Little Shop of Horrors

JORDAN MATTHEW BROWN (Seymour) (He/Him) KCRep: debut. Broadway/National Tour: Elder Cunningham in The Book of Mormon (Broadway and National Tour). Regional: William Barfée in The 25^th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee (George Street Playhouse); Jack in Into the Woods (Town Hall NYC). Educational: Leo Frank in Parade, columbinus, The Duchess of Malfi, The Shakespeare Project (Boston University). Workshops/Readings: The Trees (Playwrights Horizons); Foreverland; Spin: A Musical Myth (Cleveland Playhouse). Voice Over: South Park: The Fractured But Whole. Education: BFA Acting from Boston University; National Music Theater Institute at the Eugene O’Neill Theater Center. Repped by DBA. jordanmatthewbrown.com IG: @jordanmatthewbrown AEA Member

CHLOE CASTRO-SANTOS (Audrey) (She/Her) KCRep: debut. Regional: Natasha (Natasha), Pierre, and the Great Comet of 1812 (Hangar Theatre). International: Trentino Music Festival. TV/Film: Law and Order SVU (recurring), Cici’s Sonata. In Concert: Soloist at The Boston Pops (Opening for “An Evening With Leslie Odom Jr.”). Education: BFA in Musical Theatre, University of Michigan; London Academy of Music and Dramatic Arts. AEA Member IG: @chloecastrosantos chloecastrosantos.com

EDDIE KORBICH (Mushnik) KCRep: The Great Immensity. Broadway: The Music Man, A Gentleman’s Guide to Love and Murder, Breakfast at Tiffany’s, A Christmas Story/Musical, The Little Mermaid, Face the Music, The Drowsy Chaperone (Drama Desk Nomination), After the Night and the Music, Wicked, Seussical, Carousel, Sweeney Todd, Singin’ in the Rain. Off-Broadway: Taking a Chance on Love (Obie Award for best actor), The Most Happy Fella, The Irish Curse, Assassins, Eating Raoul, Godspell, Flora the Red Menace, A Little Night Music. Regional: 42^nd Street (Chicago Lyric Theatre); The Wizard of Oz (Starlight Theatre); Beauty and the Beast (TUTS). Film: Doug’s First Movie, The Hunchback of Notre Dame, Quiz Show, Jennifere 8, Flodder in Amerika. TV: The Deuce Blue Bloods, Elementary, The Mysteries of Laura, Nurse Jackie, Law & Order: SVU, Wonderland, Benjamin Franklin, Mary and Rhoda, New York Undercover, Law & Order. Education: BFA, The Boston Conservatory. AEA Member

JOSH DAVIS (Orin/Fight Captain) KCRep: debut. Broadway: Paradise Square,  (OCM); Beautiful: The Carole King Musical (OCM); Broadway National Tour: Les Misérables (Javert). Regional: The Last 5 Years; The Pajama Game; Beauty & The Beast; Guys & Dolls. TV: Blue Bloods; FBI: Most Wanted; Law & Order: Organized Crime; The Gilded Age; As the World Turns; One life to Live. Voiceovers: Bank of America; Chase; iShares; Milk; Papa Johns; 3M; Royal Canin. IG: @joshdnyc  thisisjoshdavis.com AEA Member

SHON RUFFIN (Voice of Audrey II) (She/Her) KCRep: School Girls; or the African American Mean Girls Play, A Christmas Carol, Brother Toad (world premiere by playwright Nathan Louis Jackson). Regional: Chasin Dem’ Blues (Milwaukee Repertory Theatre). Local: Dreamgirls & Hairspray (The New Theatre); Hairspray, Godspell (Starlight Theater); Dreamgirls in Concert (The Black Repertory Theatre); Heathers the Musical, Priscilla: Queen of the Desert (Unicorn Theatre); Purple Reign: Party Like it’s 1499 (Late Night Theater); Chainsaw the Musical (The Living Room); West Side Story (Spinning Tree Theatre); Elephant and Piggie, The Rosa Parks Story, A Charlie Brown Christmas (The Coterie); Bands: The Freedom Affair and Lost Wax.  AEA Member.  IG: @Shon8Diva
“Nathan Jackson was my introduction here at KCRep, and for that, I’d like to honor his memory by dedicating all of my performances in Little Shop of Horrors to him. Miss you, Buddy.”

