Michael Richard Lee

Raised in the small farming town of Little York in Western Illinois, Michael Lee taught language for twenty-two years in Branson, Missouri schools. Mr. Lee previously taught in Illinois, where he also coached high school drama for many years. He has always embraced theater for its power to communicate, and has valued his opportunities to act onstage and to introduce theater to younger students. He is recognized as an actor by audiences in the Springfield, Missouri area, having performed onstage in several locations there. Most recently, he was seen as Karl Lindner at Center Stage in the Springfield Contemporary Theater presentation of "A Raisin in the Sun," and as Dr. Gerald Lyman in "Bus Stop." Also at Center Stage, he has recently appeared in "The Tempest" (Alonso) and in "The Normal Heart" (Ben). He performed the role of Roy Johnson in the Vandivort Center Theater production of "A Light in the Piazza," which featured Kim Crosby. Other performances at the Vandivort Center Theater have included the musicals, "Jekyll & Hyde," "Urinetown: the Musical," and "Sweeney Todd." In addition, he appeared in the Steve Martin comedy, "The Underpants," and in various dramas, such as, "Bent," "Glengarry Glen Ross," "Boy Gets Girl," "Amadeus," "The God Committee," and Edward Albee's "The Goat, or Who is Sylvia?" (Ross). Also at the Vandivort, he performed the title character in "Jacob Marley's Christmas Carol," and appeared in the Actors' Theater of Missouri production of "The Weir" (Jim Curran), directed by Robert Westenberg. Additionally, he has been seen in several Springfield Little Theater productions on the historic Landers stage, including "Romeo & Juliet" (Friar Laurence), "To Kill a Mockingbird" (Bob Ewell), "Macbeth" (Ross), "The Crucible" (Putnam), "Inherit the Wind" (Rev. Brown), "Cat on a Hot Tin Roof" (Gooper), "The Odd Couple" (Speed), "Five Christmases" and "South Pacific" (ensembles). He appeared in "The Taming of the Shrew" (Baptista) at MSU's Tent Theater, and also performed on that campus in student directed film. At Nixa, Missouri, Mr. Lee played the featured role of Charlie in "The Foreigner," and also was seen in Nixa Theater Guild's presentations of "Our Town" (Doc Gibbs), and "Big River," in which he played The King. In Branson, Missouri, he appeared as Will in the 1993 production of "Oklahoma!" featuring Rudy Gatlin. He first performed the character in Galesburg, Illinois, in the newly renovated Orpheum Theater, where he also was seen in "Annie Get Your Gun". He later reprised the role of Will and played Buffalo Bill in Gatlin's tour to Davenport (IA), Tulsa (OK), Galveston (TX) and Dallas (TX). In Galesburg, he also appeared in other community theater productions, such as, "Hello, Dolly" (Cornelius), "Meet Me in St. Louis" (John) , and "West Side Story" (Bernardo). He has filmed commercials in Illinois and for the Vacation Channel in Branson. For six years, he acted with Branson's Mystery Comedy Dinner Theater, also helping to compose improvisational scripts each tourist season. During that time, he was also active with Branson Tri-Lakes Community Theater, appearing in "Of Mice and Men," "Bus Stop," "Plaza Suite," and "Play It Again, Sam" (Bogie). In his career as a teacher of English as a Second Language, Mr. Lee has worked with hundreds of students from diverse ethnic, racial and religious backgrounds. He has always firmly believed in theater's relevance, understanding that theater - by definition - is meant to express our common humanity.