Memberships and Affiliations
Member of SDC
Member of Lincoln Center's Directors Lab West 2015
Member of AEA and SAG-AFTRA
Member of Celebration Theatre
Member of Skylight Theatre
Member of Faculty Leadership Team of AMDA College and Conservatory of the Performing Arts
Awards
2018 Ovation Award for Direction of a Play - 33 Variations, Actors Co-op
2018 Ovation Award for Production of a Play - 33 Variations
2018 Robby Award for Best Drama - 33 Variations
2013 Bravo San Diego - Best Musical Award for CYC’s Les Misérables
A Little About Me...
As a director, I am indebted to my years of acting experience with legendary directors Harold Prince, Nicholas Hytner, John Caird, Trevor Nunn, and Des McAnuff. From my three-year run in the title role of Broadway’s longest-running play, The Phantom of the Opera, directed by Harold Prince (more than 1,000 performances), to originating the role of Captain Schultz in Broadway’s Miss Saigon (directed by Nicholas Hytner) and the first national companies of both Les Miserables (Trevor Nunn and John Caird) and Chess (Des McAnuff), I could not have asked for better teachers!
My early directing training was at Trinity Rep Conservatory with Larry Arrick, whom I also assisted on his production of Bosoms and Neglect at Trinity Square Repertory Company. More recently I was a member of Directors Lab West in Los Angeles. My acting training has been with some of the best acting gurus over many years, including Harold Guskin, Suzanne Shepherd, Bob Krackower, and Tim Phillips.
The material I've worked on as a director has had a similar split personality to the work I've done as an actor — big musicals and intimate plays. I love working on edgy pieces, like setting Next to Normal in a small black box theatre, and Nine on an intimate stage with 120 seats. But I also often enjoy mounting big musicals like Thoroughly Modern Millie and How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying, and Sunday in the Park with George. I love the challenge of putting the many pieces of large stage puzzles together. CYC's production of Les Misérables (with producing/artistic director Shaun T. Evans) at the Lyceum Theatre in San Diego with a cast of 70 received the Bravo San Diego Award in 2013 for Best Musical Theatre Production (non-pro). Though I love to explore newer concepts to better reach today's audience, my main inspiration is always the text and the music. I've also enjoyed building musical pieces from the ground up, as with the blues and jazz musical piece, Feeling Good.
Many of the plays I've directed have been world premieres of intimate non-musical plays. I love working with talented writers on dramaturging their work as we work with actors and learn from the audience. And I've been lucky to work with some awesome playwrights: Boni B. Alvarez, Steven Harper, Gene Franklin Smith, Tami Tirgrath, and Christopher Piehler. Recent directing credits include the critically acclaimed world premiere production of Flim Flam: Houdini and the Hereafter by Gene Franklin Smith at Malibu Playhouse;
Dusty de los Santos and Bloodletting, both by Boni B. Alvarez, and An Ohio Tragedy by Tami Tirgrath at Skylight Theatre in Los Angeles; The Escape Artist’s Children by Steve Harper at Celebration Theatre in Los Angeles; Boni B. Alvarez' beautiful The Debut of Georgia at the Blank Theatre in Los Angeles; and Chris Piehler's Reserved Champion at the Hollywood Fringe Festival in 2015.
My current work as a full-time member of the faculty at AMDA College and Conservatory of the Performing Arts in Hollywood continues to teach me more about how to work with actors. I've also had the honor of teaching master classes all over the country and coaching privately in the LA area.
Of the many Off-Broadway and regional productions I've appeared in, one of the most fulfilling was playing the role of Mason Marzac in Take Me Out directed by Michael Matthews at the Celebration Theatre in Hollywood, for which I received the 2010 LA Weekly Theatre Award for Supporting Male Performance and the 2011 BroadwayWorld LA Award for Best Featured Actor in a Play. Other faves include You Never Can Tell (Yale Rep), Jon Tolin’s Last Sunday in June (Century Center in NYC), Lee Blessing’s Two Rooms (Blue Heron Theatre in NYC) and Travels with My Aunt at the Colony Theatre in Burbank. Film appearances include The Cookout with Queen Latifah, Mu Sun’s The Watch, and Tracie Laymon’s Inside, which received a Milan International Film Festival nomination in 2009. Television credits include Law & Order, Monk, Related, General Hospital and
All My Children. Thanks for reading!
Member of SDC
Member of Lincoln Center's Directors Lab West 2015
Member of AEA and SAG-AFTRA
Member of Celebration Theatre
Member of Skylight Theatre
Member of Faculty Leadership Team of AMDA College and Conservatory of the Performing Arts
Awards
2018 Ovation Award for Direction of a Play - 33 Variations, Actors Co-op
2018 Ovation Award for Production of a Play - 33 Variations
2018 Robby Award for Best Drama - 33 Variations
2013 Bravo San Diego - Best Musical Award for CYC’s Les Misérables
A Little About Me...
