Mark Pizzato
Mark Pizzato
Faculty Research Connections Profile
Mark Pizzato earned a Ph.D. in English from UW-Milwaukee, an MFA (Master of Fine Arts) in Dramatic Writing from the Catholic University of America, and a B.A. in English from the University of Notre Dame. He has published various interdiscplinary books, including Edges of Loss (1998), Theatres of Human Sacrifice: From Ancient Ritual to Screen Violence (2005), Ghosts of Theatre and Cinema in the Brain (2006), Inner Theatres of Good and Evil: The Mind’s Staging of Gods, Angels and Devils (2011), and Beast-People Onscreen and in Your Brain: The Evolution of Animal-Humans from Prehistoric Cave Art to Modern Movies (2016). He also co-edited Death in American Texts and Performances (2010).
His textbook, Mapping Global Theatre Histories, was published in 2019 and translated into Italian in 2024. His new book, European Churches and Chinese Temples as Neuro-Theatrical Sites, appeared in Spring 2024 from Bloomsbury Academic, which offers its hundreds of photos and dozens of videos as open access for free at this site. Dr. Pizzato summarizes and discusses the book in this video.
Along with teaching a course for the Arts + Architecture Honors Program, based on his latest book, Dr. Pizzato teaches theatre history, performance theory, playwriting, screenwriting, and various topics in film. Short films, produced from his screenplays, have won New York Film Festival and Minnesota Community Television awards. They are available for free viewing at his YouTube channel.
Dr. Pizzato blogs about his research at mpizzato.wordpress.com. He also participates in the iTunes podcast: “Conversations about Buddha, Jesus, and Mohammed.”
For more about his books, please see:
- European Churches and Chinese Temples as Neuro-Theatrical Sites (2024)
- Mapping Global Theatre Histories (2019)
- Beast-People Onscreen and in Your Brain: The Evolution of Animal-Humans from Prehistoric Cave Art to Modern Movies (2016)
- Inner Theatres of Good and Evil: The Mind’s Staging of Gods, Angels and Devils (2011)
- Death in American Texts and Performances: Corpses, Ghosts, and the Reanimated Dead (2010)
- Ghosts of Theatre and Cinema in the Brain (2006)
- Theatres of Human Sacrifice: From Ancient Ritual to Screen Violence (2005)
- Edges of Loss: From Modern Drama to Postmodern Theory (1998)