Donato Colucci founded theatres at Rock Valley College, Rockford, IL (1966), and in Boston, the Publick Theatre, now in its 40th year. At the latter, his free, innovative, outdoor and indoor productions of Shakespeare and other classics earned him the soubriquet "Boston's Joe Papp" from Time Magazine's theatre critic William Henry III.

Mr. Colucci has directed over sixty plays, and served as an actor, college instructor, and playwright. He also worked on over 100 TV shows for WTTW, Chicago Public Television as a member of the technical staff. During the years 1976-80 he directed and produced in New York City. Two of these years, spent at the Broadway level, will form the centerpiece of his professional autobiography, Not for Hire.

A Shakespearean scholar, Mr. Colucci has maintained a Web site, 21st Century Shakespeare Studies, since 1997 and has posted fourteen articles. For fifteen years he has been at work on an annotated compilation, The Shakespeare Records: A Chronology, covering every notice of Shakespeare, his family, theatrical associations, traditions, and more. Included among the 1,100+ entries are materials such as wills, estate inventories, lawsuits, land conveyances, performances at court and on tour, and publication records. The work covers the time period 1501, beginning with the first notice of Richard Shakespeare, the poet's grandfather, and concluding in 1675 with the death of his last lineal descendant, Elizabeth Hall Bernard. This material will become a database.

Mr. Colucci's has created acting editions of Shakespeare's The Tempest and The Comedy of Errors (2008), The Two Gentlemen of Verona (2009). His other plays include a one-act, The Package (1966), a macabre tale of two men on a train which he later made into a video (1984); The Wars of the Roses (1981), adapted from Shakespeare's Henry VI trilogy; A Devil's Secret (1995), based on the real-life story of Paolo and Francesca, first heard in Dante's Inferno, turned into a screenplay (2009)

Mr. Colucci wrote, built, and performed in three productions of The Great Gorgonzola & His New Assistant (1996-2003), a play with magic. His The Encyclopedia of Egg Magic (2002), may be the only example of a playwright having the research for his play published! Between the second and third productions of Gorgonzola, he designed and served as Clerk of the Works for the Boston Actors Workshop facilities which included 40- and 85-seat theatres.

In 2004, he wrote and directed It Only Hurts When I Laugh: The Torture & Execution of Saddam Hussein (2004), a politico-cultural satire, inspired by capture of Saddam Hussein and the French Theatre du Grand Guignol. His most recent play is The Chappaquiddick Case (2006).

Mr. Colucci holds a B.A. in theatre arts from Northern Illinois University, an M.A. in theatrical criticism from the University of Nebraska, with further graduate study at Indiana University. He has been the recipient of five grants from the Lotta M. Crabtree Theatrical Trust.