Rod Caspers

Creative Director, Stage Director, Producer, Writer, Teacher, Speaker Coach and Event Specialist BA, Illinois State University, 1976; MFA, The University of Texas at Austin, 1984. Most recently Rod served as the Director of University Events at The University of Texas at Austin - creating and producing large-scale, special events. Prior to that he served as the Executive Director of Creative Services for The University of Texas System where he and his colleagues received five Lone Star Emmy Awards for creating and producing the PBS series, State of Tomorrow. He has taught and directed at the University of Wisconsin and The University of Texas at Austin. He has also worked in The University of Texas Office of University Relations where he received UT's Margaret C. Berry Award for Outstanding Contribution to Student Life. Rod conducts directing and curriculum development workshops throughout the nation and on repeated occasions served as a guest artist/instructor for the Facing History and Ourselves Program in Switzerland, as well as in the Czech Republic. He has adjudicated the University of Texas Interscholastic League's One-Act Play Contest for over twenty years, including the State Contests in Class 6-A, 4-A, 3-A and 1-A. Rod has directed numerous productions, receiving a variety of nominations and awards (including directing awards for Big River, The Secret Garden and Honk!). While living in New York, Rod served as Associate Director for GreenPlays, creating and directing several new musicals and cabarets. For three seasons he stage managed the Radio City Christmas Spectacular Arena Tour starring the Rockettes. In 2011 he stage managed the Rockettes Shine production. In Texas he produced and directed the Texas Performing Arts Center's 20th Anniversary Gala starring Tommy Tune, Linda Eder and The Broadway Tenors, as well as the We’re Texas Milestone Celebration featuring Judy Collins. Recently he staged Conspirare's Considering Matthew Shepard. Additional productions that Rod has directed include Slammer for New York's Fringe Festival, Assassins for The University of Texas, The Bat, Austin Lyric Opera's new adaptation of Die Fledermaus, The Music Man for Zilker Theatre Productions and Into the Woods at Southwestern University. Rod also stage managed Jim Henson's Musical World, a concert at Carnegie Hall with The New York Pops, The Muppets and the cast of Sesame Street as well as the cast of Avenue Q. For the UT Dept. of Theatre and Dance Rod has produced and stage managed two new musicals: the first workshop of a new Larry Gatlin musical, Rosie – based on the life of Rosie the Riveter and Giant Steps, a new musical directed by Billy Porter. Rod wrote and staged Dear Donna, adapting the archive of letters Donna Reed received from service men during WWII, as well as a new adaptation of Truman Capote's A Christmas Memory. He also directed a new audience sing-along production of The Music Man at the Orpheum Theatre Center in Iowa. Rod is a proud alumnus of the Madison Scouts Drum and Bugle Corps.