Morrison to be Awarded Distinguished Service Medal

Former Hartt School dean Malcolm Morrison will be awarded the University Medal for Distinguished Service.

Malcolm Morrison, former dean of The Hartt School and University professor of theatre, will be awarded the University Medal for Distinguished Service during the undergraduate Commencement ceremony on Sunday, May 19.

The University Medal for Distinguished Service is presented infrequently to an individual or group who has had a profound impact on the University of Hartford.

Morrison, who served as dean of The Hartt School from 1998 to 2008, oversaw the school’s continued expansion from a distinguished music conservatory to a highly regarded performing arts school with dance and theatre divisions.

Morrison led The Hartt School during a time of remarkable growth and advancement. He is credited with adding breadth and depth to the talented and dedicated Hartt faculty by attracting great artists from all over the world to join longtime faculty members. He nurtured and supported faculty and students, and provided direction and encouragement for hundreds of dazzling performances over the years, directing more than a few spectacular performances of his own.

Morrison has had an extensive career nationally and internationally as a director and educator. He was the founding artistic director of the North Carolina Shakespeare Festival, serving for 10 years, and has directed at the Utah Shakespearean Festival and the Colorado Shakespeare Festival, where he received the Critics’ Circle’s best director award for his production of Shakespeare’s Love’s Labour’s Lost.

Internationally, Morrison was recently honored as a Fellow of the Rose Bruford College of Theatre and Performance in England. He has been honored in Paris, France, for his work in international theatre and has directed and taught in Australia, Russia, China, Austria, the Czech Republic, Sweden, Malta, Jamaica, and Singapore.