Charles Dumas is a teacher, writer, and lifetime political activist. He is professor emeritus in the School of Theatre at Pennsylvania State University, where he was the first African American to receive tenure, become a full professor, and be appointed emeritus. He directed the first play written by an African American on the PSU mainstage. He co-produced the first and only festival and seminar that showcased all of August Wilson’s Decade Series during his lifetime. He was a Fulbright Fellow at Stellenbosch University in South Africa.
As an actor, he appeared on Broadway in The Shadow Box (Circle in the Square), and Off-Broadway in multiple productions at the Negro Ensemble Company, New Federal Theatre, Riverside Shakespeare, and ATA. Regionally he’s appeared at McCarter Theatre Company in Princeton (Master Harold and the Boys, Enemy of the People, A Tale of Two Cities), Pennsylvania Shakespeare Company (Hoke in Driving Miss Daisy, Polonius in Hamlet, Charlie in Death of a Salesman).
In 1964, he was the SNCC project director in Leland during the Mississippi Freedom Summer. In 2012 he was the Democratic Party’s Congressional Candidate for the 5th District of Pennsylvania. He is a member of the Writers Guild, the Dramatist Guild, AEA, and SAG/AFTRA. He has a juris doctorate from Yale Law School and was a Hendler Fellow in screenwriting at the American Film Institute.
| Credit Type | Production | Season |
|---|---|---|
| Actor | Boogie Woogie & Booker T | 1986-87 Season |