Darin L. Jolliffe-Haas, a Hoosier transplant in the Buckeye state, is a playwright-composer, teacher, and musical theatre director. He and his sons, each of whom were adopted at age twelve, live in Kettering, Ohio, a suburb of Dayton, with Flyer (dog), and Navi and Chief – the newest arrivals to The Haasienda..

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Darin is currently finishing work on a musical project about Wilbur, Orville and Katharine Wright, The Bird Let Loose, with lyricist Gail Whipple, and composer Leslie Merry. He has also written Love Is Eternal: Mary Todd & Abraham Lincoln, Scrimmage, and is beginning research on his next project, Willkie Day, a musical about Wendell Willkie’s triumphant return to his hometown to accept the 1940 Republican nomination for president.

When not teaching or writing, Darin keeps busy as a band and choir parent, volunteering for ACTION Adoption Services, for which he also serves as president of the board of directors, and spending time with his sons. He enjoys traveling to historical sites (his sons say he should have a bumper sticker that reads, “I brake for historical markers!”), reading historical novels, baseball games, swimming, visiting his family in Indiana, and The Outer Banks.

While an Emens Scholar and  music education student at Ball State University, Darin was a singer-dancer, and arranger with the internationally known Ball State University Singers; a soloist and section leader for the Chamber Choir; the first undergraduate conductor for a major ensemble; founder and conductor of the Ball State Children’s Chorus; a member of men’s chorus, marching band, concert band, and involved in community music and theatre productions.

Darin has appeared in over forty-five productions, and has directed eighty-five musical productions. Some of his favorite roles have been: Joseph in Joseph & The Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat (29 productions); Curly in Oklahoma! (9 productions); Cornelius in Hello, Dolley; Albert in Bye, Bye Birdie (4 productions); Che in Evita (2 productions); Rolf in The Sound of Music (5 productions); Rapunzel’s Prince in Into The Woods; Jesus in Jesus Christ, Superstar; and Biff in Death of a Salesman.

Thanks for visiting Darin’s blog site, and learning about his life in the Miami Valley.

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