American Theatre Artists Online

Ann Harada is an actor and singer, probably best known for originating the role of Christmas Eve, in the Tony Award winning Broadway musical Avenue Q. In a career spanning more than three decades, Harada has also appeared on Broadway in M. Butterfly, Seussical, Les Miserables, 9 To 5 and Cinderella, as well as in many Off-Broadway and regional productions including at City Center's Encores!, Playwrights Horizons, The Papermill Playhouse and The Muny. She most recently starred Off-Broadway in Fairycakes by Douglas Carter Beane. Television audiences might know her best as Florence Menlove, the wife of the Mayor (played by Alan Cumming) in the hit musical spoof Schmigadoon! on Apple TV+ starring Cecily Strong and Keegan-Michael Key.  

Suli Holum is a theatre artist whose work has been supported by the Orchard Project, Actors Theatre of Louisville, Playwrights Horizons, New Dramatists, the Playwright's Center, The Ground Floor at Berkeley Rep, and HERE, and presented by FringeArts, The Public Theatre/UTR, La Jolla Playhouse, Center Theatre Group, Z Space and The Gate in London.  As a member of Philadelphia's Wilma Hothouse she has appeared in Romeo and Juliet and Dance Nation. Other acting projects include Sweat at Philadelphia Theatre Company, On the Exhale at Theatre Exile, The Few at Theatre Horizon, and Cabaret at the Arden, and an appearance on HBO's Mare of Eastown. As a writer and director, she is a longtime collaborator with choreographer Nichole Canuso and has developed commissions for the National Constitution Center and the Institute on Disabilities at Temple University. A founding member of Pig Iron Theatre Company, she went on to co-found Stein | Holum Projects with Deborah Stein where she co-created and performed the Drama Desk-nominated Chimera, and The Wholehearted.  She recently launched Suli Holum/The Work, a Philadelphia-based incubator for live performance. A recipient of a Drama Desk Award, a TCG/Fox Resident Actor Fellowship, and a Barrymore Award, she is currently pursuing her MFA in Creative Writing at Goddard College where she was the recipient of the 2020 Engaged Artist Award.

Ryan Duncan has performed on Broadway in Shrek and Gettin' the Band Back Together (for which he wrote additional material) with Marilu Henner. He has also performed in many Off-Broadway productions including Liberty, The Yellow Brick Road, Nassim, Soul Doctor, and he originated the role of "Juan" in the now international hit, Altar Boyz, for which he earned a Drama League Nomination for Distinguished Performance. He has also appeared at various regional theatres, especially in the DC area, like Ford's Theatre, Signature Theatre and Studio Theatre and he has toured nationally and performed in both film and television. Ryan works for Only Make Believe, a non-profit that provides theatrical experiences to kids in hospitals (for which he's translated shows into Spanish), as well as Mursion, one of the fastest growing American companies, which fosters social skills, diversity, equity, and inclusion, and empathy through online virtual reality. He is in development with the Broadway-aimed shows Distant Thunder, a contemporary Native American musical by Shaun Taylor-Corbett, and Passing Through. Ryan also wrote the twistedly funny holiday musical A Gander Family Christmas

Marcia Milgrom Dodge is a Tony Award nominated Director, Choreographer and Writer, whose work has been seen throughout the US, in Canada, England, Asia, Denmark and the Middle East, on Broadway, Off-Broadway, and at acclaimed regional theatres such as the New York City Opera, The Kennedy Center, Arena Stage, Goodman Theatre, Denver Center Theatre Company, Glimmerglass Festival, La Jolla Playhouse, Pittsburgh Public Theatre and many more. She received the Tony Award nomination for Directing for the 2009 Revival of Ragtime on Broadway and is one of just a handful of women who have climbed the ranks as successful and commercially viable theatre director/choreographers. She is currently directing a new revival of Disney's Beauty and the Beast that as she puts it “really challenges each of us to look around the room with an equitable lens in which all races, ethnicities, body shapes and abilities can be identified and celebrated.”

Rashad V. Chambers is an award winning producer, talent manager and lawyer. His Broadway producing credits include American Son, Ain't Too Proud – The Life and Times of The Temptations, Betrayal, The Inheritance and Caroline, or Change. A licensed attorney in New York and Connecticut, Rashad is the Founder and President of Esquire Entertainment.  He recently produced Little Girl Blue: The Nina Simone Musical in association with Goodspeed Musicals as well as the world premiere of It Happened In Key West in London. Rashad attended Morehouse College where he graduated magna cum laude with a Bachelor of Arts degree in Business Administration. He also earned his JD and MBA degrees from The Ohio State University. Rashad is a board member of On Broadway Performing Arts Training Program and Houses on the Moon Theater Company.

