Associate Professor of Theatre

waters@macalester.edu

Professor Waters’ career in professional theatre and film extends to students in THDA through his courses in all levels of acting and his mainstage productions.  In addition to his ongoing professional work, Professor Waters works on various community-based theatre projects in the Twin Cities and nationally, and is a committed dramaturg and deviser in support of emerging artists’ development.

AREAS OF TEACHING EXPERTISE

Acting: Techniques and History
Directing and Devising
Community-Based Theatre
African American Theatre
Hip Hop Performance

MACALESTER COURSES

120  Acting Theory & Performance I (2 sections/yr)
210  Community-Based Theatre
263  African American Theater
360  Acting Theory & Performance II:  the Meisner Technique

ARTIST-EDUCATOR BIO

Harry created the role of Belize in the first production of Tony Kushner’s Angels in America: A Gay Fantasia on National Themes in 1991. He is most famous for his portrayal of Marvin Berry in Back to the Future(1985) which earned him a Gold record for his rendition of "Earth Angel." Acting Credits also include Adventures in Wonderland, and Big Bully as well as numerous television guest roles. Born in Tulsa, and raised in Denver, Colorado, he attended Princeton University and received his MFA in Directing from University of Wisconsin-Madison.

Professor Waters worked as an actor in New York City on and off Broadway for many years as well as at theatres around the country. Venues include:  Mark Taper Forum; Arizona Theater Company; Berkeley Repertory Theatre; TheatreWorks; American Conservatory Theatre (ACT) and the San Jose Repertory Theatre.  In the Twin Cities of Minneapolis and St. Paul, he has appeared at The Guthrie, Penumbra Theater Company, Mixed Blood, Ten Thousand Things Theater and Pangea World Theatre. He has worked as the Facilitator for the Many Voices Roundtable at The Playwrights' Center in Minneapolis,where he has inspired the careers of numerous emerging writers of color.  

Mr. Waters has directed numerous productions around the country. He is pleased and proud to be a part of a remounting of POMO AFRO HOMOS’ theatrical piece called FIERCE LOVE, where the voices and bodies of Gay Black Men are presented and celebrated in all their fully realized potentials, challenges and victories. He is currently directing and working in collaboration with novelist/poet/playwright Jewelle Gomez on a dream play about James Baldwin – WAITING FOR GIOVANNI – which had its world premiere August 2011 at New Conservatory Theatre Center.

MACALESTER PRODUCTIONS

RUNAWAYS, a musical by Elizabeth Swados
PROOF, by David Auburn
ANGELS IN AMERICA PART I: Millennium Approaches, by Tony Kushner
THE COLORED MUSEUM, by George C. Wolfe
TARTUFFE, by Moliere (Richard Wilbur transl.)
CABARET, a musical by Kander and Ebb

COURSE SYLLABI

• 120 Acting Theory & Performance I (Harry Waters Jr.)
• 294 Community-Based Theater
• 360 Acting Theory & Performance II

MFA: University of Wisconsin