Hank Willenbrink

Education

B.A., University of Tulsa
M.A., Ph.D., University of California, Santa Barbara

Expertise

Dr. Hank Willenbrink is a Professor in the Department of English & Theatre. He teaches in three areas offered by the department--Creative Writing, English, and Theatre--and the courses he often focuses on are contemporary literature, dramatic literature, playwriting and other types of performance writing. Dr. Willenbrink is a big proponent of student research and has mentored students helping them to create their own plays, television scripts, short films, and scholarly theses. He's worked with students research assistants. In his classes, he advocates for a global view of literature and hopes to inspire his students to see the arts and the humanities as a vibrant, vital pursuits that give dimension to our lives, inspire, and mold us. His goal is to empower his students and give them the tools to best tell their own story.

Dr. Willenbrink identifies as a scholar/artist, which means that he produces both scholarly work (manuscripts and essays) as well as creative products (plays and other performance scripts). This term also means that he believes that both areas inform one another.

Dr. Willenbrink's own scholarly research focuses, mainly, in two areas: religious performance and playwriting. He has a book forthcoming that analyzes religious performances in support of Donald Trump entitled performing for the Don: Theatres of Faith in the Age of Trump (Routledge). He's also published on religious performance in Ecumenica and Theatre Journal. In addition to Writing plays, he's begun to take a more scholarly interest in the discipline of playwriting and have a chapter in Decentered Playwriting (Routledge) that explores possible areas of intersection between playwriting and naturewriting. He's also been developing writing courses which put this interest into action.

As a playwrite, his play The Boat in the Tiger Suit premiered at The Brick (NYC) and is published Original Works Publishing. He's also had work read and performed at Sala Beckett (Barcelona), the Kennedy Center American College theatre Festival (KCACTF in Washington D.C.), quiet (Seattle), and other venues. His plays have been developed at WordBRIDGE (Clemson, SC) and World InterplayInternational Festival of Young Playwrights (Australia). 18 won the John Cauble Award for Best Short Play from KCACTF. Dr. Willenbrink's monologues have been featured in Mmonologues for Men by Men, More Monologues for Men by Men, and Best Men's Stage Monologues of 2014.

Some of his other scholarly work has focused on contemporary Catalan, Spanish, and Portuguese writers; contemporary plays, playwrights, and theatre companies; and independent music.

Dr. Willenbrink also developed and led three different community-engaged projects featuring students. These projects, Proprioception (2015), The Porches Project (2019), and 1902 (2023) were all interdisciplinary and student-centered. In each project, students writers who performed research on their community through historical documentation or via community story gatherings. This research was used to create dramatic works, which were developed and performed.

Dr. Willenbrink served in the leadership of two professional organizations: The Association for Theatre in Higher Education and and Mid-Atlantic Popular and American Culture Association. He's also worked with Narrative-4 and given writing workshops with Arts in Education Northeastern Pennsylvania and other community organizations. On campus, he served as Theatre Program Director and First Year Seminar Development Director. Dr. Willenbrink also served on multiple important committees such as the GE Review Committee, Slattery Center Faculty Executive Committee and Humanities Initiative, the Board of Rank and Tenure; Honors Council: Community-Based Learning Advisory Board and Laudato 'SI Education for the Environment Working Group.

Dr. Willenbrink and his family live in Clarks Summit, but whenever they can, they love to travel especially to Latin America and Spain.

Courses Taught

ENLT 142X FYS Latest and Greatest: Prize Winning Fiction Poetry and Theatre (FYS) 
ENLT/THTR 276 U.S. Drama 1916-1968 (CL) 
ENLT/THTR 277 U.S. Drama 1968-Present (CL, D) 
ENLT/THTR 278 Ecotheatre (CL) 
ENLT 490 Senior Seminar
THTR 110 Intro. to Theatre (CL) 
THTR 211 Theatre Histories I (CL) 
THTR 212 Theatre Histories II (CL) 
THTR 225 Solo Performance
THTR/WRTG 215 Playwriting I
WRTG 315 Playwriting II