Kate Reinders is an actor and singer who has appeared in multiple stage and screen projects. On Broadway she originated the role of Portia in Something Rotten!, played Cynthia Weil in Beautiful: The Carole King Musical, and appeared in Meteor Shower, The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, Good Vibrations, the 2002 revival of Into The Woods, the 2003 revival of Gypsy and in Wicked, where she replaced Megan Hilty as Glinda. Kate has also appeared Off Broadway, and at various regional theatres across the country. Young audiences may know her best for her TV appearances, especially her portrayal of Miss Jenn in High School Musical: The Musical: The Series now streaming on Disney+. I interviewed this week's guest live during the Keynote presentation of the Virginia Theatre Association (VTA) conference online. VTA is one of the largest statewide theatre associations in the country and is the central resource for connecting, creating, cultivating and advocating for practitioners of theatre in the Commonwealth of Virginia.  For more information about VTA or to donate, please go to virginiatheatre.org  

James Seol is currently appearing in Come From Away on Broadway where he last appeared in A Naked Girl on the Appian Way at Roundabout Theatre Company. He has appeared Off-Broadway in KPOP receiving a Lucille Lortel nomination as Outstanding Lead Actor, and in Ten (Second Generation) and The Long Season at The Public Theater. James has also appeared at some of the most prestigious regional theatres across the country including The Papermill Playhouse, The American Conservatory Theatre, Steppenwolf, Goodspeed, Shakespeare Santa Cruz, Hartford Stage and The Shakespeare Theatre Company and Woolly Mammoth Theatre Company in Washington, DC. You may have also seen James on television in The Flight Attendant on HBO Max, and in Living With Yourself on Netflix. He is a graduate of The Juilliard School Drama Division and The University of Virginia.

Kathy Voytko made her Broadway debut in the original cast of the 2002 revival of Oklahoma! directed by Trevor Nunn and she was in the Tony Award-winning Nine starring Antonio Banderas and Chita Rivera. She originated the role of Ariadne in Stephen Sondheim's The Frogs opposite Nathan Lane at Lincoln Center and her other Broadway credits include The Pirate Queen, the Pulitzer Prize-winning Next To Normal, the 2014 Tony Award-winner for best musical A Gentlemen's Guide to Love and Murder and the original Broadway cast of Tuck Everlasting. Kathy toured the United States as Christine in The Phantom of the Opera and as Eva Peron in the 25th anniversary tour of Evita, working with legendary director/producer Hal Prince on both projects. She is often a soloist for symphonies and concerts around the world and she has performed at Carnegie Hall, the Royal Albert Hall in London as well as in Mexico and Canada.    Kathy has also played leading roles at various regional theatres across the country including Clara in Passion, Fantine in Les Miserables, Fiona in Brigadoon, Polly in Crazy For You and Francesca in The Bridges of Madison County.  She is a two-time recipient of Chicago's Joseph Jefferson Award for Best Actress in a Musical. She received a BFA in Music/Theatre from Shenandoah Conservatory.  She will be appearing next in the upcoming Broadway revival of The Music Man, where she will be performing in the ensemble, and understudying Sutton Foster.

Eric Jordan Young is an accomplished Producer, Director, Choreographer, Entertainer, Playwright and Songwriter. He has appeared on Broadway in Ragtime ('98 and '09 revival), Chicago, Seussical, and The Look of Love, as well as Off-Broadway, in national tours and for various regional theatres. Eric has also performed with several Symphonies throughout the country and the New York Pops at Carnegie Hall. His solo album Once In A Lifetime, was produced by his company EnJoY! Productions and his one-man musical Sammy & Me is the winner of the ArtVoice and Salt Awards. Eric served as the Resident Director of Baz (Venetian/Palazzo) and loves working as a Creative Director for original projects including Renegades at Caesars Palace and Drag Supper Club.  Eric is currently the Associate Director for the Norwegian Cruise Line production of Footloose and the recent production of Rock of Ages in Hollywood, CA.

Geno Carr is a professional actor, singer, director and educator who starred in the Tony Award-winning musical Come From Away on Broadway. He starred Off-Broadway in the musical satire Bush Wars and has been seen in the national tours of Grease, Phantom and The Buddy Holly Story. He has appeared in leading roles in numerous plays and musicals regionally at The Old Globe, Merry-Go-Round Playhouse, Lyric Opera San Diego, Maine Shakespeare Festival, Heritage Theatre Festival and many others. In addition to having served for two years as Assistant Professor of Theatre and Resident Artist at Stephens College in Columbia, MO, he has also taught at MiraCosta College in Oceanside, CA and currently serves on the Theatre Arts faculty at Grossmont College in San Diego, CA.  He is a summa cum laude graduate of Hartwick College with a dual BA in Music and Theatre Arts, holds an MFA in Theatre from Sarah Lawrence College and is a proud member of Actors Equity Association and the Stage Directors and Choreographers Society.

Priyanka Shetty is an award-winning actor, director, and playwright heralded by the New York Times as someone to watch. Her critically acclaimed one-woman show The Elephant in the Room has been performed at numerous venues across the country including The Kennedy Center and will be staged at the 2022 Edinburgh Fringe as part of the Assembly Festival. Priyanka made her Off-Broadway debut with her second solo play #Charlottesville at the Drama Desk award-winning 59E59 Theaters' “East to Edinburgh” Festival in July 2021. She was also handpicked for the prestigious Kennedy Center Playwriting Intensive 2021, where she further developed The Wall, the final play in her triptych of solos. Priyanka earned a Master of Fine Arts in Acting from the University of Virginia and has served on the faculty of the University of Virginia's Department of Drama.

Matthew Gardiner is the newly appointed Artistic Director of the Tony Award winning Signature Theatre. The Washington Post has called him “One of the top young musical-theater directors in the land.” At Signature, Gardiner has directed or choregraphed over 25 productions including revivals of classic and contemporary musicals, new works, and world premieres and of course many musicals by Stephen Sondheim, as part of Signature's special commitment to producing the great master's work. Over the past year, amid a global pandemic that has made live performance nearly impossible, Matthew has worked to ensure Signature continues to engage audiences with bold and exciting new online content, while also actively working to expand its reach. Matthew is the recipient of three Helen Hayes Awards for Outstanding Director of a Musical and has been honored with over a dozen nominations. He holds a BFA in Directing from Carnegie Mellon University and is a member of the Stage Directors and Choreographers Society.

