Dennis Trainor Jr

Dennis Trainor Jr. joined the Conservatory in 2017 and is an associate professor of theater. He teaches acting for first-year and senior students, contemporary scene study, and the Playing Shakespeare course in the Conservatory’s summer Musical Theater Acting Intensive (MTAI). He also serves as a member of the audition team for the BFA in Musical Theater program.

Trainor is an actor, writer, director, and multimedia storyteller who has appeared regionally and internationally. His Boston area theater credits include appearances with Shakespeare and Company, SpeakEasy Stage Company, New Repertory Theatre, Actors' Shakespeare Project, Gloucester Stage Company, Company One Theatre, and North Shore Music Theater. In New York, Trainor was the founding co–artistic director of the Rude Mechanicals Theater Company, where he worked as a producer, actor, director, and writer. His New York acting credits include appearances with Rude Mechanicals and the Kraine Theater and Lookingglass Theatre Company. Trainor also was an original member of the Bats, an Obie Award–winning acting company in residence at the Flea Theater. 

His playwriting credits include Plug (Rude Mechanicals), I Coulda Been a Kennedy (Rude Mechanicals), and Manifest Destiny’s Child (Edinburgh Fringe Festival). Trainor was the writer, director, and producer of the documentaries American Autumn and Legalize Democracy and was the host and writer of the nationally syndicated news and politics show Acronym T.V. (as part of the Young Turks Network).

Trainor holds an MFA in acting from the American Conservatory Theater and is a member of the Actors’ Equity Association and the Dramatists Guild.

Highlights

• The Taming of the Shrew (Shakespeare & Company, 2025)—Actor
• The Comedy of Errors (Shakespeare & Company, 2024)—actor; recipient of Best Ensemble, BroadwayWorld Awards
• How I Learned to Drive (Actors’ Shakespeare Project, 2023)—actor; Nominated for Outstanding Lead Performer and Outstanding Production, Elliot Norton Awards
• Manifest Destiny’s Child (Edinburgh Festival Fringe, 2023)—Actor, writer
• The Inheritance (SpeakEasy Stage Company, 2022)—Actor; winner of Outstanding Ensemble and Outstanding Production, Elliot Norton Awards
• Let the Right One In (Actors’ Shakespeare Project, 2022)—Actor
• The Merchant of Venice (Actors’ Shakespeare Project, 2021)—Actor
• Straight White Men (New Repertory Theatre, 2018)—Actor

Notable Recent Works

• Manifest Destiny's Child (Edinburgh Festival Fringe, 2023)—Actor, writer 
• The Inheritance (Speakeasy Stage Company, 2022)—Actor 
• Let the Right One In (Actors' Shakespeare Project, 2022)—Actor
• The Merchant of Venice (Actors' Shakespeare Project, 2021)—Actor
• Straight White Men (New Repertory Theatre, 2018)—Actor
• Acronym T.V. (The Young Turks, 2012–2015)—Host/anchor, writer
• American Autumn (Artful Dodger Productions, 2012)—Producer, director, writer