Clark University President David Angel and Provost Davis Baird have announced the appointment of Professor Gino DiIorio as the next holder of the Andrea B. and Peter D. ’64 Klein Distinguished Professorship.
The Klein Endowed Chair rotates among tenured faculty from all departments. Each recipient holds the chair for four years. Previous holders of the professorship include professors Virginia Mason Vaughan (2000-04), Paul Ropp (2006-2010), and Sharon Krefetz (2010-2014).
DiIorio, professor of theater arts and chair of the Visual and Performing ArtsDepartment, began teaching at Clark in 1989. He is a well-known and award-winning playwright, who has earned the 2007 Urban Stages Emerging Playwrights Award; the Berrilla Kerr Playwriting Award (2003); and a Higgins School Grant (2001). His plays have been finalists at the O’Neill Center, the Humana Festival and New Dramatists. More information on his plays can be found at ginodiiorio.com.
Along with playwriting honors, DiIorio has won a number of awards for his teaching, including a Logan Faculty Fellowship and a Hayden Junior Faculty Fellowship.
In nominating DiIorio for the award, Vaughan, now a professor emeritus, noted, “Gino has been doing the kind of work we’re promoting in LEEP for over fifteen years. His total commitment to fostering student growth is evidenced by the countless hours he has spent since 2011 in organizing and implementing Clark’s New Play Festival.” DiIorio works with students in his playwriting seminars to shape their own plays into full-length dramas, which are ultimately produced, directed and acted by theater arts students in a three-week festival at the end of the academic year. The project involves over 75 students on and off stage, as well as visiting guest artists.
Professor DiIorio received a B.A. from Clark University in 1983, and an M.F.A. from City University of New York in 1987.
Andrea and Peter Klein are longstanding Clark University supporters. Peter Klein graduated from Clark in 1964 and is a member of the University’s Board of Trustees. The Kleins funded a permanent endowment for the chair in order to recognize and honor distinguished scholarship, teaching and service by Clark faculty members. This past spring, the Kleins were honored with Clark’s Distinguished Service Award.