ARTISTIC DIRECTOR
Chad Scheppner
Artistic Director
MFA, Acting and Directing, University of Missouri – Kansas City
MFA, Physical Theatre, Dell’Arte International, Blue Lake, CA
Theatre & Dance K-12 Credential, CSU East Bay
Chad spent many years as a professional actor and member of the Actors’ Equity Association, working at regional theatres and Shakespeare festivals across the country.
For nearly 30 years, he has also worked as a director, instructor and administrator of arts education programs, including Theatre 31, which he initiated in 2007.
With Theatre 31, he partners with a diverse group of creatives and artist/educators from the film industry, Broadway, Cirque du Soleil, and beyond, to bring high quality arts programming to communities in the greater Los Angeles area.
His overall objective for Theatre 31 is to provide inclusive theatre arts experiences where students are safe to be themselves, take risks, explore and grow, and where they can build self-confidence and empathy in their lives and art.
“He is as versatile as he is talented and his kindness, depth of heart and breadth of knowledge in the arts has profoundly affected the young artists lucky enough to have worked with him.”
Timothey Fitzgerald
Artistic Director, Performing Arts Workshops
Vice President, National Enrichment Teacher’s Association
“Chad has high expectations for himself and great people skills. He communicates ideas clearly and has natural abilities as a leader. He is innovative and dynamic and has an uncanny ability to discover creative solutions to problems.”
Kim Moran
Theatre Education Specialist
English/Drama Credential Advisor, CSUF
Artistic Director, Camp Pacific Musical Theatre
“His work has been well respected by directors, audiences, critics, and fellow actors. He is a consummate professional with a huge heart and a generous spirit. He is also a great collaborator and a leader in our diverse professional company.”
Ellen Geer
Artistic Director, Will Geer Theatricum Botanicum
“An artist who is genuinely committed to his work, and who demonstrates signifigant potential for continued growth and accomplishment in the field of the arts.”
Belle Foundation for Cultural Development
“Some of the best-directed plays I’ve seen in the past few years have been the product of a young man named Chad Jason Scheppner… He’s the the artistic director of Theatre 31, which does shows with kids from schools all over Los Angeles.”
Jason Roher, losangelesbitterlemons.com
“Your production of “The Pirates of Penzance” was much better than the professional production which had sent it up. You had the kids play it straight and direct, and let the comedy shine through. It was so thrilling.”
David Mamet
Pulitzer Prize winning American Playwright
Acclaimed Essayist, Screenwriter, and Film Director
“For their new production of ‘Macbeth’, directors Ellen Geer and Chad Jason Scheppner deploy an impressively large cast that makes the most of the theater’s forest environs, battling with fervor in the hills around the amphitheater…The story stays front and center, an action thriller to the end…the witches…provide an eerie soundscape of cries and whispers for this stark, gorgeous play.”
Charlotte Stoudt
Los Angeles Times
“Chad Jason Scheppner…seizes attention from ‘Now is the winter of our discontent’ onward. Approaching the character with audacious modern pathology, a vast vocal dynamic, and remarkable physicality-the brace on one leg becomes its own visual motif as he slithers, toadies, and capers through the action- Scheppner rather suggests a National Theatre version of the young Nicolas Cage. His innately heroic quality requires a bit of suspension of disbelief, yet there is no ignoring Scheppner’s essential command of the role, from the hairpin turns between hilarity and venom to Richard’s conspiratorial asides, right up to his pathetic final moments.”
David C. Nichols
Los Angeles Times
“In a role so closely associated with Lugosi, Chad Jason Scheppner’s Count Dracula transcends caricature. Terrifyingly agile, Scheppner climbs down rooftops, leaps into trees and dashes through the audience, cape flying, on his sanguinary rounds. His is – dare we say it – a full-blooded portrayal that is the beating heart of the show.”
F. Kathleen Foley
Los Angeles Times