Faculty Bio

Brian Granger

Assistant Professor in the Department of Performing Arts – Theatre

Education

• B.A., Kenyon College
• M.F.A., The Ohio State University
• Ph.D., University of California – Santa Barbara

About

Dr. Brian Granger is a musical theatre book writer, playwright, theatre scholar, singer-songwriter, and actor/director whose works are an ongoing exploration of how we treat one another across lines of race, gender and class. His academic interests include North American ethnic playwrights and musical theatre, particularly Africana musicals on Broadway. He holds degrees from Kenyon College (B.A.), The Ohio State University (M.F.A.), and the University of California, Santa Barbara (PhD). He remains particularly proud of his second M.F.A. in musical theatre writing from NYU/Tisch School of the Arts, where he studied under some of the nation's greatest living (and Tony Award-winning) musical creators.

Some of his works for the stage include:

• Dierdre, an a cappella rock opera;
• Medicine Show (with composer Robert Nafarrete), a musical satire of American racial stereotypes that premiered at Dixon Place in New York City as part of their "Not For Broadway: Festival of New Musicals";
• Baby Wolf (with composer Christian Imboden), an urban retelling of the epic of Beowulf;
• and Rebel Moon, a story of two Puerto Rican American sisters navigating urban life (and urban men) that was staged as a part of UC Santa Barbara's "New Plays Festival." A scene from Rebel Moon is currently available in print in Duo: the Best Scenes for Two for the 21st Century (Applause Books, 2009).

Granger's book is Parker, Lopez, and Stone's The Book of Mormon, a critical but non-specialist-friendly analysis of the hit Broadway musical (Routledge, 2019).