Marvin McAllister

Dr. McAllister has worked in English, Theatre and African American Studies departments and programs at the University of South Carolina-Columbia, Cleveland State University, Howard University, Hunter College, the City University of New York's Graduate Center, the College of William and Mary, the Catholic University of America, the University of California-Berkeley, and the University of California-Davis. He has published two books on African American theater and performance, both with the University of North Carolina Press: "White People Do Not Know How To Behave At Entertainments Designed For Ladies and Gentlemen of Colour:" William Brown's African and American Theater (2003) and Whiting Up: Whiteface Minstrels and Stage Europeans in African American Performance (2011/2014). Professionally, he has worked as a dramaturge and literary manager for theater companies in New York City, the Washington, D.C. area, Chicago, and Seattle, most notably serving as the first literary manager for the Shakespeare Theatre Company in the nation's capital. His original plays have been produced by professional companies in Chicago and the District of Columbia. In a fitting merger of his academic and artistic interests, Dr. McAllister is currently writing a new play about the first African American drama: The Drama of King Shotaway; Rehearsals for Afro-America's First Drama, in Three Acts.