Award winning Broadway veteran Florence Lacey holds the world record for the most performances of Eva Peron in Evita, having played the role on Broadway, national tours & several international tours. She has also starred in Broadway productions of The Grand Tour, Hello Dolly, Les Miserables and the most recent Tony nominated revival of Follies. Her professional career in musical theater around the world spans four decades and many thousands of performances and she has shared the stage with such Broadway legends as Carol Channing, Joel Grey and Bernadette Peters. She is also a well known star of many regional theatres across the country, having performed dozens of lead roles including Norma Desmond in Sunset Boulevard, Sally Durant Plumer in Follies and Madame Armfeldt in A Little Night Music at the Tony Award winning Signature Theatre and appearing in Sunday In The Park with George at The Kennedy Center.

Pomme Koch played the role of Itzik in the ten-time Tony Award winning musical The Band's Visit, both on Broadway and on the 1st national tour. He has appeared Off-Broadway and at many regional theatres across the country including La Jolla Playhouse, A.C.T. in San Francisco, Shakespeare Theatre Company, Baltimore Symphony Orchestra, Theatre Calgary, and others. You may have also seen him on TV in “House of Cards” and “Blue Bloods”. He's spent the pandemic serving as a delegate in Actors' Equity Association and working on arts-labor policies for the upcoming New York City mayoral election. Originally hailing from the San Francisco Bay Area, he studied theatre and political science at the University of Michigan and lived in D.C. before settling in New York.

Thom Sesma has numerous Broadway, Off-Broadway, TV and film appearances to his credit, including The Times They Are a Changin, Man of La Mancha and La Cage Aux Folles. Some recent highlights include the title role in the off-Broadway revival of Sweeney Todd and a Lucille Lortel nominated performance in Pacific Overtures at Classic Stage Company, as well as the world premiere of Tom Kitt and John Logan's Superhero at Second Stage and Ibsen's Ghosts with Uma Thurman at Williamstown Theatre Festival. His most recent live theatre performance was in Michael Friedman's Unknown Soldier which opened on March 9, 2020 off-Broadway at Playwrights Horizons. Three days later live theatre was suspended due to the COVID19 pandemic and since then he's accumulated many remote live-stream virtual credits in plays, musicals, concerts and works in development.  He has also kept busy appearing in many roles in television and film and teaching a popular course called “Acting on Zoom”.  He is currently starring in an online production of A Gentleman's Guide to Love and Murder, with an all Asian cast, produced by CollaborAzian and with proceeds going to #StopAAPIHate that will stream starting July 15th.

Brandon J. Ellis most recently appeared on Broadway as World War II vet Davy Zlatic in Bandstand. His other Broadway credits include the original companies of the 2006 revival of Company and Once, which he also reprised in the West End.  He also starred in the 1st National tour of The Play That Goes Wrong. His Off-Broadway credits include August Rush, Missed Connections, and Balls…The Musical which he also wrote and he is in the process of writing a new musical called The Drum Bridge with Drew Gasparini.   His TV/Film work includes 30 Rock, Vinyl and Shake Rattle and Roll.  He holds a BFA in Acting from University of North Carolina Greensboro. He is currently appearing in Seven Deadly Sins, an Off-Broadway production set in the meatpacking district, directed by Moises Kaufman, playing in a limited engagement until July 18. 

Bligh Voth is an actor, singer and writer originally from Washington, D.C. now living in New York City. She was last seen on the first national tour of the 10-time Tony Award winning musical, The Band's Visit. She has appeared off-Broadway in the new musical Loveless, Texas and in The Time Machine at New York Musical Theatre Festival and her other New York credits include the Atlantic Theater Company, Primary Stages and Boomerang Theatre Company. Bligh has performed at many regional theatres across the country including the Paper Mill Playhouse, Ogunquit Playhouse, Cincinnati Playhouse in the Park, Ford's Theatre, The Studio Theater, Lyric Theatre of Oklahoma and Signature Theatre. She wrote the book for a new Cole Porter revue called, Let's Misbehave: Cole Porter After Dark and she served as the editorial director of Nasty Women of New York, a photography project melding the world of portrait photography with storytelling, giving a voice to the uniquely diverse women of New York City. Her solo show No Really, I'm Not Crazy debuted at The Green Room 42 in New York City. Currently she is working on a country/bluegrass EP.

Multiple Award-winning Broadway actor Natascia Diaz has performed professionally since the age of nine. Growing up in New York City, she began her training at The School of American Ballet where she was hand-picked by Jerome Robbins and librettist Arthur Laurents to perform the role of Anita in both the National and International tours of West Side Story garnering Chicago's Joseph Jefferson Award and St. Louis's Kevin Klein Award. Her Broadway credits include Paul Simon's The Capeman, and leading roles in Seussical, and the 2004 revival of Man of La Mancha, in which she also understudied the role of Aldonza, performing the role opposite Brian Stokes Mitchell. She is well known to DC theatre audiences, having won two Helen Hayes awards, and appearing often at the Tony Award winning Signature Theatre, MetroStage and other notable venues. She is also featured in the Broadway Documentary Film, Every Little Step, about the auditions for the 2006 revival of A Chorus Line.

