Easing on Down a New Road

Desert Storm combat veteran. All-around high school athlete. Champion professional kickboxer. Corrections officer.

Even at 6’2” Rory Sheriff defies the image of aggression that those occupations conjure. He is thoughtful, soft-spoken – more like a playwright than any of those other professions. Which is perhaps why, at age 55 and after having succeeded in these and several other careers, Sheriff will earn a B.A. in Theatre this month, with a concentration in directing, dramaturgy and dramatic writing.

Sheriff grew up in Reading, Pennsylvania, and was first introduced to theatre on school field trips to see touring productions of plays like “Oklahoma!” and “Cat on a Hot Tin Roof.”

“When you’re a Black kid from my neighborhood, you can’t really relate to those,” he said. “But when I saw ‘The Wiz,’ I was like, ‘Hey! That’s something!’”

A touring production of the musical “Purlie” caught his attention in a different way.

“There was a certain girl I was in love with. She played Lutiebell Gussie Mae Jenkins. I wanted to get to know her.”

So, Sheriff got his first professional theatre gig, joining the “Purlie” stage crew. He was 17.

But it would be decades before he began a theatre career in earnest. First there would be the Army – four years of active duty, including a tour in Iraq during the Gulf War, and four years in the Army Reserves. A professional kickboxer when he enlisted, Sheriff ended up competing on the Army team, winning championships while stationed in Germany.

Then there would be a surprisingly diverse series of jobs: mail carrier, corrections officer, radio host. He even wrote a few erotic novels and modelled in New York City. But somewhere in his soul, the spell of “The Wiz” was working its magic.

Somewhere in his soul, the spell of “The Wiz” was working its magic.

In 2013, Sheriff wrote his first play, the musical “Be a Lion,” which picks up where “The Wiz” leaves off. By now living in Charlotte, he produced the show at the former Spirit Square the following year.

“It was so terrible,” he said. “I was all over the place when writing it. I had Christian gospel in there and also sexual inuendoes in there.”

A mentor advised Sheriff to make “Be a Lion” a family show, and after several rewrites, the play became a hit. (“Be a Lion” will run at the Booth Theater in uptown Charlotte on December 10.)

“Be a Lion” was followed by “Boys to Baghdad,” which drew upon Sheriff’s deployment to Iraq, and before long, he had founded a repertory theatre company in Charlotte: Brand New Sheriff Productions, now known simply as BNS Productions. The company focuses on plays about the African American experience, presenting works by Sheriff and other local writers as well as iconic playwrights like August Wilson.

It was because of his growing prominence in the Charlotte theatre scene that Associate Professor of Theatre Tom Burch invited Sheriff to speak to a class of theatre majors a couple of years ago.

“Everyone was attentive,” Sheriff said of the students. “They were prepared and they had some really cool questions.”

He was hooked. “I thought: I really like this. I want to teach.” But in spite of some semesters at Temple University and Central Piedmont Community College, Sheriff lacked a degree. He enrolled fulltime at UNC Charlotte in Fall 2024 and says the experience has been “humbling.”

“Although no one is saying it, you are reminded of your age all the time.”

Professor of Directing Robin Witt, who has mentored Sheriff, said his eventful history and hard-earned wisdom have been real assets to the program.

“Rory showed us that there is no expiration date on working towards a college degree. As a non-traditional student he brought real-world experience into the classroom with generosity, confidence and curiosity. One semester took him all the way to Ghana for the International Black Theatre Summit, and he returned with stories of art, culture and adventure that inspired everyone around him. Rory has been both a classmate and a mentor, and he reminds us that growth happens when we stay open, brave and committed.”

While a student at UNC Charlotte, Rory Sheriff has performed commedia with other students at the Charlotte Renaissance Festival.

BNS Productions has a busy year ahead, with performances at the International Black Theatre Festival this summer and a Charlotte production of August Wilson’s “King Hedley II.” And in February 2027, Sheriff will return to UNC Charlotte to direct a Department of Theatre production of the Pulitzer Prize-winning play “Fat Ham.”

Amid all that, he is at work on a new play. And funded through the Veteran Readiness and Employment (Chapter 31) program, he will continue his education with hardly a break. In January Sheriff starts a Master of Fine Arts in Creative Writing, with a focus on playwriting, at Queens University of Charlotte. He is grateful that UNC Charlotte has launched him on this next journey.

“I’m so proud that I didn’t let pride or ego get in the way of coming here.”