Tom Harryman, Theater
Biography - Tom Harryman
Tom Harryman is a Muskegon native, growing up on Jefferson Street and having graduated from Muskegon High School in 1971. He holds a bachelor's degree from Grand Valley State College's Thomas Jefferson College (1976), with training also from the theater department at Boston Conservatory of Music and a Master of Arts degree from the McGregor School at Antioch University (2005).
Tom has worked in most facets of theater. While living in Seattle, Washington, he worked as a lighting technician in the Seattle Music Hall, a 4,500 seat historic Fox Theater (now a parking lot), and worked with many Pacific Northwest companies in the fields of lighting design, production and stage management.
Joining Actor’s Equity Association in 1978, Tom also worked as an actor, company manager and technical director for various tours. He has performed with the Bath House Theater, Brass Ring Theater, Greg Thompson Productions and the One Reel Vaudeville Show, among others in Seattle. He has performed on stages in Los Angeles, New York City, Reno, Boston, New Orleans, Atlantic City, Bermuda and Aruba.
Since returning to Muskegon in 1984 he served as Managing Director of the Frauenthal Center for the Performing Arts, where he stayed for fifteen years. He acted as the owner’s representative in 1986 for a $1.9 million re-hab of a 1913 furniture store into a performing and visul arts and meeting facility, and in 1998 for a $8.2 million restoration of the Center’s 1800 seat, 1930 C. Howard Crane motion picture palace. Since leaving the Center in 1999 he teaches theater courses, directs, designs and acts at Muskegon Community College.
In 2007 and 2008 he served as manager of Whitehall's Howmet Playhouse, booking, producing, directing, designing and perfoming. He also co-produced the playhouse's annual professional summer stock theatre seasons.
Past shows include direction for Aristophanes’ Clouds, Shakespeare’s A Comedy of Errors, Inspecting Carol, The Rimers of Eldrich, Antigone, Lyssistrata, performing in The Laramie Project, Gross Indecency as Oscar Wilde, and in his original solo plays, Passion & Perversity as Edgar Allan Poe and Charles Dickens' A Christmas Carol.
Tom and wife Fran live in a partially restored 1913 Craftsman house in the Nelson Neighborhood with two cats and one dog. When not working in the theater he works on the house, writes & teaches Taijiquan.