For over forty years, I have been performing and directing in community theatre, and one thing has been a real concern to me…censorship of a published work.

I guess for me; it is about presenting the piece as it was written for the stage. By not doing this, you are not giving an audience the real product as it was meant to be. I was involved in a production of The Full Monty, and we did THE FULL MONTY at the end of the show. Audiences loved it! You do need to have the right lighting effects in order to pull this off, of course. But we did, and it went off without a hitch.

When allowed to direct it for another theatre company possibly, I asked if they would be going all the way. Their answer was, “No.” That cemented my answer for that opportunity.

“Descendants” is now adapted and licensed for schools to perform. Because the musical left off so many good songs, we wanted to get into the entire catalog and rank from best to worst. “

““Hair” forced Broadway to reckon with rock music and introduced the rock musical as a Broadway genre.”

“Take pride in your strengths and work to turn your weaknesses into strengths. Every snowflake that comes down in a blizzard is unique, as is every actor that walks across the stage.”

In the wake of the assassination attempt on former President Donald Trump, we spoke to two community theatres that are in the midst of performing Sondheim’s musical, ‘Assassins’.

Dear theatre students,

We’ve met before, but as a reminder, my name is Chris and I am a theatre professor.  While I might not be YOUR theatre professor, and while I don’t claim to speak for ALL theatre professors, I wanted to take just a moment to talk about your futures.  I think what I have to say is important to those of you in college theatre programs, and also those of you who are hoping to go into a college theatre program—but perhaps other theatre artists, in various stages in their careers, might find some utility in my advice.

“Shakespeare is a bit of a touchy subject in the theatre industry, and that’s for one reason: either you love it or you hate it.”

“This happened at my school, and it practically started a riot within the theatre department.”

“I was recently alerted to a situation where the director of a summer theatre program, that charges in order to participate, routinely casts their son in the lead of their shows.”

“So what message in 2024 is sent by a colorblind or color-conscious casting of 1776? Namely, capitalism, while having the potential to uplift certain individuals within a minority, ultimately still functions by exploiting the labor of the majority.”

“If these ethics and habits are not demonstrated, not only do one’s chances of being cast dramatically decrease but also people simply do not wish to associate with them or support them in any of their theatrical endeavors.”

“Jonathan Larson changed the face of musical theater. And he did it with one show. Rent.”