David Feldshuh
Professor
607-254-4444
dmf6@cornell.edu
Department Affiliations
- Theatre, Film & Dance
Graduate Field Affiliations
- Theatre Studies
Other Websites
Research and Scholarship Focus
David Feldshuh is a Phi Beta Kappa, philosophy major of Dartmouth College. He completed his actor training at the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art, studied mime with Jacques Lecoq, and joined the Guthrie Theatre in Minneapolis, remaining there for seven years first as an actor and then as Associate Director. Subsequently, he completed a PhD in theatre focusing on creativity and actor training. He then earned an MD degree and completed a residency in emergency medicine, a specialty he continues to practice. As a Clinical Instructor in Emergency Medicine, Dr. Feldshuh mentors visiting medical students from Weill Cornell Medical College. His theatrical career includes regional theatre and off-Broadway directing as well as opera and film. He is author of three published and widely produced plays, most notably, Miss Evers' Boys, for which he was nominated for the Pulitzer Prize in drama. As an HBO movie, Miss Evers' Boys received twelve Emmy nominations, winning five including Best Picture and the President’s Award for television presentations exploring vital social issues.
Dr. Feldshuh has served as Professor of Theatre and as Artistic Director of the Schwartz Center for the Performing Arts for the past twenty-seven years. He is a Stephan H. Weiss Presidential Fellow, an award recognizing distinguished undergraduate teaching. In addition, Dr. Feldshuh is the recipient of the Menschel Distinguished Teaching Fellow.
Currently Teaching
- THETR 3980 - Fundamentals Of Directing I
- THETR 1770 - Student Laboratory Theatre Company
- THETR 4990 - Practicum In Directing
Selected Publications
- His short story "Are You Satisfied, Thomas Becket?" was published in a collection of stories by physician-writers
- Miss Evers' Boys, Dramatist Play Service
- Fables Here and Then, University of Minnesota Press
- "Zen and the Actor", The Drama Review
Awards and Distinctions
- His play, Miss Evers' Boys, has been produced throughout the U.S., received the New American Play award, was nominated for the Pulitzer Prize and won five Emmy awards as an HBO movie
- He co-produced the video Susceptible to Kindness, for which he interviewed observers as well as survivors of the Tuskegee syphilis study. In 1994 the video won three awards: the Cine Golden Eagle, the Intercom Gold Plaque, and the International Health and Medical Film Festival award
- Dr. Feldshuh's television script Harmony was written for an educational television project dedicated to teaching science to children and sponsored in part by the National Science Foundation
- Recipient: Distinguished Service Award from National Center for Bioethics, Tuskegee University
- Stephen H Weiss Presidential Fellow for Distinguished Undergraduate Teaching
- Recipient: Menschel Distinguished Teaching Fellow
