Michael Bush

Michael Bush directed the Off Broadway productions of Himself and Nora, Bikeman, Psycho Therapy, Cactus Flower, and Based on a Totally True Story. He was the co-creator of Leslie Uggams’ Uptown Downtown at the Pasadena Playhouse which won the Los Angeles Drama Critics Circle Award for best solo performance.

He won the 2009 New York Musical Theatre Festival Award for Excellence in Direction for the world premiere musical Hurricane produced in the 2009 New York Musical Theatre Festival (NYMF) where he has directed more than 10 (NYMF) productions including Himself and Nora.

He is the former director of artistic production and associate artistic director for the Manhattan
Theatre Club in New York City. He was associated with MTC for over 25 years and helped artistically guide more than 200 new plays and musicals, including the Tony®Award and Pulitzer Prize-winning Proof, and Doubt, and the Tony® Award-winning Love! Valour! Compassion! and the musicals A Class Act (Tony Nomination for Best Musical) and Andrew Lippa’s The Wild Party.

He was instrumental in the rebirth of the Eugene O’Neill Theater Center’s Cabaret & Performance Conference, and served as its artistic director from 2005 to 2012. Under his guidance the Conference developed approximately 100 new shows, revues, and intimate musicals including [title of show] and The Story of My Life, both of which were produced on Broadway.

Regionally Mr. Bush most recently directed The Boys Upstairs, Aunt Jack, and Muscle Bears the Musical for Empire Stage in Ft.Lauderdale; Other Desert Cities, A Christmas Carol, and The Sisters Rosensweig for Capital Repertory Theatre in Albany; Stormy Weather for the Pasadena Playhouse in Los Angeles; Murderers for Philadelphia Theatre Company and City Theatre in Pittsburgh, and The Story of My Life at Toronto’s CanStage.

From 2008 to 2016 he served as the artistic director of Leap OnStage in New York City; an education program that teaches playwriting to over 500 high school and middle school students annually. He received his MA in Directing at Emerson College in Boston, and was an adjunct professor at Brooklyn College in New York City. He is currently a professor of practice in Theatre Arts at the University of Miami where he serves as the Artistic Director of the Jerry Herman Ring Theatre. He is married to playwright Michael Aman and will be directing the world premiere of his new play Glass in January 2020 at the Waterfront Playhouse in Key West.