Overland Park, Kansas
Max Brown began his high school theatre teaching career in 1974 and joined the faculty at Blue Valley North High School when the school opened in 1985.
He has served on the Kansas State Department of Education Theatre Curriculum Revision committee, the Kansas City Repertory Theatre educational advisory board, and the Jellybean Conspiracy theatre executive board. He developed the Kansas Theatre Teacher’s Workshops and was nominated for the Kansas Master Teacher award several times. He was inducted into the Kansas Thespians Hall of Fame in 2006.
Throughout his teaching career, Mr. Brown has led many theatre teacher workshops and worked as an actor and director in Kansas City. In 1984, while working as the assistant to the production stage manager at Kansas City’s Starlight Theatre, he established the company’s high school and college internship program which continues today.
Mr. Brown produced one of the first high school productions of The Laramie Project. When a group of individuals tried to cancel his production of Equus and remove the script from the high school library, Mr. Brown championed an anti-censorship campaign involving the American Civil Liberties Union and People for the American Way.
Mr. Brown earned advanced degrees from the University of Kansas and New York University.
He became Kansas chapter director in August 2009.