Christopher McElroen Biography

Christopher McElroen is a New York based Producer and Director. He co-founded the Classical Theatre of Harlem and served as the organizations Executive Director from 1999 – 2009 where he produced forty-one productions yielding 18 AUDELCO Awards, 6 OBIE Awards, 2 Lucille Lortel Awards, a Drama Desk Award and CTH being named "1 of 8 theatres in America to Watch" by the Drama League. Christopher has directed over thirty professional productions including four world premieres, The Cherry Orchard with Wendell Pierce and Earle Hyman, an original adaptation of Richard Wright's novel Native Son, Marat/Sade with T. Ryder Smith and The Blacks: A Clown Show, which received four 2003 OBIE Awards and was named one of the ten best Off-Broadway productions of 2003 by The New York Times. Alongside visual artist Paul Chan and Creative Time, Christopher co-produced and directed Waiting for Godot in New Orleans, a community development through the arts initiative that staged Samuel Beckett's Waiting for Godot outdoors in the Lower Ninth Ward and Gentilly communities of post-Katrina New Orleans. The New York Times listed the project as one of the top ten national art events of 2007. The archives from the production have been acquired into the permanent collection of The Museum of Modern Art (MOMA) and will be on exhibit at MOMA through September 2011. He had the honor of directing the world-premiere of 51st (dream) State, the final work of poet, musician and activist Sekou Sundiata. 51st (dream) State was a multimedia exploration of American Empire that premiered in New York at The Brooklyn Academy of Music's Next Wave Festival before touring internationally. In addition, Christopher has directed or guest lectured at Stanford University, Duke University, Purdue University, New York University, Dartmouth College, The Contemporary Arts Center Boston, The Walker Arts Center and The Museum of Modern Art, among others. He is currently working with Oscar nominee Oren Jacoby and The Ralph Ellison Estate on the world premiere stage adaptation of Ellison's prolific novel Invisible Man.