Scholar/playwright Paul D'Andrea began his career at Harvard,
earning a B.A. in physics. After studying
philosophy at Oxford, he returned to Harvard for a Ph.D. in English literature. He helped found the Institute of the Arts and the
Theatre of the First Amendment at Mason. His
prize-winning plays include The Trouble with Europe, A Full Length Portrait
of America and The Wonderful One-Hoss Shay and are produced widely. He has taught at Harvard, the University of
Chicago and the University of Minnesota. He
won the Morse/Amoco Distinguished Teaching Award at Minnesota and the Teaching Excellence
award at Mason. In 2000 his play The
Einstein Project was presented at the Berkshire Theatre Festival in Stockbridge, MA. His adaptation for the twenty-first century of Nathan
the Wise, G. E. Lessing's Enlightenment classic about religious tolerance, was
produced by Theatre of the First Amendment, opening two weeks after 9/11, filmed and
broadcast by WETA/TV (PBS) in 2002, produced in 2003 in Rome by Centro Dionysia and the National Academy of
Dramatic Art, and broadcast by RAI/TV in Italian. Professor DAndrea teaches courses on topics
such as Renaissance art, philosophy and literature; views of gender from Aristophanes
through Much Ado about Nothing to Sex and the City; the moral vision of
contemporary drama; and Shakespeare. He has
written screenplays and is interested in linking the humanities and the arts through
contemporary media. An article about Professor D'Andrea appeared in the Mason Gazette:
http://gazette.gmu.edu/articles/8531.