about Cary Mazer

Scholar-practitioner Cary Mazer is Professor Emeritus of Theatre Arts and English at the University of Pennsylvania.  During his 43 years at Penn he was active in the Theatre Arts Program, the University’s interdepartmental undergraduate major in Theatre, chairing the Program for 24 years. In 2001, he received the Dean’s Award for Mentorship of Undergraduate Research. He directed plays at Penn, worked as a free-lance professional dramaturg, and was theatre critic for The Philadelphia City Paper for fourteen years.  He has written books and articles on Victorian and Edwardian Theatre, Shakespeare Performance History, Modern Drama, and Dramaturgy.

He is now a playwright.

photo by Janet Falon, after Vermeer

Special Events:

On February 22, 2022, his 69th birthday, he played Krapp in a one-night-only performance of Krapp’s Last Tape by Samuel Beckett, directed by David O’Connor, in the Lea Library at the University of Pennsylvania, having recorded the tape (which Krapp had recorded on his 39th birthday, and which he listens to on his 69th birthday) thirty years earlier, on his 39th birthday, February 22, 1992.

Photo by John Flak