Amitin, Mark Hall

Mark Hall Amitin received his doctoral degree from the Université Paris VIII in 1978. He went on to present lectures and workshops at universities in the United States, Europe, Canada, and Asia. He worked as a consultant and producer for several major theatre festivals, including the American College Theatre Festival, the Rhode Island Theatre Festival, the Festival Mondial du Théâtre in Nancy, France, and the New Theatre Festival in Baltimore. He has published articles on theatre and performance in academic journals and contributed articles and reviews on film and theatre to books, magazines, and newspapers. He has also acted in, and directed, film, television, and theatre projects in the United States as well as in the Middle East, Europe, and Asia. Amitin was manager of the Radical Theatre Repertory, which later became Universal Movement Theatre Repertory, a non-profit agency representing experimental theatre companies from the United States and Europe. He was also the producer of Albee Directs Albee (1978-1979) and touring manager for The Living Theatre. Amitin travelled extensively in the Middle East, Asia, and Europe and helped to establish relations between theatre groups and individual artists from various countries.

In 1981 Amitin founded the World of Culture, Ltd. (later the non-profit World of Culture for the Performing Arts, Inc.) in order to represent theatrical groups and individual film, television, and theatre actors, writers, designers, and directors, and to establish a network that would facilitate touring and performing worldwide. He also worked as a writer, researcher, consultant, and director on several film and television projects including the film Signals Through the Flames (1982-1983) and the television miniseries about Agnes Smedley, The Eyes of a Friend (1985-1986). Amitin's involvement in festivals such as The New Theatre Festival in Baltimore and the Festival Mondial du Thť́re de Nancy allowed him to become familiar with many theatrical groups and collectives and to faciliate their introduction to audiences outside of their own countries. He shared the political aspirations of many of these groups and worked vigorously to secure their representation in different venues. Amitin was keenly interested in the craft of acting and taught many workshops on the practical aspects of acting and auditioning at colleges and universities. He also lectured in universities around the world on topics such as twentieth-century theatre in China, politics and theatre in the United States, the work of The Living Theatre and other collectives, and theatre of the avant-garde. He helped to negotiate theatre, film, and television contracts, working with Broadway shows, institutions such as the Lincoln Center, and directors such as Woody Allen, Francis Ford Coppola, Martin Scorsese, Mike Nichols, Penny Marshall, Roland Jaffe, and Jim Jarmusch.