Fall 2013 UC Davis Granada Artist-in-Residence Stafford Arima was nominated for an Olivier Award for his direction of the West End premiere of Ragtime. Other work includes: Carrie (nominated for an Outer Critics Award for Outstanding Revival of a Musical, and five Drama Desk Awards including Outstanding Revival of a Musical, MCC Theater); Allegiance (nominated for six Craig Noel Awards including Outstanding Direction of a Musical; awarded Outstanding New Musical, The Old Globe); Altar Boyz (Best Off-Broadway Musical Outer Critics Circle Award and was nominated for seven Drama Desk Awards); bare (2012, Off-Broadway); The Tin Pan Alley Rag (nominated for an Outer Critics Circle Award as Outstanding Off-Broadway Musical, Roundabout Theatre Company); Jacques Brel is Alive and Well and Living in Paris (Stratford Shakespeare Festival); Candide (San Francisco Symphony); Ace (The Old Globe); The Secret Garden (World AIDS Day benefit concert, NYC); Bright Lights, Big City (Prince Music Theater); A Tribute to Stephen Sondheim (Boston Pops); My Mother’s Lesbian Jewish Wiccan Wedding (NYMF 2010 Award for Excellence in Direction and Most Promising Musical, NYMF); The Princess and the Black-Eyed Pea ,nominated for three NAACP Theatre Awards, San Diego Rep); Total Eclipse (Toronto); Children’s Letters to God (Off-Broadway); and Bowfire (PBS television special).

Arima also served as associate director for the Broadway productions of Seussical and A Class Act. He serves on the faculty of the Broadway Dreams Foundation, and studied at York University in Toronto where he was the recipient of the Dean’s Prize for Excellence in Creative Work.

As UC Davis Granada Artist-in-Residence, Arima directed Spring Awakening with book and lyrics by Steven Sater and music by Duncan Sheik. The eight-time Tony Award-winning Broadway musical is based on Frank Wedekind’s play of the same name and concerns teenage discovery of sexuality. It played in Main Theatre November 21 through December 7, 2013.