Mitchell Polin is Professor of Theater and Dance at Trinity College, where he has taught since 2001. He earned his B.A. in Theater and Dance from Trinity College in 1996 and his M.A. in Performance Studies from New York University in 1998. He is a playwright, director, dramaturg, and performance maker whose creative and scholarly work moves between experimental theater, performance studies, and new media.

Polin’s work explores remembering as a performative act and the relationship of memory and disappearance to environment, archive, and narrative. Drawing upon historical and archival research as a generative part of the creative process, he approaches performance as a collage-based assemblage in which disparate materials and histories are brought into unexpected relationships. His work has been shaped by early collaborations and exchanges with artists associated with Happenings and Fluxus, as well as by the broader twentieth-century European and American avant-gardes. His recent research extends this trajectory through an investigation of memory, disappearance, and the archive as forms of performance.

At Trinity, Polin teaches across theater history and theory, directing and devising, playwriting, and media studies. His teaching brings historical and theoretical inquiry into direct conversation with artistic practice, encouraging students to approach the histories and ideas they encounter not simply as objects of study but as materials for creative experimentation. Across his courses and research activities, he emphasizes the relationship between intellectual inquiry and creative practice, inviting students from across the liberal arts to experiment with form, make unexpected connections, and develop ways of thinking that can generate new application and innovation within and beyond the arts.