CHIOMA ANYANWU (Ronette/Dance Captain) (She/Her) KCRep: the ripple, the wave that carried me home, Noises Off!, for colored girls who have considered suicide/when the rainbow is enuf, School Girls; or, The African Mean Girls Play, The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time, A Christmas Carol, Antony and Cleopatra (Co-Production, UMKC Theatre). Local: Little Women, Dot, The Pests (Kansas City Actors Theatre); Jesus Christ Superstar (This Happy Breed, The Arts Asylum); Godspell, Hairspray (Starlight Theatre); Backwards Forwards Back, The Revolutionists, The Wolves, Men on Boats, The Mountaintop, Everyday Rapture, Hungry, Pipeline (Unicorn Theatre); Evil Dead the Musical (EGADS! Theatre); 1776, Evita (Music Theatre Heritage). Directing: Pippin (Avila University); Bomb’itty of Errors (Fishtank Productions); Emotional Creatures (Co-Director, Spinning Tree Theatre). Education: BFA in Theatre Arts, Stephens College; MFA in Acting and Directing, UMKC. AEA Member

AMARI LEWIS (Chrystal/ Understudy, Audrey II) (She/Her) KCRep: debut. Local: Hairspray (Starlight Theatre); Dreamgirls (New Theatre Restaurant); SpongeBob SquarePants The Musical (TYA version), Pete the Cat, Alice’s Wonderland (The Coterie). Regional: Little Shop of Horrors (Farmington Civic Theatre). Awards:  2014 Vincent Legacy Scholar (Starlight Theatre). Education: Associate Arts, Kansas City Kansas Community College. IG: @lewiii17 amarilewis2020.wixsite.com/my-site AEA Member

ALYSSA RENAEE BYERS (Chiffon/Understudy, Audrey) KCRep: debut. Local: Dreamgirls and Elvis: Aloha from Vegas (New Theatre). Education: Bachelor of Music in Vocal Performance, Kansas State University. IG: @alistofbuyers AEA Member

ZACHERY GARNER (Audrey II Puppeteer) (He/Him KCRep: debut. Local:  Puffs, or Seven Increasingly Eventful Years at a Certain School of Magic and Magic (The Coterie); Snow White, The Dinosaur Show, The Nativity, The Shipwreck, Anansi the Spider (Mesner Puppet Theater aka What If Puppets). New York: The Scarecrow (winner of a Henson Foundation grant); Theatre workshop, Eugene O’Neill Theatre Center). Regional: Snowy Day (The Center of Puppetry Arts). Educational: Into The Woods (Lead Puppeteer, The Steward, Little Red’s Grandma) and Lobby Hero (Lead Understudy) (Kansas City Kansas Community College). Participant: three-week puppetry workshop at The Jim  Henson Company, 2021. Awards: 2014 Vincent Legacy Scholar (Starlight Theatre). Education: Kansas City, Kansas Community College. IG: zacherythursday

UNDERSTUDIES

EVAN GAMSU (Understudy, Mr. Mushnik) (He/Him) KCRep: debut. Local: Little Shop of Horrors (Theatre in the Park); Cabaret, Titanic, Company (Music Theatre Heritage); Caroline, or Change (Spinning Tree Theatre); Beau Jest, Over the River and Through the Woods (Chestnut Fine Arts Center); Fiddler on the Roof, Guys and Dolls, South Pacific, Gypsy, Camelot, Hello Dolly, You Can’t Take It with You, Catch Me if You Can (The New Theatre); Sweeney Todd, Assassins, Moonchildren, Gemini, The Fantasticks (Washburn University); Passion Of Dracula (Great Plains Theatre, Abilene); Talley’s Folly (Topeka Performing Arts Center); Little Shop of Horrors, Evita, Walk in the Woods, King and I (Topeka Civic Theatre); Caucasian Chalk Circle (University of Kansas); Rumors (McKerr’s Theatre Pub). Mr. Gamsu was the Resident Stage Manager at Theatre for Young America for seven years and has been a Dicken’s Caroler since 1996.

