DIRECTOR, EDUCATOR & ADVOCATE


Photo: David Leyes
ABOUT
David Connolly is the Artistic Director at Drayton Entertainment, one of Canada's largest non-for-profit theatre companies. He is the recipient of The 2024 Canadian Actors’ Equity inaugural Change Maker Award, a proud disability and inclusion advocate and the first amputee to have performed on Broadway.
As an Educator, David leads the Drayton Entertainment Youth Academy and has been an Adjunct Professor and Advisor to the Musical Theatre Performance Programs at Sheridan College, Western University, VanderCook College and most recently, the Hopkins Centre for the Arts at Dartmouth College. After serving on the faculty at Stagedoor Manor Performing Arts Training Centre in New York, he moved to Los Angeles to enjoy collaborating with artists including Katy Perry, Sir Andrew Lloyd Webber, Elton John, Sarah Jessica Parker, kd lang, Patti LaBelle, Sarah Brightman and many others.
As a Director/Choreographer, he has helmed productions including the Canadian premieres of The Prom, Kinky Boots, Priscilla Queen of the Desert, Mamma Mia! and Newsies. For the screen, David has directed and choreographed several kids series for CBC as well as projects for CBS, NBC, ABC, PBS and two feature films by director, Deepa Mehta.
David is a recipient of the Ontario Premier’s Award of Excellence and a speaker for the DEI Committee of the International Musical Theatre Educators’ Alliance. For five years, David has curated and moderated a disability inclusion panel at BroadwayCon in New York City to help develop actionable steps to improve disabled representation onstage. He has proudly served as a peer assessor for The Canada Council for the Arts, and as an Ambassador for the Shriner's Hospital for Children, and the War Amps Child Amputee Program.
He was proud to serve as the Director of Pauletta Washington and Diane Louie’s United Nations Development Programme concert, "Chronicle," which toured North America, and culminated in a performance at the United Nations General Assembly Hall. Their short film collaboration, "Moonlight Sonata" was selected to premiere at the Smithsonian Film Festival presented by the National Museum of African American History and Culture in Washington, DC..
"David is, by anyone's definition, a leader in the field. What impresses me most is the high standard he has set for himself." -Stephanie Gorin, Emmy Award-winning Casting Director of The Toronto Productions of Dear Evan Hansen, Come From Away, Kinky Boots, The Lion King, Beauty and The Beast, Rent, Crazy For You, Hairspray and Miss Saigon.
"David has created a career and reputation for himself as one of the most well-rounded and dedicated professionals of today." -Scott Barnes, Board of Trustees of Broadway Cares
"David is the kind of a person that the entertainment community needs more of." -David Friedman, conductor of the Disney animated features Beauty and The Beast, Aladdin, Pocahontas, The Hunchback of Notre Dame and vocal contractor for Mulan.