Scott Horstein

Professor, Director of the Theatre Studies Program

Scott Horstein

Contact

707-664-3208
[email protected]

Office Hours

What I Do at SSU

I’m the Director of the Theatre Studies concentration and teach courses in dramaturgy, playwriting, theater history, and dramatic literature.  I also teach in our THAR 160 Learning Community: Theatre, Dance, the Artistic Process, and You.  I’m the festival director for both our Power Lines new play festival (productions of student written, directed, and designed new plays) and the Super Mega Molten Hot Lava New Play Festival (a readings festival).  Some of the courses I teach have a focus on issues of race, gender, and identity, and some of the work I do focuses on ensemble creation.

Outside the department, I have served as SSU Arts Dramaturg leading the creation of the campus Arts Integration Program (AIP), promoting campus arts events as teaching tools for faculty in all disciplines, which served approximately 10,000 students in its first four years.  I also have worked extensively with the HUB on campus to create programming on issues of culture and identity, and co-led planning of an extensive campus residency with radical Black feminist dance company Urban Bush Women.  I was fortunate to receive the campus Excellence in Teaching Award for 2018.

My Bio

Prof. Horstein's freelance dramaturgy credits include Marin Theatre, Denver Center, Oregon Shakespeare Festival, Berkeley Rep, South Coast Rep, San Diego Rep, and the Old Globe, where he dramaturged for Arthur Miller on his penultimate play Resurrection Blues.  Other freelance credits include Playwrights Foundation, Jewish Plays Project, Greenway Court Theatre, Native Voices at the Autry, Alter Theater, Watts Village Theater Company, National New Play Network, the Fountain Theatre, and the Evidence Room.  New York credits include Port Out, Starboard Home with foolsFURY at La Mama, and Good Bobby at 59E59 (Off-Broadway).

Prof. Horstein was formerly Manager of Play Development for Cornerstone Theater Company and Literary Director for the Black Dahlia Theater in Los Angeles.  He has dramaturged productions for leading playwrights including MacArthur Fellows Larissa FastHorse and Sarah Ruhl, as well as Sheila
Callaghan, Octavio Solis, David Edgar, Austin Pendleton, and James Still, and for leading directors, including Bill Rauch, Nataki Garrett, Mark Lamos, and Kyle Donnelly.  Directing credits include Native Voices, East West Players, and the West Coast Ensemble. He has taught at South Coast Rep, American
Academy of Dramatic Arts, American Musical and Drama Academy, UC San Diego, and East West Players.

Publications include the book chapter "Dramaturgy as Prophecy: Facing Our Truth and Dramaturging the Predominantly White Institution," in Diversity, Inclusion, and Representation in Contemporary Dramaturgy, published by Routledge.  In his review of the volume, critic Stephen Greenblatt notes "diverse and distinctive voices assembled here are agents of radical change in the theater and in the world beyond its boundaries."

Scott is a proud and active member of Literary Managers and Dramaturgs of the Americas (LMDA); co-editor of LMDA’s Employment Guidelines and Sample Contracts; and for many years was VP for the SoCal region.  He was the recipient of LMDA’s Elliott Hayes Award for Outstanding Achievement in
Dramaturgy.  He holds an MFA in Dramaturgy from UCSD.