Department of Theatre, Drama, and Contemporary Dance

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 She Loves Me, 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.

His IU main stage productions include City of Angels, Wonderful Town, Big Fish, and Natasha, Pierre, and the Great Comet of 1812. He serves as the Associate Producing Artstic Director for IUST, for which he has directed The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee, Little Shop of Horrors, and the radio thriller Twisted Tales of Poe. In winter of 2022 he will direct Elf, the Musical for Bloomington’s Constellation Stage and Screen (née Cardinal Stage).

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.

At Indiana University, Richard has created and teaches the following courses: Acting the Song, Musical Theatre Audition Techniques, Intro to Musical Theatre/Musical Theatre Form and Function, History of the American Musical Theatre, and Directing for Musical Theatre. He also has taught Broadway Cabaret, Senior Showcase, Working in the Profession, among others.