Michael O'Rourke co-founded Actors’ Theatre in Southern Oregon in 1982, producing 100 productions in 13 years, and served as executive director for the capital campaign to purchase and remodel the company’s vaudeville home into a 100-seat black box.

Michael’s collaboration with Lakota actor Robert Greygrass resulted in the one-man show “Walking on Turtle Island” that toured internationally for 16 years.

As managing artistic director of Anchorage Community Theatre he co-produced collaborations with the Alaska Native Heritage Center, which resulted in a Native American Music Award for Best Music Video (2005).

Recipient of grants for development of heritage scripts celebrating the Klamath Siskiyou Bioregion, he wrote “In the Land Where Acorns Dance,” a screenplay based on Quaker and poet Joaquin Miller’s life among the Shasta Indians during the California Gold Rush. The script received the 2015 Grand Prize from the Yosemite International Film Festival. His adaptations of stories in Native American activist Winona LaDuke’s novel “Last Standing Woman” have won awards at Bucharest Short Cut CineFest, Nashville Film Festival; and placed as a BlueCat semifinalist.

His mini-series adaptation of “A Tale of Two Cities” was selected as the Best Original Concept and Best Global Script of 2017 at Oaxaca FilmFest; and this year (2018) was selected as a finalist with Jaipur International Screenplay Competition (all episodes) and Twister Alley Film Festival (Episode 1).

O’Rourke’s credits include script consulting on the independent feature “All for Liberty,” earning a “Top 10 Revolutionary War Movie” in the Journal of the American Revolution.