Jerry Jay Cranford

Associate Professor
Acting/Directing
Email: jjcranford@k-state.edu
Office: 136 Nichols Hall

Biography
A professional AEA actor, singer, dancer and SDC director and choreographer, Jerry Jay has performed on Broadway (Les Miserables), international and national tours (Les Miserables, Evita European Company as featured dancer, Singing in the Rain as Don, Anything Goes as Billy), regional stages, television and spent 3 years as the Genie in Disneyland's stage musical Aladdin. While at Disney, he served as a clinician teaching workshops in music history, music theory and improvisation.

Jerry Jay has also performed as a principal with the Kansas City Lyric Opera in their production of Turandot, starring Lise Lindstrom and Samuel Ramey. In 2013, the MUNY Theatre of St. Louis hired Jay as dance captain to aid in staging their production of Les Miserables and perform in Shrek the Musical working with Broadway stars John Tartaglia, Julia Murney, Norm Lewis, Hugh Panaro, Stephen Wallem, Michael James Scott, Rob McClure and producer Mike Isaacson, a 34-time Tony Award winning producer. Summer of 2023, Jerry Jay returned to the Lyric Theatre of Oklahoma to perform Barry in The Prom. His other roles for the Lyric have been the Cowardly Lion in The Wizard of Oz and the Duke in Big River. He was Gomez in The Addams Family for The New Theatre and John Wilkes Booth in Assassins for Spinning Tree Theatre.

As a director, Cranford's most recent work has been Dreamgirls at The New Theatre 2023 featuring eight K-State alumni and winning numerous KC Broadway World awards including Best Director and Best Musical. He also directed the 2024 world premiere touring family opera The Haberdasher Prince for The Lyric Opera of Kansas City. Upcoming summer 2024 productions as both director and choreographer include Charlie and the Chocolate Factory at the nationally renowned Coterie Theatre and Newsies for The New Theatre of Overland Park. Jerry Jay helmed the pandemic re-opening production of Godspell for the nationally-acclaimed, 8,000 seat Starlight Theatre of Kansas City. In 2018, he directed and choreographed their production of Hairspray starring two-time Tony nominee Brad Oscar. It was selected as Kansas City's Best Professional Musical Production of the year. He has served as director/choreographer working with DreamWorks and Music Theatre International for the world premiere of Madagascar: A Musical Adventure at the Coterie Theatre, the regional premiere of Everyday Rapture working with original star Sherie Renee Scott and librettist Dick Scanlan, The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee and Les Miserables for the REV Theater in New York, Aladdin and Peter Cottontail III for Kansas City Starlight Theatre at the Kauffman Performing Art Center and received two Ovation Nominations for the Vancouver, BC premiere of The Marvelous Wonderettes. Professor Cranford was selected Best Director of a Professional Musical by Broadway World Kansas City for his 2018 production of Newsies. The same year, he was also selected by the Omaha Arts and Entertainment Council as Best Director of a Musical for his production of Newsies at the Rose Theatre which also won Best Musical.

Professor Cranford is a proud member of the American Guild of Variety Artists, the Stage Directors and Choreographers Union and Actors Equity for 35 years, but none of the above credits compare to the joy of being a husband and father to two beautiful daughters. EMAW!

Education

M.F.A., Minnesota State University, Directing
B.F.A., University of Oklahoma, Music.

Favorite Quote

"If a thing isn't worth saying, you sing it." –Pierre Beaumarchais