Matt Conner and Stephen Gregory Smith describe themselves as modern musical theatre writers who explore the darker side of human nature, while searching for the light. The Washington Post called them “the most prolific writers of musicals in the Washington area who consistently get their work produced.” Their collaboration has resulted in nine full length musicals including, Night of the Living Dead the musical, The Legend of Sleepy Hollow, The Turn of the Screw, Monsters of the Villa Diodati, Kaleidoscope, Witch, and On Air. Several of their works were commissioned by Creative Cauldron as part of their Bold New Works Initiative. Their latest project is a new musical based on the story of the five women that Jack the Ripper killed, called Whitechapel. Both Matt and Stephen were nominated together for the Helen Hayes Award for Directing their musical, The Turn of the Screw and each has also received the award individually. They are currently delighting theatre afficionados with their podcast The Conner & Smith Show interviewing DC creatives and exploring their past and future works.

Derek McLane is a Tony Award winning set designer who has designed over 350 productions on Broadway, off-Broadway, internationally, regionally, and for television. A few of his award-winning designs for Broadway include: Moulin Rouge!, American Son, Parisian Woman, Beautiful, Follies, Anything Goes, How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying, Bengal Tiger at the Baghdad Zoo, Million Dollar Quartet, Ragtime, 33 Variations, Little Women, The Pajama Game, I Am My Own Wife and The Women. He designed the 2013-2018 Academy Awards ceremonies and 4 live musicals for television and he is the winner of multiple Obie, Lucille Lortel, Art Director's Guild, Emmy and Drama Desk Awards.

Arbender Robinson has been entertaining Broadway audiences for decades. His Broadway credits include In Transit, Shuffle Along, the 2014 revival of Les Miserables (where he was the first black man to play Marius on Broadway), Beautiful: The Carole King Musical, The Lion King, The Book Of Mormon, Hair, Ragtime, The Little Mermaid, and Hairspray. Arbender starred in the 2016 hit musical Shuffle Along alongside many Broadway Legends including Audra McDonald, Brian Stokes Mitchell and Billy Porter. The show was Directed by Tony Award Winner George C Wolfe and Choreographed by Savion Glover.

Joe Calarco is a multiple award-winning director, playwright and dramaturg whose Off-Broadway credits include productions at Playwrights Horizons, Primary Stages, Second Stage, The Lucille Lortel, The Transport Group, Dreamlight Theatre Company and The New York Musical Theatre Festival. He is the adaptor/director of Shakespeare’s R&J, which ran for a year Off-Broadway and earned him a Lucille Lortel Award. He also directed the play’s premieres in Chicago, D.C., London and Tokyo, garnering multiple awards along the way.  He has directed national tours, world premieres and many award-winning productions at regional theatres across the country including at the Tony Award winning Signature Theatre. As a writer his published works include Shakespeare’s R&J, In The Absence of Spring, and Walter Cronkite is Dead. His new play, Winter Break was published by Dramatists Play Service earlier this year.

Jenny McConnell Frederick is a Washington, D.C. based Director, Producer and strong believer in impossible theatre. She's the Co-Artistic Director of Rorschach Theatre which she founded in the summer of 1999 with Randy Baker. She has directed dozens of productions at Rorschach, including the Helen Hayes nominated Voices Underwater and God of Vengeance and at various other theatres in the D.C. area. She has served as a mentor director for the Kennedy Center's American College Theatre Festival and as Artistic Director of DC’s Source Festival for over a decade, overseeing the selection, development, and production of more than 200 works for the stage. Currently she is part of an 8-member team building Rorschach's ground-breaking Distance Frequencies, an immersive experience that sends participants to seven locations around Washington, D.C. to explore chapters in an unfolding story about the city’s history--real and imagined. The project will culminate in a live show in July 2021.

Tony award nominee and Emmy award winner Liz Callaway is an internationally acclaimed actress, singer, and recording artist whose Broadway credits include starring roles in Merrily We Roll Along, Miss Saigon, Baby, Cats and The Look of Love. She can be heard singing the Academy Award and Golden Globe nominated song “Journey to the Past” in the movie Anastasia, as well as numerous other animated features including Disney’s Aladdin and the King of Thieves, Beauty and the Beast, and The Swan Princess. Her extensive concert and symphony career has included appearances in London, Paris, Sydney, and nearly every major city in the U.S. and she performs regularly with her sister Ann Hampton Callaway, with whom she created and recorded the theme song to the sitcom The Nanny.

Valarie Pettiford is an award-winning actor, dancer and singer. She earned a Tony and Grammy nomination for Fosse and was one of the principal dancers in the first national tour of Bob Fosse’s Dancin and his last original musical Big Deal. She was part of the original cast of Sophisticated Ladies and was nominated for an Ovation Award as Julie in the tour of Showboat directed by the legendary Hal Prince. Valarie was the first American to portray Velma Kelly in the West End revival of Chicago starring alongside Chita Rivera. When Ms. Rivera was inducted into The Kennedy Center Honors, she personally requested Valarie reprise the role. Valarie is honored to be part of The Verdon Fosse Legacy, reconstructing Bob Fosse’s choreography and teaching it to a new generation of dancers including reconstructing four numbers for the hit FX show Fosse/Verdon starring Michelle Williams and Sam Rockwell.

