Michael is a theater-maker who has spent 35 years leading process and facilitating conversation around complex public issues across the nation, as well as supporting and training arts, municipal and non-profit staff in designing effective community programs, convenings and public engagement work. He’s been a founder and co-leader with three organizations- Hope Is Vital (theatre-based HIV Prevention work in DC and nationwide in the ‘90s); Sojourn Theatre (ensemble theatre company1999-2023, Portland Or and nationwide) and Center for Performance and Civic Practice (artist collective consulting on institutional and system change work nationwide 2012- present). He co-founded/co-led Art-Train, a national technical assistance program with Springboard for the Arts, he’s just finishing four years as Civic Collaborations Director with One Nation One Project, a national arts and health initiative, and in 2022, he founded Co-Lab for Civic Imagination at University of Montana, where he serves as Co-Lab Director and as a University-Wide System Dramaturg/Artist-in-Residence. His largest current creative project (2022-2026) is State of Mind, a touring theatre/public dialogue/coalition-building residency about Behavioral Health across the Western US; he is author of the book Theatre for Community, Conflict and Dialogue (Heinemann Press).
