Rate My Professor Henry MacCarthy

Henry MacCarthy served as Associate Professor and Co-Chair of the Department of Theatre and Dance at Gustavus Adolphus College from 2007 until 2025. Born in Venezuela to a Venezuelan father and Colombian mother, he earned a B.A. in theatre performance from the Escuela Nacional de Artes Escénicas in Caracas. He completed graduate studies in stage direction at Indiana University, earning a Master’s degree, and obtained a Ph.D. in Theatre from Ohio University’s School of Interdisciplinary Arts, with his dissertation examining Caribbean Musical Theater. His research specializations include Caribbean Musical Theater and opera directing.

MacCarthy began his professional career as an actor with Venezuela’s National Theatre Company, where he performed the role of King Oberon in A Midsummer Night’s Dream. He directed operas in Venezuela, including Carmen and Sweeney Todd, and continued this work in the United States as guest stage director for Opera Omaha’s Opera Outdoors production in 2016. At Gustavus, he directed a wide array of productions across genres, such as columbinus shortly after his arrival in 2007, The Lesson in 2008, The Impresario from Smyrna in 2009, The Arabian Nights in 2010, Assassins in 2012, the innovative pandemic-adapted radio play The Murder Mystery Hour in 2020—which was streamable nationwide—and Metamorphoses in 2023. For The Murder Mystery Hour, he received the 2021-2022 Innovative Teaching Award from the John S. Kendall Center for Engaged Learning and the Provost’s Office. MacCarthy led international teaching experiences, including a May-term course on Arts and Performance in London in 2025, and contributed a mobile videoportrait to the 2021 Casa Imaginaria project as one of 37 Venezuelan artists abroad. His leadership and productions emphasized social justice theatre, significantly influencing student development in performance, directing, and design.