Phil’s eclectic journey through theater and life has taught him that achieving professional and personal success requires the combined passions of creativity, innovative thinking, and working in an environment that recognizes the value of good-old, serious fun.
Popular Speaking Topics
Stop Communicating & Start Connecting
To become the best of the best, you need to achieve excellence. And that distinction can only be reached when you understand how to effectively work with, communicate with, and connect with PEOPLE, whether they be your clients or coworkers. This presentation focuses on the skills needed to uncover your authentic self (it all starts with you), to create a collaborative team, and the value of keeping your workforce both well-grounded and well-rounded. Drawing on years of real-world experience as both a theatre artist and a theatre administrator, Phil provides the strategies that will allow you to connect with your team and thus transform your organization.
Take the Stage – Like a Broadway Star
The ultimate success of every business depends on their ability to communicate effectively and connect honestly with people, whether those are their customers or their employees. In this interactive discussion, Phil provides you with the skills he learned from his 35-year career in theatre, which you can immediately use to create stronger connections with people, clearly articulate your story, and walk your stage with confidence. Take the Stage will transform the way you think, the way you work, and the way you live.
Play Hard – Have Fun: A Philosophy That Will Change Your Life
Fun is not a 4-letter word: We have a problem with fun today. We tend to think of it merely as the emotion of having a good time on a Friday night. But real fun—serious fun—is much more than that. Phil shares his philosophy that fun centers on doing meaningful work well; and that a richer, longer-lasting, more fulfilling experience of fun happens during a great performance and a great performance is the result of the effort put into its preparation.
Special Programs
Leadership Lessons Shared From the Piano
Phil shares leadership lessons through this inventive presentation of Broadway songs and stories. Learn how A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum almost closed before it opened because it didn’t tell the right story. Learn how in South Pacific, Rodgers and Hammerstein II stood up for the humanity of people. Learn how Stephen Sondheim would tailor his creations to the talents of his team. And learn so much more. By the end of the program, you’ll be humming a new leadership tune.
PLEASE NOTE: a piano is required for this presentation.
Gateway: Coming to America
Phil performs his powerful 45-minute one-person show that shares the lives of immigrants as they made the harrowing journey to a place they’d only heard about—dreamed about: America. Set in 1907, Phil plays Wilhelm Brenner, an apprentice at a print shop from Grindelwald, Switzerland, who gives up everything he has for the dream of a better life in Sheboygan, Wisconsin. Along the way he meets Rosa Milazzo, a young Italian girl on her way to Des Moines, Iowa to marry a friend of her fathers, Jacob and Rebecca Jenofski, Russian Jews escaping the pogroms, Hans Jurgenson from Norway, a boy with a heart of an artist but a body that is broken, and many more. Touching and humorous, Phil demonstrates his great skill at storytelling, weaving all these stories together in a moving tribute to the people that made this great country. The Star Herald of Scottsbluff, Nebraska said: “I laughed. I cried. I felt so many emotions.”ore.
