School of Music, Theatre
and Dance

Varner Hall, Room 207
371 Varner Drive
Rochester, MI 48309-4485
(location map)
Academic Office: (248) 370-2030
Box Office: (248) 370-3013
Fax: (248) 370-2041
[email protected]

Dana Gamarra

A black and white head shot of Dana Gamarra.
Lecturer, Theatre

Contact:  [email protected]


Dana Gamarra (Adjunct Stage Management Professor) has stage managed in the Detroit Metropolitan area for over twenty five years. He has worked with the Gem/Century Theatre’s on such productions as Forbidden Broadway, The All Night Strut, I Love You, You’re Perfect, Now Change, and Beehive, Menopause the Musical. Dana has stage managed at The Purple Rose Theatre from the first production, Blush at Nothing, to more recently, Under Ceege Sherlock Holmes and the Adventure of the Ghost Machine, Pickleball, &  Jeff Daniels Live & Unplugged. He also toured with Jeff around the country for live performances. For the past seventeen years, Dana had been teaching at Wayne State University where he had the opportunity to mentor and teach Graduate and Undergraduates stage managers and was Production Coordinator and Area Head for both the Graduate and Undergraduate Stage Management Departments at Wayne State University. From his humble beginnings of stage managing at the University of Detroit, Greenfield Village/Henry Ford Museum to taking on the position of Assistant Director and the Director of Entertainment at the Michigan Renaissance Festival to being a part of opening new theatres in the southeastern Michigan, from The  Heartlande Theatre Company, The Purple Rose Theatre Company, The Gem Theatre to the current Hilberry Gateway Theatre’s, he has been truly blessed to be doing what he loves and doing it here at home in Michigan the entire time. Dana has had the awesome opportunity to teach (part time) his introduction to stage management class at Oakland University for the past eight years. He is pleased to bring his expertise to the Varner, Hilberry, Bonstelle, Studio and Maggie Allesee Dance Studio Theatres, and is thrilled to be working with The Purple Rose to continue the tradition of great theatre and dance in southeastern Michigan. Dana is a very proud member of Actor’s Equity Association where he had been the Liaison Chair for over twenty years. Lastly, he cannot express enough words for the love he has for his wife Karen, and his girls Katalyn, Natalie and Rosalie!!!