John Nassivera Ph.D.

Assistant Professor of Theater/ Speech

Ackley Hall 223
One Brennan Circle
Poultney, VT 05764-1199
Email Address: nassiveraj@greenmtn.edu
802-287-8290; Fax: 802-287-8099

John Nassivera has been teaching at Green Mountain College since 1997, doing courses in English, Drama, Playwriting, Minority Literature, and Speech Communication. Prior to GMC he taught at Columbia University and lived for many years in Manhattan. During his time in New York he was Literary Manager for New Dramatists, the nation's foremost organization for developing new playwrights; he also worked on premiering, producing and co-producing a number of plays in New York, including Advice from a Caterpillar off-Broadway, starring Ally Sheedy, and Grace and Glorie which ran on Broadway after its run with the Dorset Theatre Festival. His own plays have been performed in New York and around the country, starring such actors as Keith Baxter from England and American actress Elizabeth Ashley. He has received both a National Endowment for the Arts Playwriting Award and a Vermont Council on the Arts Award. His plays have twice received the Best Play of the Season award from the Dorset Theatre Festival audiences. He is a Life Fellow of Columbia University's Society of Fellows in the Humanities, and a member of the Columbia Club of New York.

Dr. Nassivera lives in Vermont in the village of Dorset with his wife, actress Paula Mann, and their two adopted children. He founded the award-winning professional Dorset Theatre Festival. He also founded and is Director of the Dorset Colony for Writers. He has served on the Board of the Dorset Church, Dorset's Historic Preservation District, and a non-profit adoption agency located in Vermont.

Education
Life Fellow (Post-Doctoral), Society of Fellows in the Humanities, Columbia University.
Ph.D. in Comparative Literature, McGill University.
(English, Italian, French, Latin; semiotics, linguistics & psycho-linguistics)
B. A. Cum Laude in English (with minor in Latin & Italian), Boston University.
(undergraduate work also done at the University of Pisa, Italy)

Plays Written and Presented
The Jazz Club, (a play with 1930's jazz) in New England and in Miami
The Penultimate Problem of Sherlock Holmes, New York & around the U.S.
(published by Samuel French, Inc.)
Making a Killing, presented around the U.S.
(published by Samuel French, Inc.)
Phallacies, New England & Washington, DC, (National Endowment for the Arts Award)
A Hard Look at Old Times, Vermont and made into a Public Television program
(Vermont Council on the Arts Award)
All the Queen's Men, tour of New England starring Elizabeth Ashley
The Orchard, adapted from Anton's Chekhov's "The Cherry Orchard", Dorset Theatre F.
(Best Play of the Season, Golden Leaf Award)
Four of a Kind, play about four women at Barnard College, NYC, in 1912 and in 1985.
(at Dorset Theatre Festival and New Playwrights Theatre, Washington, DC)

Works in Progress
Memphis Bound a blues/gospel version of the Greek play "Prometheus Bound."
Revelation 2984 Apocalipsis, a performance with music, created with Don Knaack, internationally known percussionist.
Ocean Drive, a musical about Miami Beach, Concept & Book by John Nassivera and Evelyn Wilde Mayerson, who was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize.
Stanley and Livingstone, at play about Stanley finally finding Livingstone in 1871 in Africa and the setting off of the European imperialist "scramble for Africa".

Awards
National Endowment for the Arts, Playwriting Fellowship Award
Vermont Council on the Arts, writing award
Elected to be a member of New Dramatists in New York
Dorset Theatre Festival has twice received the Moss Hart Award for Excellence in
the Professional Theatre, presented by the New England Theatre Conference

Teaching
Green Mountain College:
Images of Nature
Voices of Community
Modern Drama
Contemporary Drama
African American Literature
The Issue of Race in America in the American
Playwriting
Literature and Imperialism
Speech Communication

McGill University:
Roman Drama

Columbia University:
Great Works of European Literature (Humanities 101 & 102)
The Colloguim on the Classics & European Literature

Current Research & Writing Interests

• the impact of the internet and the world wide web on global cultures

• globalization and its impact on communication, language, literature

• imperialism and world literatures/cultures

• Africa and the 'image of Africa' in the history and minds of the West

• African American & African literature

• issues and questions in cultural diversity

• English as the new "world language" and its impact on cultural diversity