Christopher P. Nichols is a fourth-generation Dallasite. Almost all of his educational training has been in Texas, first in the Dallas and Richardson public schools and then at the University of North Texas, where he earned a bachelor’s degree in speech and drama and a teaching certificate. His graduate work was at Southern Methodist University (SMU), where he received a master’s degree in professional stage direction. Nichols later studied in England in an advanced theatre studies program. In the ’60s, he taught in Bogota, Colombia, and in the Dallas Independent School District (DISD), where he taught speech, theatre, English and Spanish. In 1972, he joined the staff at SMU’s professional theatre training program. After graduating in 1974, he founded The New Arts Theatre Company, a professional regional theatre. During those years, he directed 30 plays and administered the theatre company. In 1984, he left The New Arts Theatre Company and directed six more plays as a professional freelancer before returning to Dallas and DeSoto Public Schools to teach theatre. In the ’90s, Nichols ran the theatre programs at Grayson College and El Centro College. He retired from teaching in 2006, with his last years of teaching theatre at North Dallas High School. During the last 15 years, Nichols has written 10 plays, two of which are published by Dramatic Publishing and are produced all around the country. Throughout his adult life, he has been interested in photography, specializing in theatrical photography and keeping a record of every production he directed or produced. He has made two 16-millimeter documentaries, one of a rock-pop festival in 1969 and the other a film for the Department of Education named Chile and Its People. Nichols currently lives and writes in Dallas with his wife, Libby, and his son, Perry Brooks, who is a talented painter and musician.
