Hans Friedrichs
Director, SDC
Hans Friedrichs is a New York-based stage director, and teacher working off-Broadway, regionally, and internationally. His shows have received The New York Innovative Theatre Award as well as multiple Wilde Awards (Michigan’s professional Theatre Awards) for Outstanding Production and Best Director.
Born and raised in Ann Arbor Michigan, I am now a proud New Yorker. But, was lucky enough to have grown up around a huge and vibrant arts scene and had parents who introduced me to the arts and took me to the theatre. I believe the arts and especially theatre are imperative to society and should be accessible and affordable to all, especially to young people. Growing up the theatre gave me a safe space, and a purpose and allowed me to create and dream. I was extremely lucky to have had early mentors, and adults who took me and my interest seriously (Marilyn Heberling, Maria Ricossa, Jill Bowers, Laura Rosberg, Zelma Weisfeld, and Dr. Richard Burgwin to name a few.) And to them, I will be eternally grateful!
As a director, I want to take the playwright’s text, the composer’s music, and the lyricist’s words and make them come alive for an audience as if for the first time. With established pieces, I want to expose new colors and find not only what is timeless about them, but also what makes them relevant for today’s world. And with new works, I want to help the playwright bring their ideas to life. I tell stories through text, music, movement, visual elements as well as sound and lighting. I feel that my job as a director is to bring actors and creatives together in order to tell a unified tale that will not only transport us but bring us together in a shared experience.
I received my B.F.A. from Toronto Metropolitan University (formerly Ryerson University) in Acting/Directing. Where I received the Robert Christie Award for Acting, as well as the Faculty Scholarship for academic achievement, and was one of three students invited by the Chairman to take part in a yearlong directing intensive. Before transitioning into directing I worked professionally as an actor(off-Broadway, regionally, television, and film).
My NYC credits include Cole Porter’s Fifty Million Frenchmen for The York Theatre Company, the first NYC revivals of The Drowsy Chaperone for The Gallery Players, WINNER of The New York Innovative Theatre Award for Outstanding Production of a Musical, A Man of No Importance (NY IT Nom.) About which the star of the original production, Roger Rees called it; “One of the most magnificent evenings I have spent in the theatre”, and Parade. As well as Music for Michael Mouse with Armistead Maupin and the New York City Gay Men’s Chorus at Carnegie Hall.
My regional productions include Hank Williams: Lost Highway (with George Wendt) Merry Go Round Playhouse Finger Lakes Music Theatre Festival (Broadway World Award Nom.), Hands on a Hardbody starring Rex Smith, Disney's The Little Mermaid (Wilde Award BEST MUSICAL) Sweeney Todd with Robert Newman (Wilde Award- BEST MUSICAL) Steel Magnolias (Wilde Award - Best Comedy) The Lion in Winter, Sunset Boulevard with Emmy winner Kim Zimmer (Wilde Award Nom.) The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas, Hello Dolly!, Shrek, Run For Your Wife, Shakespeare in Hollywood, Escanaba in Love, Evita, Chicago, Anything Goes! and Stephen Sondheim’s Saturday Night, The Misanthrope, Ten Little Indians, Ashes, The Glass Menagerie, Overruled, The Skin of Our Teeth and Much Ado about Nothing. Associate directing credits include the national tour of State Fair starring John Davidson, Arthur Laurent’s Home of the Brave, and Big Potato Off-Broadway as well as the drama desk nominated revival of A Majority of One with Phyllis Newman and Randall Duk Kim. I have also served as Associate Artistic Director at the Barn Theatre in Michigan and as a Resident Director at The New London Barn Playhouse in New Hampshire.
I have taught/directed at Manhattan Marymount College and AMDA here in New York as well as The NSKI School in Oslo, Norway. I also do private coaching for actors.
I have also Co-Produced two sold-out Concert readings of Auntie Mame, starring the incomparable Charles Busch and an all-star cast for Broadway Cares Equity Fights AIDS. I am featured in the documentary film THE BARN THEATRE: STARS OF TOMORROW available on Amazon Prime. And also a proud member of SDC, AEA, and SAG-AFTRA.