Randy Strawderman

Randy Strawderman has directed and produced theater on the local and national stage. He co-wrote and directed Red Hot & Cole, which premiered at Barksdale Theatre in Richmond before receiving an Equity Workshop Production off Broadway and a first-class production at the Variety Arts Theater in Los Angeles. RH&C is currently licensed by Music Theatre International and produced worldwide.

He has directed national tours of Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat and A Child’s Christmas in Wales. As co-founder and artistic director of the former Studio Theatre of Richmond, Strawderman launched Young Writers for the Theatre, Virginia’s first statewide new-play festival for middle and high school students. Now called New Voices, the festival celebrated its 20th anniversary in the spring of 2009 at the School of the Performing Arts in the Richmond community.

As founding artistic director of The Colonel Read Foundation for Courage in the Arts, Strawderman wrote and directed RED BADGE of Courage, a new epic American musical adapted from Stephen Crane’s novel, with music and lyrics by Carlos Chafin and Robbin Thompson. Co-produced by Virginia Military Institute, Red Badge premiered at the Lenfest Center for the Performing Arts in Lexington, Virginia.

While artistic director of Barksdale between 1998 and 2001, Strawderman directed the American premiere of Alex Finlayson’s Misfits; produced Ernie McClintock’s production of John Henry Redwood’s The Old Settler at the National Black Theatre Festival; and wrote and directed “Ella & Her Fella, Frank,” a concert made in heaven.

Strawderman teaches and directs for the Governor’s School for the Arts in Norfolk, Virginia, and is currently writing his own one-man show.