Composer, lyricist and dramatist Charles Gilbert is a writer, director, composer and educator who specializes in the musical theater. Currently Professor of Theater Arts and Head of the Musical Theater Program at The University of the Arts in Philadelphia, Gilbert has worked with National Music Theater Network, Prince Music Theater (formerly the American Music Theater Festival), Gretna Theater, Delaware Theater Company, Opera Delaware, Covered Bridge Theater and other professional theaters as director or musical director for a variety of musical productions.

Among his credits as a writer and composer is the 1979 musical Assassins, source of the idea for the Stephen Sondheim musical which premiered in New York in 1991. His musical B.G.D.F. was seen in New York in 1983 in a showcase starring Gregg Edelman. His children's musical A Is For Anything, commissioned by the Delaware Institute for the Arts in Education, has been performed nearly a hundred times for thousands of children in Pennsylvania, New York and Delaware, and was selected as a finalist in the Buxton Quest for New Musicals in 1992. His cabaret revue Watch The Birdie was performed at Don't Tell Mama in New York and The Actors Center in Philadelphia in 1993 ("Gilbert's music is versatile... sharp, perceptive lyrics..." Keating, Philadelphia Inquirer), and a revised version was presented at the Philadelphia Arts Banks and the Douglas Fairbanks Theater in 1998. A reading of his current work-in-progress, Realities, was presented in the fall of 1996 ("sophisticated music and complex lyrics which reveal character and advance the story... a considerable accomplishment..." Mullinax, Wilmington News Journal).

Gilbert holds an MFA in Directing from Carnegie Mellon University and is a former member of the BMI Musical Theater Workshop. He was awarded an Individual Artist Fellowship (Established Professional category) from the Delaware Division of the Arts in 1984.