RANDY WHITE
Founding Artistic Director

Randy and family relocated to Chicago from Bloomington, Indiana, where he was founder and artistic director of Cardinal Stage Company. Cardinal grew quickly under Randy’s leadership and in less than a decade was one of Indiana’s largest and most successful arts organizations. Randy directed many of the company’s productions, including West Side Story, August: Osage County, Next to Normal, The 39 Steps, One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, King Charles III, The Grapes of Wrath, and more. Randy was especially gratified to work with nearly 100 extraordinarily talented Chicago actors and theatre designers while at Cardinal.

A champion of children’s theatre, Randy inaugurated Cardinal’s extraordinarily successful “Cardinal for Kids” series. Randy directed many of the series’ TYA shows, including A Year With Frog and Toad, Junie B. Jones, Click, Clack, Moo, Oliver!, The Diary of Anne Frank, Shrek–the Musical, Annie, Charlotte’s Web, and several commissioned works. The series reached over 7,500 South-Central Indiana children, including thousands of kids from disadvantaged backgrounds.

Before Cardinal, Randy directed in New York and at major regional theaters across the county. In NYC, he developed and directed Theatreworks USA’s Max and Ruby, a TYA musical that played off-Broadway before touring nationally. He also directed the 15-month off-Broadway run of Glen Berger’s Underneath the Lintel, assisted on Disney’s The Lion King, and was resident director at New Dramatists. Regionally, Randy has directed at Shakespeare Santa Cruz, Portland Center Stage, Actors Theatre of Louisville, and other theaters across the country.

As a theatre educator, Randy has directed and/or taught at Yale, University of Pennsylvania, Indiana University, University of Minnesota/Guthrie, University of Alberta, Fordham and NYU Tisch. He also taught for several years at NYC’s American Musical and Dramatic Academy.

In Chicago, Randy directed The Wizard of Oz at the Children’s Theatre of Winnetka and Curious George and Knuffle Bunny at Northbrook Theatre. For the Greenhouse, he directed Truman and The Birth of Israel and was nominated for an Equity Jeff Award for his critically acclaimed production of Midsummer (A Play with Songs). He has also directed numerous YPT productions, including The Hobbit, A Year with Frog and Toad, Charlotte’s Web, Last Stop on Market Street, Dory Fantasmagory, Peabody (the Science Musical), Don’t Let the Pigeon Drive the Bus, and others..

Randy holds an MFA in directing from the University of Alberta in his native Canada.