Andrew Karp (Artistic Director, Actor) is Professor of English at Dowling and a Shakespearean scholar. He holds an M.A. and Ph.D. from New York University and has published widely on a variety of subjects including Shakespeare, Homer, and Utopian literature. He assumed the role of Artistic Director of Loft Theatre in Spring 2004. Karp studied acting at Shakespeare & Co, the Stella Adler Conservatory, and the Actor's Center in Manhattan. He's appeared with the Hampton Shakespeare Festival (Midsummer Night's Dream and Twelfth Night), the New England Shakespeare Festival (Richard III), Wooden O Productions (Polonius in Hamlet), American Theatre of Actors (King Lear), and the Hampton Theatre Company (Fuddy Meers & Death Defying Acts). With the Loft, Karp has produced and performed in numerous plays over the past five years with favorites including Tilden in Sam Shephard's Buried Child, Lee in Shepard's True West, Cohen in the Underpants, Giovanni in Can't Pay! Won't Pay! , Malvolio in 12th Night and Odysseus in The Odyssey. Also at the Loft, he was cowriter and performer in an original dramatization of Shakespeare's sonnets entitled, Two Loves I Have. Karp also cowrote (with director Tracy Bersley) the original adaptation of The Epic of Sunjata which is currently being work-shopped in preparation for an equity showcase production in New York City in spring, 2009.