Two time Tony Award nominee Brad Oscar is chomping at the bit to return to Broadway in Mrs. Doubtfire and has been seen there previously in Something Rotten!, Big Fish, Nice Work If You Can Get It, The Addams Family, Spamalot, The Producers, Jekyll & Hyde, and Aspects of Love. He appeared in London’s West End as Max Bialystock in The Producers and in several national tours of major Broadway shows, various celebrated productions Off-Broadway, several Encores! at City Center as well as regionally at Arena Stage, The Old Globe, the LaJolla Playhouse, and the McCarter Theater amongst others. His film and television credits include Ghost Town, The Producers, “Madam Secretary,” “Smash,” “The Good Wife,” and three “Law & Order” series.

Verónica del Cerro and Michael Kevin Darnall are both accomplished actors in the Washington D.C. area.   Veronica’s credits include Othello at The Shakespeare Theatre Center, Arabian Nights at Constellation Theatre, El Paso Blue and Ana en el Tropico at GALA Theatre, August: Osage County at Everyman Theatre, Adventures of Homer at The Kennedy Center, Savage in Limbo at MetroStage, My Children! My Africa! and Rock n' Roll at Studio Theatre, and How the Garcia Girls Lost Their Accents at Roundhouse Theatre. Currently making her home base in Spain, she is beginning to devise and develop her own directorial projects. Michael’s New York credits include Romeo & Juliet at TheatreRats, Beyond Therapy at Bohemian Archeology and Arden: The Lamentable Tragedie… at Spring TheaterWorks. In DC he has appeared at The Shakespeare Theatre, Ford’s Theatre, Roundhouse Theatre, Studio Theatre, Mosaic Theatre Company, Theatre J, Imagination Stage, MetroStage and Constellation Theatre and he is a company member at The Hub and Spooky Action Theatre. His regional credits include the Cincinnati Playhouse, Chautauqua Theatre Company, and Rhinoleap. Michael has been nominated five times for DC’s Helen Hayes Award, and he has appeared on HBO's The Wire. Veronica and Michael will be starring together in Frankie & Johnny in the Clair de Lune, as part of MetroStage’s Tribute to the late great American playwright Terrence McNally streaming online from April 21-25 at MetroStage.org

Welcome back for Part 2 of my interview with Tony Award winner Betty Buckley!   In Part 1 Betty talked about growing up in Texas and how she first became interested in performing and musical theatre and everything in her life that prepared her for and led up to her first big break in the musical 1776 on Broadway.  In this week’s episode, Betty shares her experiences working in film and TV, her Tony winning role in Cats and playing Margaret White in the cult musical Carrie on Broadway.  She also talks about her passion for teaching – which she is now doing online through the T. Schreiber Studio in New York.  

In an award-winning career that has encompassed TV, film, stage and concert work around the globe, Betty Buckley is probably best known as the quintessential musical theatre actress having won a Tony Award for her performance as Grizabella in Cats (singing the famous tune “Memory”) and a Tony nomination for Triumph of Love. She recently completed headlining the National Tour of the new Broadway Production of Hello Dolly! and received an Olivier Award nomination for her critically acclaimed interpretation of Norma Desmond in the London production of Sunset Boulevard, which she repeated to more rave reviews on Broadway. Her other Broadway credits include 1776, Pippin, Song and Dance, The Mystery of Edwin Drood and Carrie and she has appeared multiple times Off-Broadway and at various regional theatres and concert halls across the country. For over forty years Ms. Buckley has been a teacher of scene study and song interpretation, giving workshops in Manhattan and various universities and Performing Arts Conservatories around the country. She is now offering her Master Class online, enabling actors and singers the opportunity to work with her from anywhere in the world.

Emily Skinner has unequivocally established herself as one of Broadway’s most engaging and versatile performers. She was last seen on Broadway in The Cher Show. Her other Broadway credits include Prince of Broadway (directed by Hal Prince in his final show) for which she received an Outer Critics Circle Award, Billy Elliott, Jekyll & Hyde, James Joyce’s The Dead (opposite Christopher Walken), The Full Monty and Dinner at Eight. Off-Broadway, Emily has appeared at City Center Encores!, Manhattan Theatre Club, WPA Theatre, The Transport Group, Madison Square Garden, York Theatre, Playwrights Horizons and the Roundabout Theatre and she has performed lead roles at many of the major regional theatres across the country. Emily was nominated for a Tony Award (along with Alice Ripley) and received a Drama League Award for her performance as Daisy Hilton in the short-lived, but now cult classic, original Broadway production of Side Show.

Ewan Chung is an actor, singer, writer and producer based in Los Angeles. Highlights of his theatre work include Lost: The Musical, David Henry Hwang's Chinglish, and Washer/Dryer.  He is also a member of the Award-winning sketch comedy troupe OPM. Chung also has an extensive resume of work in film and has appeared on various popular TV shows including "Monday Mornings," "Bones," "Torchwood," "Boston Legal," "Chuck," "Heroes," "How I Met Your Mother," Stephen King's "Desperation," "Las Vegas," and "Sucker Free City." He’s often writing, singing, speaking Chinese and French, recording audiobooks, and involved in various projects like the sci-fi web series "Shangri-La: Near Extinction," and podcasts like “The White Vault: Imperial” and “Vast Horizon”. Chung will be playing the role of Will in the upcoming production of Terrence McNally’s Mothers & Sons for MetroStage in Alexandria, Virginia streaming online January 13-17 at MetroStage.org 

