GARY BRIGGLE

Gary Briggle, actor, is also in demand as a singer and director and is familiar to Dayton audiences from his highly acclaimed stagings of operas ranging from Hansel and Gretel (in which he also played The Witch) to Porgy and Bess and also including Le Nozze di Figaro, Il Barbiere di Siviglia, The Tragedy of Carmen, H.M.S. Pinafore and The Pirates of Penzance. He previously appeared with the Dayton Philharmonic as a variety of buccaneers in The Pirates of the Philharmonic. Gary has worked in regional theater and opera across the country for nearly forty years in the full range of music-theater genres and classic drama.

He served as principal tenor and artistic director of Lyric Opera Cleveland, and as artistic associate with Seaside Music Theater, Arizona Theatre Company and The Skylight (Milwaukee). Favorite roles include Polonius in Hamlet, The Fool in King Lear, Salieri in Amadeus, Monostatos in The Magic Flute, Beadle Bamford in Sweeney Todd and Koko in The Mikado, which was televised on PBS's Great Performances. 

In his hometown of Minneapolis, Minnesota, Gary maintains a busy performing career as well as a rewarding coaching schedule. He recently completed a tour with The Ordway Center's Broadway Songbook Series, starred in Candide as Voltaire/Pangloss (which was also his debut role with Dayton Opera), and as J.J. Peachum in The Threepenny Opera. He made his debut with The Minnesota Orchestra narrating "The Enigma Variations" as Sir Edward Elgar, and he will return as The Starkeeper in Carousel next spring. In February he will return to direct and perform in Dayton Opera's Dead Man Walking. Other upcoming projects include A Christmas Story, You Can’t Take it With You, Damn Yankees, and The Pirates of Penzance.