HANK FINCKEN

For 25 years, Hank Fincken has performed his 8 original one-man plays throughout the USA, Spain, and South America.  His characters include: Thomas Edison, Johnny Appleseed, Francisco Pizarro, Christopher Columbus, Henry Ford, W.C. Fields, and J. G. Bruff—an 1849 Argonaut on The California Trail.  He has published 20 plays and stories, dozens of essays, and one book: THREE MIDWEST HISTORY PLAYS AND THEN SOME. 

He was awarded the title Master Artist by the Indiana Arts Commission, Outstanding Performer by the Indiana Theatre Association, and has received six national Pinnacle Awards for his teaching of the arts and history through video conferencing. 

Hank was in a Hollywood film which featured Thomas Edison, wrote an original play for the city of Defiance Ohio about a young man who lived with the Shawnee in 1793, performed as Prosecutor Richard Crowley at Susan B. Anthony’s trial in Adams, Massachusetts (her birthplace), and performed at the New York Chautauqua Institution as Ford and Edison. 

At the seven-state regional community college Crossroads for the Humanities Conference in Indianapolis in 2014, Hank was keynote speaker, and also performed as Francisco Pizarro.  In 2013, Hank performed as Thomas Edison for a special Motorola “Welcome New Employees” meeting in Chicago.  In Columbus Ohio, Thomas Edison entertained the annual state conference for all county commerce commissioners, and in 2016 performed as Johnny Appleseed for an annual meeting of county Tourism Directors in Lancaster, Ohio. 

Besides his work in educational institutions throughout the country, Hank has performed six of his characters for Chautauqua audiences in Ohio, New Jersey, New York, Colorado, Florida, Illinois, Texas, Oklahoma, and Nevada.  In the fall of 2018, Hank will perform for the Colorado Chautauqua in Durrango.   

In the summer of 2016, the Tandana Foundation invited Hank to teach Theatre to native children in the Andes of Ecuador in Spanish.  Besides teaching, he wrote an original play based on Inca legends and produced it in the town of Otavalo.  In 2017, he wrote a second play for young people that was translated into Kichwa, language of the Incas.   He will return to Ecuador in 2018 and 2019 to teach teachers how to use Theatre to make History come alive. 

In August 2017, he performed as Edison in Richmond at the Science Museum of Virginia.  In 2018, he also performed as Thomas Edison, Henry Ford,  and Christopher Columbus at TechFest in Dayton for the 15th year in a row.   At this conference, the emphasis is always on STEM.  Hank makes it STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts, and Mathematics0.

Hank is always flexible.  He wants his performance to meet your institution’s needs.  He will work with you to ensure our mutual success.