Rockford Sansom 

cid:mwz4alumni@uwf.edu6497657Rockford Sansom is currently an actor and theatre artist based out of New York City.  After his time at UWF, Sansom gained admission and won a fellowship to attend the highly selective Master of Fine Arts in Musical Theatre program at the University of Central Florida.  Sansom has worked as a resident Associate Artist at Seaside Music Theater-one of the South's largest and most respected regional theatres.  At Seaside, he performed numerous principal roles; his favorite shows include "The Threepenny Opera," Singin' in the Rain," and "Sunday in the Park with George." All the while, Sansom was the Assistant Director for the south's regional premiere of Disney's "Beauty and the Beast," and he served as a faculty member in Seaside's Educational Program.

As an actor, other regional highlights include working at the Oklahoma Shakespeare Festival with principal roles in "My Way: A Tribute to Frank Sinatra," "The Merchant of Venice," "A Midsummer Night's Dream," and "Hello Dolly!" and performing principal roles in the regional premieres of "Just So" and Kathie Lee Gifford's "Under the Bridge" at the Orlando Repertory Theatre.  In addition, Sansom wrote, composed, and performed in his original two-man musical "A 16 Bar Cut: The History of American Musical Theatre," which the Orlando Repertory Theatre produced and the Orlando Sentinel called "side-splitting fun performed by two men who can do it all."

Sansom recently finished playing the principal role of Wreck in the First National Broadway Tour of Leonard Bernstein's "Wonderful Town."  The Memphis Commercial Appeal wrote "Sansom as Wreck is musical comedy perfection." Broadway veterans Kathleen Marshall (Tony Award) and Jen Bender lead the production. Starting in the summer of 2007, Sansom currently plays the principal role of Pat Denning in the Asian Broadway Tour of "42nd Street," where he tours major cities throughout Asia.  Mark Bramble (Director and Book Writer for the 2003 Tony Award Winning "42nd Street" Broadway Revival) served as the director.

In addition, Sansom is also an educator and as taught master classes all over the nation.  While in Asia, Sansom has taught master classes with many leading universities including the world renounced Shanghai Conservatory of Music.  At the conservatory, Sansom taught several multi-week graduate and undergraduate master class series in musical theatre voice, acting, and history.  He was named a Shanghai Conservatory of Music Visiting Artist of Honor, and for his educational efforts, a Provencal Leader in China named Sansom an International Ambassador of the Arts for the Zhejiang Province-an honor that has been given to less than 200 westerners.

In all of his program biographies, which have been seen by hundreds of thousands of audience members across the world, Sansom proudly acknowledges his training at UWF.