Rate My Professor Mark Hanson

Mark Hanson is Professor of Musical Theatre and Program Coordinator for the BFA Musical Theatre program in the Department of Theatre and Dance, School of Performing Arts, at the University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point, where he joined the faculty in 2013 as Assistant Professor of Musical Theater. He earned a Bachelor of Music in Performance, with a focus on Piano and Piano Pedagogy, from the University of Minnesota at Duluth, and a Master of Music in Music Theatre Conducting from Arizona State University. Prior to his appointment at UWSP, Hanson spent 22 years in the San Francisco Bay Area teaching and conducting in the music and theater departments at the College of San Mateo, Foothill College, University of San Francisco, and Lick-Wilmerding High School. His extensive professional career includes serving as Music Director for Four Corners Musical Theatre in Farmington, New Mexico (2020), Great Plains Theatre in Abilene, Kansas (2017-2019), Lost Nation Theatre in Montpelier, Vermont (2015-2018), and Foothill Music Theatre in Los Altos, California (2004-2014).

Hanson boasts over 200 regional conducting credits, encompassing productions such as The Will Rogers Follies at American Musical Theater of San Jose, Disney’s Beauty and the Beast at Contra Costa Musical Theater, Miss Saigon at Broadway By The Bay, Man of La Mancha at Musical Theater of Arizona, Beehive at San Jose Stage Company, Spring Awakening at Foothill Music Theater, Carousel and Barnum at Oakland’s Woodminster Amphitheater, My Fair Lady at Minnesota Repertory, Big River at Iowa’s Way Off Broadway Theater, Peter Pan at Albuquerque Civic Light Opera, The Desert Song at Boston Concert Opera, and Candide at Monterey Opera. As a graduate student at Arizona State University, he was selected as Musical Director and Conductor for the second revision of Stephen Sondheim’s Merrily We Roll Along, working directly with Sondheim, book writer George Furth, and director Randall West to develop the version licensed today. Hanson has also contributed to national tours including Spamalot, Legally Blonde, Cabaret, The Will Rogers Follies, and Les Misérables, and collaborated with luminaries such as John Cullum, Rita Moreno, Harve Presnell, Nancy Dussault, Theodore Bikel, and Darren Criss in a 2012 masterclass. At UWSP, he directs productions like The Pirates of Penzance (2025), She Loves Me (2023), Amélie (2023), Bright Star (2024), and Into the Woods. He holds memberships in the Music Theatre Educators Alliance (2015-present) and the Musicians Union (1990-present).