Department-Chair

Jason Hale is an American actor, international theatre director, and acting professor. 

He is a 1993 graduate of the New Actors Workshop in NYC and earned his MA in Directing from Antioch University. Hale has trained and enjoyed a long association with directors Mike Nichols, Paul Sills, and George Morrison, receiving his Viola Spolin specialty and new refinements of American Method Acting, and also received his further method acting specialty by working with  John Uecker, who was an assistant to Kim Stanley and Harold Clurman at the Actors Studio. He was also a longtime personal assistant to American author and playwright James Purdy. Hale was the founding member of the Theatre Project Ensemble, a New York City non-profit in 1999-2004, for whom Paul Sills served as the artistic advisor and endorsed the company to pass along the work of Viola Spolin Improvisation in workshops and performances. Hale was later the managing producer for Collaborations Ltd., a musical theatre development company, 2004-10.  

Jason Hale has taught acting for over 25 years at leading training programs in NYC, including New York University, Stella Adler Studio of Acting, HB Studios, New York Film Academy, School of Visual Arts, and The New Actors Workshop. Internationally, Hale has guest taught in Mexico, Poland, Georgia, Ukraine, and China where he taught yearly at the Shanghai Theatre Academy. Hale’s focus on teaching is new refinements of American method acting (fusing the works of Strasberg, Meisner, and later psychophysical actions of Stanislavski) and Viola Spolin Improvisation, and Hale was selected as a Fulbright Specialist Candidate to teach his work internationally from 2012 to 2017.

Jason Hale is an international theatre director with a broad spectrum of plays, directing professional actors and acting students worldwide. His recent professional directing credits include Suddenly Last Summer in Georgia for the National State Drama Theatre of Sokhumi (Istanbul Theatre Festival, 2024), Collected Stories at Ankara State Theatre (2021-present), Fool for Love at Tatbikat Theatre in Ankara (2016-17), and The Glass Menagerie (2011-2013), Of Mice and Men (2017-2020), Collected Stories (2022-present) with the Turkish National State Theatre. His Bilkent University directing credits include Lyle Kessler’s Orphans (2013-14), Tennessee Williams’ American Blues, Two One Acts (2014), Tracy Letts’ Bug (2014-15), Jean-Paul Sartre’s No Exit (2015-16), Clifford Odets’ Waiting for Lefty (2016-17 – Best University Production Prize-Istanbul), Sam Shepards’ Action (2017-18), Arthur Schnitzler’s La Ronde (2018-19), Tennessee Williams’ Small Craft Warnings (2019-20), John Patrick Shanley’s Savage in Limbo (2020-21), Tennessee Willams’ American Blues (2021-22), Sam Shepard’s Suicide in B Flat (2022-23), Eugene O’Neill’s Three Short Plays (2022-23), 4 by Tenn by Tennessee Williams (2023-24). He also directed two productions of Broadway Musical Songs with the Bilkent Symphony Orchestra (2015), and Good Fellas Ensemble (2016) including guest Broadway conductor Phil Reno. 

Hale serves as the Chair of Bilkent University Theatre Department since 2014. During this time, Hale has initiated the establishment of Chamber Theater as a second stage for Bilkent Theatre, and organized the Wednesday and Thursday Night series for undergraduate production performances. He has founded the Bilkent Theatre for Kids, a Bilkent University weekend theatre education program for children offered by the theatre department, and serves as its director since 2015. Hale also serves as the founding artistic director for Bilkent International Laboratory Theatre (BILT), a Bilkent University Theatre Department graduate ensemble dedicated to developing new Turkish plays, founded in 2019. 

Hale is the Representative for ITI/UNESCO Network for Higher Education in the Performing Arts for Turkey since 2018, and has become a member of the International Association of Theatre Leaders in 202