the first Literary Manager for the McCarter Theatre Company in Princeton, and set-up the Literary Services Department for the Theatre Communication Group (TCG).  He was one of the founding editors of Performing Arts Journal (PAJ) and edited theatre books for Applause Theatre Books, Routledge and Penguin publishing.

Michael Earley received his BA in English and Drama from Rutgers University and did his graduate study at the PhD Program in Theatre at the City University of New York. His taught specialisms include Theatre History, Shakespeare in Performance, Contemporary British Drama, American Drama and Theatre, European Avant-Garde Drama, acting, directing, playwriting and cultural management. His publications include books and articles on acting and he is currently writing a critical biography of the visionary English and European director, theoretician and scenographer Edward Gordon Craig.