Michael Baron is the Producing Artistic Director At Lyric Theatre of Oklahoma. He directed Bright Star, When We’re Gone (world premiere), Freaky Friday, Fun Home, Disney’s When You Wish, James and the Giant Peach, I Am My Own Wife, Assassins, Fiddler on the Roof, Dreamgirls, Mann…And Wife (world premiere), Bernice Bobs Her Hair (world premiere), Big Fish with David Elder and Tony-nominee Emily Skinner, Oklahoma!, An Inspector Calls, A Little Night Music with Tony-nominee Dee Hoty, Les Misérables, Triangle, Big River, Tarzan, The Glass Menagerie, The Mystery of Irma Vep, Call Me Madam with Tony-winner Beth Leavel, Spring Awakening, Ragtime, Oliver!, Boeing Boeing, Always…Patsy Cline, December Divas, The Rocky Horror Show and the annual production of Lyric’s A Christmas Carol (also adapted). He has directed over 95 productions at theaters across the country including the current production of A Christmas Carol at Ford’s Theatre in Washington, D.C. Other regional directing highlights include – ZACH Theatre: Peter and the Starcatcher; Signature Theatre: The Little Dog Laughed, Songs for a New World starring Tony-winner Alice Ripley, Tony-nominee Brian D’Arcy James, Emmy-nominee Titus Burgess, and music direction by Jason Robert Brown; Adventure Theatre: James and the Giant Peach (2017 Helen Hayes nomination for Outstanding Direction) , the world premiere musical Big Nate; Goodspeed Musicals: Meet John Doe; Trinity Repertory Company: The School for Scandal. La Mama: The Whore of Sheridan Square (wrote and directed, published in anthology Plays and Playwrights 2006). NEA: 2010-2019 Poetry Out Loud National Competition Finals. Teaching: Oklahoma City University, American University, Brown University, Holy Cross College, and Rhode Island College. Michael has been a theatre grant panelist for the National Endowment for the Arts and the National Alliance for Musical Theatre. Training: B.A. in Theatre Arts, Wake Forest University; MFA in Directing, Trinity Repertory Conservatory. Michael served as the Associate Director of Signature Theatre in Arlington, Virginia-winner of the 2009 Regional Theatre TONY Award. Michael received the 2012 Helen Hayes Award for Outstanding Direction of a Resident Musical in Washington, D.C. for Adventure Theatre’s production of A Year with Frog and Toad, the 2016 Oklahoma Governor’s Arts Award, and a special award from Oklahoma City Mayor’s Committee on Disabilities Concerns. He is a board member for the National Alliance for Musical Theatre.