CESLIE PARKER-WALLER (Understudy/Chiffon, Crystal) (She/They) KCRep: debut. Regional: Little Shop of Horrors, When I’m Gone, and SpongeBob the Musical (Mountain Movers Theatre Company); Elvis: A Musical Revolution (Dutch Apple Dinner Theatre, The Broadway Palm Dinner Theatre); Rent (Crown Arts Collaborative); The Marvelous Wonderettes (Black Hills Playhouse); The Pirates of Penzance (Great Plains Theatre); Jesus Christ Superstar and Aida (Music Theatre Wichita). Local: Little Shop of Horrors (New Theatre). Education: BA in Theatre, Kansas State University.  ceslieparkerwaller.co

WILL PORTER (Understudy/Seymour & Orrin) (He/Him)  KCRep: A Christmas Carol, Cyrano de Bergerac, Peter Pan & Wendy. New York: Bells Are Ringing (Musicals Tonight). National Tour: CATS, Bye Bye Birdie. Tokyo: A Chorus Line. Regional:  Starlight, MUNY, TUTS, Berkshire Theatre Company, McCarter Theatre, North Shore Music Theatre, Pittsburgh CLO, Fulton Theatre, Florida Studio Theatre, North Carolina Theatre, Merry-Go-Round, Gateway. UMKC: Big Love, Fixing King John, The 39 Steps, Thinner Than Water, Cymbeline. Education: Graduating with an MFA in Acting from UMKC in May!

MUSICIANS

ANTHONY T. EDWARDS (Music Director/Piano Conductor) KCRep: A Christmas Carol, Fun Home, Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street, Side by Side by Sondheim, Evita, The Fantasticks, Sunday in the Park with George, Hair: Retrospection (Music Director, Conductor/Keyboards), A Little More Alive (Keyboard/Orchestra Contractor), The Tallest Tree in the Forest (Orchestra Contractor), Little Shop of Horrors (Music Director, Conductor/ Keyboards), Cabaret (Music Director, Conductor/Pianist, Orchestra Contractor), Into the Woods (Assistant Music Director/Conductor, Orchestra Contractor). Local: Resident Musical Director for Starlight Theatre, The Coterie, Unicorn Theatre, All Souls Unitarian Universalist Church, Eventology. Additional Local: New Theatre, Quality Hill Playhouse, Theatre in the Park, Late Night Theatre, Musical Theatre Heritage. Red Barn Theatre, Waterfront Playhouse (Key West). New York: New Victory Theatre. Upcoming: West Side Story (Starlight Theater). Mr. Edwards has served as musical director for theatres across the country including the Denver Center for the Performing Arts and is Adjunct Faculty for UMKC. Mr. Edwards is a Kurzweil-endorsed artist and is a Board Member of the AIDS Service Foundation of Kansas City. aemusicservices.com.

DANIEL DOSS (Associate Music Director/Understudy, Piano Conductor/ Keyboards) (He/Him) KCRep: A Christmas Carol, Fun Home, Sweeney Todd, Side by Side by Sondheim, Hair: Retrospection, Pippin, The Great Immensity, Saved, A Christmas Story: The Musical, Into the Woods. National Tours: Always… Patsy Cline, Ragtime, The Addams Family, The Color Purple. New York: MotherFreakingHood (New York Festival of Musicals); Wild and Willful Women (Tru Voices Musical Reading Series). Local: Wicked, Beautiful: The Carole King Musical, Les Misérables (Broadway Across America at the Music Hall) and numerous other local productions at the New Theatre & Restaurant, Starlight Theatre, Unicorn Theatre and The Coterie. Upcoming: Charlie and the Chocolate Factory (The Coterie) and Disney’s Newsies (New Theatre & Restaurant). Education: BM in Music Composition (Conservatory of Music, UMKC). danieldoss.com

JEFF FRELING (Guitars) (He/Him) KCRep: debut. Chicago: Blue Man Group (on electric zither and Chapman stick); Tributosaurus, Mar Caribe, and the popular Tom Waits tribute band, Big Time (on guitar). Jeff also served as a sideman to guitarist/songwriter Doug Gillard of Guided By Voices. Kansas City Film & Television Composition: Cinema KC (weekly TV show), Judith Levy’s short film NV in KC, Carbon Trace Productions: A Vietnam Peace Story, Jetpack Pictures’ short film Insyncerator, and director Gary Huggins’ recent feature film, Kick Me Springfield. Local Theatre: The Oil Boiler and Bucket Of Blood (composer and music director, The Living Room Theatre); Pansy (producer/arranger for Daisy Bucket and winner of The Pitch’s Best Local Album of 2018; Welcome To Springfield (Daisy Bucket). Jeff’s current projects include “Victor & Penny”, a guitar and ukulele duo alongside his wife, musician/actor Erin McGrane, that puts a modern twist on prohibition era Jazz, and F/M Duo, a guitar duo with Michael McClintock (Cubanisms, Ensemble Iberica) that blends the sounds of 50s Jazz, 40s Gypsy Swing, vintage Cuban, and modern Pop. Education: Master of Arts, Berklee School of Music in Boston; BA, Conservatory, UMKC.

