Mr. Brian Kaufman is excited to start his fourth year with Langley High School and with Saxon Stage!  Mr. Kaufman received his BFA with a concentration in acting from Five Towns College in Long Island, NY. He then pursued a career in acting for the next six years and performed all over the country. Some of his favorite roles included; The Fox in Pinocchio, Barnette Llyod in Crimes of the Heart, the Scarecrow in The Wizard of Oz, and many more.

       During that time, he started his directing career, which started at Camp Billings. He would continue to direct musicals at Billings for eight summers. At the end of his tenure at Camp Billings, they dedicated an award named after him called, The Brian Kaufman Award for Excellence in Musical Theatre. At the end of each musical two students are presented with this award.

       Mr. Kaufman then became the theatre director at Ravenwood High School in Brentwood, TN. He would go on to build a program well-known across the state. During Mr. Kaufman’s time at Ravenwood, they would be selected to perform at the state thespian conference and go on to win many awards in the musical theatre category at the Spotlight Awards (Nashville Musical Theatre Awards), which included Best Show and Best Direction. Mr. Kaufman also had two students that were performers in the Jimmy Awards and one of the students was a top four finalist.

       Mr. Kaufman then made a stop at Pasadena Memorial High School in Houston, TX, where he was the Technical Theatre Director. Luckily, they were able to produce some productions that allowed minimal audiences. He was very proud of his tech students as they took on new responsibilities in set building, designing, stage lighting programming, sound operation, and fly rail work.

       Mr. Kaufman has had many students pursue theatre at college and start their careers in the theatre business world. He is excited to start his fourth year at Langley and with Saxon Stage and looks forward to the many bonds, creative worlds, and more that we will build this coming school year. His teaching and directing process always starts with the student first and he lives by this Charlie Chaplin quote, “A day without laughter is a day wasted.”