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Aaron Thielen

Aaron Thielen

Adjunct Instructor | Bolz Center for Arts Administration
3342 Grainger Hall

About Aaron

Prior to joining the Bolz Center for Arts Administration staff, Aaron worked professionally as an arts leader, director, choreographer, writer, and for 17 years as the Artistic Director at the Marriott Theatre in Chicago IL. The Marriott Theatre is a for-profit theater that produces musicals with a focus on creating and developing new musicals. During his time at Marriott, he wrote multiple award-winning musicals including the book for October Sky the musical (The Marriott Theatre & The Old Globe) and had its international premiere in October ’21 in Tokyo and Osaka, Japan. He wrote the book for the multi-Jeff Award-winning HERO the musical (The Marriott Theatre & Asolo Rep) that is being produced in early 2025 by Toho, INC. in Tokyo, created the stage adaptation of For The Boys, for 20th Century Fox, and was tasked by Andrew Llyod Webber to develop a new musical review of his work titled Now And Forever. Some of his directing credits include Spring Awakening (Chicago and International), Darling Grenadine, She Loves Me, Oklahoma! Spelling Bee…(International), the 30th anniversary concert of HAIR! in Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina.

Aaron earned his master’s degree from The University of Wisconsin-Madison Bolz Center for Arts Administration. In 2018 he was asked by the US State Department to develop an arts educational outreach program in Bosnia and Herzegovina. That experience led to the creation of Broadway Across Borders, a not-for-profit arts organization that builds international and cross-cultural collaborations through musical theatre performance that create a shared understanding of humanity by cultivating and connecting emerging artists across borders and empowering their artistic and social entrepreneurship. He also served as a board member of the National Alliance for Musical Theatre based in NYC for six years and continues committee work for the organization.