As a director, I am indebted to my years of acting experience with legendary directors Harold Prince, Nicholas Hytner, John Caird, Trevor Nunn, and Des McAnuff. From my three-year run in the title role of Broadway’s longest-running play, The Phantom of the Opera, directed by Harold Prince (more than 1,000 performances), to originating the role of Captain Schultz in Broadway’s Miss Saigon (directed by Nicholas Hytner) and the first national companies of both Les Miserables (Trevor Nunn and John Caird) and Chess (Des McAnuff), I could not have asked for better teachers!
My early directing training was at Trinity Rep Conservatory with Larry Arrick, whom I also assisted on his production of Bosoms and Neglect at Trinity Square Repertory Company. More recently I was a member of Directors Lab West in Los Angeles. My acting training has been with some of the best acting gurus over many years, including Harold Guskin, Suzanne Shepherd, Bob Krackower, and Tim Phillips.
The material I've worked on as a director has had a similar split personality to the work I've done as an actor — big musicals and intimate plays. I love working on edgy pieces, like setting Next to Normal in a small black box theatre, and Nine on an intimate stage with 120 seats. But I also often enjoy mounting big musicals like Thoroughly Modern Millie and How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying, and Sunday in the Park with George. I love the challenge of putting the many pieces of large stage puzzles together. CYC's production of Les Misérables (with producing/artistic director Shaun T. Evans) at the Lyceum Theatre in San Diego with a cast of 70 received the Bravo San Diego Award in 2013 for Best Musical Theatre Production (non-pro). Though I love to explore newer concepts to better reach today's audience, my main inspiration is always the text and the music. I've also enjoyed building musical pieces from the ground up, as with the blues and jazz musical piece, Feeling Good.
Many of the plays I've directed have been world premieres of intimate non-musical plays. I love working with talented writers on dramaturging their work as we work with actors and learn from the audience. And I've been lucky to work with some awesome playwrights: Boni B. Alvarez, Steven Harper, Gene Franklin Smith, Tami Tirgrath, and Christopher Piehler. Recent directing credits include the critically acclaimed world premiere production of Flim Flam: Houdini and the Hereafter by Gene Franklin Smith at Malibu Playhouse;
Dusty de los Santos and Bloodletting, both by Boni B. Alvarez, and An Ohio Tragedy by Tami Tirgrath at Skylight Theatre in Los Angeles; The Escape Artist’s Children by Steve Harper at Celebration Theatre in Los Angeles; Boni B. Alvarez' beautiful The Debut of Georgia at the Blank Theatre in Los Angeles; and Chris Piehler's Reserved Champion at the Hollywood Fringe Festival in 2015.
My current work as a full-time member of the faculty at AMDA College and Conservatory of the Performing Arts in Hollywood continues to teach me more about how to work with actors. I've also had the honor of teaching master classes all over the country and coaching privately in the LA area.
Of the many Off-Broadway and regional productions I've appeared in, one of the most fulfilling was playing the role of Mason Marzac in Take Me Out directed by Michael Matthews at the Celebration Theatre in Hollywood, for which I received the 2010 LA Weekly Theatre Award for Supporting Male Performance and the 2011 BroadwayWorld LA Award for Best Featured Actor in a Play. Other faves include You Never Can Tell (Yale Rep), Jon Tolin’s Last Sunday in June (Century Center in NYC), Lee Blessing’s Two Rooms (Blue Heron Theatre in NYC) and Travels with My Aunt at the Colony Theatre in Burbank. Film appearances include The Cookout with Queen Latifah, Mu Sun’s The Watch, and Tracie Laymon’s Inside, which received a Milan International Film Festival nomination in 2009. Television credits include Law & Order, Monk, Related, General Hospital and
All My Children. Thanks for reading!
Directing Moisés Kaufman's 33 Variations at the Actors Co-op in 2017 was one of the best experiences I've had so far as a director. I loved the play, as did the entire company, and was so passionate about breathing life into the amazing play in an intimate theatre setting, even though I had been wowed by the production I first saw at the large Ahmanson Theatre. The entire creative team and brilliant cast collaborated beautifully on what we all knew was a very special play. In this case, the creative stars aligned and the entire team worked with passion, raising the bar higher and higher throughout the process. And it was very sweet that the production then received the Ovation Awards for Direction, Production of a Play, Set Design, and Lighting Design.
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Back in my Broadway and National Touring days...
Les Miz, Chess, Miss Saigon, and Phantom Phantom Reviews... |
