About.

Phillip Sprayberry is an educator, a freelance stage director, a Life-Cycle® wedding celebrant, and an author based in the metropolitan New York area. 

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Sprayberry earned his doctorate, with distinction, at Drew University’s Caspersen School. He received a master of arts in musical theatre from New York University and a bachelor of arts in music education from Lipscomb University. 

 

During began his tenure as an arts educator, Sprayberry was music and theatre director at Boyd-Buchanan School in Chattanooga, Tennessee, and lead teacher for the nationally recognized arts magnet high school, B.T.W. Magnet High School, in Montgomery, Alabama. Also in Montgomery, he created the highly successful Encore Theatre and served as music and theatre chairperson at Faulkner University. 

 

Sprayberry moved north to continue his career as a freelance stage director and to teach as adjunct professor of communication and music. He was also media relations coordinator for William Paterson University in Wayne, N.J.

 

Also in New Jersey, he was public relations director for Summerfun Theater, a professional summer stock theatre formerly in Montclair.

 

Now retired from the University’s marketing and public relations department, Sprayberry teaches, directs, writes, and is a Life-Cycle® wedding celebrant.

 

In younger and thinner days, Sprayberry performed on local and professional stages singing and acting in dinner theatre, community and regional theatre and opera. Some of his favorite roles include the "Baker" in Into the Woods, "Mordred" in Camelot, "Guiseppe Zangara" in Assassins, "Man One" in Oh, Coward!, "Señor Perelli" in Sweeney Todd, and "Sparky" in Forever Plaid. He translated his stage experience into a directing track and has directed more than 100 musicals, non-musicals, and revues in educational, community, and professional settings.

 

Sprayberry’s latest book is CHEERS! The Joy of Toasting, a new source for tools to find or create the perfect toast for special occasions. He is also the author of All I Ever Needed Was the Music: A biography of Ed Kleban, lyricist of “A Chorus Line,” and is working on a business and social communications book to guide college students in their transition from the classroom to the workplace.