Tommy Iafrate
TRIP Courtesy Title; Associate Professor/Director of Musical Theatre
Translation Research and Instruction Program (TRIP); Theatre
Background
Tommy Iafrate is a stage director, musical director, arts educator, and musician who is thrilled to engage in these many passions as the Director of Musical Theatre at Binghamton University. He has directed and music-directed productions around the world, and continues to freelance in these arenas outside academia.
Iafrate has served as the Producing Artistic Director of Illinois’ Festival 56, Iowa’s Clinton Area Showboat Theatre, and Rhode Island’s Kaleidoscope Theatre. He has directed, music directed, or performed with Infinity Theatre Company, the Barnstormers Theatre, the Cider Mill Playhouse, Thunder Bay Theatre, Goodspeed Musicals, and Royal Caribbean Cruise Lines. His favorite performance experience was touring the United States, Canada, Korea, and Japan in Sam Mendes and Rob Marshall's Cabaret.
In 2018, Iafrate was a guest Musical Theatre Director in Residence at the Beijing Dance Academy in China, and previously toured several cities in China. As an instrumentalist, he performs on piano, saxophone, clarinet, flute, and oboe. He is also a proud member of the Musical Theatre Educators Alliance, the Honor Society of Phi Kappa Phi, the Golden Key International Honour Society, and the Stage Directors and Choreographers Society.
Iafrate currently serves as the coordinator of the Musical Theatre Intensive (MTI) for Region 2 of the Kennedy Center American College Theatre Festival and has attended several national festivals at the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C., including as a mentor and music director for MTI and as a directing fellow through the SDC Directing Initiative. He holds an MFA in directing from Western Illinois University and a BA in musical theatre and in physics from Rhode Island College.
Research Interests
- Musical Theatre
- Directing for Musical Theatre
- Music Direction
- Auditioning
- Vocal Coaching
