My final production at Glendale Middle School was Disney's Beauty and the Beat Jr. During my time at Glendale, the program grew from 4 enrolled theatre students to one in every 7 students in the school participating in acting or technical theatre (nearly 100 students). The production  was part of a season that included a competition, a play, musical and a theatre awards night featuring a congratulations video from Broadway's Ali Ewoldt. Unfortunately, cuts at the district level most harmed arts at west Salt Lake schools, but the part time program is in good hands. Working at Glendale was a career highlight and the community will always have my heart. 

The first non-musical play produced at Glendale Middle School was a community effort. I directed The Hundred Dresses by Ralph Covert and G. Riley Mills based on the Caldecott Award winning book of the same name from author Eleanor Estes. The play was the first time that auditions at Glendale were open to all students, and created incredible opportunities for the broader student body. The play was coupled with a dress drive for our neighboring elementary school, Mountain View and allowed us to perform a play and share goodness with these students. Our aim is to continue a pattern of straight plays and community partnership in our plays at least once a year. 

I directed this Glendale Middle School 2023 production of "Once On This Island Jr."  The production was double cast and introduced students and the community to a Tony Award winning musical that brought our community closer together during a difficult year.  Our students greatly benefitted from having continuity from year to year and being able to depend on peer support as the program grows.  This year also featured a night of Shakespeare, a performance for special education students, improvisation shows and a district theatre festival. 

I directed this Glendale Middle School 2022 production of "The Lion King Jr."  The production was the first play any of the students had been in, and was the first production our school had done since the pandemic and just the second musical the school had produced in ten years. It has been a joy building from the groud up with this group! The students were so enthralled with the show that we opted to have 15 minute mystery plays for the end of the year, and the students felt great each having a principle role in their first year. 

Several of my directing projects have been new works. In the past 5 years, I have had the chance to direct the following new plays:

•  "End of Summer" by Hank Kimmel  for the ATHE New Play Development Workshop.

• "Triggered" By John Norton for KCACTF Region 4

• "Medea" by Elizabeth Brendel Horn, published by Youth Plays

Other NPDW  opportunities included the chance to act in new plays "Raindrops and Robots" by Monica Cross and "I don't know yet" 

In 2016, I directed and adapted "the King and the Magician" by Jorge Bucay for a capstone directing project at BYU.  Highlights of that production are found here. 

Since 2018, I have had the opportunity to direct summer camp theatre productions with youth. The camps usually consist of 40-50 performers and are two or three weeks long. In 2018 I directed Winnie the Pooh Kids. In 2019 I directed 101 Dalmatians Kids and co-directed Willy Wonka Jr.  In 2023 I directed Lion King kids with my two oldest boys. I've had the chance to direct week-long performance camps, consult on stage lighting installation and have grateful to be brought back to work with the kids and a lovely company so many times. 

This project in 2020 was a 1-week Zoom-based puppet class with neurodivergent teens and young adults.  In the course we developed characters, created puppets and I wrote a story devised from their characters. The work can be seen here.