Theatre: Understanding the Basics of Production

Corey Ranson has worked over 20 years in live theatre, professionally and non-professionally, as a director, actor, producer, playwright, artistic director and designer from the Dallas Fort Worth and surrounding areas down to Corpus Christi, Texas. He has worked with such theatres and companies in North Texas, as Circle Theatre, Jubilee Theatre, Scott Theatre, Dallas Music Hall, JFK Theatre, Uptown Players, Regal Opera Company, Expressions Repertory Theatre, Flower Mound Performing Arts Theatre, Casa Manana, Creative Arts Theatre and School (CATS), Redbud Theatre, Granbury Opera House, Dallas Cultural Bathhouse Theatre, Main Street Theatre (Mansfield), Fort Worth Dallas Ballet (now the Texas Ballet Theatre) and the Margo Jones Music Hall. In South Texas, he has worked with Harbor Playhouse, Aurora Arts Theatre and the Corpus Christi Cathedral Performance Series. He has directed, produced, performed and designed over 70 theatre productions. He was Artistic Director for the Flower Mound Performing Arts Theatre (SPT-1, equity), a professional small theatre in north Dallas from 2000-2003, Artistic Director for the Harbor Playhouse in Corpus Christi, TX, 2004 – 2008, and Co-founder and Artistic Director for the Aurora Arts Theatre in Corpus Christi, TX 2009, as well as Production Manager with the Granbury Opera House (SPT - 6 Equity).

Currently a Professor of Theatre and the Director of Theatre at Texas A & M University – Kingsville since 2008, he has also taught with several other colleges and universities over the years, since 2000. He has been involved with the Kennedy Center American College Theatre Festival and has garnered over 60 awards over a 10 year period for students and staff. He has been recognized by KCACTF for Excellence in Directing, Excellence in Production Design, Excellence in Playwriting and for Supporting Educational Theatre and in 2019, awarded the prestigious KCACTF Golden Medallion Award for Theatre in Higher Education from the John F. Kennedy Center in Performing Arts in Washington D.C. for Region 6. He is the past Texas Chair for the Kennedy Center American College Theatre Festival Region 6 and past Vice-Chair for Texas. As a playwright, he has authored over 15 plays and has two book outlines in the works and one is based on the structure of THEATRICAL Communication and the other on Art versus Pop culture, He is also published in the Journal of South Texas on his research into the theatre activity within the Texas WW2 Nazi POW Camps. Three of his plays have been toured and presented at the KCACTF State level, and one which was nominated for the David Mark Cohen National Playwriting Award. June Bugs which just received a University production received the Respondents Choice Award, Excellence in Playwriting Award and was invited to the Kennedy Center American College Regional Theatre Festival in Abilene, Texas in February 2019 to perform. He holds an M.F.A. in Theatre Arts for Playwriting from the University of Idaho, an M.A. in Drama for Directing from Texas Woman's University and a B.A. in Theatre Arts for Performance from Texas Wesleyan University. He has two beautiful, almost grown teenagers, River and Isabella with is lovely talented wife of 25 years, Marylou.