JEFF HARSHBARGER (Bass 1) (He/Him) KCRep:  Fun Home, Last Days of Summer, Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street, Evita, Fantasticks, Hair: Retrospection, A Little More Alive, A Christmas Story: The Musical, Into the Woods, A Marvelous Party. Local: Legally Blonde, Hello Dolly, Beautiful: The Carole King Musical, The Wizard of Oz, Hairspray, Grease, Something Rotten!, Little Mermaid, First Date, A Gentleman’s Guide to Love and Murder, Cinderella, Miss Saigon, The Producers, Aida, The Sound of Music, Footloose, The Little Mermaid, Guys and Dolls (Starlight Theatre). Additional: Charlie Brown Christmas, What Keeps Mankind Alive,Big Bands Are Better, An Evening with George Gershwin, Jacques Brel: The Life and Music of a Legend, On the Town, Once on This Island, The Nervous Set, Let’s Bowie, The Rose, The Wall. Innovative Collaborations: Musicians: Jacob Fred Jazz Odyssey, Bobby Watson, Krystle Warren, Bach Aria Soloists, Owen/Cox Dance Group, Purna Lohka Quartet, Ensemble Iberica, Tatsuya Nakatani and Francois Rabbath; Visual Artists: Nick Cave, David Ford, Sissel Tolaas, and J. Ashley Miller. Awards: Charlotte Street Generative Performing Artist Award, The Kennedy Center’s Betty Carter Fellowship, The Steans Institute Fellowship. A major voice in the creative community of Kansas City for over a decade, Mr. Harshbarger is the curator of Jeff Harshbarger Presents: An Alternative Jazz Series, promoting new improvised music in Kansas City, as well as the host of Wednesday’s Jazz in the Afternoon on KKFI 90.1FM.

SAM WISMAN (Percussion) (He/Him) KCRep: Fun Home, Sweeney Todd, Between The Lines, A Christmas Story; Celebration At the Station, The Orchestra Swings, Grammy Greats (Kansas City Symphony); Wizard of Oz, Weird Al Yankovic (Starlight Theatre); Tina – The Tina Turner Musical, Anastasia (Music Hall); Little Wilhelmina, Penelope (Lyric Opera of Kansas City); Dreamgirls, Freaky Friday, Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat, Johnny and June, Always Patsy Cline, Mamma Mia, Sister Act, Have You Met Miss Jones?, Chicago, The Addams Family (New Theatre); Big Bands Are Better, An Evening With George Gershwin, She Loves Me, Kiss Me Kate, The Music Man, 1776, Gypsy, Big River (Music Theatre Heritage); Garfield: The Musical With Cattitude, A Charlie Brown Christmas, U:BUG:ME, The Happy Elf, Lucky Duck, Seussical, Twice Upon A Time, Geppetto & Son, Once On This Island (The Coterie); What Keeps Mankind Alive, Letterbox, In The Rumpus Room, The Nutcracker & The Mouse King (Owen/Cox Dance); Everyday Rapture (Unicorn Theatre). Sam is also very active in Kansas City’s jazz scene and is a member of The Kansas City Jazz Orchestra and Marimba Sol de Chiapas. He is Senior Producer for 91.9 Classical KC and host of Jazz Across America – KC on San Diego’s Jazz 88.3 KSDS. sam@jazz88.org

ARYANA NEMATI (Reeds 1) (She/Her) KCRep: debut. Local: Addams Family (St. James Academy); Aloha From Vegas (New Theater Restaurant). Awards: Featured Artist: Open Spaces (KCMO), Topeka Jazz Series, We Always Swing Jazz Series (Columbia, MO), UNESCO Musical Exchange Participant (Chile). Education: MM, Jazz Studies and Pedagogy, MIZZOU; BM, UMKC Conservatory. Affiliation: Harmony Project KC

