Biography
MICHAEL BERKELEY directed/musical directed more than 40 shows for TriArts Sharon Playhouse, Sharon, CT having served as Resident Musical Director for nine years and then as Artistic Director from 1999-2012. Michael's directing credits include: Grease, My Fair Lady, The Will Rogers Follies, Gypsy, Forever Plaid, Joseph..., Bye Bye Birdie, How To Succeed..., Little Shop..., Anything Goes, etc. Additional musical directing credits include Gateway Playhouse (Bellport, NY), Candlewood Playhouse (Danbury, CT), Ironwood Theatre (Ironwood, MI), Royal Palm Dinner Theatre (Boca Raton and Key West, FL), Ordway Theatre (St. Paul, MN), Denver Center for the Performing Arts (Musical Supervisor), Warner Theatre (Torrington, CT), and Wayside Theatre (VA). Michael's musical direction and conducting have taken him around the world, including the Far East tour of South Pacific, the U.S./ Canadian Tour of Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat (with Donny Osmond), and cruise ship revues. He has musical directed and arranged shows for theatres around the country, for industrial shows, and for NYC's cabaret rooms. Michael also spent many years as an Equity actor, having appeared on stages across the country. As an educator, Michael has worked extensively with youth theatre programs, teaching workshops, serving as an artist-in-residence and director/musical director. In 2004, he helped establish a musical theatre program at the Region One High School in Connecticut, where he directed/musical directed students in an annual musical for many years. His original youth musicals, Imagine That! and Off The Wall, are licensed through Miracle Or 2 Productions. Michael also served as director, musical director, and arranger for Potential Unlimited -- a series of concerts at the Bardavon Theatre (Poughkeepsie, NY) celebrating the musical talents of performers with developmental disabilities. A member of the BMI-Lehman Engel Musical Theatre Workshop and ASCAP Composers Workshop, Michael currently has three licensed shows appearing around the country, including the critically-acclaimed Irving Berlin revue I Love A Piano created and written with Ray Roderick and represented by Concord Theatricals. Most recently, his Rip! The Musical, a new musical based on Washington Irving's Rip Van Winkle, also co-written with Ray Roderick, had its premiere at the Center for Performing Arts in Rhinebeck, NY.