Back in New York, Mr. Wilson completed a Master’s Degree Program in Social Studies Education at New York University, and entered the Doctorate Degree Program in History at NYU, while teaching
History and Theater at an Alternative High School in Teaneck, New Jersey. A partial list of his scholarships includes The New York State Incentive Award; the Harry Belafonte Student Award; The New School for Social Research Alumni Award (the first offered to an undergraduate); the Richard Gibbons Scholarship Award; the New School Associates Award & Scholarship; the Sherry Murphy Eldridge Cleaver Scholarship; and a Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Scholarship Award for Graduate Study at NYU. Mr. Wilson is also certified to teach Social Studies – Secondary Level for Grades 9-12 in New York State and New Jersey.
Mr. Wilson’s New York affiliations and accomplishments include his seminal work in Street Theater with the Children’s Video Theater Company, funded by The Mayor’s Office of the Honorable John Lindsay. With veteran actor, Leroy Giles, and award-winning film & video artist, Bill Haley, Wilson worked in every New York Borough as a Movement Specialist, transforming African Folk Tales into “instant theater” with children and their parents – performed immediately for their neighborhood after workshop sessions conducted on the street. Wilson still fondly cherishes these days of free-falling improvisation, humor, technical abandon, and audience participation that bonded a diverse group of New Yorkers into a celebration of joy on sunny summer afternoons!
In addition, Mr. Wilson served as a Resident Playwright for The Theater Literacy Program at Westside High School sponsored by the Literacy Center of New York and the Mayor’s Office of the Honorable Ed Koch; he conducted Playwriting Workshops at Long Island University in Farmingdale, NY; acted as Project Director and Playwright for the American Folk Theater Youth Company Program to London – sponsored by President Reagan’s International Youth Exchange Program and the Princess Diana Trust Fund; and was Advisor, Youth Director, and part of the Feasibility Team for The Manhattan Empire’s City Kids Initiative.
University and College affiliations as a Research Assistant, Adjunct Drama Professor, Playwright, and Dramaturgy Specialist includes Manhattan Community College; Long Island University; Hunter College – the Teacher Corps Arts and Humanities Program; City College of New York; New York University Graduate Department of Educational Theater; St. Mary’s College; Montclair State University; Wooster College; Drew University; Ryder university, and Rutgers University. Mr. Wilson has frequently appeared on numerous radio programs in the U.S. and abroad, and in groundbreaking documentary features and television shows, such as: “Children’s Video Theater, filmed conducting theater and movement workshops on the streets of New York; “Best Bet – Literacy Through Photography,” a PBS Special on Arts Education in East Harlem Elementary Schools. Films on Wilson’s theater work with The Everyman Theater Company are on file at The New York Library of Performing Arts at Lincoln Center. This experimental street theater work led to the foundation of the Annual Free Outdoor Theater Festival at Lincoln Center – and was Wilson’s first collaboration with the late legendary Hollywood Actress/Director, Geraldine Fitzgerald.