A Brief Biography
Jack Hrkach (Actors Equity, Screen Actors Guild) has performed in Washington, D.C., at the Folger Theatre, the Kennedy Center's Eisenhower Theatre, the Source Theatre, and Maryland's Olney Theatre; at Florida's Caldwell Theatre Company; and at the nearby Cortland Repertory Theatre, among other theaters. He has recorded over 100 "Talking Books" for the Library of Congress, and was a Russian linguist in the U.S. Air Force during the Vietnam War.
In midlife he received a Ph.D. in theater from the City University of New York, where he specialized in early American drama. In 1990 he began a career at Ithaca College, where he has taught Introduction to Theater, Theater History, Contemporary Developments, and upper-level seminars in Theaters of Diversity in the United States, European and Russian Avant-Garde Theater 1890-1940, and Theater in the U.S. between the Wars at Ithaca College. He also has been pleased to coordinate the B.A. degree program in drama since his first year at Ithaca. Jack takes a special interest in International Programs, and since its inception in 2000 the has taken students already on their way to London for the fall semester of their Junior year to the Edinburgh Festival, which has been great fun. The tradition will continue, he hopes, indefinitely. He has sponsored two excellent international students (one from Romania, one from Japan) in their one-year studies at Ithaca, and has been mentor to Tamar Bokuchava, a visiting scholar from the Republic of Georgia, in her search to learn more about American theatre and theatre training.
In 2005-06 Jack took an excellent full year sabbatic. He taught in London for the fall semester, and spent a month in Italy during the spring semester. In summer 2006 he saw the Medieval Mystery Plays in York and 7 shows in 4 days in London. He was back in London in summer 2007 on a research project, and continues to make short trips there every August when he and his students head to Edinburgh. Take a look at the photo galleries & custom sections on this website for his reports and photos to learn more.
Jack taught an H&S Honors Intermediate seminar, the first ever offered by the Department of Theatre Arts, in Spring 2008 and 2009. He will teach it again at the Ithaca College London Center in 2011-12, where he initiated to course in Fall 2005. The topic? "A Tale of Two Theatrical Cities: Literary, Performing & Visual Art and the French Revolution." At the London Center the class includes London walks and a French Revolution walk in Paris! On the home campus, while there was not, alas, a field trip to Paris, it was still a great learning experience and also great fun!
After 2011-12 he will ease into what he hopes will be a blissful retirement...