Meet the Company 2024 - Michael and Luke

As we excitedly await Opening Night of the 2024 Red Barn Summer Theatre season, we would like you to know a bit about the people you’ll be seeing on the stage this year. We’ll start off our season series with two men you may already know, continue to announce who else is returning this year and then introduce you to our brand-new company members for 2024.

A man who needs no introduction to most of you, MICHAEL TAYLOR returns in 2024 for his eighth year as the Red Barn’s Artistic Director. Originally from Fishers, Michael is a graduate of Ball State University. He first worked at the Barn in 1998 and, except for five years, has been here since then. An accomplished actor, Michael has played dozens of characters, both at the Red Barn and elsewhere, including Lenny in Rumors and Stanley Kowalski in A Streetcar Named Desire. A published playwright, screenwriter and filmmaker, Michael spends his winters as the Director of Theatre at Frankfort High School, where he is currently co-directing the musical Guys ‘n’ Dolls, featuring a cast of students from both Frankfort and Clinton Prairie high schools.

An equally familiar face, both on stage and in the parking lot, is LUKE McLAUGHLIN, Assistant Artistic Director. Luke is a graduate of Frankfort High School and a 2014 graduate of Ball State University where he earned degrees in theatrical directing and digital film production. This will be Luke’s eleventh season as a company member. You may remember him in such roles as Pseudolus in A Funny Thing Happened On The Way To The Forum, Oscar in The Odd Couple, Mayor Dobbs in Bright Star and last season as Bernard in Boeing Boeing. Luke teaches Language Arts and Theatre at Clinton Prairie Junior/Senior High School and is the co-director of the Clinton Prairie + Frankfort production of Guys ‘n’ Dolls.

Writers, actors, set designers, directors, set builders and producers, Michael and Luke are also out front most evenings, directing traffic into the Barn parking lot, greeting patrons as they arrive at the Red Barn. Multi-talented and hardworking, these two pour their blood, sweat, and tears into the Barn year after year, and we are so thankful for their dedication.