James Hart
Director of Arts Entrepreneurship and Assistant Professor of Practice
James Hart is the founder and former dean of TITAN Teaterakademi (The International Theatre Academy Norway), a full-time professional theater training program and the first school in Europe to offer intensive training in arts entrepreneurship at the professional conservatory level. Before founding TITAN, Hart taught at the Yale School of Drama, New York University, the Lee Strasberg Theatre Institute, Tufts University, Fu Ren University in Taipei, Taiwan, Harlem School of the Arts, University of Massachusetts at Amherst, and Kirkenaer Ballettskole (Oslo), among others.
He has directed classics of Shakespeare, Chekhov, Marivaux, Gogol, Miller and others, including a large number of world-premiere productions. He has also directed several films, including the animated tale The Story of a Mother, and is currently producing The Voice Within, a documentary about master acting teacher and former head of acting at the Yale School of Drama, Earle Gister. As an actor, Hart has performed in a number of venues including the Williamstown Theatre Festival, Yale Repertory Theatre, Utah Shakespearean Festival, Dallas Theater Center, Shakespeare Festival of Dallas, St. Louis Shakespeare Festival, Theatre Alliance in D.C., and in St. Petersburg, Russia and Taichung, Taiwan.
Hart earned his M.F.A. in acting from the Yale School of Drama in 1999 and graduated from SMU with a B.F.A. in theatre in 1996. He was named as the first-ever Director of Arts Entrepreneurship for SMU's Meadows School of the Arts effective August 1, 2012.