Mark E. Lococo, Ph.D.

About

Dr. Mark E. Lococo has served as Director of Theatre since 2007, during which time he has directed Fun Home, Failure: A Love Story, Mr. Burns: A Post-Electric Play, Elephant’s Graveyard, Tintypes, Galileo, Spring Awakening, Lost in Yonkers, Urinetown, Measure for Measure, Pippin, As You Like It and Mnemonic on Loyola's stages. Last year, he directed Sentimental Journey:  A Musical Tale of Love and War by his husband Ross Lehman at the Citadel Theatre, where in recent years he has directed Vanya and Sonia and Masha and Spike, Educating Rita and Other Desert Cities. He has also directed The Gifts of the Magi and Once On This Island  at the Porchlight Music Theatre,  A Chorus Line (Joseph Jefferson Award Nomination for Best Director of a Musical) The Taffetas (Joseph Jefferson Award Nomination for Best Director of a Review) and Nunsense at the Marriott Lincolnshire Theatre, The Producers at Milwaukee's Skylight Theatre,  The Miser at the Northlight Theatre (Joseph Jefferson Award Nomination for Best Director of a Play.) In 2007, he directed Wings for the Apple Tree Theatre, where he was an Artistic Associate. Previous productions there include:, Mountain, the Midwest premiere of Dessa Rose (Joseph Jefferson Award nomination for Best Director of a Musical), Uncle Vanya, the Chicago premiere of A Man of No Importance (winner of the 2004 After Dark Chicago Award for Best Production of a Musical), The Bubbly Black Girl Sheds Her Chameleon Skin, Indian Ink, Syncopation, The Dresser, The Swan, The Marriage of Bette and Boo, Waiting for Godot, and Sugar. He directed The Taffetas and The Elephant Man at the Peninsula Playhouse in Wisconsin.

In 2005, Dr. Lococo directed Shaw’s Misalliance in a joint production of the Milwaukee Chamber Theatre and the University of Wisconsin Madison’s Graduate program, as well as a new musical version of The Princess and the Pea at Chicago Shakespeare Theatre. In 2004, he directed Trumbo featuring noted author and Chicago personality Studs Terkel for Steppenwolf Theatre’s Traffic Series. From 1997-1999, he was the Artistic Director of Theatre On the Bay in Marinette, Wisconsin, where he directed productions of Working, Do Black Patent Leather Shoes Really Reflect Up?, Lost in Yonkers, Crow and Weasel, and In Their Own Words: A Vietnam Chronicle, among others. In 1996, he directed A Christmas Carol for the Pittsburgh Civic Light Opera. Prior to that, he spent several months in London assisting director David Bell on the West End production of Hot Mikado. Other Chicago productions include Offending the Audience for Econo-Art Theatre, Fish and Rice for Pegasus Players, Letters from a Divided House for City Lit Theatre and the Chicago Historical Society, Streamers, Getting Out, The Actor’s Nightmare, and original adaptations of the novels Less Than Zero, Riddley Walker, Einstein’s Dreams, and The Water-Method Man by John Irving.

Until 2007, Dr. Lococo was Associate Professor of Communication and Theatre Arts at the University of Wisconsin in Waukesha, where he directed productions of The Importance of Being Earnest, The Laramie Project, Merton of the Movies, Crow and Weasel, The Comedy of Errors, The Primary English Class, Talking With..., Story Theatre, and And Then They Came for Me: Remembering the World of Anne Frank.  He has also taught Humanities, Communications and Theatre at Columbia University, the City University of New York, Columbia College Chicago, Triton College, National Louis University, and Northwestern University. He was the director of the theatre arts division of the National High School Institute of Northwestern University (Cherub Program) from 1992-1997. In July of 2007, he participated in a Roundtable at Oxford University on the divide between the humanities and sciences. Dr. Lococo was Vice President for Conference Planning 2012 for the Association of Theatre in Higher Education (ATHE). Professor Lococo is a 2013 graduate of the SITI Company Theatre Intensive in Saratoga Springs, NY, where he returned in 2018 to perform in Theatre Piece No. 1, a re-interpretation of the original happening by John Cage at Black Mountain College.

Dr. Lococo received his BS, MA and PhD from Northwestern University, and was an Acting Apprentice at Actors Theatre of Louisville. 

Degrees

Ph.D., Northwestern University

M.A., Northwestern University

B.S., Northwestern University

Professional & Community Affiliations

Dr. Lococo is a member of the Society of Stage Directors and Choreographers, and serves on the Board of Directors for Pivot Arts, a home for innovative music, theatre and dance on Chicago’s far north side.