By Tori Hahn | SDCNN Intern

For 14 years, Stephen Brotebeck lived the musical theater dream – directing and choreographing on Broadway and around the country.

His career has taken him from performing on cruise ships around the world to teaching theater to elementary school children in China. Now, the Michigan-born theater professional has settled in to San Diego to teach at San Diego State University.

“When this position became available and it was teaching graduate students, which I love … It seemed like a no-brainer sort of situation,” he said.

Brotebeck joined the SDSU Master of Fine Arts Musical Theatre Program in the fall of last year, making him the second professor in the department with a background in Broadway. The esteemed SDSU program is only one of a few MFA Musical Theatre programs for graduate students in the nation.

Brotebeck’s resume is stacked with accomplishments, including working as movement associate on the Tony Award-winning “Peter and the Starcatcher” and as assistant director of “Ghost the Musical,” both of which were performed on Broadway. He was also nominated for a 2015 Wilde Award for his choreography and directing in “And the World Goes ‘Round.”

He is excited to carry on the legacy of SDSU’s program in what he describes as a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity in San Diego, which many call “Broadway West.”

“It’s sort of an embarrassment of riches I feel like we have in San Diego,” he said. “The high-quality professional theater that is here for a city of this size is really outstanding.”

Brotebeck works with both graduate and undergraduate students in SDSU’s musical theater department. He prepares his undergraduates for the professional world with audition techniques, how to find the right jobs, capturing headshots and perfecting resumes. In his MFA musical theatre studio course, he works with graduate students on coaching each other to get practical training in the class.

He encourages his students to be disciplined and most importantly to “stay true to yourself” in an industry where many can get lost.

In addition to teaching, Brotebeck continues his theater career by choreographing shows professionally across the nation. Throughout the semester he finds the time – and the coverage for his classes – to travel and work.

“I’ve always been an avid traveler,” he said. “That’s why it doesn’t bother me that I travel a lot for work, because I love to do it.”

Currently, Brotebeck is collaborating with writers in New York and planning to visit District of Columbia in the spring and Iowa and Michigan in the summer, all to work on various shows.

Brotebeck followed a similar path to Rob Meffe, who also left New York and Broadway to teach at SDSU. Meffe now works his “dream job” as a professor and head of the MFA Musical Theatre Program.

Brotebeck and Meffe had never met before teaching at SDSU, but discovered they were neighbors for three years in New York without ever knowing it. The two now work closely together on the program’s spring play, “The Drowsy Chaperone,” in which Brotebeck is director and choreographer and Meffe is musical director.

As a musical director and pianist in New York, Meffe conducted nine different Broadway shows and contributed to several national tours and regional theaters. On Broadway, he was the associate conductor for “Little Women” and for six years of “Les Misérables.”

Meffe worked hard to earn his master’s degree early in his career so he could ultimately come back and teach as a musical theater professor.

“I wanted to be the kind of professor that taught only because they were out there doing it, rather than having read a book about it and then reporting on the research,” he said.

Meffe loves working with his graduate students, whom he admires for having great passion for theater. He takes pride in the camaraderie of the program, in which the graduate students and the undergraduate students often work together.

In his free time, Meffe takes his passion outdoors. He often camps with his 8-year-old daughter and discovers new hikes when he isn’t teaching or working in local theaters.

“I was the guy who sat in the pit of ‘Phantom of the Opera,’ in all black, with smoke pouring into the pit, and then I was reading Outside Magazine about what hike I was going to go on,” he said.

After 20 years on Broadway and three years teaching at SDSU, Meffe’s next move is retirement.

“You ever feel like you’re at the right place at the right time? That’s how I feel here at San Diego State,” he said.

The SDSU Musical Theatre Program’s production of “The Drowsy Chaperone” will show March 4-13 in the Don Powell Theatre on SDSU’s campus.

–Tori Hahn is an editorial intern for SDCNN. Write to her at [email protected].