Rubén Polendo

Dean Polendo is NYU Tisch School of the Arts' fifth dean since its founding in 1965. A professor and former chair in the Department of Drama, and founding director of Tisch's Innovation Studio, he previously served as associate dean for the Institute of Performing Arts.

A distinguished arts educator, Polendo began his career at NYU as founding director of the theater program at NYU Abu Dhabi and associate dean for NYUAD’s Arts Center, where he established a vibrant and innovative transglobal theater program and helped to make NYUAD an important cultural destination within the UAE. During his tenure as chair of Tisch’s Department of Drama, he redefined the department’s vision and mission, championed technological integration, modernized key training programs, revised the curriculum, and nimbly adapted to the COVID-19 pandemic, a historic challenge to both the performing arts and higher education. A committed advocate of interdisciplinary work, he has launched forward-looking initiatives that explore the intersection of performance and technology. As associate dean of Tisch’s Institute of Performing Arts, he fostered collaboration across departments, interdisciplinary exploration, and artistic innovation.

Polendo is an internationally recognized artist and the founding artistic director of Theater Mitu. He was awarded a Guggenheim Fellowship for his work on AI and Performance, and was awarded a special Obie Award for over 25 years of sustained innovation with Mitu. Committed to challenging the parameters of theater research and practice, Polendo’s work is situated in the tension between acting and performance, theatrical design and installation, multi-media and emerging technology.

Theater Mitu is located in its own interdisciplinary arts space in Gowanus, Brooklyn called MITU580. This former glass recycling warehouse is a unique gathering place where transdisciplinary arts practice is interrogated, incubated, and produced. Polendo has directed over forty-five original company-created works. Theater Mitu has been presented and developed nationally (including New York Theatre Workshop, The Public Theater, Skirball, The Lincoln Center, NAATCO, Rattlestick Theater, 3LD Arts Center, The Kennedy Center, The McCarter Theater, The Perseverance-Alaska, The Alliance, Mark Taper Forum, A.C.T., Sundance, Watermill Center, NACL, Zspace, The Rubin Gallery, MassMOCA, NOLA Contemporary Arts Center, LATC, The Brooklyn Academy of Music, Mercury Store, Arts Emerson, Boston Museum of Science) and internationally (including Patravadi Center/Thailand, CCPN/Mexico, DUOC/Chile, Visthar/India, UB Blkbx/Mongolia, Mansion Blatt/Lebanon, Manarat Al Saadiyat/ UAE, NYUAD Arts Center/UAE, Kontakt Festival/Poland, CIFCET/ Egypt, MESSFestival/ Bosnia & Herzegovina, National Theater/ Bahrain).

Polendo’s work with Theater Mitu has been recognized by a range of awards, grants, and organizations, including the National Endowment for the Arts, MAP Fund, CEC Arts Link, Rolex Protégé Arts Initiative, New York State Council for the Arts, The Rosenberg Foundation, The Alpert Award, The Greenwald Foundation, The Mental Insight Foundation, and The Howard Gilman Foundation. Theater Mitu has been company-in-residence at The Watermill Center, Sundance Theater Lab, The Public Theater, New York Theater Workshop, and at The NYU Abu Dhabi Arts Center.

EDUCATION

Polendo was educated in Mexico and the US. He holds an MFA in Directing from the UCLA School of Theater, Film, and Television; an MA in Global Performance from Lancaster University in the U.K.; and a BS in Biochemistry from Trinity University.