Ilona Dulaski and Tom Story are two of the most respected and celebrated theatre actors in the Washington DC area. Ilona is an accomplished actor, singer and voice over artist. She has performed in multiple productions at The Kennedy Center, Signature Theatre, Studio Theatre, Roundhouse Theatre, Olney Theatre Center and Wayside Theatre among many others. Her portrayal of Maria Callas in Terrence McNally’s Master Class at MetroStage garnered rave reviews. Tom has appeared as an actor in over 70 productions in New York, DC, and in many cities throughout the country. He is an Affiliated Artist at The Shakespeare Theatre Company where he has starred in works by Shakespeare, Noel Coward, Stephen Sondheim, David Ives and others. He has also directed various productions at Baltimore Theatre Festival, Adventure Theatre, Solas Nua and Roundhouse Theatre. Tom is a graduate of Duke University and The Juilliard School and he has been nominated seven times for DC’s Helen Hayes Award. He last appeared at Metro Stage in the one person show “Fully Committed” where he played over 40 characters. Ilona and Tom will be starring together for the first time as part of MetroStage’s tribute to the late great Terrence McNally in his play Mothers and Sons, streaming online Jan 13-17 at MetroStage.org

Mercedes Herrero has been a professional actor for over 30 years. She has performed on Broadway in The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time and her Off-Broadway credits include work at The Public Theatre, Intar, Manhattan Theatre Club and the original production of The Laramie Project at Union Square and BAM. She has also performed in both classical and contemporary plays at many regional theatres across the country. Many may also recognize her from her extensive TV and Film work in all 4 Law and Orders, 3 seasons of House of Cards, Deception, Arranged and The Vanishing of Sidney Hall. Mercedes is a graduate of the Yale School of Drama and a member of AEA, SAG/AFTRA.

Ken Page is a legendary theatre performer beloved by many longtime musical theatre fans. Most will remember him as Old Deuteronomy in the original Broadway cast of the Tony Award winning musical Cats, or for his Drama Desk Award winning performance in Ain’t Misbehavin’.  His other Broadway credits include playing the Cowardly Lion in The Wiz and Nicely-Nicely Johnson in the all-black revival of Guys and Dolls for which he received a Theatre World Award.  In London’s West End he also starred in Children of Eden and My One And Only. Aside from his theatre credits, Page may be best known as the voice of Mr. Oogie Boogie in Tim Burton’s cult classic film, The Nightmare Before Christmas and for his film appearances in Dreamgirls, Torch Song Trilogy and All Dogs Go To Heaven. Page has performed his one-man concert, Page By Page across the country and the show has been recorded live released by LML Music. Ken can also be heard on various Original Broadway Cast recordings, film soundtracks and compilations.

Rachel Zucker is a professional stage manager whose Broadway credits include: SIX, Tina: The Tina Turner Musical, The Prom, True West, Pretty Woman, Farinelli and the King, and Indecent. Off-Broadway she has worked at The Public Theater, Shakespeare in the Park, New York City Center, New York Theater Workshop and Signature Theatre Company. Regionally she has worked at the Studio Theatre in Washington, DC and Roundhouse Theatre in Bethesda, Maryland.  She holds an MFA in Stage Management from Columbia University.

Blair Russell is a freelance producer, developer, supporter, and lover of theatre whose experience ranges from fringe festivals to Broadway shows. His most recent projects include the twelve-time Tony nominated Slave Play by Jeremy O. Harris and the critically acclaimed immersive Off-Broadway production of Sweeney Todd. At Show Shepherd, he helps writers and producers navigate the development of new work, and he produces live immersive audio dramas as Director of Operations for Resounding. He currently serves on the board of New York Theatre Barn and The New Harmony Project and he is a graduate of Virginia Commonwealth University with a BFA in Technical Theatre/Stage Management.

Mary Page Nance is a performer, choreographer and teacher having appeared on Broadway in the original casts of Finding Neverland and Natasha, Pierre and The Great Comet of 1812 and around the country with the First National tour of Bright Star. She most recently helped develop the new musical, Black No More with choreography by Bill T Jones and she continues developing the new musical, Lempicka, directed by Tony Award Winner Rachel Chavkin. Mary Page has performed in numerous Regional/Off-Broadway productions and has been an integral part in the development of various shows including Soft Power, The Cher Show, and War Paint. Aside from performing, Mary Page is passionate about arts education and stays busy teaching the world's next generation of theatre performers.

Julio Agustin is an accomplished director/choreographer, audition coach, author, and educator. He is a Broadway veteran, having appeared in Kiss of the Spider Woman (starring Chita Rivera), Fosse (with Ann Reinking and Ben Vereen), Steel Pier, Never Gonna Dance, Chicago, Bells are Ringing and Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown (with Patti Lupone). Now, as a director/choreographer, he has added a Latinx flair to many of his productions, including a spiced up version of Sweet Charity at the New Harlem Arts Theatre and a Latin inspired Guys & Dolls at Theatre Under The Stars in Houston.   He is co-author (with Kathleen Potts) of The Professional Actor's Handbook: From Casting Call to Curtain Call and he is the creator of The Transition Workshop, a monthly NYC audition studio. He is currently associate professor and director of Music Theatre at Elon University and has two forthcoming, peer-reviewed articles on radical inclusivity and the absence of Latinx creatives on Broadway

PRESTON MAX ALLEN is a playwright, composer, and lyricist whose work has been seen at the New Amsterdam Theatre, Lincoln Center, New York Musical Festival, Signature Theatre, Musical Theatre Factory, Feinstein's/54 Below, Joe's Pub, Laurie Beechman Theatre, York Theatre and Second City Chicago. Preston conceived and wrote book, music, and lyrics for We Are The Tigers which won the L.A. Stage Alliance Ovation award for Best Lyrics/Composition, Never Better, and The Rage: Carrie 2, An Unauthorized Musical Parody and many others. His play Modern Gentleman was also featured as part of the 2020 PRIDE PLAYS Festival. Preston is a member of the Ars Nova Play Group, graduate of the Second City Chicago Comedy Studies Program, and an alum of the BMI Lehman Engel Musical Theater Workshop.

