Mark Wing-Davey, an actor and teacher who has directed numerous productions Off-Broadway, has been named chair of the graduate acting program and arts professor at New York University's Tisch School of the Arts, Dean Mary Schmidt Campbell announced today.
Wing-Davey begins his appointment September 1, 2008, and Zelda Fichandler, who served as chair 1984-2007, remains on faculty as artistic director. He has been a frequent visitor to NYU's graduate acting program since 1993, most recently directing Euripides' Women of Troy in 2002.
Wing-Davey earned an Obie Award for outstanding director for Mad Forest at the New York Theatre Workshop (a production that later transferred to Manhattan Theatre Club). He also directed Liev Schreiber in 2003 in the Public Theater's Central Park production of Henry V. Additionally, his work has been featured at Lincoln Center Theatre, American Conservatory Theatre, and the Royal National Theatre. Wing-Davey also appeared in televised adaptations of the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, Henry VI Part 2, and Richard III, as well as on episodes of Absolutely Fabulous.
As an educator, Wing-Davey has been artistic director of the Central School of Speech and Drama in London, where he originated Caryl Churchill's Mad Forest. He has given master classes and workshops at Yale, Princeton, Columbia, and University of California-Berkeley, as well as at the Actors Centre and the British American Drama Academy, both in London.