The bio.
Jonathan Strayer is originally from Etters, Pennsylvania where he grew up going to church with his family, playing sports, and working hard for the things he wanted to accomplish. By the time he graduated high school, he had traveled to 13 different countries and experienced foods, cultures, and arts that most people only saw on TV at the time.
After graduating with honors from high school, Jonathan received a Bachelor's degree in Communications from Clarks Summit University and a Master of Arts in Theatre from Bowling Green State University. Throughout his education, he worked to sharpen and hone his skills as an actor, director, designer, and technician. Jonathan took a job as the Technical Director with the Electric Theatre Company, the only professional company in Scranton, Pennsylvania, and began working with artists such as David Zarko, Nagal Jackson, Mark Medoff, Don Wildman, and John Cariani.
While at ETC, Jonathan also started teaching Communications and Theatre classes at Marywood University, Keystone College, Penn State University-Scranton, and finally his alma mater, Clarks Summit University in 2011. After receiving his Master of Education degree in 2013, he was appointed as an Assistant Professor and Technical Director of Theatre at CSU. From 2016 to 2019, he was the Director of Theatre and directed numerous plays including an original adaptation of Everyman with a live band; the musical play Peter and the Starcatcher; the region's first intercollegiate, collaborative production of Much Ado About Nothing (performed at both CSU and Keystone College); and a year-long season of TYA plays that featured sensory-friendly and relaxed productions for the community.
Since earning his MFA in Theatre Arts & Directing from the University of Idaho, Jonathan has been an Assistant Professor and the Director of Dramatics at Millersville University in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, where he has directed plays including a quasi-experimental Love and Information, the stage combat heavy She Kills Monsters, a live-streamed Twilight: Los Angeles, 1992 - which was presented with the University Leadership Award for Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion, - and the world premiere of Her Sister, presented as a part of the Millersville University Holocaust Conference. In his roles at Millersville and CSU, Jonathan has worked within each program to develop and expand cultural and global perspectives as well as diversity, equity, and inclusion practices through season selection, course development, online educational resources, and guest artists.
Jonathan is the co-founder and Artistic Director of Ghostlight Productions in Clarks Summit, Pennsylvania. Working with other artists through Ghostlight, he was instrumental in producing the community's first Shakespeare in the Park and which recently celebrated 10-years! Under his direction, Ghostlight produced 19 productions since 2009 and was named the area's Best Theatre Group for three consecutive years by The Abington Journal. Because of Jonathan's stage combat training with Art of Combat NYC, Ghostlight also offered the area's only professionally instructed stage combat seminars.
The career scope of Jonathan's work ranges from directing and acting, to collaborative creation and stage combat, to design and technical direction. He calls Pennsylvania home, but is proud to have trained, performed, and worked with an impressive slate of directors, actors, and fighters from around the globe. He traded his childhood athletic equipment for plays, swords, and a director's chair, and continues to work hard to accomplish whatever project he is working on. He still loves to travel with his wife (playwright Rachel Luann Strayer - www.rlstrayerwrites.com - look her up on New Play Exchange!). They "recently" spent 2 weeks in Ireland, a week in Switzerland, and led a Study Abroad trip to Cape Town, South Africa where they were teaching a course in Educational and Devised Theatre.
Oh, and they have a dog named Shakespeare.
After graduating with honors from high school, Jonathan received a Bachelor's degree in Communications from Clarks Summit University and a Master of Arts in Theatre from Bowling Green State University. Throughout his education, he worked to sharpen and hone his skills as an actor, director, designer, and technician. Jonathan took a job as the Technical Director with the Electric Theatre Company, the only professional company in Scranton, Pennsylvania, and began working with artists such as David Zarko, Nagal Jackson, Mark Medoff, Don Wildman, and John Cariani.
While at ETC, Jonathan also started teaching Communications and Theatre classes at Marywood University, Keystone College, Penn State University-Scranton, and finally his alma mater, Clarks Summit University in 2011. After receiving his Master of Education degree in 2013, he was appointed as an Assistant Professor and Technical Director of Theatre at CSU. From 2016 to 2019, he was the Director of Theatre and directed numerous plays including an original adaptation of Everyman with a live band; the musical play Peter and the Starcatcher; the region's first intercollegiate, collaborative production of Much Ado About Nothing (performed at both CSU and Keystone College); and a year-long season of TYA plays that featured sensory-friendly and relaxed productions for the community.
Since earning his MFA in Theatre Arts & Directing from the University of Idaho, Jonathan has been an Assistant Professor and the Director of Dramatics at Millersville University in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, where he has directed plays including a quasi-experimental Love and Information, the stage combat heavy She Kills Monsters, a live-streamed Twilight: Los Angeles, 1992 - which was presented with the University Leadership Award for Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion, - and the world premiere of Her Sister, presented as a part of the Millersville University Holocaust Conference. In his roles at Millersville and CSU, Jonathan has worked within each program to develop and expand cultural and global perspectives as well as diversity, equity, and inclusion practices through season selection, course development, online educational resources, and guest artists.
Jonathan is the co-founder and Artistic Director of Ghostlight Productions in Clarks Summit, Pennsylvania. Working with other artists through Ghostlight, he was instrumental in producing the community's first Shakespeare in the Park and which recently celebrated 10-years! Under his direction, Ghostlight produced 19 productions since 2009 and was named the area's Best Theatre Group for three consecutive years by The Abington Journal. Because of Jonathan's stage combat training with Art of Combat NYC, Ghostlight also offered the area's only professionally instructed stage combat seminars.
The career scope of Jonathan's work ranges from directing and acting, to collaborative creation and stage combat, to design and technical direction. He calls Pennsylvania home, but is proud to have trained, performed, and worked with an impressive slate of directors, actors, and fighters from around the globe. He traded his childhood athletic equipment for plays, swords, and a director's chair, and continues to work hard to accomplish whatever project he is working on. He still loves to travel with his wife (playwright Rachel Luann Strayer - www.rlstrayerwrites.com - look her up on New Play Exchange!). They "recently" spent 2 weeks in Ireland, a week in Switzerland, and led a Study Abroad trip to Cape Town, South Africa where they were teaching a course in Educational and Devised Theatre.
Oh, and they have a dog named Shakespeare.
