Phillip Rayher Chair:Theatre, Certified Union Rep, Site Council, When Phillip Rayher joined SOTA more than 20 years ago, he brought with him 35 years' experience in directing, acting, designing, and teaching in places like Minneapolis, Washington, DC, Idaho, and Jackson Hole, Wyoming.
Along came his collections, too, which to this day fascinate his students: PEZ candy dispensers, wind-up walking toys, Pop-up books, and kitschy Shakespeare memorabilia. A Bay Area native, Mr. Rayher earned B.A. and M.A. Degrees in Theatre from SF State, and taught college for six years in Idaho before leaving to do post-graduate work in directing at the University of Minnesota. Besides directing or acting in more than 80 classic, contemporary, and musical productions, teaching, and artistic directing theaters in all the places he has lived, Mr. Rayher authored Acting is Action, a text for high school and college theater students.