CHRISTOPHER PETIT
ABOUT CHRISTOPHER PETIT
Christopher Petit is a Pacific Northwest-based director, teacher, and performer. A Professor of Theater at Whitman College, Chris has served as the Chair and Director of Harper Joy Theater for five years, and was named a Paul Garrett Fellow in recognition of his work at Harper Joy. Chris received a Schubert Presidential Fellowship from Columbia University where he earned his MFA in Directing, studying under Anne Bogart, Robert Woodruff, and Andrei Serban. Before focusing on directing, Chris worked professionally as an actor, earning his BFA in Acting from Mason Gross School of the Arts at Rutgers University, where he studied under William Esper, Maggie Flanagan and Vickie Hart. Chris has taught Viewpoints, Michael Chekhov Technique, and Meisner Technique nationally and internationally, most recently travelling as a representative of the Michael Chekhov Acting Studio to teach at the Shanghai Theater Academy in China.
In Seattle, Chris was the Artistic Director of Open Circle Theater, where his work was twice nominated for Stranger SPIT awards. Productions at Open Circle include The Dragon, Dracula, He Who Gets Slapped, The Firebugs, and Black Magic Revealed. As Artistic Associate for Seattle’s One World Theater, productions included The Doctor In Spite of Himself, Don Quixote, performed in a caravan that toured through rural Washington State, and Mirette and Bellini. Also in Seattle, Chris has worked at the Seattle Repertory Theater, the Seattle Children’s Theater, the Group Theater, Shady Lane Productions, and UMO Ensemble. In New York, Chris’s work has appeared at HERE Arts Center, the Neighborhood Playhouse, Abingdon Theater, Mile Square Theater, and Upright Citizens Brigade, among others. International productions include Camino Real at the Prinz Regenten Theater Festival in Munich. Recent work includes the premier of Nick Zagone’s Blood on the Books OR The Powell’s Play performed at Shaking the Tree Theater in Portland, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead at Harper Joy Theatre at Whitman College, and Mary Esther, at East Third Ensemble in New York City.
As an actor, Chris has worked nationally and internationally. Highlights include appearing on Broadway in The People Who Could Fly, working with the Riverside Shakespeare Company, Shakespeare in Delaware Park, The Group Theater and as a resident member of the TOY company in Buffalo NY where he was twice nominated for an ARTE award for Best Actor. Chris continues his actor training studying regularly with the Michael Chekhov Association and more recently with the Roy Hart Center in Thorais France. .