Larry Sousa Directs and Choreographs RENT at Boston College This Week

Acclaimed interdisciplinary theater artist Larry Sousa—whose extensive career as a director, choreographer, designer, educator, and performer has spanned Broadway, regional theater, television, film, and higher education for more than 30 years—has joined Boston College's Theatre Department this academic year as the Monan Professor in Theatre Arts.

At Boston College, he will direct and choreograph a production of the groundbreaking rock musical RENT, which will be presented November 15-19 on the Robsham Theater Arts Center main stage.

Sousa has directed and choreographed musicals on professional stages from coast to coast, including the Garry Marshall Theatre in Los Angeles, the New York Fringe Festival, Musical Theatre West, and many more.

“We are especially lucky to have Larry Sousa as our Monan Professor,” said BC Theatre Department Chair and Professor of the Practice Luke Jorgensen. “Under his direction, with his choreography, we are expecting a new and amazing take on this classic production, which tells the story of a group of struggling young artists who attempt to persevere under the shadow of AIDS/HIV.

“Larry has a keen ability to bring musical theater to life, with energy and vibrant storytelling that will benefit our students in this production [of RENT] as well as in his Musical Theatre Performance class," Jorgensen added. "Larry is a veteran of the Broadway stage and brings a professionalism and level of talent from which we will all benefit.”

Next semester, Sousa will teach “Musical Theatre Performance,” a course for actors who sing, and singers who act, according to the Theatre Department: “With storytelling at the center of our work, this course explores acting through song and crafting an authentic voice as a musical theater artist,” according to its description.

In Boston, Sousa's professional credits include productions at Speakeasy Stage Company, Lyric Stage, The Boston Gay Men's Chorus, and Reagle Music Theatre. In 2018, he became the director and choreographer of Harvard University's Hasty Pudding Show. The oldest existing theater organization in the United States, Hasty Pudding Theatricals creates a new, full-length musical comedy every year, with more than 50 performances annually in Cambridge, New York City, and Bermuda.

The recipient of the prestigious Los Angeles Drama Critics Circle Award, the Los Angeles Ovation Award, multiple Independent Reviewers of New England Awards, and the OnStage Critics Award, Sousa also has been honored twice by The American Dance Awards as “Choreographer of the Year,” and has been a nominee for the NAACP Theatre Award, the LA Weekly Theatre Award, the Elliot Norton Award, and others.

Sousa is in his 13th year on the musical theater faculty at Boston Conservatory at Berklee,where he has directed and choreographed productions including Sondheim's The Frogs, and Bernstein's Mass. He also choreographed Dirty Rotten Scoundrels, Shrek, and several new works for the Conservatory's Musical Theatre Dance Intensive.

A frequent guest director, choreographer, and instructor for many college theater
programs—including Boston College—he also is a sought-after master class teacher at performing arts conventions, competitions, and dance studios across the U.S. and Canada.
A designer of scenery, lighting, and multimedia projections, Sousa's designs have appeared on numerous New York stages including The Joyce Theatre, Jerry Mitchell's Broadway Bares, and Perry St. Theatre. In Los Angeles, he has designed productions at Celebration Theatre, The Complex, and others. And in Boston, his design work has been featured in productions at the Wimberly Theatre, the Tsai Center, and several Boston College productions.

Though the majority of his work is behind the scenes, Sousa began his professional career as an actor, singer, and dancer. In 1992 he was pursuing his MFA when cast in his first Broadway musical: Lincoln Center Theatre's workshop production of My Favorite Year. He went on to perform in other Broadway companies including The Goodbye Girl with Martin Short and Bernadette Peters, Roundabout Theatre Company's revival of She Loves Me, Busker Alley starring Tommy Tune, and Wonderful Town at New York City Opera. Sousa also was a featured actor in regional productions, films, commercials, and sitcoms on network and cable television.

Sousa holds a BFA in theater from Ithaca College. At the University of California at Irvine, he pursued an interdisciplinary MFA combining his passions of directing, choreography, theatrical design, and musical theater performance. (More on Sousa at www.larrysousa.com.)

The Monan Professorship in Theatre Arts was established in 2007 by a gift to Boston College in honor of the late University Chancellor and former BC President J. Donald Monan, S.J. The position, which also commemorates the late trustee E. Paul Robsham, enables the Theatre Department to bring nationally and internationally known professionals to Boston College to teach and work with undergraduate students.