Paul Castagno

Dr. Castagno came to UNCW in 2005 from Ohio University where he served as Director of the School of Theater and Head of the M.A. Programs. As an administrator, Castagno has presided over and written successful regional and NAST accreditations, served as an onsite reviewer in the US and Canada, and published two articles in The Department Chair. He served as producer for numerous productions at Ohio University and here at UNCW. During his tenure at the University of Alabama, from 1989-2001, he headed the M.F.A. Playwriting/Dramaturgy Program and was director of the New Playwrights Program where he developed the work of major American playwrights. Professor Castagno was the founding chair of the Department of Theatre from 2005-2009. His notable achievements include the execution of the theatre portion of the Cultural Arts Building. Fundraising efforts helped to establish the Doug Swink Award, The Pat Hingle Guest Artist Award, and Nikkita Johnson endowment. Professor Castagno was named the Distinguished Faculty Scholar by UNCW in 2023-24. Before pursuing his Ph.D. , Dr. Castagno worked professionally (often on the road) in theatre and music all across the country from New York to Alaska, and still continues to enjoy playing and singing and various athletic endeavors.

Education

Dr. Castagno received his Ph.D. in Theatre from Ohio State University with prior graduate work in the MFA Scenic Design Program at Stanford University, and completed his B.F.A. in Dramatic Arts from the University of Connecticut, studying with designer/mentor the late Jerry Rojo during his seminal period working with Richard Schechner and the Performance Group. Earlier he studied at the Hartford Conservatory: Studies in Harmony, Composition, and Voice under Ray Cassarino. 1977-79, which gave him training in composition implemented in his sound designs.

Specialization in Teaching

Dr. Castagno received three ETEAL teaching awards to incorporate active learning into his online teaching. His online forays go back to the early 2000s with Merlot--he received GRAPE status for peer review. In 2024 a CHHS grants allowed him to enroll in and earn AI Microsoft certificates and now (2025) continues his work now on a Chatbot using Azure—based on his research for Playwriting Intensive. At the Folger Institute in Washington DC presented: “Monologue and Metadata” after his participation in a weeklong summer workshop. As an outcome he has incorporated early modern digital anthology into his theatre history classes. The 2018 winner of the prestigious Oslo International Festival of Acting Award is largely based on his contributions to polyvocal playwriting pedgagogy and it's international influence. His works on playwriting have inspired both students and professionals, including Young Jean Lee, Gianluca Iumiento, David Crespy, and dissertation plays from underrepresented groups and LGTBQ. His work has been cemented in the canon of playwriting curricula across the globe. Dr. Castagno's extensive work in Theory and Criticism led to his publication in the anthology Teaching Theatre using Russian Formalism as the basis for experimental playwriting. His archival work across Italy and the UK, as well as, New York, Wash DC, has successfully promoted the use of iconography in the teaching of historical performance trends, particularly in commedia dell'arte. Dr. Castagno believes that research informs the best teaching and he is acknowledged as an international leader in the discipline.

Research Interests

He recently published Playwriting Intensive (Waveland 2023) a groundbreaking work on dramatic dialogue; he edited and published Collaborative Playwriting: Polyvocal Approaches from the EU Collective Plays Project (Routledge 2020) providing play commentaries and the introduction. This culminated the largest new play project in theatre history involving over 35 countries. In recent years, he has published in Theatre Journal, Italian Studies, Korean Theatre Journal, Theatre Times, The International Journal of Arts and Humanities, and Praxis. In June 2017, he was invited by Theatre Grob (Copenhagen) giving workshops and a master class at the Royal Danish Theatre. During this trip abroad, Dr. Castagno presented at Oxford University’s Theatre in Translation conference and in Hamburg at the Theatre Welt festival. His widely cited book New Playwriting Strategies: Language and Media in the 21st Century published by Routledge, 2012, provided the basis for the EUCP grant. New Playwriting Strategies (and its earlier edition in 2001) has had a continuing impact on contemporary playwriting in the US, Europe, and Australia, forming the basis for graduate theses and dissertations. The book’s two editions have been translated into Persian (Iran) where they are extensively adopted in graduate and undergraduate programs. His widely cited book on the commedia dell' arte (The Early Commedia dell'Arte 1550-1621: The Mannerist Context) is a model for interdisciplinary studies, reviewed by JDTC as a "canonical work."Journal publications include: Theatre Topics, NTQ, Theatre History Studies, Journal of Dramatic Theory and Criticism, and seminal anthologies: Dramaturgy in American Theatre: A Sourcebook.

