DGI INSTRUCTOR & PLAYS IN PROGRESS MENTOR
JOHN DIETRICH
Their DGI Teaching History includes Architecture of Musicals and Word Crazy: The Art of Creating Lyrics.
John is also a Play in Progress Mentor for Musicals. Request John as a PIP Mentor.
JOHN DIETRICH has had a career immersed in musical theatre storytelling working as a professional Director, Choreographer, Writer and Educator. This has included a 17-year relationship with Radio City Entertainment, where he was the Director/ Choreographer for the world-famous Rockettes, for Rockette Special Events, as well as for the Radio City Christmas Spectacular. Other work includes hundreds of shows in a vast range of entertainment genres: from television to Off-Broadway & regional theatre, from industrial shows to ice shows. He has created and written for Walt Disney Entertainment, as well as for Dolly Parton & Dollywood Entertainment. He was the creative director for Niles Creative Group, a film production company specializing in large scale theatrically based film and video productions worldwide. He wrote the book & lyrics for the musical THINGS AS THEY ARE, based on the life of documentary photographer Dorothea Lange. It was a Next Link selection for the New York Musical Theatre Festival and received the “Best of Fest” Award for most popular show. It was also twice nominated for the prestigious Fred Ebb Award in 2009 and 2011. ONLY ANNE, an adaptation of Jane Austen’s Persuasion, written with composer Will Buck, received development at the Rhinebeck Writer’s Retreat and was produced at the 2016 Goodspeed Festival of New Musicals. Selections from Only Anne were orchestrated by the Broadway legend Bill Brohn and performed by the Chelsea Symphony at the MTF New Orchestrations Gala. LAUTREC AT THE ST. JAMES, written with composer Julianne Wick Davis and directed by Sarna Lapine will be produced and presented at the 2019 NAMT Conference. Also in current development are THE NUREYEV PROJECT with composer Will Buck and THE LAST WAR with composer Julianne Wick Davis.
He teaches a two-part master class for the NYU Graduate Musical Theatre Writing Program titled “Dance as a Storytelling Device in the Writer’s Toolbox” with Broadway dance arranger David Chase, and was on the Adjunct Faculty at Marymount College of Manhattan teaching a course in Musical Theatre Performance. He received his MFA from New York University, Tisch School of the Arts, in Musical Theatre Writing, and his MA from New York University Gallatin School in Musical Theatre Structure & Directing Theory. He also holds a Bachelor of Music degree from the University of Wisconsin. He currently continues to freelance as a Director/Choreographer & Writer while being an academic advisor in NYU Tisch Drama as well as being the department’s Manager of Faculty Services.