Sunday, May 15, 2011

Endstation welcomes Chad Larabee to the Blue Ridge



I am very excited to welcome a fantastic new director to the Blue Ridge Summer Theatre Festival. Director Chad Larabee comes to us from New York and will be taking the helm on our first musical production, Stephen Sondheim's Assassins. When it came to producing our first musical, I knew immediately I wanted to bring Chad to Sweet Briar. Chad is also directing our festival kick-off event, Broadway in the Blue Ridge, featuring Sean MacLaughlin from Broadway's Phantom of the Opera.

Chad Larabee's production of POPart: The Musical

Chad recently directed the off Broadway revival of Garson Kanin’s, Dreyfus in Rehearsal, and the world premiere of POPart: The Musical written by Daryl Lisa Fazio and Aaron McAllister. He also directed the world-premiere of this season's Good Good Trouble on Bad Bad Island. This premiere was a part of the New York International Fringe Festival and was produced by company member Michael Stablein, through Endstation.

Chad directed the world-premiere of Ain’t We Got Fun in London with a cast including Broadway and West End actors. The production was part of collaboration with Margaret Whiting, Jack Wrangler, and Kevin Duda; which also includes Dream, the Broadway Musical and Jimmy Valentine.Chad is working with Lori McKelvey on the development of three new musicals: Camila, Georgia, and Hard Times. Chad directed a developmental reading of Hard Times produced by Endstation Theatre Company as part of the Sweet Briar Fringe Festival last year.

Other New York theatre credits include work with The York Theatre, Dark Luna Productions, Write Club NYC, and various independent producers. Chad is directing Hairspray as the inaugural production of the new Coralville Performing Arts Center this coming fall and is writing and directing a new stage adaptation of Charles Dickens classic novel, Great Expectations premiering at the University at Albany spring 2012.



Chad's FSU production of Evita


Chad is a proud graduate of The University of Iowa where he received his BA in theatre, and met and worked with many Endstation members when he attended Florida State University where he received his MFA in directing. Chad and I entered the directing program the same year and I am proud to not only call Chad a colleague but also a dear friend. We are honored to bring him to Central Virginia and we are excited to share his work with you this summer.



For more information please visit www.chadlarabee.com


Geoffrey Kershner
Artistic Director

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