Professional Service

Dr. Castagno was Director of the School of Theatre at Ohio University, and founding chair of the Theatre Dept. at UNCW. He ran the MA program at Ohio U and the MFA playwriting/dramaturgy program while administering the New Playwrights Program, working with the top playwrights in America. Fundraising efforts here helped to establish the Doug Swink Award, The Pat Hingle Guest Artist Award, and Nikkita Johnson endowment. He served as Chair of the Playwriting Focus and Awards for SETC for a number of years, and as founding editor initiated Theatre Symposium a longstanding SETC journal published by U of Alabama Press. He ran the seminal symposium Voice of the Dramaturg with LMDA, considered a pivotal work in dramaturgy, and was the presiding editor for volumes 3 and 4. He has served on RTP committees in all departments, as well as the College RTP at Ohio University. As an administrator, Castagno has presided over and written successful regional and NAST accreditations, served as an onsite reviewer in the US and Canada, and published two articles in The Department Chair. He served as producer for numerous productions at Ohio University and here at UNCW.He directed and designed sound for the Nordic group collective play Darkness: The Enemy Inside here at UNCW in 2019 working with Norwegian videographer, Sabina Jacobbsen.

Community Engagement

The 2018 winner of the prestigious Oslo International Festival of Acting Award for his work on contemporary playwriting he was also honored with a week long conference in his honor teaching master playwriting classes to EU playwrights. As a result a Festschrift in his honor was published by KHIO, the major Art and Theatre academy in Oslo, Norway. Previous UNCW directing stints include The Moors in 2022 and A Murder of Crows (2023) which was nominated for the Wilmington Theatre Awards in 2024. In 2018 he helmed and sound designed the successful departmental production of Hedda Gabler which StarNews described as “thoughtfully and precisely directed.” His earlier directing work at UNCW includes Ayckbourn’s Private Fears in Public Places, Burial at Thebes (sound design of Burial at Thebes was nominated for a Best of Wilmington award--Chancellor's Inauguration event), Middletown, Margo Veil, Dead Man’s Cellphone, Troy Women, and Scapino, which was the inaugural production in the SRO theatre. In the International community, Dr. Castagno worked in Italy, delivering a lecture on Polyvocal Theatre at the world-renowned Piccolo Teatro in 2015 as part of Tramadautore, Milan’s World Expo 2015; in 2016, he participated in an EU Collective play development workshop at the Centro Sperimentale di Cinematografia in Rome, Italy. He then presented his research at a press conference at the British Council in Rome, including his 2016 publication of “Postdramatic and Polyvocal Trends in Contemporary Italian Theatre,” in the prestigious international journal TheatreForum.

Honors & Awards

He served as a US/UK Fulbright Scholar in 2014 (the first FB scholar in the UK from UNCW) at the Borthwick Archives at the University of York, UK, and delivered lectures on Alan Ayckbourn at universities in England, Wales and Scotland.
The 2018 winner of the prestigious Oslo International Festival of Acting Award for his work on contemporary playwriting he was also honored with a Festschrift published by KHIO, the major Art and Theatre academy in Oslo, Norway
Microsoft 900 AI certified: Great Learning prompt engineering certified July 2024
GRAPE 2.0 Peer Review Certification course; Merlot 2025
CHHS Research Grant 2025.
CHHS Faculty Development Grant. 2024.
CAS Research Initiative, 2022.
Strategic Initiative Award, Applied Learning Theatre. 2021.
Research Reassignment Fall 2020.
OIAF Lifetime Pedagogical Award, Oslo Norway, Summer 2018.
Cahill Research Award, UNCW (Spring 2018).
CAS Travel award, UNCW, (Spring 2018).
Online course development (THR 369). Spring 2018.
ETEAL award for (LDN) diversity course development. Spring 2018
Center for Teaching Excellence: Summer Pedagogy Development Stipend, 2017
Folger Shakespeare Institute: “Beyond Access Summer Seminar,” week-long seminar, Wash, DC.: 2016
Experiencing Theatre History: ETEAL grant for applied learning 2016.
International travel award. Summer 2015.
Fulbright Scholar Award UK University of York (2013-2014)