Writer
Playwright, Lyricist, Gamemaker
Mythic Thunderlute is an actual-play Dungeons and Dragons podcast-turned-musical. Michael Doherty dungeon masters a game played by musical theatre performers Jake Blouch, Steve Gudelunas, Lillian Castillo, and Leigha Kato. Then the songwriting and production team of Dan Kazemi, Jake Blouch, Michael Doherty, and Alex Keiper turn gameplay moments into songs and add sound effects and underscoring.
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In 2024, Michael was hired to be a part of an American songwriting team to write children’s music for the popular South Korean animated series, Tish Tash.
In 2012, Michael teamed up with friend and roommates Alex Bechtel and Greg Nix to create a Philadelphia Fringe show entitled Jeff Coon and Ben Dibble Must Die, a satire about freelance art-making and the Philly theatre scene. The show was a hit, and the trio used the proceeds from the run to create a 20-minute pilot presentation of their material entitled Los Jarochos, which won Best Writing at the 2012 Independent TV Festival.
Denis Dumas, PhD
Educational Psychology
LEARNING IN THE ARTS
A Handbook of Research on Learning Instruction
Michael Doherty
Actor, Researcher
From 2017 to 2024, Michael collaborated with quantitative psychologist and friend Denis Dumas to conduct research on actors. By measuring personality traits, and convergent and divergent thinking, the research team was able to determine what makes actors’ minds different from non-actors, namely higher levels of extraversion, openness, assertiveness, elaboration, and interest in other creative activities. Professional actors were distinguished from student actors by higher levels of originality, volatility, and literary activities.