I grew up in the 70’s in a tough little rust belt town in Western Pennsylvania. There was no theatre for miles around. So, I found my theater in Warner Brother’s Cartoons, I love Lucy and the traveling professional wrestling shows that regularly played our high school field house. I learned about protagonist, antagonist, point of attack, rising action, climax and denouement while screaming for my hero Bruno Samartino to watch his back as Haystacks Calhoun picked up a folding chair and approached him with a devilish laugh. A little later in life, I frequented the Civic Arena in Pittsburgh to watch the popular rock bands of the time. To my mind, nothing was more theatrical than the Dark Side of the Moon tour and Peter Gabriel’s Lamb Lies Down on Broadway show. The lights, the sound, the choreography was intoxicating. It wasn’t Death of a Salesman, but it was an event just as compelling to my teenage soul. I studied Stanislavski at Emerson College and classical acting at The Alabama Shakespeare Festival and after graduation built a healthy career as an actor. But I wanted more and after 20 years as a working actor, I transitioned to directing. 

My sense of ensemble comes from my years playing team sports, facilitating large catered events at Lincoln Center and from a children’s book that I think of often in my rehearsal hall, Stone Soup. In it, 3 hungry soldiers enter a village looking for food and drink but are turned away by the wary villagers. In desperation, the three tricksters ask if they could instead have a large pot and a few stones. In no time, the villagers pitch in with parsnips, chickens, etc. On the last page of the book, the soldiers and citizens enjoy a wonderful meal together. That’s my guiding philosophy for building exciting theater. The most important words in a rehearsal for me are “What can we add to the play?” When everyone contributes their gifts to the process, a lovely soup can be built. And the audience and actors are swept up into a theatrical event that is thrilling and transformative and almost as good as professional wrestling!