Assistant Professor
Director of Musical Theater
Office: Waller 206H
Phone: 724-357-2965
rgretta@iup.edu
Rob has worked professionally
as an actor and a director for almost 30 years from Off-Broadway, national
tours and several theaters throughout the country. He has worked in a variety of genres and
styles including new contemporary works, classics, dramas, comedies, and
musical theatre. His training includes the major theories of Stanislavsky, Uta
Hagan, Lee Strasberg, and Michael Chekhov; period-style acting and directing
training (Elizabethan, Restoration, Edwardian, 20th century plays and
musicals). He has also taught Master classes and Workshops in Audition Techniques,
Musical Theater Audition Techniques, Acting in Plays and Musicals at the
Southeastern Theatre Conferences (SETC’s), PA State Thespian Conference, NJ
Teen Arts Festival, Kennedy Center/American College Theater Festivals, as well
as several universities in Florida, Louisiana, North Carolina, and Virginia.
As a professional actor, some
of his favorite roles include Man in Chair (The Drowsy Chaperone), Ali
Hakim (Oklahoma),
Barfee (The 25th Annual Putnam County
Spelling Bee), Herr Schultz (Cabaret), Cowardly Lion (The
Wizard of Oz), Nathan Detroit (Guys and Dolls), Mother Superior
(Nunsense), Giles Corey (The Crucible), Don Armado (Love's
Labor's Lost), Dottore Lombardi (The Servant of Two Masters), and,
at IUP, Stephano (The Tempest).
Regionally, Rob has directed
such productions as Closer, How I Learned to Drive, Who's
Afraid of Virginia Woolf?, Witness for the Prosecution, The
Woman in Black, Othello, Jesus Christ Superstar, Man of La Mancha, Singin' in
the Rain, Annie Get Your Gun, The Marvelous Wonderettes, Bat Boy, the
Musical, Avenue Q, School House Rock Live, and The
Sound of Music, among others, as well as noted chamber operas Il
Matrimonio Segreto and Amahl and the Night Visitors.
While at IUP, Rob has
directed Boeing Boeing, Into the
Woods, The Pajama Game, Guys and Dolls, The 3Penny Opera, Anything
Goes, and Sweet Charity, for which he received the KC/ACTF
Certificate of Merit for Direction. His production of A Year with Frog
and Toad was invited to perform in the Kennedy Center/American College
Theater Festival Region II in 2010.
He
is a proud member of Actors’ Equity Association, Society of Stage
Directors and Choreographers and the Musical Theatre Educator's Alliance.