Omar Sangare

Omar Sangare was born and raised in Poland, and graduated from the Theater Academy in Warsaw, where he studied with the Oscar winning director, Andrzej Wajda. In 1994 he was awarded a scholarship to The British American Drama Academy in Oxford, England. While there, he worked with Derek Jacobi, Alan Rickman, Michael Kahn, and Jeremy Irons. In 2006, Omar Sangare received Ph.D. degree from the Theater Academy in Warsaw. Dr. Sangare taught at UCLA, UCSB, UCSD, Westmont College, and LAMDA. Currently, he teaches in Department of Theatre at Williams College. In 2007, he became founder and curator of Dialogue ONE, International Theatre Festival for solo performances at Williamstheatre. He is also a founder and artistic director of United Solo Theatre Festival at Theatre ROW in the heart of the New York City theatre district on 42nd Street.

He holds many film, television, and radio credits. In 1998 he wrote and directed Language for Advanced, a TV show which was made for TVP1 Public Television Channel in Poland. In 1999 he wrote and directed the one-woman drama, Juliet which was performed by American actress Deborah Latz at The Red Room Theater in New York City. He was the writer, producer, and lead character in a TV comedy series Black Room which was presented by the Polish TV Polsat. Among his famous roles in theatre are Paul in John Guare’s, Six Degrees Of Separation, Horatio in Hamlet, and Abad in Que West by Koltes. In 2002, acclaimed by the press for his lead part in the Arena Players Repertory Theater production of Othello. Writing in The New York Times, Barbara Delatiner said, “Omar Sangare was born to play Othello.” For his one-man drama, True Theater Critic, he was voted The Best in Acting by The New York International Fringe Festival in 1997. The same year he was invited to The Jerzy Grotowski Theater in Wroclaw, Poland, where he won four prizes at The Theater Festival. True Theater Critic was presented in Poland, Canada, England, Ukraine, Germany, and the United States. Most recently the one-man drama received the Best Performance Award at the San Francisco Fringe Festival.

Through many years he became a well-known person in Poland. His published literary work includes two books of poetry: Postscriptum and Landscape of the Soul, collections of short stories titled Tales for Old Horse, Tales for Black Sheep, and Tales for Decent Man as well as many essays and articles for various magazines and newspapers in Poland. Touring with major American writers such as Robert Pinsky and Susan Sontag, he promoted his Polish writing in the United States. In 2003, he released his first album, ON. He also recorded Polish Christmas Carols for television TVP1 in Poland. Recently he published Othello. Pale from Envy, his doctoral thesis on Shakespeare’s Othello.

Dr. Omar Sangare was born to present his talents internationally through a thriving career as an actor, director, writer, producer, educator, and philanthropist. In 2009 he received the Red Cross Diploma for his charity service and contributions over the years.