About Ken Rush

I am a theatrical stage director who has worked with all ages of performers and a variety of theatrical levels from academic, to community, to collegiate, to semi-professional but all with a professional touch and a professional quality final product no matter how large or small the budget. 

I retired recently as a nationally recognized high school theatre director with 36 years’ experience and now live in New York City. My productions have won top theatre honors for my directing in Texas, Florida, and the ten states involved with the Southeastern Theatre Conference (SETC). As a teacher/theatre director I was fortunate enough to have the administrative support and the dedication of an extraordinary group of students to build a nationally recognized high school theatre program. The first part of my career was in Texas where we advanced yearly in the University Interscholastic League One-Act Play Competitions and took first place out of all Texas 4AAAA high schools for our production of THE FOREIGNER. My students regularly attended the annual Texas State Thespian Festival where we were featured as the All-Festival Mainstage presentation on three different occasions. Our productions of FENCES, A FLEA IN HER EAR and NUNSENSE were viewed, in their entirety, for all Festival participants. 

I also taught in Florida where my productions repeatedly took top honors at the Florida Theatre Conference making us the state representative at the Southeastern Theatre Conference (SETC). This national conference hosts a one-act play competition where the top productions from each of ten states compete. My students and I placed first in two different competition years with productions of CHILDREN OF A LESSER GOD and an original play INDEPENDENCE written by me. I also was awarded the coveted title of Best Director more than once by the Southeastern Theatre Conference and also received the Distinguished Career Award by the Florida Theatre Conference in 2010. My full-length productions of JEKYLL AND HYDE, HAIR, THE CRUCIBLE, ANNIE GET YOUR GUN and 42ND STREET were also featured on the Mainstage at the Florida State Thespian Festival and my one-act plays were featured at the State Festival on 13 occasions. The Florida festival is the largest high school theatre festival in the world with over 8,000 Thespians in attendance yearly. Since my retirement as a high school theatre director, I have relocated to New York City and am developing a new career as a free-lance director. I invite you to look at my resume, check out the examples of my directorial work on YOUTUBE listed below and consider hiring me for a future production at your theatre. What sets me apart from other theatre directors is my eye for detail. Being a one-man department in the world of academia made me develop an eye for every aspect of a production from sets to costumes, to lights, to sound, etc. On many occasions I was responsible for not only the directing and design but the construction of all aspects of the production. In later years when I would be fortunate enough to have some assistance, and this was not often, I was well aware of what it would take to create

the final unified and thoroughly thought-out production. My students were highly respected by their peers for the high level of professionalism they brought to the stage and off. 

At this time, I am available for bookings and feel certain that I would produce a professional quality theatre production, on your budget, that you and your Theatre Board would be proud to have on your stage and that your audiences would thoroughly enjoy and be impressed with.