Travis Stockley: Big Dreams for Musical Theatre

By Troy Mitchell

Travis Stockley arrived at UNCP for the Fall 2002 semester. This profile of him was published in the 2002-2003 issue of our journalism student magazine Professional Profiles.

Broadway posters, musical theatre books, a piano and a karaoke machine share the space in Travis Stockley's office. It's clear that music and theatre are his world. Stockley, the coordinator of the new musical theatre program, is a busy man who is very cheerful with an uplifting and positive spirit.

Stockley says he follows this quote from Geo Kauffman for inspiration: "The secret of success and good direction is to choose good actors and a good script and you will become a good director."

Stockley thinks this quote is essential to actors and directors everywhere because this quote is the key to becoming successful.

This is his first year as an Assistant Professor in the Music Department at UNCP, and he hopes to expand the musical theatre program even further while he is here.

Stockley holds a B.F.A. degree from Illinois Wesleyan University and a M.F.A. degree from Northwestern University.

He has taught musical theatre at East Carolina University and other major universities in the United States keeping him pretty occupied with his time.

"A director's life is time consuming," says Stockley who has experience in all aspects of musical theatre.

Stockley is a very accomplished, award-winning director of over 100 professional productions in the United States, Europe and Mexico. He has received the Joseph Jefferson Award for Best Musical Director for Sweeney Todd.

He has had three shorts in the Sundance Film festival and he was also a finalist in the Sundance Theatre Lab his first year. He has also directed many productions such as West Side Story, Grease, Phantom of the Opera, and The Music Man.

Travis Stockley is a man of many awards and many accomplishments and he will be even more accomplished in the future.

Ever since Stockley was a little boy, he knew that he wanted to be a director. "Producing and directing has always been something I have been passionate about," he says. When he was 6 or 7 years old, he used to direct his own plays and church pageants. It has always been something he has dreamed about doing.

Off Broadway he was the director for many productions, and he says that it was a great experience to work on Broadway.

He gained knowledge and professional experience and it was something that he really enjoyed. Although working on Broadway is great, he says, it is really difficult to get new productions produced. Broadway productions are never produced by one producer but by a joint venture because no single producer would want to take a chance on losing so much money. Many productions lose money because the production has too many people in it.

Stockley also produced and directed in Chicago, where he says the talent is just as good as the talent in New York, maybe even better. He says that there are many good actors and actresses waiting to be discovered.

Stockley's experience in musical theatre should help develop the musical theatre program at UNCP.

An experienced and worldly person because of all his achievements and professional experience, Stockley came to UNCP because he likes the small school size and the music program was smaller than other universities where he has taught. He is happy with his decision about coming to UNCP.

Among all his achievements and work experience, Stockley still has dreams of his own that he wants to accomplish someday. A big dream is to open his own academy for writers and students of all ages interested in musical theatre. They'll have the opportunity to learn from the best.

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