Theatre & Performance Scholar and Dramaturg
Meron Langsner, PhD's research areas include: Violence in Theatre and Film, Physical Theatre, Performance Training, Martial Arts in Mass Media, Faust Narratives, Theories of Directing, New Play Development, Puppetry, and Headshots and the Entrepreneurial Imperative of the American Artist.
His scholarly articles and reviews concerning theatre and performance have been published by McFarland, Oxford University Press, Puppetry International, New England Theatre Journal, Journal of Asian Martial Arts, the Electronic Journals of Martial Arts and Sciences, The Fight Master, and other imprints.
Dr. Langsner has presented his research at numerous scholarly conferences in the United States and Canada, including ASTR, ATHE (for which he was a graduate student rep), the Comparative Drama Conference, Mid-America Theatre Conference, PCA/ACA, the International Puppetry Conference, the International Conference on the Fantastic in the Arts, and the Mississippi Delta Tennessee Williams Festival. He has given scholarly talks at Cabinet's NYC Gallery, Yellow Taxi Productions, TEX: Tufts Idea Exchange (as an alumni speaker), and numerous academic venues, and has served as a moderator for numerous scholarly panels and theatre talkbacks.
He has published, presented, and lectured on a wide variety of topics including: Performed Violence in Various Contexts (Opera, Greek Comedy, Film, etc.), Semiotics and Historiography of Stage Combat, Martial Arts, Development and Dissemination of Performer Training Systems, Puppetry, the History and Ethnography of the Actor's Headshot, Documentary Theatre, Tennessee Williams, Anton Chekhov, Tony Kushner, Directing, Adaptation, African-American Theatre & Film, and Acting.
His scholarly articles and reviews concerning theatre and performance have been published by McFarland, Oxford University Press, Puppetry International, New England Theatre Journal, Journal of Asian Martial Arts, the Electronic Journals of Martial Arts and Sciences, The Fight Master, and other imprints.
Dr. Langsner has presented his research at numerous scholarly conferences in the United States and Canada, including ASTR, ATHE (for which he was a graduate student rep), the Comparative Drama Conference, Mid-America Theatre Conference, PCA/ACA, the International Puppetry Conference, the International Conference on the Fantastic in the Arts, and the Mississippi Delta Tennessee Williams Festival. He has given scholarly talks at Cabinet's NYC Gallery, Yellow Taxi Productions, TEX: Tufts Idea Exchange (as an alumni speaker), and numerous academic venues, and has served as a moderator for numerous scholarly panels and theatre talkbacks.
He has published, presented, and lectured on a wide variety of topics including: Performed Violence in Various Contexts (Opera, Greek Comedy, Film, etc.), Semiotics and Historiography of Stage Combat, Martial Arts, Development and Dissemination of Performer Training Systems, Puppetry, the History and Ethnography of the Actor's Headshot, Documentary Theatre, Tennessee Williams, Anton Chekhov, Tony Kushner, Directing, Adaptation, African-American Theatre & Film, and Acting.
Contributed Chapter 10: Theatre Hoplology: Simulations and Representations of Violence on the Stage
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Contributed an article on balloon handlers in the MACYS Thanksgiving Day Parade to the Mega-Puppet themed issue.
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Contributed entries on ULYSSES DOVE and STEPHEN McKINLEY HENDERSON
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Contributed a Review of KAGE: THE SHADOW by John Donohue
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Meron curates Whistler in the Dark Theatre's Scholah Holla Project, an ongoing series of scholarly discussions held in relation to their season. Their first panel, which occurred alongside their production of Trojan Women, included scholars from a wide range of New England institutions and was held before a capacity audience.
While serving as New Repertory Theatre's NNPN Playwright in Residence, Meron was co-curator for Their Voices Will Be Heard: Artists Respond to the Israeli-Palestinian Situation, a month long event that included academic panels, film screenings, and play readings (including his own award-winning play, B'Shalom). Meron was awarded a Massachusetts Humanities Grant on behalf of New Rep for this project.
Meron was a Summer Fellow at Northwestern University's Performance Studies Institute in 2010. Other scholarly honors include: University Fellowship and Full Merit Scholarship at Tufts, Banner Bearer at NYU's Tisch Graduate Salute for the Department of Performance Studies, Performance Studies Scholarship at NYU, the Julia Pardee Prize for Excellence in Writing on Theatre & Dance History and Literature, and various conference travel grants.
Dr. Langsner was the production dramaturg for the critically acclaimed New England Premiere of Neighbors with Company One. He has also dramaturged at Brandeis University for both the Theatre Arts Department and the Leonard Bernstein Festival of the Creative Arts. He was the recipient of a dramaturgy award from the Region II Kennedy Center American College Theatre Festival for his work on Euripides' Electra at the Buffalo Center for the Arts. He is a contributor for the fourth edition of the LMDA Dramaturgy Sourcebook, and has provided scholarly program notes for New Repertory Theatre, Tufts Department of Drama & Dance, and Pioneer Valley Summer Theatre.
As an educator, Meron was the recipient of the Award for Outstanding Contributions to Undergraduate Education from the Graduate School of Arts & Sciences at Tufts University and received multiple Major Positive Impact on the Tufts Undergraduate Experience citations from senior surveys. He was also an Osher Scholar through CELT (Center for the Enhancement of Learning and Teaching).
Meron holds a PhD in Drama from Tufts University, an MFA in Playwriting from Brandeis, and an MA in Performance Studies from NYU's Tisch School of the Arts.
His doctoral dissertation was entitled Impossible Bodies in Motion: The Representation of Martial Arts on the American Stage. He believes himself to be the first Drama graduate at Tufts to have literally defended his dissertation with a katana.
He is available for speaking and writing engagements and workshops, as well as for dramaturgical work.
Dissertation Abstract: Impossible Bodies in Motion: The Representation of Martial Arts on the American Stage (UMI #3475077)
Google Books excerpt: "Theatre Hoplology: Simulations and Representations of Violence on Stage" - a chapter of Text & Presentation 2006 (McFarland: 2007)
"David Valentine: The Man Behind the Puppets Behind the Vampire Cowboys" in Puppetry International
Link to Program Note for Cabaret at New Repertory Theatre
Links to Early Articles
"A Performance Theory Analysis of the Practice of Kata in Karate-Do: Self Resolving Contradictions of Ritual, Spontaneity, Violence, and Mortality" in Physical Training: Fitness for Combatives in The Electronic Journals of Martial Arts and Sciences (Reprinted from the Brandeis Graduate Review)
"Tony Kushner's Angels in America: A World in Need of Salvation" in the Academic Articles Section of All About Jewish Theatre (Reprinted from the Brandeis Graduate Review)
Latin American Theatre, Film, & Arts Festivals: A Bibliography - Hemispheric Institute of Performance and Politics
Invited Guest Lecture on the History & Ethnography of Headshots at CABINET Gallery in Brooklyn, NY in Conjunction with David Levine's Installation, HOPEFUL
Research Areas: Violence in Theatre and Film, Physical Theatre, Performance Training, Martial Arts in Mass Media, Faust Narratives, Theories of Directing, New Play Development, Puppetry, Headshots and the Entrepreneurial Imperative of the American Artist, the Vampire Cowboys Theatre Company, and the ethnography of academia
