Where Every Stage Begins with Opportunity
Executive Director / Founder
David J. Graybill Jr. - Ph.D., M.A., & B.F.A.
Dr. David J. Graybill Jr. is a skilled practitioner in acting, directing, dance, production, stage management, as well as lighting, set, costume, sound and property design, and is a certified teacher of theatre (NY State). In technical theater, he specialize in teaching lighting and sound design for professional and educational settings, and is often called upon to design and build sets. As a performer and director, he is a devout follower of the nine physical and five vocal Viewpoints (adapted from Mary Overlie's work by Anne Bogart and Tina Landau), and Cicely Berry's book, The Voice and the Actor. In 1997, he received his Bachelor of Fine Arts in Acting from New York University's Tisch School of the Arts and Playwrights Horizons Theater School. In 2012, he received his Master's degree in Educational Theatre from NYU's Steinhardt School, and in 2018, he completed a Ph.D. with Integrated Study in Shakespeare Studies at the University of Birmingham (UK) and the Shakespeare Institute in Stratford-upon-Avon. His PhD thesis is entitled, In the Shadow of Peter Brook: Designing and Redesigning A Midsummer Night's Dream at the Royal Shakespeare Company, 1970 - 2000. This work focuses on the stage designs of modern productions of Dream at the RSC from a practitioner's point of view, examines the historiography of Shakespearean stages, and emphasizes the process these directors and designers underwent to create such iconic productions. His research and teaching interests are focused on the creation of equity-based theatre education models, and building 3D models in SketchUp and Vectorworks, especially of notable stage productions of Shakespeare. He is also fond of exploring the evolving academic vernacular that critics, scholars, and practitioners use in the field of performance analysis and performance studies. His independent projects focus primarily on the digital recreation of historic stage designs as well as modern interpretations of plays and musicals within historical theaters, and the production processes that surround these companies. His general teaching philosophy is to employ and train students in all aspects of production and focused scholarship to promote well-rounded thinkers and holistic theatre professionals. Lastly, he is also a U.S. Open and American Swing Dance Champion and has performed and taught workshops in Lindy Hop. Aerials, West Coast Swing, and Charleston all over the world.
He/ Him/ His
Our Legacy of Mastery
Theatre is an art form built by generations.
Every light cue, every carefully constructed piece of scenery, every costume, every sound cue, every painted surface, every precisely timed shift exists because someone taught someone else how to make it happen.
A stagehand teaches a student how to rig a curtain.
A designer teaches an apprentice how to understand a plan or section view.
A technical director teaches a young artist how to solve a problem when the plan no longer works.
A teacher passes along not only knowledge, but wisdom—the ability to look at a challenge, understand what matters, and find a way forward.
This is the Legacy of Mastery.
Rough Magic Stage believes that theatre education is not simply the transmission of information. It is the transmission of craft, judgment, curiosity, responsibility, and imagination from one generation to the next.
Technical theatre is particularly dependent upon this tradition. Much of what makes a great technician, designer, stage manager, or production leader cannot be learned from a textbook alone. A truly AI-resistant practice, it is learned through demonstration, practice, observation, collaboration, failure, reflection, and repetition. It is learned by working beside someone who knows more than you do—and eventually becoming that person for someone else.
Our work exists to strengthen that chain.