MICHAEL RUPERT is a Tony award winning actor, writer and director. His Broadway credits include On The Town, Legally Blonde The Musical, Ragtime, Falsettos, City of Angels, Mail, Sweet Charity, Shakespeare’s Cabaret, Pippin and The Happy Time. Off-Broadway and regionally he’s been seen in Putting It Together, Dangerous Beauty, Elegies, A New Brain, Falsettos and The Merchant of Venice. As a writer/composer he’s written Mail and 3 Guys Naked From the Waist Down. He has also directed productions of Ragtime, Sweet Charity, Sunday in the Park With George, The Crucible, Spring Awakening, Parade and Off-Broadway’s Thrill Me for which he received a Drama Desk nomination.

PATRICK W. LORD is a projection and video designer.  He has designed projections for over 60 productions including numerous world premieres at The Kennedy Center, multiple productions at Shakespeare Theatre Company, including HAMLET featuring Michael Urie in the title role, and for various theatres in NY, DC and across the country including Lincoln Center, Revolucion Latina, Synetic Theatre, Olney Theatre Center, Gala Hispanic Theatre, MetroStage, 1st Stage and The Keegan Theatre.  He also recently worked on the video design team to adapt the Broadway show Mean Girls for its first national tour. His work has been nominated across the country, and he is a passionate advocate for Theatre for Young Audiences. He holds an MFA in Projection Design from The University of Texas at Austin.

I’m Stefan Sittig and welcome to AMERICAN THEATRE ARTISTS ONLINE, where we talk with leading contemporary figures in American Theatre. DEBRA CLINTON is passionate about theatre and especially theatre education in all its forms. A theatre artist for over 30 years, Debra Clinton has made a career performing, directing, writing, and teaching theatre. As the current President of Virginia Theatre Association (VTA), one of the largest state theatre associations in the country, she is responsible for connecting, creating, cultivating and advocating for practitioners of theatre across the Commonwealth of Virginia. Debra’s directorial credits include work at Virginia Repertory Theatre, Firehouse Theatre, Richmond Triangle Players, Dogwood Dell and countless productions at the Weinstein JCC in Richmond, VA, where she is artistic director of the Jewish Family Theatre. Debra is a proud recipient of the 2013 Theresa Pollack award for excellence in theatre, as well as a recipient of a Richmond Theatre Critics Circle Award for her libretto and lyrics for the original musical, Croaker, along with composer Jason Marks, which received a NYC production Off Off Broadway in 2016. 

GISELA CHIPE is an award winning actor, writer and producer who works to create greater visibility for black and brown stories. Her theatre work has been seen Off-Broadway at the Classical Theatre of Harlem and PS122 and at regional theaters across the country including the Actors Theatre of Louisville, the Guthrie Theater, Asolo Repertory Theatre, Hartford Stage, Huntington Theatre, the Alley Theatre, Syracuse Stage, DC’s Studio Theatre, Great Lakes Theatre, Idaho Shakespeare Festival, the Contemporary American Theater Festival and Florida Studio Theatre. Half-Ecuadorean and born in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, she grew up speaking Portuguese, Spanish and English. Her extensive TV and film work include the feature film Bel Canto opposite Julianne Moore, and roles on NBC’s Manifest and CBS’s The Good Wife. Gisela frequently lends her voice to national commercials, campaign and audiobooks, in English and Spanish, including the promos for the 2016 Olympic Games in Rio for NBC Universal and Univision.

J. ROBERT SPENCER is best known as Broadway’s original Nick Massi in the Tony Award and Grammy Award winning show Jersey Boys with additional credits as an independent film director, producer, writer and singer. He was also the original Dan Goodman in the critically acclaimed and Pulitzer Prize winning Broadway musical Next To Normal for which he earned a Tony Award Nomination for Best Performance by a Leading Actor in a Musical. Since 2011, J. Robert has performed in over 700 concerts all over the world with his singing group, “The Midtown Men – Four Original Stars from Broadway’s Jersey Boys.” touring all over the United States and internationally in Italy, Canada, Mexico City, and Beijing. http://www.jrobertspencer.com/

KRIS KUKUL is a New York City Based Orchestrator, Arranger, Music Director and Composer. Currently he is Music Supervisor, Conductor and Orchestrator for Broadway’s Tony nominated Beetlejuice The Musical! Other recent projects include, In The Green at Lincoln Center, David Byrne’s Joan of Arc at The Public Theatre, a remounting of Elizabeth Swados' Runaways at New York’s City Center, The Aenied with music by Duncan Sheik, and many other works at Playwrights Horizons, The Vineyard, New York Theatre Workshop, The Atlantic, The Flea, LaMama, Joe’s Pub, 54 Below, Birdland, the Cherry Lane and the Lucille Lortel.  His work has also been featured at various regional theatres across the country and for 10 seasons, he served as the resident music director for the Williamstown Theatre Festival, where among other things he directed the legendary Late-Night Cabarets, featuring iconic performers including Renee Fleming, Kathleen Turner, Allison Janey, Tyne Daly, David Hyde Pierce, Judy Kuhn, Kelli O’Hara, Phillipa Soo, Renee Elise Goldsberry, and many others. He began his career working for musical theatre icon, Elizabeth Swados, and has committed to keeping her legacy alive and he recently arranged, orchestrated and conducted Lincoln Center’s American Songbook: The Music of Elizabeth Swados. Kris is a Graduate of NYU Tisch School of the Arts, and he has taught at Tisch/Playwrights Horizons Theatre School, The New School, Duke University, Columbia University, and Queens College.

