Composer | Director | Designers

”Theatre is a collaborative art and it’s a huge pleasure working with so many great people who are skilled in so many ways that I’m not. All of these skills come together to create something—an ensemble of joy and ensemble.  It’s challenging directing a play that’s in its world premiere, but I try to stay as true to what Ric Averill wrote in the truth of the text.” –Graham Whitehead

Graham Whitehead was born in Egypt, raised in England, lived in Canada for almost thirty years and now resides in the United States.  Since becoming a permanent resident of the U.S., he has taught at Arizona State University and worked as a freelance actor and director.  Directing highlights include Fiddler on the Roof, Dear Esther, Dialogues of the Carmelites, Cabaret, Into the Woods, A Little Night Music, Pippin, Carousel, Comedy of Errors, Driving Miss Daisy, and Comet in Moominland.  For the Kennedy Center, Graham has directed Mary Hall Surface's adaptation of The Reluctant Dragon and East of the Sun, West of the Moon.  As a playwright, he has written two scripts, Just So Stories, and Peter and the Wolf, which won awards as outstanding productions from the international puppetry organization UNIMA. Graham is presently Associate Artistic Director at Childsplay in Arizona where he has directed numerous pieces including Wolf Child, And Then They Came for Me, Wind in the Willows, Selkie, and The Boxcar Children.  He has also appeared as Lincoln in Lincoln's Log and dressed in extremely warm upholstery, where he played the Chair in Y. York's Portrait, Wind and Chair.  In addition, he directed Androcles and the Lion for Free Space Theatre in Orel, Russia and made a cameo appearance as the voice of God in Castles in the Sky, which he directed and co-created with Gayle LaJoie.  Playing God was much cooler than playing an armchair.