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BIOGRAPHY:
Oliver Conant is an actor-director, writer and dramaturg. After the attenuated satisfactions of Zoom he is very glad to be back with living breathing others, happily participating in last years' Lower East Side Festival of the Arts at The Theatre for the New City with his staging of Barbara Khan's A Journey through War and Plague. Previous credits include a revival of Kimberly Akimbo (the non musical version) for Nicu's Spoon; his own play, or playlet, What’s Up Bro Where U At, about pot dealing in Harlem in the twilight of illegality, put on at Dixon Place in 2016; and Dietrich Rides Again, a one woman play with music, various versions of which were presented at Medicine Show, at United Solo, and at venues in upstate New York. He has worked with a variety of companies in the non-commercial theatre scene in New York, including Medicine Show, Queens Shakespeare, Frog & Peach, and the now sadly defunct Nicu’s Spoon and Judith Shakespeare. He is experienced with "heightened language" work, with First Folio work, Shakespeare both outdoors and in churches and blackboxes. He is drawn to avant-garde classics Like Waiting for Godot that would benefit from rethinking. And to new work, with a preference for plays that matter and contain laughter or the possibility of humor in these dark times.
EDUCATION / TRAINING:
MA, 1981, M.Phil 1986, English and Comparative Literature, Columbia University, New York, NY. BA 1978, Sarah Lawrence College, Bronxville, NY.
I have had little formal training, either as actor or director. Along the way I learned more than I can say from the late Barbara Vann and my colleagues at Medicine Show Theater Ensemble. And from Ioan Ardelean, Stephanie Barton Farcas, Joanne Zipay, Alex Roe of Metropolitan Theater, Katrin Hilbe and Lynnea Benson.
In the Fall of 2018 I was fortunate to attend a Director's Workshop conducted by John Grabowski.
SPECIAL SKILLS:
Dramaturg.