Lee Norvelle Theatre and Drama Center, A300S
Education
- M.F.A., Directing for Musical Theatre, The Pennsylvania State University
- B.F.A., Theatre Performance, Denison University
Richard Roland is Assistant Professor of Musical Theatre at the Indiana University Jacobs School of Music. He is a fourth-generation performer and a third-generation Broadway veteran, having appeared on Broadway in Thoroughly Modern Millie, The Scarlet Pimpernel, and Follies, and in the National Tours of Titanic and …Millie. Off-Broadway audiences saw him in Zombie Prom, Forever Plaid, The Fantasticks, and The Cocoanuts. Among his regional performing credits are La Cage aux Folles, The Who’s Tommy, West Side Story, Damn Yankees, Gentlemen Prefer Blondes, Cabaret, The Sound of Music, Shenandoah, and Mame. He played Jason Sheffield on TV’s “All My Children” and appeared in several television commercials. A vocal arranger as well, Richard founded and directed the jazz vocal group Monday Off, co-produced two CDs, and toured all over the country and Canada, and played many clubs in New York as well as Carnegie Hall in New York over ten years.
Richard’s international directing credits include Spring Awakening and Associate Director for the Danish premiere of The Story of My Life in Denmark, and is Associate Director for The Ghost and Mrs. Muir, a new musical in development in the UK.
In the US, he has directed She Loves Me, The Secret Garden, 110 in the Shade, Brigadoon, A Christmas Carol, Dogfight, Working, Forever Plaid, Barefoot in the Park, Souvenir, Urinetown, Avenue Q, God of Carnage (Raleigh Indy Week Best Director), Hairspray, Ragtime (NH Theatre Award, Best Direction of a Musical), Dear Ruth, No Way to Treat a Lady, Grease, …Millie, Chicago, Steel Magnolias, Metamorphoses, and served as Associate Director for the NYC premiere of Vanities: A New Musical and the Danish premiere of Story of My Life, and served as Associate Artistic Director for a season at Theatre Raleigh.
His IU main stage productions include City of Angels, Wonderful Town, Reefer Madness, Big Fish, and Natasha, Pierre, and the Great Comet of 1812. He serves as the Associate Producing Artistic Director for IUST, for which he has directed The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee, Little Shop of Horrors, and the radio thriller Twisted Tales of Poe. In he directed Elf, the Musical and A Christmas Story, the Musical for Bloomington’s Constellation Stage and Screen.
He holds a B.F.A. in Theatre from Denison University and an M.F.A. in Directing from Penn State, where he also served on the School of Theatre faculty. At PSU he taught Audition Technique, Theatre History, Musical Theatre History/Form and Function, and an AEA 29-hour Reading class. He was also an adjunct faculty member and directed at University of West Florida. Richard has taught master classes on Audition Technique and Acting the Song in New York, across the country, and abroad.
At Indiana University, Richard has created and teaches the following courses: Acting the Song, Musical Theatre Audition Techniques, Musical Theatre Scene Study, Musical Theatre Advanced Methods, Intro to Musical Theatre/Musical Theatre Form and Function, History of the American Musical Theatre, and Directing for Musical Theatre. He also has taught Broadway Cabaret, Senior Showcase, Working in the Profession, among others.
He is also the host of the nationally syndicated weekly public radio program Afterglow, celebrating jazz vocals and the Great American Songbook on Indiana Public Media (WFIU in Bloomington).
Recent Credits
A Chorus Line
IU Theatre — Director
Merrily We Roll Along
IU Theatre — Director
Reefer Madness
IU Theatre — Director
Natasha, Pierre, and the Great Comet of 1812
IU Theatre — Director
Carrie: The Musical
IU Theatre — Associate Director
Twisted Tales of Poe
IU Summer Theatre — Director
Street Scenes
IU Theatre — Co-Creative Director
Big Fish
IU Theatre — Director
Little Shop of Horrors
IU Summer Theatre — Director
Wonderful Town
IU Theatre — Director
25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee
IU Summer Theatre — Director
City of Angels
IU Theatre — Director