LOGAN – When the Lyric Repertory Company’s 2021 season begins this year – and it will – there will be a new face within the troupe’s production team.
Paul T. Mitri — a veteran actor, director and choreographer – has joined the Lyric as its artistic producer. He replaced Adrianne Moore in that role following her retirement in 2020.
After a 15-year stint as a theater professor and department chairman at the University of Hawaii in Manoa, Mitri came to Utah State University as the new chairman of its Theatre Arts Department in January.
“When people ask me, ‘Why would you leave Hawaii to come here?’” Mitri explains, “I point to the immense potential of the Lyric (Repertory Company). I love the idea of having a professional theatre affiliated with a conservatory training program. Not just for actors, but also designers, technicians and, I hope in the future, our theater education students too.
“The long track record of excellence for the Lyric and the promise of being able to adapt to new visions was just too enticing to pass up.”
Metri’s comments came just a few days after LRC artistic director Richie Call confirmed that, despite the lingering threat of coronavirus, the local troupe would offer a modified season of productions this summer. Details of that season will be announced soon, according to Call.
Since earning bachelor and master degrees from the Profession Actors’ Training Program at the University of Washington in the late 1980s, Mitri’s career has spanned more than 150 productions in the varied roles of actor, director, playwright, choreographer and producer.
His stage credit include roles in “Leading Ladies,” “Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?,” “The Wizard of Oz,” “I Hate Hamlet” and “Young Frankenstein,” as well as numerous Shakespearian characters including Richard III, Puck, Petruchio, Iago and Macbeth.
Mitri has also directed productions of “Hamlet,” “Macbeth,” “Spring Awakening,” “Children of a Lesser God,” “Grease,” “Dracula,” “The Complete Works of Wm. Shakespeare (Abridged)” and his own play “Moliere.”
He was the principal founder and artistic director of the Seattle Shakespeare Company. Mitri’s other administrative accomplishments include serving as Director of Theatre at the American University in Cairo, Egypt; artistic director of the Salem Theatre Company/Summer Theatre in Salem, MA.; and artistic director of the All the World’s a Stage Theatre Company in Hawaii.
Mitri is also a member of the Screen Actors Guild, the American Federation of Television and Radio Artists and the Actors Equity Association.