Dr. Derek Goldman is an award-winning international stage director, playwright, producer, festival director, adapter/deviser, curator, published scholar and convener working at the intersection of performance, civic dialogue, and global affairs. He serves as Artistic and Executive Director of The Laboratory for Global Performance & Politics (The Lab), which he co-founded in 2012 with Ambassador Cynthia Schneider with a mission “to humanize global politics through performance.” Under his leadership, The Lab has grown into a unique organization that is both a global destination for students and an expansive network of collaborators worldwide, recognized for its distinctive thought leadership and innovation at the intersection of performance, civic dialogue, education, and global affairs.
He is Professor of Theater and Performance Studies at Georgetown with a joint appointment in the School of Foreign Service as Professor of Global Performance, Culture and Politics. In his more than two decades at Georgetown, he has also served as Chair of the Department of Performing Arts and Director of the Theater & Performance Studies Program, and for more than a decade as Artistic Director of the Davis Performing Arts Center.
He is director and co-author (with his former student Clark Young) of the celebrated play Remember This: The Lesson of Jan Karski (published as the centerpiece of a special volume by Georgetown University Press). The play was created by The Lab starring Oscar-nominated actor David Strathairn, and has been performed to great acclaim Off-Broadway and at leading theaters such as DC’s Shakespeare Theater Company, Berkeley Repertory, Chicago Shakespeare Theater, Spoleto Festival, as well as performances in the UK, Spain, four cities in Poland, and more. He also co-directed and co-authored the new feature film version (Remember This), which has received awards at numerous festivals and aired nationally on PBS Great Performances.
Goldman has directed over 100 theatrical productions and has worked regularly as an adapter/playwright at leading Off-Broadway, international, and regional theaters such as Steppenwolf in Chicago; Shakespeare Theater Company, The Kennedy Center, Arena Stage, Ford’s Theater, Lincoln Center, Theater for A New Audience, Berkeley Rep, Baltimore Center Stage, Folger, Everyman Theater, Mosaic, Theater J, Synetic Theater, Segal Center (Montreal), and many others.
