On 10/12/2022 Sir Mark Rylance interacted with students at Woodland Hills High School as part of the Woodland Hills Interaction Series.
Sir Mark Rylance is a British actor, playwright, and theatre director. He has won an Academy Award, three Tony Awards, two Laurence Olivier Awards, and three BAFTA Awards. His film roles include Bridge of Spies (for which he won an Oscar for Best Supporting Actor), The BFG, Ready Player One, Dunkirk, Don’t Look Up, and The Trial of the Chicago 7.
On stage he has appeared on Broadway and the West End in Richard III, Twelfth Night, Boeing Boeing, and Jerusalem, among others. Rylance served as the first artistic Director of Shakespeare’s Globe Theatre. Rylance is developing a series called Steel about Pittsburgh and
the history of the Carnegie Steel Company.
Thank you to our friends at The Battle of Homestead Foundation for coordinating this visit.
ABOUT THE WOODLAND HILLS INTERACTION SERIES
The Woodland Hills Interaction Series (WHIS) started in 2013. The WHIS was created by library media specialist Kevin McGuire and instructional technology coach Jason Coleman with the goal of providing first-class interaction opportunities for students at Woodland Hills High School.
Starting in 2016, with a partnership with Pittsburgh Arts & Lectures, the WHIS began an immersive literacy program to provide our students with access to contemporary literature in the classroom, thoughtful discussions, and a culminating interaction with the author. These projects have included Pulitzer Prize winners Jennifer Egan and Elizabeth Strout, National Book Award winner Colum McCann, and best-selling authors Tommy Orange, Tayari Jones, Lily King, Douglas Stuart and Valeria Luiselli. Woodland Hills High School instructional coach Christyn Coles provides the final connection to these classroom extension events as the WHIS Literacy Liaison.
During our first nine seasons, the WHIS has personally hosted such notable guests as Jennifer Egan (Pulitzer Prize Winner), Sara Shepard (N.Y. Times Bestseller), Tayari Jones (N.Y. Times Bestseller), Colum McCann (National Book Award Winner/Academy Award nominated writer), Elizabeth Strout (Pulitzer Prize Winner), Rachael Lippincott (N.Y. Times Bestseller), (Dr. Sheri Fink (Pulitzer Prize Winner), Terrance Hayes (National Book Award winner/MacArthur Fellow), Jesse Andrews (N.Y. Times Bestseller), Dr. Cyril Wecht, S.L. Price (Sports Illustrated Senior Writer), and Robert Bilheimer (Academy Award nominated director). Additionally, the WHIS has also hosted local writer Dave Newman, poet Jim Daniels, EPA Director Barnes Johnson, nationally syndicated cartoonist Joe Wos, Pittsburgh icon Rick Sebak, and U.S. Ambassador Bryant Salter.
