Michael most recently served as the Producing Artistic Director for the Cape Playhouse, where he was celebrated for leading the organization through a significant renaissance. His diverse career in the arts has afforded him positions such as an Artistic Director for Cirque du Soleil, Broadway Liaison and Arts Education Consultant to the New York City Department of Education and Director of Entertainment for Paul Newman’s Hole in the Wall Gang Camp.
During Rader’s tenure with The Cape Playhouse, the organization flourished through a remarkable period of growth and advancement, culminating in the launch of a significant master plan initiative and capital campaign. The Cape Playhouse exists today as one of the great surviving icons of the American summer theater.
Select additional highlights as a director, producer or associate include: A Christmas Story; The Musical (National Tour), Stalking The Bogeyman (NYTimes Critics Pick, Outer Critics Circle Nomination), Varekai (Cirque Du Soleil), The Testament of Mary, A Christmas Carol (National Tour), Mandela! with Norm Lewis, You are Not Alone with Betty Buckley and Lea DeLaria, and productions with Sacramento Music Circus, The ZACH Theatre, The York Theatre Company, The Actors Studio Repertory Theatre, The Human Race Theatre, The Dramatist Guild, The Huron Playhouse, The Forestburgh Playhouse, Joe’s Pub and the critically acclaimed Off-Broadway benefit production of William Finn’s Elegies: A Song Cycle.
Rader is a graduate of Wright State University, the Actors Studio MFA Directing Program, an alumnus of the Lincoln Center Theater Directors Lab and a proud member of SDC.
CONTACT US
Theatre Aspen Office
Our administrative office is open Monday through Friday 10 am – 6 pm.
110 East Hallam Street
Suite 126
Aspen, Colorado 81611
Phone: 970.925.9313
Email: info@theatreaspen.org
Theatre Aspen’s Hurst Theatre
470 Rio Grande Place
Aspen, CO 81611
Britt joins Theatre Aspen as Director of Artistic Planning after having worked on several special projects including the inaugural Solo Flights festival and South Pacific In Concert. 
Paul Gabbard is an arts administrator, fundraiser, and theatre maker. For five years, he was the artistic director of Y- Not Theatre, an organization committed to producing, presenting, promoting, and developing new American plays in North Central Florida. Before that, he served as the director of development for the American Alliance for Theatre and Education. He is a member of MICHA-The Michael Chekhov Association and an alumnus of the award-winning Eugene O’Neill National Theater Institute’s Advanced Directing Program. He has a B.A. in General Theatre from Florida State University and an M.A. in Arts Administration from the Savannah College of Art and Design. He has a Florida teaching certification and taught middle and high school theatre for three years in the public school system. He is on the Board of Directors of Good News Arts, a community arts space in High Springs, Florida. He is a member of the Southeastern Theatre Conference’s scholarship review panel and is a grant reviewer for the State of Florida Division of Arts and Culture. He is a member of the Dramatist Guild of America, an associate member of the Stage Directors and Choreographers Society, and also a member of the Stage Directors and Choreographers 2020-2021 Observership class.
Vanessa Strahan arrives at Theatre Aspen from Chicago where she served as the Education Director for Mudlark Theater, a youth company where young people are taken seriously as artists and learn theater by making it. She worked in Chicago as a director, teaching artist, choreographer, playwright, and performer with companies such as Northlight Theatre, The Actor’s Gymnasium, Joel Hall Dancers & Company, Seesaw Theatre, and Lookingglass Theatre.
Matt is originally from the Westbrook, Maine where he started his professional career at Portland Stage Company as an intern. He has worked for many different venues in the New England area for the next 20 years. Most recently down in Southern Florida he has been carpenter and technical director for Theatre Winter Haven, Lakeland Community Theater, Lake Worth Playhouse, and a carpenter for Palm Beach Dramaworks.
