Joe Deer

Joe Deer is author of DIRECTING IN MUSICAL THEATRE: AN ESSENTIAL GUIDE, and the definitive textbook on its subject, ACTING IN MUSICAL THEATRE: A COMPREHENSIVE COURSE - 3rd edition (with Rocco Dal Vera), which has been translated into Portuguese, Italian and Korean. He is a frequent contributor to TEACHING THEATRE JOURNAL and DRAMATICS MAGAZINE. Joe has been a musical theatre master teacher for nearly twenty years, as well, teaching in New York City at Steps Studio, Dance Theatre of Harlem, The American Dancemachine Training Facility and many regional studios. Joe holds an MFA in Directing from Carnegie Mellon University and is Distinguished Professor of Musical Theatre at Wright State University (Dayton, OH), where he is head of the BFA Musical Theatre program and director of The Musical Theatre Initiative. He has taught workshops and master classes internationally and was founding President of the Musical Theatre Educators Alliance. He is a frequent guest artist and master teacher around the world, including the Royal Central School of Speech and Drama (London, England), Danish Academy of Musical Theatre, Stage School (Hamburg, GE), Royal Welsh School of Music and Drama (Wales) and many of the top training programs in the US. He has consulted for or designed curriculum for programs from the US to China, Brazil and Germany. Joe is the award-winning director or choreographer of over a hundred-seventy productions in theatres from Off-Broadway to regional, summer stock and university stages. Among his notable productions is the university premiere of PARADE (coached by composer Jason Robert Brown), the regional premiere of ONLY HEAVEN (by Ricky Ian Gordon and Langston Hughes), and critically acclaimed productions for the Human Race Theatre Co. (with whom he is a resident artist) including their record-breaking production of AVENUE Q, LEND ME A TENOR, BIG RIVER, SEUSSICAL, THE UNDERPANTS and many others. For four seasons Joe was Artistic Director of Struthers Library Theatre, a summer theatre in Warren, PA devoted to mounting new productions of classic musicals and plays. He was also a resident director at Mountain Playhouse in Jennerstown, PA for ten seasons, staging the regional premiere of Israel Horowitz' PARK YOUR CAR IN HARVARD YARD, and almost thirty other plays and musicals. He continues to work actively as a director and choreographer at theatres including West Virginia Public Theatre, Lyric Theatre of Oklahoma and New Stage Collective. As a performer, Joe began his career as a street busker in New York's Shubert Alley and eventually appeared in the Broadway productions of ANYTHING GOES, THE AMERICAN DANCEMACHINE, NYC Opera's productions of BRIGADOON (requested by Agnes De Mille) and THE MUSIC MAN. He also appeared in the Equity national tours of SINGIN' IN THE RAIN, ANYTHING GOES and THE AMERICAN DANCEMACHINE. Off-Broadway shows include RAINBOW, SUBWAY SERIES (with NYC Tapworks), and MUSIC, RHYTHM AND TAP (at Brooklyn Academy of Music). He also appeared in performances at Carnegie Hall and Kennedy Center. Joe's stage managing credits include the Broadway revival of GUYS AND DOLLS, regional productions of LEND ME A TENOR, productions for New York's Playwrights' Horizons, and as production assistant on the first workshop of Stephen Sondheim's ASSASSINS.