GREEN ROOM CONSERVATORY

Ballet and Folklorico and Theatre in the Fall!

Meet the Director

David Catanzarite, Founding Artistic Director

David Catanzarite is a master stage director and expert educator. He has directed 200 professional and college productions in Los Angeles, New York, Chicago, Prague, South Africa, Toronto, and the San Francisco Bay Area. Catanzarite began his teaching career at the age of 26 as a theatre instructor at Stanford University. He served as Theatre faculty at California State University, San Bernardino/Palm Desert Campus.

At Green Room Theatre, Mr. Catanzarite has directed The Dresser, Harry Potter and the Cursed Child, Twelve Angry Men, To Kill A Mockingbird, Pop-up Shakespeare, numerous melodramas, and a holiday production of Gift of the Magi that toured African American Churches across the Coachella Valley. For Green Room Summer Conservatory he directed sold-out productions of Sister Act, Annie Get Your Gun, The Pirates of Penzance, Mary Poppins, Oliver!, and Fiddler on the Roof at the Indian Wells Theatre (and many more shows). Most recently he directed Midsummer’s Night Dream at Create Center for the Arts.

The Green Room Summer Theatre Conservatory is the most comprehensive, intensive summer theatre program for kids and teens in the Coachella Valley. For thirteen years, the award-winning conservatory has offered training with top Teaching Artists regardless of students’ ability to pay. Each summer session culminates with a professionally mounted musical theatre production. Green Room’s summer shows delight large local audiences, and tickets are affordably priced for families. In the past thirteen seasons Green Room Conservatory has presented terrific, large-scale shows including Mary Poppins, Oliver!, Fiddler on the Roof, Annie Get Your Gun, Sister Act, and You’re A Good Man, Charlie Brown, among others. Teaching Artists nurture a professional environment while creating a safe and fun summer experience for young artists. At the same time they challenge all students at every level to grow as artists and improve their skills. The Conservatory maintains an exceptionally low student-teacher ratio at or below 10 to 1, ensuring personalized instruction in a safe learning community.

Conservatory goals for 2022 are to offer sixty students ages 8 to 18 top-quality instruction in acting, dance, singing, improvisation, stage voice, script analysis, and technical theatre. The conservatory will also hire and train as many as six paid high school interns.

As a career pathway program, Green Room Conservatory also mentors students interested in pursuing careers in theatre, film, or design. Young Conservatory members have won multiple awards including the McCallum Theatre’s Open Call, The Palm Springs Young Playwrights’ Festival, Desert Theatre League Scholarships, and been elected Scheherazade at the National Date Festival. Graduates have found paid theatre work and majored in theatre at top colleges and universities; many are building successful careers in theatre or film.