Randy White

FOUNDER | ARTISTIC DIRECTOR

Randy and family recently relocated to Chicago from Bloomington, Indiana, where he was founder and artistic director of Cardinal Stage Company. The company 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 Cardinal 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. Fiercely devoted to the success of the TYA series, Randy directed many Cardinal for Kids’ shows, including A Year With Frog and Toad, Junie B. Jones, If You Give a Mouse a Cookie, Oliver!, The Diary of Anne Frank, Shrek–the Musical, Annie, Charlotte’s Web, and several commissioned works. The Cardinal for Kids’ series reached over 7,500 South-Central Indiana children, including thousands of kids from disadvantaged backgrounds.

Randy has also directed in New York and at major regional theatres across the county. In NYC, he developed and directed Theatreworks USA’s Max and Ruby, a children’s 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 numerous 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 (January 2020) at Northbrook Theatre. For the Greenhouse Theater, Randy directed Truman and The Birth of Israel and was recently nominated for Best Director by Broadway World Chicago for his critically acclaimed production of Midsummer (A Play with Songs). Randy holds an MFA in directing from the University of Alberta in his native Canada.

Sam Shankman

ARTISTIC ASSOCIATE

Sam is an actor and music director based in Chicago. Originally from Memphis, TN, Sam moved to Chicago in 2013 to attend Northwestern University. There, he was heavily involved with IMAGINE U, the theatre department’s wing dedicated to Theatre for Young Audiences. He performed in shows such as A Year with Frog and Toad, Elephant and Piggie’s ‘We Are in a Play’, and Balloonacy, a one-man theatrical puppet show crafted for audiences ages 2-3.

Sam has performed for young audiences across Chicagoland, working with theaters like Drury Lane, The Marriott Theatre, Chicago Shakespeare Theatre, Northbrook Theatre for Young Audiences, Emerald City, and more. With YPT, Sam music-directed the world premiere of Peabody and the Chicago premiere of Don’t Let the Pigeon Drive the Bus. Sam has worked with Artistic Director Randy White since YPT’s founding and is excited about creating a new home for engaging and thoughtful productions within Chicago’s vibrant TYA landscape.