Richard Roland

Richard 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 directing credits include 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.

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.