MADELINE MICHEL has been teaching English, Math and Theatre since 1980. Originally from New York, her philosophy of education was shaped in Baltimore City, where she discovered that good teachers should always be learning from their students. Her driving passion is student agency, which takes the form of student led playwriting, choreography, direction and design. Michel has guided her students to create moving theatre works dealing with police brutality, racism, discrimination, racial profiling and gentrification. She shares her 2019 Tony Excellence in Education Award with her students at Monticello High School in Charlottesville, Virginia who are the true award winners.

Sherrice Mojgani is one of only a handful of women of color designing lighting for professional theatre in the United States. She has designed for Arena Stage, Signature Theatre, Seattle Repertory Theatre, The Old Globe, and San Diego Repertory Theatre.  In 2019 Mojgani’s design for Into the Woods at Barrington Stage won a Berkshire Theatre Critics Circle Award and in 2017 she served as Associate Lighting Designer for the legendary Howell Binkley on Broadway’s hit musical Come From Away. Mojgani is a member of United Scenic Artist 829 and she is an assistant professor in the School of Theatre at George Mason University. Originally from Orange County California, Mojgani holds a BA in Theatre Arts from UC Santa Cruz, and an MFA in Lighting Design from UC San Diego.

STEVEN SKYBELL most recently starred as Tevye in Joel Grey’s acclaimed Yiddish production of Fiddler on the Roof, for which he won the 2019 Lucille Lortel award for Outstanding performance by a lead actor in a musical.  Skybell’s Broadway credits include: the 2015 revival of Fiddler on the Roof, Wicked, The Full Monty, Pal Joey, Love! Valour! Compassion!, Café Crown and Ah, Wilderness!  During the pandemic, Skybell has been fashioning an evening of Yiddish songs that will include highlights from the Yiddish Fiddler as well as songs from the treasury of Yiddish music.

I’m Stefan Sittig and welcome to AMERICAN THEATRE ARTISTS ONLINE, where we talk with leading contemporary figures in American Theatre.   Gretchen Cryer is most well-known for writing the book and lyrics and starring in “I’m Getting My Act Together and Taking It on the Road (with music by Nancy Ford) which won the Joseph Jefferson Award for Best Musical and Best Actress, and received a Grammy nomination for the album.   Gretchen has written numerous other shows with Nancy Ford and they were the first female composer-lyricist team to have their work produced on Broadway and Off-Broadway.    Cryer and Ford’s new show “Still Getting My Act Together” is slated for production in 2021.   Gretchen is on the Dramatist Guild Council and is President Emeritus of the Dramatists Guild Foundation. She also teaches a workshop entitled “Creating Your Own Solo Performance” and has helped dozens of solo artists develop their pieces.   She will be presenting five of her solo artists at the Cherry Lane Theater in May 2021 in a festival entitled “True Stories.”

I’m Stefan Sittig and welcome to AMERICAN THEATRE ARTISTS ONLINE, where we talk with leading contemporary figures in American Theatre.   Brittney Harris is an Assistant Professor of Theatre in the Department of Communication and Theatre Arts at Old Dominion University. Her areas of expertise are in Race and Performance, Theatre for Social Change, and performative community-engaged programming: examining the concept of “race” as a celebration of self, culture and artistic expression.   Throughout VA, NC, GA, and DC, Brittney has created several community engagement-based theatre projects and conducted workshops on solo performance development and devised theatre. Currently, she is workshopping and touring her two solo performance projects, The Intersection: The Sandra Bland Project and Being B.A.D.; each project explores the adverse effects of violence in social media on the personal psyche and how narrative-based storytelling is used as a vessel for social resilience and redemption.   She holds a Master of Fine Arts in Acting from the University of Georgia.   https://brittneysharris.com/

Tony Award winner Beth Leavel has been delighting Broadway audiences for decades. She was nominated for the 2019 Tony, Drama Desk, Drama League and Outer Critics Circle awards for The Prom and she received Tony, Drama Desk, NY Outer Critics Circle and LA Drama Critics Awards for her performance as the title character in The Drowsy Chaperone.  Beth also received Tony, Drama Desk, and Outer Critics Circle nominations for her role as Florence Greenberg in Baby It’s You.  Her other Broadway credits include: Mrs. June Adams in Bandstand, Emily in Elf, Donna in Mamma Mia!, Frau Blucher in Young Frankenstein, Dorothy Brock in the 42nd Street revival, Tess in the original company of Crazy For You, Mrs. Bixby in The Civil War, Ellie in Hal Prince's Showboat, and her Broadway debut as Anytime Annie in the original production of 42nd Street. She will soon be bringing the iconic role of Miranda Priestly to the Broadway stage in the highly anticipated production of The Devil Wears Prada.