Thomas Hischak

Thomas Hischak is an internationally recognized author and teacher in the Performing Arts. He is the author of twenty-four non-fiction books about theatre, film, and popular music, including The Oxford Companion to the American Musical, The Rodgers and Hammerstein Encyclopedia, Broadway Plays and Musicals, Through the Screen Door, The Tin Pan Alley Encyclopedia, Off-Broadway Musicals Since 1919, The Disney Song Encyclopedia, Broadway Lyricists, American Literature on Stage and Screen, Theatre as Human Action, and The Oxford Companion to American Theatre. He is also the author of thirty-three published plays which are performed in the United States, Canada, Great Britain, and Australia. Hischak is a Fulbright scholar who has taught and directed in Greece, Lithuania, and Turkey. Since 1983 he has been Professor of Theatre at the State University of New York at Cortland where he has received such honors as the 2004 SUNY Chancellor's Award for Excellence in Scholarship and Creative Activity and the 2010 SUNY Outstanding Achievement in Research Award. Four of his books have been cited as Outstanding Non-fiction Books by the American Library Association and The Oxford Companion to the American Musical was cited as an Outstanding Reference Work by the New York City Public Library in 2008. His playwriting awards include the Stanley Drama Award (New York City) for Cold War Comedy and the Julie Harris Playwriting Award (Beverly Hills, California) for The Cardiff Giant. Thomas and his wife Catherine live in Cortland, New York, and have two children: Mark Yeong and Karen Soh.