A NEXT book selection

Ernie Nolan, Executive Artistic Director of Nashville Children’s Theatre, is an award winning director and playwright. As former Artistic Director of Emerald City Theatre, he helped to lead the creation of The Little Theatre, the nation’s first performance space exclusively dedicated to interactive and immersive theatrical experiences for early theatre goers ages 0-5. His work at The Broadway Playhouse includes A Charlie Brown Christmas, Fancy Nancy The Musical, Pinkalicious, The Cat in the Hat, Cinderella, Charlotte’s Web, and the world premiere of Hansel and Gretel: A Wickedly Delicious Musical Treat, written in collaboration with GRAMMY nominated recording artist Justin Roberts. His playwriting has been featured both nationally and internationally at such theatres as The Coterie, First Stage, Walnut Street, Orlando Rep, South Carolina Children’s Theatre, Bay Area Children’s Theatre, and Children’s Theatre of Charlotte. He has written commissions for Adventure Theatre in Glen Echo, MD, La Jolla Playhouse in La Jolla, CA, The Milwaukee Zoological Society, and Circle Theatre in Omaha, NE in partnership with the Institute for Holocaust Education. Also a resident artist of The Coterie Theatre in Kansas City, MO, he has directed and choreographed world premieres by such Tony-nominated artists as Willy and Rob Reale, Stephen Schwartz, Stephen Flaherty and Lynn Ahrens, and Bill Russell and Henry Krieger. For Chicago Playworks he has directed The BFG, The Giver, The Witches, A Wrinkle in Time, Number the Stars, The Day John Henry Came to School, Peter Pan and Wendy, and The Kid Who Ran for President. In March 2012, Ernie made his Off-Broadway debut as a choreographer with Lucky Duck at the New Victory Theatre. Ernie is currently the International Representative for TYA USA to ASSITEJ, a global theatre for young audiences service organization. In 2014, he received the Illinois Theatre Association’s Excellence in Theatre for Young Audiences award. He is a proud graduate of both the University of Michigan Musical Theatre Program (BFA Musical Theatre) and The Theatre School at DePaul University (MFA Directing).