Jeremy R. Franklin is Director of Musical Theatre at Colorado Mesa University. Originally from Arkansas, he completed a BM in vocal performance at Ouachita Baptist University before beginning his career as a professional actor, director and music director across the country. Thirteen years ago, he ventured into Grand Junction for a three-month acting contract with the Cabaret Dinner Theatre and never left. For five years, he administrated and directed the Cabaret Academy of Performing Arts while music directing and performing in productions like Beauty and the Beast, Seussical the Musical, and My Fair Lady. He also worked as a staging and installation director for PGT Entertainment, producing revue shows and booking musicals for Regent Seven Seas Cruiseline.
For the past eight years, he has been a member of CMU's theatre faculty. During his time at Mesa, he created the current musical theatre curriculum, which was recently approved to become a BFA professional program and awaits final approval by the Board of Trustees later this winter. His directorial credits while at CMU include Brigadoon, Oklahoma!, The Fantasticks and Rent. He has also musical directed main stage musicals including The Drowsy Chaperone, The Pirates of Penzance, Crazy for You and Legally Blonde.
Franklin is the founding artistic director for the Mesa Repertory Theatre - CMU's semi-professional, summer festival that produces three shows (a play, a musical and theatre for young audiences) in repertory during the month of June. An avid promoter of new works, he has directed regional premieres of Altar Boyz, Avenue Q and Ordinary Days. In 2010, he directed the premiere of a new opera, Billy Blythe by Bonnie Montgomery, based on a story from former President Bill Clinton's childhood. A dabbler in composition, he has written and arranged scores for five children's musicals and several choral works. He is currently working on a setting of The Last Matinee by local poet
John Nizalowski.
Franklin is an active member of the community. Most recently, he was the artistic director for the Grand Junction Symphony Orchestra's production of The Nutcracker. He is also a member of the National Association of Teachers of Singing and the Music Theatre Educators Alliance.