Charles Means

Biography

Professor Means is the current Chair of the Department of Theatre and Dance. He is currently on Sabbatical in New York City working as the Production Stage Manager on the Broadway premiere of JUNK by Ayad Aktar at Lincoln Center Theatre.

Professor Means is a professional stage manager who has worked extensively on Broadway, Off Broadway, and regionally. He has been honored to collaborate with such distinguished playwrights and directors as Edward Albee, Ayad Akhtar, Christopher Ashley, Anne Bogart, Scott Ellis, Sam Gold, Stephen Adly Guirgis, Doug Hughes, Moises Kaufman, Adam McKay, Theresa Rebeck, John Patrick Shanley, Anna Shapiro, Leigh Silverman, Tom Stoppard, Garland Wright and Mary Zimmerman.

Recent Broadway productions include Tom Stoppard’s The Real Thing starring Ewan McGregor, Maggie Gyllenhaal and Cynthia Nixon as well as the world premieres of Theresa Rebeck’s Seminar starring Alan Rickman and Mauritius starring Bobby Cannavale and F. Murray Abraham; Stephen Adly Guirgis’s The Motherf**ker with the Hat starring Bobby Cannavale and Chris Rock; Geoffrey Nauffts’s Next Fall; Edward Albee’s Tony Award winning The Goat, or Who is Sylvia? starring Bill Pullman and Mercedes Ruehl and the Pulitzer Prize and Tony Award winning Doubt by John Patrick Shanley starring Cherry Jones. Professor Means has also managed the Broadway premieres of The Royal National Theatre’s production of The Pitmen Painters by Lee Hall and David Mamet’s Oleanna starring Bill Pullman and Julia Stiles. Following the successful Broadway run of Doubt, he stage managed the National Tour, which also starred Cherry Jones. In 2009, he served as production stage manager for the special Broadway event You’re Welcome America, A Final Night with George W. Bush written by and starring Will Ferrell which was later telecast live on HBO.

Off Broadway, he collaborated on the original productions of Tectonic Theater Project’s The Laramie Project, Margaret Edson’s Wit, Paul Rudnick’s The Most Fabulous Story Ever Told, SITI Company’s Culture of Desire, David Rabe’s A Question of Mercy, Theresa Rebeck’s A View of the Dome as well as Mystery School, The Devils, Resident Alien, and Flesh and Blood. He toured nationally and internationally with the Foundry Theatre’s production of Gertrude and Alice, A Likeness to Loving. He was also the Production Stage Manager for Measure for Measure starring Billy Crudup and Joe Morton and Much Ado About Nothing starring Jimmy Smits and Sam Waterston for The Public Theater’s Shakespeare in Central Park.

Professor Means has worked with many of this country’s leading not-for-profit theatre companies including Lincoln Center Theatre, Roundabout Theatre Company, Manhattan Theatre Club, The Public Theater, New York Theatre Workshop, Center Theatre Group/Mark Taper Forum, Foundry Theatre, Theatre for a New Audience, Arden Theatre Company, People’s Light and Theatre Company, Guthrie Theatre, Long Wharf Theatre, SITI Company as well as The Old Globe and La Jolla Playhouse here in San Diego. He has guest lectured at Fordham University, Brown University, Yale School of Drama and The Juilliard School.