Arthur Adair: Associate Professor

Email: AAdair@qcc.cuny.edu Office: H-126

Born in Astoria, NY & the first in my family to attend college. What I enjoy most about theatre is that it's live, "in the moment;" employs every aspect of the visual & performing arts; & lasts only for the moment, it is ephemeral. I enjoy every aspect of the theatre - backstage, onstage, front-of-house - it matters not, as long as I am in the room. I have been fortunate to have had mentors throughout my career without whom I never would have realized my ambition.

My first visit to Queensborough was in 2003, as a guest artist playing the role of Iago in Shakespeare's Othello. Working alongside the students of QCC inspired my decision to become a professor. 

My advice to students considering QCC is stop considering. Complete the application. Register for classes. Get to work. Enjoy the ride & complete your degree. I have never met a student who regretted receiving their associate's degree from QCC, in fact, it's quite the opposite, I meet people all the time who regret not going to community college before their 4-year program. It's the smart choice.

My advice to students attending QCC is go to class & do the work. Get organized. Make a Plan. Be positive & get it done. Life is a marathon, not a sprint. Question everything.

Fun Facts:
I have performed on 4 of the 7 continents.
My favorite destination is camping, under the trees, on a river.
A book that resonates with me is Siddhartha by Herman Hesse.

Professional Highlights

Explore: CV, CUNY Academic Commons

As Educator: Inaugural Faculty Fellow for Student Success (QCC/CUNY; 2021-23).

As Playwright, Director, & Designer: Original, musically-charged works of theatre: Your War’try Grave; Manifest the Whale, the Teacup Destiny; S-s-s-t-o-n-e-d-d-D: An American Oration; Sound of the Sun & "classically-contemporized" staged adaptations: Eugene O’Neill’s The Emperor Jones; Anton Chekhov's Three Sisters (translation); Sophocles’ Oedipus; Euripides' Bacchae; & Georg Buchner’s Woyzeck.

As Director: Medea of the Laundromat by H.M. Koutoukas; Balls by Paul Foster; & Chasing the New White Whale by Mike Gorman. 

As Director at QCC: Church by Young Jean Lee; Waiting for Lefty by Clifford Odets; A Doll’s House by Henrik Ibsen (adaptation); Far Away by Caryl Churchill; Ubu Roi by Alfred Jarry (adaptation); In the Blood by Suzan-Lori Parks; Metamorphoses by Mary Zimmerman; 12 Angry Jurors by Reginald Rose adapted by Sherman L. Sergel; A Midsummer Night's Dream by William Shakespeare (adaptation); The Private Life of the Master Race by Bertolt Brecht; The Odyssey adaptaion by Georgia McGill & Greg Dinunzi.

As Actor: Member of the Great Jones Repertory Company. Notable roles: Aegisthus, Fragments of a Greek Trilogy; Soldier, The Trojan Women; Creon, Medea; Dionysus, Bacchae; Iago, Othello; Jesus, Il Grande Inquisitore; Odysseus, Odyssey; Polynieces, Oedipus; Zeus, Seven; Adam, The Angel Project. Notable Directors: Georgia McGill, Andrei Serban, Ellen Stewart, Elizabeth Swados, Deborah Warner.

Notable Venues: La MaMa, NYC; Totanac Pyramids of Tajin, Mexico; National Theatre, Serbia; Toyama Performing Arts Center, Japan; Campo de Fiori, Italy; Carnuntum Amphitheatre, Austria; Lincoln Center, NYC; Petras Open Air Theatre, Greece; The Sanctuary of Aphrodite, Cyprus.

Professional Membership & Leadership: Stage Directors/Choreographers Society (SDC); Actors’ Equity Association (AEA); Dramatist Guild of America (DG). Award-winning designer, Set (Innovative Theatre Award/NYC); Light (B. Iden Payne/ATX). KCACTF Leadership: Past Coordinator, Student Directing Initiative, Region II (2014-2019), Region IV (2009-2012). La MaMa: Artist-in-Residence (1997-07).

Education & Training:
- M.F.A., Theatre Directing, CUNY/Brooklyn.
- B.A., Communication & Creative Arts, SUNY/Old Westbury.
- SUNY/Nassau Community College.
- Mineola High School.
- Alva T. Stanforth Middle School.
- Floral Park-Bellerose Elementary School.

Classical & Post-Modern actor/director/designer training incorporating Chekhov, Linklater, Stanislavski, & Viewpoints. 

Favorite Quotes:

“If I only had an hour to chop down a tree, I would spend the first 45 minutes sharpening my axe.”
- Abraham Lincoln

“The technique of any art is sometimes apt to dampen, as it were, the spark of inspiration in a mediocre artist; but the same technique in the hands of a master can fan that spark into an unquenchable flame.”
- Josef Jasser

“It takes a long while for a director to cease thinking in terms of the result he desires and instead concentrate on discovering the source of energy in the actor from which true impulses arise.”
- Peter Brook