BIO
Mason Rosenthal is a performance maker raised in Skokie, Illinois and based in Philadelphia.
Through research, collaboration, and experimentation, Mason makes shows to surprise himself and others. His work crosses genres, disciplines, and subjects; he is a performer and director with a love for devised theater, performance art, experimental dance, and socially engaged practice.
He is a founding member of Lightning Rod Special (LRS), whose critically acclaimed productions include The Appointment (NYT "Best Theater of 2019") and Underground Railroad Game (Obie Award for "Best New American Theatre Work," NYT “25 Best Plays of the Last 25 Years”). Mason is also a founding member of The Medium Theatre Company and one half of the performance art duo Ben and Ben's Brother.
Mason has over 20 years of teaching experience with students of all ages. He has taught acting, movement, collaboration, and creation at numerous colleges and universities. He was on faculty at NYU's Atlantic Theater Company Acting School from 2007 to 2011 before moving to Philadelphia to be the Headlong Performance Institute's first teaching fellow. From 2021 to 2023 he was on faculty at Virginia Tech's School of the Performing Arts and a fellow with the Center for Communicating Science. In 2023, he participated in a National Endowment for the Humanities-sponsored Summer Institute on "Preserving and Transmitting American Ensemble-Based Devised Theatre." He was teaching at University of the Arts' Ira Brind School of Theater Arts before its abrupt closure. Mason is currently on faculty at Temple University's School of Theater, Film, and Media Arts and is in residency at Princeton University as part of The Civilians' The Next Forever Commission.
He holds a BFA in Drama with a minor in Art and Public Policy from New York University and completed his MFA in Performance as Public Practice with The University of Texas at Austin. Since 2006, Mason has studied improvisational dance and embodied anatomy with his teaching mentor, George Russell.
Current work includes Super Compassionate, producing for Cannonball, <MAKE><SHOW> at FringeArts, and an upcoming LRS piece on the American Revolution.
For recent, and not so recent works, please check out the projects page.
Mason has devised nearly 100 original performances as an independent artist and as a founding co-director of the award-winning Philadelphia-based theater company, Lightning Rod Special.
Mason's work has been supported by grants and residencies from The Civilians, Princeton University's Lewis Center for the Arts, Fresh Ground Pepper, The Ground Floor at Berkeley Rep, FringeArts, Haverford College, Rude Mechs, The June and Steve Wolfson Award for an Evolving Theatre Company, Austin Cultural Arts Division, The Virginia Tech Institute for Creativity, Arts, and Technology, The University of Texas at Austin, The University of Pennsylvania, Roger Williams University, Colgate University, Wyncote Foundation, Pennsylvania Council on the Arts, Philadelphia Cultural Fund, Network of Ensemble Theaters, Rhode Island State Council on the Arts, White Pines Productions, The Orchard Project, MKM Foundation, The Charlotte Cushman Foundation, and New England Foundation for the Arts.