Brian Patrick Friel was an Irish dramatist, short story writer and founder of the Field Day Theatre Company. He had been considered one of the greatest living English-language dramatists. He has been described as "the universally accented voice of Ireland”. His plays have been compared favourably to those of contemporaries such as Samuel Beckett, Arthur Miller, Harold Pinter and Tennessee Williams. He first gained international recognition with his play PHILADELPHIA, HERE I COME in 1964. Over a career that spanned more than five decades he created an extensive body of work including TRANSLATIONS, FAITH HEALER, ARISTOCRATS, and the widely acclaimed DANCING AT LUGHNASA.

Since being named TAP’s co-artistic director in 2011, Bob’s Third Avenue Playhouse directing credits have included The Subject Was Roses, Souvenir, The Santaland Diaries, Love Letters, Greater Tuna, This Wonderful Life, Talley’s Folly, Private Lives, Oleanna, Educating Rita, Sylvia, A Walk In The Woods, Isaac’s Eye, The Gin Game, True West, Red, Every Brilliant Thing, Jacob Marley’s Christmas Carol, Gray’s Anatomy, Lungs, and Billy Bishop Goes to War. Acting credits at TAP include The House of Blue Leaves, Yuletide Tales, and The Fantasticks. For StageKids (TAP’s educational outreach program), he has directed productions of columbinus, Our Town, The Laramie Project, Sure Thing, Adaptation, Hello Out There, and The Fifteen Minute Hamlet – all featuring middle and high school students from throughout Door County. Bob is a member of Actors Equity, Dramatists Guild, Society of Directors and Choreographers, and the Screen Actors Guild.