July 2014
Popular Marin Director-Actor Still On Stage at 81
M
arin director-actor James Dunn has presented a command performance for Princess Margaret and once had Robin Williams as a student, but one of his biggest thrills came when his five-year-old granddaughter waved to him from the audience while he was performing recently in “South Pacific” at the Mountain Play. She was seeing her first play. Dunn directed the Mountain Play for 30 years. Dunn, 81, lives in Larkspur, not far from College of Marin, where the newly refurbished fine arts theater is named after him. The tribute is fitting because he founded the college’s drama department, which celebrates its 50th anniversary this year. He still teaches a class on Shakespeare and directs one play a year. He was chair of the drama department until 1994. Dunn has directed more than 250 plays at the college. In 1983, Robin Williams did a solo performance of “A Comedy of
Errors.” Dunn and the college built a national reputation for training other noted graduates including the Oscar-nominated Kathleen Quinlan and the Emmy-award nominated “M*A*S*H*” star David Ogden Stiers. In honor of the department’s 50th anniversary this year, Dunn is directing his cowboy version of “Taming of the Shrew,” a revival of a show he first directed at the
Festival in Scotland, winning Best Production and earning a command performance for Princess Margaret. Dunn said he got interested in theater as a kid when he continued on page 3
‘ ...Young people keep you moving.’ college 43 years ago that was invited to the Edinburgh Fringe
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