Biography
Scott received a dual BA in theatre and history from Indiana University Bloomington and an MFA (distinction) in Actor Training and Coaching from Royal Central School of Speech and Drama from University of London.
From 2000-2003, Scott worked as the business and legal affairs coordinator for Brighter Pictures, Ltd (now Endemol Shine UK). He served as the executive director for Fairbanks Shakespeare Theatre (FST) in Fairbanks, Alaska and participated in production and performance in the Edinburgh Festival Fringe and the VIII Shakespeare Congress in Brisbane, Australia. He was the treasurer of the Shakespeare Theatre Association from 2013-2017 and now holds the office of vice president. Since 2007, he has served as the Mary Irene Ryan Family Executive Director of Shakespeare at the University of Notre Dame (USA).
Scott has taught acting process at Royal Central School of Speech and Drama, University of Notre Dame, Holy Cross College, and Indiana University South Bend. Since 2018, he has also taught Meisner acting technique and Mindfulness for the Artist for Prague Shakespeare Company’s Summer Shakespeare Intensive program.
He completed kundalini yoga teaching certification (CYKT-200) under Maya Fiennes and currently leads kundalini yoga club at Westville Correctional Facility in Indiana, where he additionally teaches a Shakespeare in performance course as part of the Shakespeare in Prisons Network that he co-founded in 2012. He received the Shakespeare Association of America’s Publics Award for this organization’s fourth international conference in 2020-2021. Scott has also received the Fairbanks, Alaska Downtown Association’s Golden Heart award and the Robinson Community Learning Center’s Arthur Quigley, PhD award for community service.
Research
Scott’s research interests focus on the capacity of Shakespeare and the theatre to drive positive social change. Through this research, he has developed Foundationing, an anti-harm approach to actor training, which he presented at annual meetings of the European Society of Criminology, the British Shakespeare Association, the Shakespeare Theatre Association, the Shakespeare Association of America, the Theatre Communications Group, and the World Shakespeare Congress.
His work in Shakespeare in Prisons connects the incarcerated with Shakespeare through education and performance as a way of teaching skills needed for social reintegration. He joined the VHI as a research associate in January 2023, and is currently involved in the Shakespeare and the Common Good? project.
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