Byrum named new director for Weitzenhoffer School of Musical Theatre

Ashton Byrum, an accomplished actor, educator and director of critically acclaimed theatre productions, has been named as the new director of the Weitzenhoffer School of Musical Theatre at the University of Oklahoma. 

Byrum previously served as associate chair and academic director and musical theatre coordinator for the theatre department at Columbia College in Chicago.

Byrum earned his undergraduate degree in musical theatre from Catawba College in Salisbury, North Carolina. After a successful acting career in New York and around the world, he earned a master of fine arts degree in directing, with an emphasis in musical theatre, from the University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music (CCM) in 2010.

Byrum’s directing credits includes Hello, Dolly!; Disney's Beauty and the Beast; and How To Succeed in Business Without Really Trying, at The Little Theatre on the Square. He has also directed The Marvelous Wonderettes, at the Open Door Theatre in Chicago; Bye Bye Birdie; and Annie Get Your Gun, Wilmette Starlight Theatre; Anything Goes; Orpheus Descending; Urinetown; and Godspell; Rent; Victor/Victoria; Oklahoma!; Once On This Island; and Sweet Charity at CCM.

Byrum’s acting highlights include: three seasons on Broadway in Susan Stroman’s annual A Christmas Carol, starring Tim Curry, F. Murray Abraham and Jim Dale; featured performer in the national touring companies of The Producers (United States and Tokyo); Fiddler on the Roof; the Tommy Tune revival of Grease!; Will Rogers Follies; I Love New York; and My Fair Lady (Europe). Byrum’s regional theatre credits include: The Music Man; 9 to 5 (Little Theatre on the Square); The Spitfire Grill (Idaho Shakespeare Festival and Arkansas Rep.); Forever Plaid (Flatrock Playhouse NC); Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat and Cats (Ogunquit Playhouse ME); Will Rogers Follies (Cape Playhouse MA, and Jupiter Theatre, FL); West Side Story (Westchester Broadway Theatre, NY); and Kingdom (World Premiere Denver Center Theatre Company). He earned his Actors’ Equity card in The Secret Garden at the Paper Mill Playhouse.

Byrum’s research on “Pathways to Success for Musical Theatre Actors” was published in Dramatics magazine and on the Musical Theatre Training blog (www.musicaltheatretraining.com). Byrum offers useful tools for students and teachers, as well as professional actors, singers, dancers, creators and makers of musical theatre.

"We are delighted to have Ashton join us a director of the A. Max Weitzenhoffer School of Musical Theatre,” said Mary Margaret Holt, dean of the Weitzenhoffer Family College of Fine Arts. “The combination of energy and experience he brings to the school, will build on the previous success of the school and its strong foundation. We have every confidence that Ashton's contributions will be many and that the school will continue to flourish under his leadership."

Originally from Winston-Salem, North Carolina, Ashton, his wife Gina, and their 9-year-old son, Dylan, recently moved to Norman from Oak Park, Illinois.