Pageant

Meet the Guest Director

The co-writer of Pageant was raised in the Black Hills of South Dakota and was bitten by a theatre bug at an early age. He attended KU in the early 1970´s.

In 1980, Bill made his off-Broadway writing debut, penning book and lyrics for Fourtune with music by Ronald Melrose. The show played at the Actors Playhouse and was subsequently performed around the country and in Rio de Janeiro. In 1987, Family Style, featuring music by Janet Hood, was presented by the Minnesota Musical Theater Workshop and, in 1989, their AIDS-themed work, Elegies for Angels, Punks and Raging Queens, premiered at the Ohio Theatre in Soho with Bill directing. Subsequently, he directed other productions around the United States and in London´s West End.

Side Show, with music by Henry Krieger, marked Bill’s Broadway debut as a writer. He received Tony Award nominations for his book and lyrics (Best Score with Henry!) and the show was nominated for Best Musical and garnered a rare joint nomination for Alice Ripley and Emily Skinner as Best Actress in a Musical for their portrayal of the conjoined Hilton Sisters.

Bill and Henry´s second collaboration—a wacky version of the ugly duckling idea—has had five major productions under the title Everything´s Ducky. Bill wrote the lyrics and co-authored the book with Jeffrey Hatcher. The musical comedy premiered with TheatreWorks of Palo Alto in January of 2000 and has been performed at the Repertory Theatre of St. Louis, Cincinnati Playhouse in the Park, La Mirada Center for the Performing Arts in Southern California, and Northlight Theatre in Chicago. A revised version, Lucky Duck, premiered at the Old Globe in San Diego in July 2004, directed by John Rando, the Tony-winning director of Urinetown

Bill has also collaborated with Krieger on Kept, their version of Camille set in and around Studio 54. It premiered in April 2002 and was performed at the 2003 Edinburgh Festival by Oxford University. They wrote Santa´s Gonna Rock and Roll, the opening number of the Radio City Musical Hall Christmas Spectacular since 1994. They were commissioned to write Take the Flame for the opening ceremonies of Gay Games IV. He adapted the book of Call Me Madam, starring Tyne Daly, for City Center Encores! Bill’s directing credits include Pageant in London’s fringe and West End, Chicago, and Los Angeles, Side Show in St. Paul, and Lucky Duck at the Boston Conservatory. Some of Bill´s other directing credits include John Augustine´s Generation X and the comedy team of Monteith and Rand on and off-Broadway and at theaters around the nation.

Bill has received two Commendation Awards from the Gilman-Gonzalez/Falla Foundation and has been awarded honorary degrees by Morningside College in 2003 and another this May by the Boston Conservatory.