Rate My Professor Mark Hanson

Mark Hanson serves as Professor of Musical Theatre and Program Coordinator for the BFA Musical Theatre program in the School of Performing Arts at the University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point. He joined the Theatre and Dance Department in 2013 as Assistant Professor of Musical Theater. Hanson holds a Master of Music in Music Theater Conducting from Arizona State University and a Bachelor of Music in Performance, specializing in Piano and Piano Pedagogy, from the University of Minnesota at Duluth. Prior to his appointment at UWSP, he resided in the San Francisco Bay Area for 22 years, where he taught and conducted 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 career includes serving as Music Director for Four Corners Musical Theatre in Farmington, NM (2020), Stage and Music Director at Great Plains Theatre in Abilene, KS (2017-2019), and Music Director at Lost Nation Theatre in Montpelier, VT (2015-2018), as well as Foothill Music Theatre in Los Altos, CA (2004-2014).

Hanson's conducting credits span over 200 regional 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. He has contributed to national tours including Spamalot, Legally Blonde, Cabaret, The Will Rogers Follies, and Les Misérables. A highlight of his graduate work at Arizona State University was his selection as Musical Director and Conductor for the second revision of Stephen Sondheim’s Merrily We Roll Along, collaborating directly with Sondheim, book writer George Furth, and director Randall West to develop the version now licensed for performance. Hanson has worked alongside theater luminaries such as John Cullum, Rita Moreno, Harve Presnell, Nancy Dusaul, Theodore Bikel, and Darren Criss. He maintains memberships in the Music Theatre Educators Alliance since 2015 and the Musicians Union since 1990.