Brian Leahy Doyle is a director, dramaturge, writer, playwright, and teacher of theatre. Brian received his undergraduate training at the University of Wisconsin - Platteville, where he majored in English and minored in theatre with an emphasis in dramatic literature. He earned his MFA in Theatre, with emphases in Directing, Dramaturgy, and Voice, at the University of Utah. While at the University of Utah, he was the first resident dramaturge of the Pioneer Theatre Company and was largely responsible for initiating this position.

 

After graduate school, Brian moved to the East Coast and worked as a dramaturge for the George Street Playhouse and the Whole Theatre, the latter of which was run by Olympia Dukakis. He then began an active freelance directing career, staging plays in such regional theaters as the Whole Theatre, Cincinnati Theatre Festival, and Louisville’s Classics in Context, and such off-Broadway venues as the Irish Arts Center, Riverside Shakespeare, the Open Eye, the 92nd Street Y/Makor, and the New York premiere of composer Aaron Jay Kernitz’s The Four Seasons of Futurist Cuisine at Weill Recital Hall at Carnegie Hall. As a director, he is adept at a variety of styles and genres including classical theatre, modern classics, new plays, musical comedy, music-theatre pieces, New Vaudeville, devised theatre, and mixed media pieces.

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As a writer, his articles have appeared in The Texas Theatre Journal, New Hibernia Review, The Steinbeck Review, Theatre History Studies, and Didaskalia. His book, Encore! The Renaissance of Wisconsin Opera Houses, published by the Wisconsin Historical Society Press, focuses upon the renovation and restoration of historic theaters in Wisconsin and has received a National Indie Excellence Award, a National Best Book Award, a ForeWord Review Book Award, and the Theatre Historical Society of America’s Outstanding Book of the Year Award. 

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As a playwright, Brian has written the libretto to The Weeping Woman, an opera about the relationship between Pablo Picasso and Surrealist painter and photographer Dora Maar, created in collaboration with composer Michael Dilthey. The Weeping Woman was presented in an August 2019 workshop production at MASS MoCA in North Adams, MA. He directed two Zoom readings of his latest full-length play, Light from the Pleiades, for English Theatre Dűsseldorf. His 10-minute one-act play, The Architecture of Desire, is featured in The Best New Ten-Minute Plays 2021, while Dead End Kids: A Post-Covid Dystopian Love Story was presented in KNOW Theatre’s 2020 Playwrights Festival in November 2020 and in the Chain Theatre One Act Festival in July/August 2021. Maybe Tomorrow premiered in KNOW Theatre's 2021 Playwrights Festival in November 2021.

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Among his current projects are My Way of Life, a musical adaptation of Mrs. Warren's Profession (book & lyrics, with score by Michael Dilthey). Michael and Brian are also collaborating on a musical theatre piece, Girl in the Air, inspired by The Bhagavad Gita. Brian is expanding Dead End Kids into a full-length play. During the summer of 2022, three ten-minute, one-act plays - Starry, Starry Night (Finalist for Best Play), Dining for One (Semi-Finalist for Best Play), and Telepathy, all directed by Adriana Alter - were presented in the Secret Theatre Summer One-Act Festival. Brian also directed Maybe Tomorrow (Audience Choice Award) for the Chain Theatre Summer One-act Festival. Brian's latest one-act play, And We Danced, premiered in KNOW Theatre's Playwrights Festival in November 2023, where it won the Best Artistic Merit Award.

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As a teacher, Brian has taught courses in acting, directing, voice production, theatre history, and dramatic literature at Marymount College Tarrytown, Lehman College, AMDA, and St. Cloud State University. In October 2006, Brian was given a Distinguished Educator Award from the College of Liberal Arts and Education at his undergraduate alma mater, the University of Wisconsin - Platteville. He currently teaches film and communications at Mercy University.