Faculty
Mark Olsen
Mark Olsen is currently a professor of acting and movement with the Penn State School of Theatre. He taught previously at The University of Houston.
While in Houston, he played the title character in the short film “Rocky Road” and choreographed the fencing sequence for Tony Goldwyn and John Slattery in the made-for-TV movie A Woman of Independent Means. Mark’s comic film Goldberg’s Variations was recently aired regionally through WPSU-TV in a two-episode format.
Mark has been a guest teacher at many institutions across the U.S. and abroad, including Carnegie Mellon University, Webster Movement Institute, Bucknell University, Ryerson Theatre School in Toronto, New York Public Theatre’s Shakespeare Lab, and The Society of American Fight Directors’ National Fight Directors workshop.
Mark has acted and choreographed fight sequences in a variety of venues. As a performer, he has appeared on Broadway and toured internationally with the famed mime/mask group, Mummenschanz, and in many productions with the Cincinnati Ensemble Theatre, the Human Race Theatre, and Pennsylvania Center Stage.
Mark has worked as movement coordinator and fight director for numerous productions at the Hartford Stage Company, Theatreworks, The Alley Theatre, Houston Shakespeare Festival, the New York Shakespeare Festival, and New York’s Public Theatre.
Mark is the author of three books, the newly revised The Golden Buddha Changing Masks, The Actor with a Thousand Faces, and The Conception Mandala (co-authored with Samuel Avital).
