Theatre & Performance Scholar and Dramaturg
As a cultural scholar focusing on the performing and visual arts, Meron Langsner, PhD seeks to make the intellectual examination of the arts relevant and accessible to both audiences and the artists themselves, as well as to engage with other scholars doing related work.
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.
Dr. Langsner's 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, and other imprints. His work has also appeared in various popular and trade publications including American Theatre, Backstage, HowlRound, The Theatre Times, The Fight Master, and The Sondheim Review.
Dr. Langsner has presented his research at numerous scholarly conferences in the United States and Canada, including ASTR, ATHE, 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, both the Alumni Lecture Series and PRAXIS at NYU's Tisch School of the Arts' Department of Performance Studies and, Gallery Players' Gallery Talks Series,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 in both professional and academic venues.
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.
Dr. Langsner's 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, and other imprints. His work has also appeared in various popular and trade publications including American Theatre, Backstage, HowlRound, The Theatre Times, The Fight Master, and The Sondheim Review.
Dr. Langsner has presented his research at numerous scholarly conferences in the United States and Canada, including ASTR, ATHE, 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, both the Alumni Lecture Series and PRAXIS at NYU's Tisch School of the Arts' Department of Performance Studies and, Gallery Players' Gallery Talks Series,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 in both professional and academic venues.
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 created and curated Whistler in the Dark Theatre's Scholah Holla Project, a series of scholarly discussions held in relation to their 2012-2013 season. These panels included junior faculty and advanced doctoral candidates from numerous prestigious institutions.
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/Over Here). 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, as well as an immersive revival of Dutchman at the Secret Theatre in NYC. 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 and fifth volumes of the LMDA University Caucus Dramaturgy Sourcebook, and has provided scholarly program notes for New Repertory Theatre, Tufts Department of Drama & Dance, and Pioneer Valley Summer Theatre. He is a regular instructor of workshops on applying dramaturgical concepts to stage combat at the NYC Summer Sling, the regional workshop of the Society of American Fight Directors.
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 Theatre History & Dramatic Literature from Tufts University, an MFA in Theatre Arts with a concentration in Playwriting from Brandeis, and an MA in Performance Studies from NYU's Tisch School of the Arts. He did his undergraduate work at Carnegie Mellon University and SUNY Buffalo. Additionally, he holds Executive Certificates in Financial Management and Business Law from Cornell University, a Certificate in Software Development from Columbia Engineering, and a "Mini-MBA" from the University of Buffalo School of Management. Meron is also an alum of Stony Brook University's Audio Podcast Fellows, having been in the 2019/2020 NYC Cohort.
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.
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, Intersections of Real Estate Trends & Markets with the Fine & Performing Arts, Digital Humanities, Narrative Structures, and the Ethnography of Academia
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Meron is a recurring guest on Vox Populorum: The Vox Popcast, often (but not always) in his capacity as a theatre & performance specialist.
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Recording a segment/podcast of Art Chat about dueling traditions in the work of Shakespeare for Pawling Public Radio and Hillside House Productions with Shakespeare Scholar and fellow fight director Danielle Rosvally.
Dramaturgy workshop for the Choreographers' Track students at the 2015 NY Summer Sling
Invited Guest Lecture on the History & Ethnography of Headshots at CABINET Gallery in Brooklyn, NY in Conjunction with David Levine's Installation, HOPEFUL
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Demonstrating the semiotics of movement in relation to the performance of violence during the NYU Performance Studies Alumni Lecture Series at the Tisch School of the Arts, Spring 2014.
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Speaking on the Dramaturgy of Staged VIolance at NYU Tisch School of the Arts PRAXIS 2016
Meron was an alumni speaker of TEX: Tufts Idea Exchange, which has since joined with TEDx
Meron was a recipient of a 2018 Grow with Google Challenge Scholarship. He is committed to understanding the intersections of art & technology.
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Meron taught a seminar on Fightaturgy for the Social Distance Showdown in May of 2020. This virtual workshop was a response by the international stage combat community to the COVID-19 crisis.
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