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R. Dutch Fritz: Theatre Designer - Costumes, Scenery, Props, Lighting,

R. Dutch Fritz: Director, Playwright, Producer

R. Dutch Fritz: Exhibits Designer, Backdrops & Murals

Since 1976, I have worked in various aspects of theatre. For 6 1/2 yrs of that I also designed, built and curated exhibits for a natural history museum in South Dakota. I taught Theatre Production & Design at the university level for 30 yrs. And I have been designing, directing, building, painting, costuming & lighting for a variety of SF Bay area theatres since 1995, Ellensburg, WA, 1991 - 1995 and Tucson, AZ, 1988 - 1991. From about 1973 to 1988 I managed a small home business designing and producing American Indian craftwork, particularly beadwork, leather and feather articles for Lakota (Sioux) Indian dancers.  

 

I hold an MFA in Theatre Production & Design from University of Arizona, an MSS in Selected Studies: Museum Exhibits & Curation and a BA in Psycology: Counseling & American Indian Studies, from University of South Dakota I started with an AS in Recreation Leadership from Greenfiled Community College, in MA.  I completed an intensive Director/Designers' class with preeminant international theatre Designer Ming Cho Lee in 1997. I can work in both hand drafting & rendering as well as in Vectorworks, Turbocad, Virtual Light Lab, Powerpoint and other digital platforms. I originally learned to program & run lighting on 2 and 3 preset manual boards then progressed through the early hybrid manual-Apple systems to AVAB, Colortran, Leprichon and now ETC-Ion systems.  While at UA I had the good luck to learn costume rendering from the renouned designer Peggy Kellner, who's work is cited in theatre production text books. There are well over 200 production credits in my protfolio. I earned the rank of Eagle as a Boy Scout.

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In 2018 I authored & produced the play "The Unfortunate Case of Mr. Renfield" (2018): an original script inspired by the character Renfield, from Bram Stoker's novel DRACULA. This is a companion script to "DRACULA the Mina Harker Journals" that I wrote in 2013. I also scripted 2 earlier short plays: "The Ahmrenai" (2008) & "Unraveling the Thread" (2002), and a full lenth Musical "HOFFA, the Uncommon Musical for the Common Man" (2006), co-written with Jonathan Knott and Karen Byrnes. 

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For 23 yrs at Notre Dame de Namur University and 4 yrs at Central WA University I served as Theatre Production & Facility Manager for non-departmental and outside events; from guest speakers, community service events and film series to symphonic & dance concerts, variety shows, conferences and stage productions.  For 20 yrs I was Producer for the NDNU Theatre & Dance Festival & Playwright Contest which invited & produced a range of short, orginal and royalty plays, musicals, dance and music performances featuring the work of SF Bay area talent (in both adult and children's divisions) and NDNU alumns and students. I have served as a responder for the region 8 Kennedy Center American College Theatre Festival. 

 

Other related skills I am trained and/or experienced in are scenic painting, carpentry, welding, sculpting, casting, sewing, dying, furniture construction, upholstery, leatherwork, electronics, rigging, plastics fabrication, digital photography and cooking and can drive trucks up to 30' straight bed: manual shift & automatic. I once drove a scenery packed truck from Norfolk VA, cross country to Ellensburg, WA, in the middle of winter and back to Cincinatti, OH, for a produciton of "The Magic Flute". For my grandson's 3rd birthday party I designed and built a kid-scaled pirate ship, complete with ship's wheel, captain's cabin, rigging and canon. 

 

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THE HOUSE OF ATREUS

THE HOUSE OF ATREUS

DRACULA, the Mina Harker Journals

DRACULA, the Mina Harker Journals

A MIDSUMMER NIGHT'S DREAM

A MIDSUMMER NIGHT'S DREAM

PICASSO AT THE LAPIN AGILE

PICASSO AT THE LAPIN AGILE

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