CREATIVE TEAM

HOWARD ASHMAN (Book & Lyrics) Best known as a pivotal creative mind behind the renaissance of Disney animation and his work on The Little Mermaid, Aladdin and Beauty and The Beast (which is dedicated to, “Our friend, Howard Ashman, who gave a Mermaid her voice and a Beast his soul…”) Ashman’s first love was theater. Ashman was a founder of Off Off Broadway’s renowned WPA Theater, where he conceived, wrote and directed God Bless You, Mr. Rosewater, as well as the classic musical, Little Shop of Horrors (both music by Alan Menken). In 1986, he wrote and directed the Broadway musical Smile (music by Marvin Hamlisch). Lamented as a lost treasure of the 1980’s theater scene, Smile remains popular on high school and college campuses throughout the country. Howard Ashman died in 1991 from complications of AIDS. For more information, please visit howardashman.com.

ALAN MENKEN (Music) Legendary composer Alan Menken has created some of the most beloved songs and musical scores of our time. His unique voice, as a composer, a lyricist and a musical theater dramatist has captured the imaginations of audiences for over 35 years. Alan’s stage musicals include God Bless You Mr. Rosewater, Patch Patch Patch, Atina: Evil Queen of the Galaxy, Real Life Funnies, Little Shop of Horrors, The Dream on Royal Street, Kicks, The Apprenticeship of Duddy Kravitz, Beauty and the Beast, A Christmas Carol, Weird Romance, King David, The Hunchback of Notre Dame, The Little Mermaid, Sister Act, Leap of Faith, and Newsies. He has also contributed to such revues as Personals, Diamonds, and On the Record. His film musicals include Little Shop of Horrors, The Little Mermaid, Beauty and the Beast, Newsies, Aladdin (1992 & the 2019 live-action remake), Pocahontas, The Hunchback of Notre Dame, Hercules, Home on the Range, Enchanted, and Tangled. His dramatic underscores for films include Life With Mikey, Noel, The Shaggy Dog, and Mirror Mirror. He has contributed songs to such films as Rocky V, Home Alone 2 – Lost in New York, Life With Mikey, and Captain America – The First Avenger. Alan’s television credits include writing numerous songs for Sesame Street, composing the score for the ABC mini-series Lincoln, contributing songs for the musical Polly, the Hallmark adaptation of his musical of A Christmas Carol and the songs for an episode of the ABC-TV series The Neighbors. His songwriting collaborators have included Howard Ashman, Tim Rice, Stephen Schwartz, David Zippel, Jack Feldman, David Spencer, Lynn Ahrens, Dean Pitchford, Glenn Slater, Chad Beguelin, and most recently Benj Pasek and Justin Paul for the 2019 live-action film remake of Aladdin. Alan won the 2012 Tony and Drama Desk Awards for his score to Newsies. He currently has more Academy Awards than any other living individual, including four for Best Score (The Little Mermaid, Beauty and the Beast, Aladdin and Pocahontas) and four for Best Song (“Under the Sea”, “Beauty and the Beast”, “A Whole New World” and “Colors of the Wind”). He has earned eleven Grammy Awards (including Song of the Year for “A Whole New World”), seven Golden Globes, London’s Evening Standard Award, the Olivier Award, the Outer Critics Circle Award, and the Drama Desk Award Other notable achievements include induction into the Songwriters Hall of Fame and Billboard’s number one single (“A Whole New World”) and number one album (Pocahontas). In 2001 he received the distinction of being named a Disney Legend. He has also been awarded two doctorates in Fine Arts from New York University and the North Carolina School of the Arts. In 2010 he received his own star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.

STUART CARDEN (Director) (He/Him/His) Stuart Carden is the Artistic Director of Kansas City Repertory Theatre.

