Direct authority

Acting alumnus Shaun Patrick Tubbs is the visiting guest director of Wright State Theatre’s production of “Sweat,” which runs from Feb. 3–13 in the Festival Playhouse.

Wright State University was originally only going to be a short, temporary stop for him. But it turned into a solid four-year theatre education and paved the way for a successful acting and directing career.

Currently based in New York City, Shaun Patrick Tubbs has built an impressive directing and acting pedigree.

His directing credits include “In The Blood” (Juilliard), “Lost in the Stars” (Union Avenue Opera), “Independence Eve” (Signature Theatre, Washington, D.C.) and “Well-Intentioned White People” (Orlando Shakespeare).

His acting credits include “STAINED” (New Ohio Theater), “Terminus” (NYTW) and “The Complete Works of William Shakespeare Abridged” (Human Race Theatre).

Tubbs, who grew up in Cleveland, began acting when he was 5 years old, performing in a play called “Going Buggy.”

“I knew it’s what I wanted to do, what I was meant to do,” he said.

After graduating from Cleveland Heights High School in 1997, he was accepted at New York University but discovered he was unable to afford the tuition. So he opted to go to Wright State temporarily.

“It was only supposed to be for one year, but I really felt at home in the theatre department so I decided it was where my training would be,” he said.

Tubbs said the highlight of his time at Wright State was during his senior year when he took part in the production of “The Laramie Project,” which captured reaction to the 1998 murder of Matthew Shepherd, a gay college student in Laramie, Wyoming. Shepherd’s murder was denounced as a hate crime motivated by homophobia and brought attention to the lack of hate crimes laws in various states.

“It was more than just a show, but a culmination of everything I had learned over the four years prior,” said Tubbs.

He said Wright State taught him how to start to learn and see what was important to him.

“I learned that I could handle anything thrown my way and learn that I wasn’t supposed to be a finished product when I graduated,” he said. “Of course, the theatre and dance program was constructed so similarly to that of the professional world that upon graduation many people I worked with thought I’d had much more experience than I really had.”

After graduating from Wright State in 2002 with a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Acting, Tubbs was cast in two professional theatre productions —”Lobby Here” at the Contemporary American Theatre Company in Columbus and “Jitney” at the Human Race Theatre Company in Dayton.

Soon after finishing those productions, Tubbs moved to Los Angeles. He later earned a master’s degree in fine arts at the University of Texas.

Tubbs said the thing he is most proud of professionally was producing “The Book of Grace” written and directed by Pulitzer Prize winner Suzan-Lori Parks, in Austin, Texas.

He returned to Wright State Theatre to serve as the guest director of Lynn Nottage’s Pulitzer Prize-winning drama “Sweat,” which portrays the working class of Reading, Pennsylvania.

“Sweat” runs from Feb. 10 through Feb. 20 in the Festival Playhouse in the Creative Arts Center.

Tubbs said the biggest challenge for him professionally is patience.

“The arts — like much of life — requires one to constantly put themselves out there, often to be scrutinized or judged,” he said. “So you have to be not only tough but patient as well. The most gratifying thing is just that I still love the arts as much as I did the first day I did it.”