Biography of Martin Chislom, Jr.

Position

Academic Staff Lecturer Speech Communications

Education

• BA Communications Johnson C. Smith University Charlotte, North Carolina
• MA Theatre & Film University of Kansas Lawrence

Additional Education

• FulBright-Hayes Study Abroad Fellowship Dakar Senegal West Africa

Previous Teaching Positions

• Penn Valley Community College
• Longview Community College
• Maple Woods Community College
• Kansas City Kansas Community College
• Park University
• Kansas City Metropolitan School District
• Richland Center College

Related Employment

• Technical Director for State Celebration of Martin Luther King Day KCMO
• Technical Director for the SCLC Kansas City Celebration of MLK Day KCMO
• Artistic Director -Theatre North Chicago

Teaching Responsibilities

Speech 1010 Public Speaking

Biographical Information

Martin spent the 2000 theatre season as the Interim Artistic Director of Chicago’s North Theatre. In 2001, he served as the Stage Manager and Technical Director for the K C Star’s Women Series, which featured Barbara Bush, Marie Osmond and Carol Burnett. He has directed in many venues in Kansas City and the Midwest and served as Co-Director of Kansas City’s Unicorn Theatre’s production of In the Blood by Suzanne Lori Parks.

As a Playwright, Martin has created a series of plays about relationships between two characters; the plays usually focus on issues in the African American community. The series includes, The Princess of the Press and the Old Lion, the relationship between Frederick Douglass and Ida Belle Wells. Gussie Belle and Homerlee; which explores the need to deal with Diabetes and Breast Cancer in the African American Community. His latest play is Mama Kennedy Teaches Her Son to Dance, a play about a mother & son struggling to deal with Alzheimer’s.

In 2009 Martin completed a Film Documentary on the life of Wisconsin resident Ms. Mary Eastwood, who along with Betty Friedan started the National Organization for Woman.

Martin has adapted some Classical Theatre Play scripts to help “at risk” kids develop performing arts skills; his adaptations of Shakespeare’s Hamlet, Macbeth and Romeo & Juliet have been performed by children in Kansas City & Warrensburg, MO., Mooresville, NC and Dubuque, IA.

He is currently an Instructor in the Speech Department and is the Director of Forensics (Competitive Public Speaking) and Debate at the University of Wisconsin Platteville.