A chapter by Associate Dean of Performing Arts Services Dean Adams appears in The Oxford Handbook of Musical Theatre Screen Adaptations, published this month by Oxford University Press. The book, edited by Dominic McHugh, traces how the genre of the stage-to-screen musical has evolved since the early decades of sound film. Adams's chapter, "The Producers and Hairspray: The Hazards and Rewards of Recursive Adaptation," looks at two more recent musical adaptations.
As a producer and director, Adams has presented or co-produced productions with Hartford Stage, Parsons Dance Company, MOMIX, Pilobolus, Cirque de la Symphonie, Hartford Symphony, Hubbard Street Dance Chicago, The National Theatre of the Deaf, and the Emerson String Quartet. He directed and designed a touring production of Once Upon a Mattress, the first musical ever to tour the People's Republic of China (chronicled in the PBS documentary Beyond the Wall) in 1987.