Director.

About

 

Phillip Sprayberry is a stage director with decades of experience, notably in educational theatre. Sprayberry’s work ranges from modern comedy/drama to musical theatre/opera and includes professional and community productions in addition to his extensive work with universities and high schools. His experience has spanned “one-man-band” productions to working within a full creative community and “shoe-string” shows to bigger budget extravaganzas.

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History/Background

 

Sprayberry’s professional career began in choral conducting and quickly included stage direction. His advanced degrees focused on musical theatre and informed his career path. As music and theatre director at Boyd-Buchanan School in Chattanooga [Tennessee], he moved the school’s theatre area into major productions while conducting a 40-voice mixed chorus and building his personal performing résumé with the Chattanooga Opera, the Chattanooga Little Theatre, and the Backstage Playhouse.

 

Later, he accepted a position as music and theatre director at Faulkner Theatre in Montgomery [Alabama] where he created and founded the Encore Dinner Theatre, a popular “town-and-gown” performance and training venue that continued long after moving to a new musical theatre position at the Carver Creative and  Performing Arts Center [CCPAC was Montgomery’s nationally recognized arts magnet program]. He was a part of the founding faculty that transformed CCPAC into a broader program, the Booker T. Washington Magnet High School [BTW].

 

To fulfill a longtime plan to move to the New York metropolitan area and transition out of full-time education, Sprayberry accepted a position as public relations director for Summerfun Theatre, a professional summer stock theatre company located in Montclair [New Jersey]. During the last five years of the organization’s 28-year history, he also directed three New Jersey professional theatre premieres and was featured onstage in a production of Forever Plaid.

 

The Summerfun gig was followed by a new career as media relations coordinator at William Paterson University and also as a freelance stage director. He has directed multiple shows at William Paterson and Kean Universities and also for the Ledge Theatre and Opera at Florham in New Jersey, and Manhattan College and the Village Light Opera in Manhattan.