Storyteller across stage, page, and studio

R. S. Francis

Writing, performing, directing, design — I've spent two decades learning to shape stories for audiences from every angle. Fiction lets me combine those skills to deliver worlds a reader can fully inhabit.

I'm Robert, 35. I grew up in Alabama and California and studied at Duke University, where I spent much of my time performing with the student-run musical theatre group Hoof 'n' Horn. I later earned an MBA in Entertainment, Media, and Technology from New York University. After building a career on the business side of entertainment — Disney Theatrical, AMC Networks, and Prime Video — I'm now pursuing fiction from the creative side. I live in Brooklyn with my future husband and our dog.

Read about the novel See the work

The Novel · In Query

Beyond the Stormsea

An adult epic fantasy — character-led, warm, and wonder-forward. Complete at 119,000 words, standalone with a planned trilogy.

A failed scholar signs on to chronicle a voyage no one has survived — the crossing of the storm at the edge of the world.

Beyond it, what he finds rewrites everything he was taught, and forces him to unlearn what he believed about his empire, the laws of nature, and himself. Now the powers around him all want his record to tell their version of events — and he must decide whose history his pen will serve.

On & Behind the Stage

Theatre

Roughly thirty productions across two decades — as a performer, director, writer, scenic designer, and costumer. Theatre taught me to build a story from every angle, and to love the collaboration it takes to bring one to an audience.

Les MisérablesWest Side StoryInto the WoodsSpring AwakeningCabaretLittle Shop of HorrorsA Little Night MusicRagtimeRENTCatsAvenue QThe ProducersNext to NormalAidaGodspellReefer MadnessSpelling BeeThe Odd CoupleArsenic and Old LaceOf Mice and MenDamn YankeesThe Miracle WorkerParadeLegally BlondeThe Drowsy ChaperoneBeauty and the BeastThe Lion KingSound of MusicJoseph… DreamcoatLes MisérablesWest Side StoryInto the WoodsSpring AwakeningCabaretLittle Shop of HorrorsA Little Night MusicRagtimeRENTCatsAvenue QThe ProducersNext to NormalAidaGodspellReefer MadnessSpelling BeeThe Odd CoupleArsenic and Old LaceOf Mice and MenDamn YankeesThe Miracle WorkerParadeLegally BlondeThe Drowsy ChaperoneBeauty and the BeastThe Lion KingSound of MusicJoseph… Dreamcoat

Les Misérables, performer as Marius — Les MisérablesPerformer — Marius

Cabaret, directing, costumes and scenic design — CabaretDirection · Costume & Scenic Design

Original parody musical, writing and directing — Original Parody MusicalWriting & Direction

Ragtime, performer — RagtimePerformer — Younger Brother

Spring Awakening, costumes, photography and graphic design — Spring AwakeningCostume · Photography & Graphic Design

A Little Night Music, performer — A Little Night MusicPerformer — Henrik Egerman

Performer Director Playwright / Book Scenic Design Costume Design Graphic Design Show Photography

Full production history · 30 productions

Les MisérablesMarius · Children's Director
West Side StoryTony
Little Shop of HorrorsSeymour Krelborn · Asst. Director, Puppet Design
Into the WoodsJack · Graphic Design
A Little Night MusicHenrik Egerman
Spring AwakeningErnst · Costumes, Graphic Design, Film
CabaretDirector · Scenic & Costume Design
RagtimeYounger Brother
CatsSkimbleshanks · Wig Design
Avenue QNicky · Graphic Design
The ProducersCarmen Ghia
The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling BeeLeaf Coneybear · Co-Producer
Next to NormalDan · Director
RENTSteve / Waiter / Ensemble
Reefer MadnessJimmy Harper
Godspell“All Good Gifts” Soloist
AidaEnsemble / Male Swing · Graphic Design
The Odd CoupleFelix
Arsenic and Old LaceDr. Einstein
Of Mice and MenCurly
Damn YankeesSohovik / Featured Dancer · Asst. Director
The Miracle WorkerJames Keller
Sound of MusicKurt
Beauty and the Beast (parody)Lumière · Director, Writer
The Lion King (parody)Simba · Writer
Joseph… Dreamcoat“One More Angel” Brother · Children's Director
Joseph… DreamcoatBenjamin
Legally Blonde the MusicalScenic & Graphic Design
The Drowsy ChaperoneGraphic Design, Film Editing
ParadeGraphic Design, Photography

Range on the Page

Writing Beyond the Novel

A few personal projects in other forms — a children's series, a stage musical, a screenplay. None is published or produced, and none is a lane I'm pursuing; I include them simply as examples of range — the same storytelling instinct working in whatever shape an idea asks for.

Children's Picture Books

The Cousin Club

A self-printed picture-book series for ages 2–5, made as gifts for my nieces and nephews, in which young cousins use their imaginations to turn ordinary objects into whole fantasy worlds. Each book is a self-contained adventure with a warm arc ending in family togetherness — the kids drive the story, the grown-ups stay in the background. The voice is dual-audience: a whimsical read-aloud in a simplified Dahl register, with sly asides for the caregivers that sail right over the kids' heads. Every new book hands the magic to another cousin.

Stage Musical

The Irish Rover

A jukebox musical woven from the great Irish folk songbook. Danny McCann is a musician going nowhere — stuck behind the bar of his mother's New York Irish pub, pouring pints for the regulars who've been there since before he was born. When a charismatic touring singer offers him a way out, he takes it. Thirty years earlier, his mother Mary made her own escape from a dead-end life in rural Ireland — alone and pregnant, with nothing but a guitar and nerve. The farther Danny runs, the clearer her story becomes, and in leaving home he discovers what she was really building all those years behind the bar: not just a pub, but a home for people who didn't have one.

Animated Musical · Screenplay

Faerietale

An animated musical retelling of the Irish legend of Oisín — here Osheen — and his journey to Tír na nÓg, the Land of Eternal Youth. The harp-playing son of a legendary warrior, Osheen fails to become the fighter his father expects and instead follows the fairy princess Neve across the western sea to a realm where time stands still. But beneath its endless spring, Tír na nÓg is withering under a king terrified of change, and a trickster goddess has twisted an ancient prophecy to seize power. To save Neve, her kingdom, and his own chance of returning home before centuries pass, Osheen must enter a race for the faerie throne — and discover that the songs his father dismissed may be the truest heroism he has.