COURTNEY O’NEILL (Scenic Design) (She/They) KCRep: Peter Pan & Wendy, When I Come to Die. Regional: Sense & Sensibility, The 39 Steps (Great Lakes Theatre and the Idaho Shakespeare Company); A Doll’s House Part 2, The Burn, The Burials, Life & Limb, Of Mice and Men (Steppenwolf Theatre Company); Father Comes Home from the Wars, Parts 1, 2 & 3 (Goodman Theatre); Twisted Melodies (Apollo Theatre, Baltimore Center Stage, Mosaic Theatre); Moby Dick (Lookingglass Theatre, Arena Stage, Alliance Theatre, South Coast Repertory); Plantation!, The Little Prince (Lookingglass Theatre); twenty50 (Denver Center for the Performing Arts); for colored girls who have considered suicide/when the rainbow is enough, Five Guys Named Moe, Harvey, Waiting for Godot (Court Theatre); Wife of a Salesman, The Niceties, A Number, Julius Caesar (Writers Theatre); The Niceties, Christmas at Pemberley, Black Pearl Sings, The Amish Project, Song Man Dance Man (Milwaukee Repertory Theatre). Associate Designer: Fish in the Dark and This is our Youth (Broadway). Upcoming: Eurydice (Writers Theatre). Awards: Jeff Award, Michael Maggio Emerging Designer Award, USITT Scene Design Award. Affiliations: United Scenic Artists USA829. Education: MFA, Northwestern University; BFA, De-Paul University; High School, Notre Dame de Sion.courtneyoneill.com

SULLY RATKE (Costume Design) (She/Her) KCRep: Peter Pan & Wendy. Chicago: Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein, 20,000 Leagues Under the Seas, and Moby Dick (Lookingglass Theatre Company); Steppenwolf Theatre Company, Drury Lane Theatre, Actors Gymnasium, Chicago Fringe Opera. Regional: Alliance Theatre, Arena Stage, South Coast Repertory Theatre, The Guthrie Theatre, The MUNY, St. Louis Repertory Theatre, and Arkansas Rep. Sully Ratke is a theatre artist with a background in painting, drawing, music, and performance. sullyratke.com

SHERRICE MOJGANI (Lighting Design) (She/Her) KCRep: debut. Regional: The Mountaintop, (The Adrienne Kennedy Festival); The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time (Round House Theater); Tiny Beautiful Things, The Folks at Home, The Garden (Baltimore Center Stage); The High Ground, The Heiress, Two Trains Running (Arena Stage); Spunk, Ain’t Misbehavin’, The Scottsboro Boys (Signature Theatre Company); A Raisin in the Sun, Murder on the Orient Express, A Few Good Men, Sweat (Pittsburgh Public Theatre); Trouble in Mind, What You Are, Skeleton Crew (The Old Globe). Sherrice is an Associate Professor at George Mason University in northern Virginia. Education: MFA in Lighting Design from UC San Diego; BA in Theater Arts from UC Santa Cruz. smojgani.com.

ANDRÉ PLUESS (Sound Design/Composer) KCRep: Peter Pan & Wendy, Winesburg Ohio, Arabian Nights, Harriet Jacobs, August: Osage County, History of Kisses, Palomino, The Whipping Man, The Mystery of Irma Vep, The Who & The What, Roof of the World, Constellations, Indecent, Fences, Trip to Bountiful. Broadway: The Minutes, 33 Variations, I Am My Own Wife and Metamorphoses, The Clean House (Lincoln Center), and coming in 2023: Good Night Oscar, starring Sean Hayes. Regional: André’s designs/compositions have been featured at regional theaters throughout the country including the Oregon Shakespeare Festival, McCarter Theatre, Center Theatre Group, Seattle Repertory, Yale Repertory Theatre, Arena Stage, Steppenwolf Theatre, the Goodman Theatre, Chicago Shakespeare Theatre, Berkeley Repertory Theatre, Williamstown Theatre Festival, La Jolla Playhouse, The Huntington, South Coast Repertory and Playwrights Horizons. Awards: multiple Joseph Jefferson Awards, an Ovation Award, a Barrymore Award, a Lortel Nomination and Drama Critics Circle Award. Film: The Business of Being Born (original score, Showtime); short films Cell Watch, Netuser, War Words. Based in Chicago, André is an ensemble member of Lookingglass Theatre Company. Since the Covid pandemic, projects include remote virtual collaborations with Theatre Squared and The Civilians on the critically acclaimed Russian Troll Farm (selected as one of the top 10 productions of 2020 by the NY Times) as well as audio plays, site-specific interactive installations, and live broadcast performances for Arena Stage, Milwaukee Rep. and American Players Theatre among others. André is currently teaching at the University of Illinois and Loyola University in Chicago and working as a sound designer on an assortment of Amazon Music/Wondery podcast series. Andrepluess.com

