MC Chapman

Hi there... 

My name is MC Chapman, my pronouns are they/them, I'm an Aries ♈.

I consider myself a wearer of all theatrical costume – not just the hats. I began my love of storytelling as a performer/dancer. While in university I decided to try stage management, where I found my love of orchestrating scene transitions. This developed quickly into me choreographing people, instead of set pieces. Around 2018, I settled on directing with a movement based approach to storytelling… and a non-profit administration degree to spice things up. 

My passion has always  been theatre education and musical theatre. I based my practice around rehearsal room ethics, providing a space for actors, students, and collaborators to be creative unhindered by pressures of perfectionism, commercialization, or hierarchical demand. I specifically found passion working with those from underserved communities; queer/trans youth, medically at-risk individuals, and neurodivergent creatives. 

A line I have stolen from a former mentor is "I am a people first director." Which, despite its "corporate-y" tone, is a heart-felt belief that art is as much for the creatives as it is for the consumer. It's my job, rather my duty, to not only facilitate art, but support artists as people, especially when leading a rehearsal room of young artists.

In 2024, I stepped away from the classroom, and my practice and methodology evolved. My current work tends to explore themes of queer identity (a fun phrase I refer to often is “gender-lunacy”), coming of age in a time of permanent crisis, autobiographical/auto fictional story telling, and staging my own understandings (or lack thereof). I tend to tell stories that I can see myself in, and those often include the themes listed above. However, as an inquisitive creative, I have the itch to explore stories that are not my own, and especially those I cannot understand. 

I find myself to be a rather eclectic creative. I love devised performance as a method of conveying stories from within one's self and exploring "pure" forms of storytelling -- the "camp fire" origins of theatre. I will also always love musical theatre for its escapism and grandeur. As my career continues to grow perhaps I will find a niche eventually. For now, I will enjoy eagerly diving into many forms of creativity and theatricality.

The intersection of all my philosophies comes through in my passion for creating work that places a firm emphasis on the creation/curation of the art, rather than the final product. This mentality influences my artistic process and often creates work that is multi-layered, potentially confusing, inherently political, and always truthful – except when it’s not.