CHAPLIN at Manatee Performing Arts Center

Prior to his move to Bradenton, Rick was the Entertainment Director for the USO of Metropolitan New York and the organizer of the Miss USO Contest. His USO troupe was featured on the Today Show, Good Morning America, Fox News, Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade and on The Miss America Pageant. The same USO troupe performed as part of the USO Celebrity Tours in the Middle East, Europe, and the Baltic. Other directorial credits include numerous shows at Surflight Theatre in New Jersey, Theatre by the Sea in Rhode Island, The Arundel Playhouse in Maine, Wolford House Dinner Theatre in Virginia, New London Barn Playhouse in New Hampshire, Stage Door Canteen Theatre at the National World War II Museum in New Orleans, Westbank and Duplex Theaters in New York City, and on many cruise ships. He has served on the faculties of Wagner College on Staten Island and Academy of Music and Dramatic Arts in New York City. Rick is the immediate past President of the Florida Theatre Conference, Past President of the Florida Association of Community Theaters, and is the President of the board for the American Association of Community Theatres. Rick was honored as a recipient of the Fellows Award from AACT. Rick most recently directed MPAC’s productions of Pippin, I Do! I Do!, Winter Wonderettes, Matilda, West Side Story, Barnum, Mary Poppins, Cabaret, Newsies, Hunchback of Notre Dame, A Little Night Music, The Producers, Boynton Beach Club, Assassins, 42nd Street, Chess, The Little Mermaid, Secret Garden, and Into the Woods.

Rick has enjoyed working with the Manatee Players and other local theaters since his move to Florida from New Jersey. Rick taught elementary school music in Bradenton before he retired 6 years ago, and still works with the Manatee Players Kidz Camp and Broadway Boot Camp, where he recently Musically Directed Junie B. Jones, Jr and The Music Man. Rick has a BA in Music Education from Montclair State University in New Jersey.