Rowan Joseph took over the artistic and business management of Totem Pole Playhouse near Gettysburg, PA in the fall of 2013, the same week he appeared on the 23rd edition of the Emmy Award-winning CBS series The Amazing Race with his business partner, Shane Partlow. He directed Totem Pole’s productions of Godspell, Shenandoah, Million Dollar Quartet, The Queen of Bingo, and Shear Madness; as well as, directing and adapting the script for the Playhouse’s national award-winning annual production of A Christmas Carol presented each December at Gettysburg College’s Majestic Theater. Joseph left Totem Pole in the summer of 2020 having led the historic summer theater out of bankruptcy and into profitability for the first time in several decades.
Joseph continues to co-owner of Theatre A Go-Go, Inc. (TAGG), a nationally recognized theatrical touring production company based in IL. For TAGG, he produced Tapestry, the Music of Carole King: Off-Broadway (Union Square Theatre), The Queen of Bingo: Off-Broadway (Greenwich House Theatre), Los Angeles (Coronet Theatre), and Chicago (Buckingham Theatre). He directed TAGG’s national tours of An Evening with Jack Klugman, an all-male production of The Queen of Bingo, and most recently productions of Jesus Christ Superstar at the Capital Theatre in Chambersburg, PA and Forever Plaid, Smoke on the Mountain and The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas at Totem Pole.
As an actor, he began his career as a member of the prestigious Mirror Repertory Company in New York City alongside Academy Award-winners Anthony Hopkins, Geraldine Page and F. Murray Abraham. He has been seen in leading roles in over 50 stage productions in New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, and across the U.S. He appeared on the Emmy Award-winning HBO series, Veep, opposite Julia Louis Dreyfus and Hugh Laurie. His other TV credits include roles on Gilmore Girls, Boston Legal, Breakout Kings, Arrest & Trial and a recurring role on the HBO series Treme. His film credits include The Campaign with Will Ferrell, The Princess Diaries 2 with Anne Hathaway, Raising Helen with Kate Hudson, Grudge Match starring Robert DeNiro and Sylvester Stallone and several independent films, National Lampoon’s Snatched with Andrew McCarthy, Barefoot with Evan Rachel Wood and Chronic Town at the Sundance Film Festival.
As founding Managing Director, Joseph built, opened and operated The Century Center for the Performing Arts in New York City, where he presented Paula Vogel’s Pulitzer Prize winning drama How I Learned to Drive, starring Mary Louise Parker and David Morse.
He served as the Executive Director of the West Bank Café’s Laurie Beechman Theatre,
on Theatre Row in Manhattan, for seven seasons presenting hundreds of both new and established artists, including Holly Hunter, Ben Stiller, Robert Sean Leonard, Julianne Moore, Mark Linn-Baker, Ethan Hawke, Lewis Black, and the early work of such acclaimed writers as Aaron Sorkin, Alan Ball, Donald Margulies, and Peter Hedges.
In 2001 he was named the Producing Director for acclaimed film & television director, Garry Marshall’s Falcon Theatre in Los Angeles. He created and launch the theater’s successful 5-play subscription series; in addition, to overseeing the highly-acclaimed children’s theater programming. Under his management the Falcon established itself as one of the premiere, award-winning, professional theaters in Southern California. Joseph left the Falcon at the end of the 2005-2006 season having produced over 50 different productions starring such notable actors as Rami Malek, Joe Mantegna, and Michael Learned to name a few.
In the summer of 2007, Joseph formed a film production company, Greenwood Hill Productions. The company’s first film, Dalton Trumbo’s Johnny Got His Gun, was released and distributed by Mark Cuban & Todd Wagner’s Truly Indie. Joseph directed the film, based on the 1982 Off-Broadway stage monologue of the same title. The movie also marked actor Ben McKenzie’s (Gotham, Southland, and, The O.C.) first starring role in a feature film. Next Greenwood Hill is producing on a new film with a screenplay written by Joseph and Derek Heeren based on the 1925 NFL and World Champion Pottsville Maroons. Joseph developed the project as a co-production with the Penny Marshall, one of her last projects before passing in 2018.
