At its annual meeting in October, the National Theatre Conference elected Dan Carter, professor and director of the Penn State School of Theatre and producing artistic director of Penn State Centre Stage, to serve as its 29th president.
Founded in 1925, the National Theatre Conference is a cooperative association of distinguished leaders of the American theatre. Membership in the conference is by invitation only and is limited to 120. The conference operates as a theatrical "think tank" and meets annually to review and confer on matters pertaining to the welfare and development of the theatre and to honor outstanding achievement of organizations and individuals in the field.
Carter was elected to membership in 1996. Among NTC's past presidents are two Penn State alumni (Jay Broad and Jim O'Connor) and two former heads of theatre at the University (Doug Cook and Carole Brandt).
Carter is now in his 16th year at Penn State. Formerly, he was associate dean of the School of Theatre at Florida State University and chair of the Department of Theatre at Illinois State University, where he also served as producing director of the Illinois Shakespeare Festival.
He worked extensively as actor, stage manager, director and fight choreographer before joining the ranks of academe and remains active in the field. As an actor, he worked with many notables, including sharing the stage with Al Pacino, Martin Sheen, Farrah Fawcett, Orson Bean, and Judith Ivey, and the screen with Burt Reynolds, Sally Field, Ed Harris, Lloyd Bridges, Brian Keith, and Dom DeLuise. He was stage manager of the New York revival of Dames at Sea.
He recently completed 10 years on the Commission on Accreditation of the National Association of Schools of Theatre (NAST), including three years as chair. He currently serves as vice president of NAST. He is a recipient of the Society of American Fight Directors' Patrick Crean Award and holds the rank of fight director with that body. He served Actors' Equity Association for four years as Area Liaison from the State of Florida. He was recipient of the Illinois State University Alumni Achievement Award in 1999 and is a member of the Rock Valley College Hall of Fame. He was inducted into the College of Fellows of the American Theatre in 2007.