Department-Chair

Jason Hale is an American actor, international theatre director, and professor of acting. 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, George Morrison, and John Uecker. He was a longtime assistant to American author James Purdy. Hale was the founding member of the Theatre Project Ensemble, a New York City non-profit in 1999-2004, and was 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, 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 in teaching is refinements of American method acting, and Viola Spolin Improvisation, and he was selected as a Fulbright Specialist Candidate to teach internationally in 2012-2017.

Jason Hale is a theatre director with a broad spectrum of plays directing professional actors and acting students. His recent professional directing credits in Turkey include 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). 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 2022.