Daniel Rover Singer has passed away. This comes after a nearly year and a half long battle with cancer. The production of The Complete Works of William Shakespeare (Abridged) announced the news. Throughout his life, Daniel was a performer, director, writer, designer, producer, educator, and Imagineer.

Singer grew up in Santa Rosa, California. He lived a very rural life but was obsessed with Disney. He shared in an interview with Voyage LA that he saw Mary Poppins three times when it was released. He also listened to the soundtrack countless times. As a child, he also spent time with coloring books, puppets, and Disney shows on TV. He was a very creative child who was eventually encouraged by his mother to explore the world of theater. This would turn out to be life-changing. ” I spent my adolescence developing as a performer, writer, director, designer, stage manager, and fan of theatrical arts,” Singer shared. After high school at the age of 17, he created General Amazement Theater and, with it, produced three productions with other former students.

He went to school in 1979 at the Guildford School of Acting in London, England. After two years, he returned to California. He found a job as the director for the Living History Centre, creator of the original Renaissance Pleasure Faire and Dickens Christmas Fair. This proved to be a breeding ground for creativity for Singer. In 1981, he debuted a half-hour version of Hamlet. This proved to be incredibly popular. It also led to the birth of the Reduced Shakespeare Company. This eventually became a three-man comedy team with Jess Winfield and Adam Long. Singer shared that “We took the Edinburgh Fringe Festival by storm in 1987 with The Complete Works of William Shakespeare (Abridged), which to our great surprise went on to become one of the world’s most popular comedy shows.” Ultimately, the Complete Works had a record-breaking 9-year run on London’s West End (1995-2004).

After launching the Reduced Shakespeare Company, Singer became a model-maker at Walt Disney Imagineering. This was the “culmination of a lifelong goal, harking back to my watching Walt on his Sunday evening TV show as he giddily wandered around the Disney workshop to see what fabulous new adventures they were planning next at Disneyland.” In this role, he helped create attractions for Disney theme parks around the world. He worked on two Splash Mountains and two Toontowns while at Imagineering. He carved trees, rocks, and hills. He also created a 1”=1’ scale model of Roger Rabbit’s Car Toon Spin. He said that the attraction ended up being “so exactly like the finished product that photos of the model and photos of the ride are indistinguishable from each other.” His time at Imagineering also included his help with founding the Flower Street Players. This is an in-house theater company for employees that would donate the funds it raised to charity.

After 12 years, Singer left Disney. He joined Thinkwell and built models for their Warner Brothers World theme park in Abu Dhabi. He went on to become a freelancer and eventually founded a pirate band called QuarterMaster. Through the years, he also produced parties and wrote multiple plays. He said of his life, “My goals have always revolved around making life seem less mundane and more magical through immersive art, performance, and imaginative social experiences.

Daniel Rover Singer is survived by his husband, Cal.

Daniel Rover Singer Announcement

It is with unbearable sadness that we inform our amazing fandom that Complete Works co-author Daniel Rover Singer has passed away after a nearly year and a half long battle with cancer. 

It was 45 years ago this summer that Daniel stood up on the Inn Yard stage at the Renaissance Pleasure Faire North and, in his resonant baritone, announced auditions for a half hour version of Hamlet — and changed the course of theater history.

The combination of kindness, gentle subversiveness, humor, boundless energy, spontaneity, and an infectious love of fun that were his personal attributes were also the foundations of The Reduced Shakespeare Company and of The Complete Works of William Shakespeare (abridged) — both much imitated, but never equaled.

Our sincere condolences to his uncountable friends and admirers, and most especially to his loving and beloved partner, Cal.

Complete Works of William Shakespeare – Abridged