LISA ANNE SCHLENKER (Puppet Design) (She/Her) KCRep: debut. Lisa is delighted to work with the ever inspiring, talented, and generous Wisconsin theatre community! Home is where the heart sings. A Milwaukee based scenic designer, Lisa’s design work of particular joy includes past projects with Milwaukee Opera Theatre, In Tandem, Renaissance Theaterworks, Milwaukee Shakespeare, Milwaukee Chamber Theater, Milwaukee Rep, Florentine Opera, First Stage, Skylight Music Theatre, and AFT/Northern Sky. In addition to her design work, she logs more than three decades in the pursuit of managing prop shops and building props for the full spectrum of work in the performing arts. Lisa currently spends off time serving as co-secretary to the Wisconsin Puppetry Guild, engaging in flights of imagination and fancy, and elevating puppetry arts to effect transformation in public education and storytelling. She is also proudly affiliated with the national professional organization The Society for Prop Artists & Managers. And Lisa wrote a book with coauthor Sandra Strawn! The Properties Director’s Tookkit: Managing a Prop Shop for Theatre is now available on Amazon. Thank you for supporting live local theatre!

GAYLA VOSS (Hair/Wig Co-Design) (She/Her) KCRep: Twelfth Night, Ms. Holmes & Ms. Watson, Apt. 2B, A Christmas Carol, Little Shop of Horrors, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, The Rivals, among others. Ms. Voss was the Costume Shop Manager for Kansas City Rep for many years.

MARY CAITLAND WILLIAMS (Hair/Wig Co-Design) (She/Her) KCRep: debut. Current Assistant Costume Shop Manager. Local: The Glass Menagerie (Astra Theatre Co.); Curtains!, Mamma Mia! (Shawnee Mission Theatre in the Park); Boeing-Boeing! (Red Barn Theatre); Grand Hotel: The Musical (The Barn Players); The Man Who Came to Dinner (Leawood Stage Company); Disenchanted!, Heathers: The Musical, Superior Donuts (Topeka Civic Theatre). Awards: Barney Award for Costume Design, Grand Hotel: The Musical (The Barn Players).

JOE COURT (Associate Sound Design) (He/Him) KCRep: debut. Regional: Simpatico (A Red Orchid Chicago, McCarter); Inanimate (Theater Wit, Chicago); The Edge Our Bodies (59E59 NYC, TUTA Chicago); A Rock Sails By (Peninsula Players). Education: MA Illinois State University. Upcoming: Sense and Sensibility, Twelfth Night (Illinois Shakespeare Festival); Million Dollar Quartet (Peninsula Players). Affiliations: SA 829, Artistic Associate TUTA

HALLEY SYLVESTER (Associate Sound Design) (She/They) KCRep: debut. Local: DOT (Kansas City Actors Theatre); Legally Blonde: The Musical (Assistant Design, Starlight Theatre). Upcoming: Julius Caesar (Heart of America Shakespeare Festival). Education: 3rd year MFA student, UMKC; BA, University at Buffalo. @sylvester.sound halleysylvestersound.com

JANA LATCHAW (Assistant Director) (She/Her) KCRep: debut. Recent Directing: Les Misérables, Bright Star, Urinetown, Macbeth, Matilda, Merrily We Roll Along, Our Town, Radium Girls, The Mousetrap, Twelfth Night; Into The Woods (Associate Director/Stage Manager, First Act Theatre Arts); The Effect of Gamma Rays on Man-in-the-Moon Marigolds (Production Assistant, Kansas City Actors Theatre). Upcoming: Twelve Angry Jurors (Director, First Act Theatre Arts). Education: BFA, Northwestern College.

MACKENZIE REPPY (Assistant Director) (She/Her) KCRep: Cyrano de Bergerac (Assistant Director). UMKC: Thinner Than Water, Big Love (Production Stage Manager), The 39 Steps, Fixing King John (Assistant Stage Manager), Topdog/Underdog (Assistant Director), Fall Dance 2023 (PSM), Every Brilliant Thing (Director). Other Credits: Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat, The Comedy of Errors, The Tempest (Production Stage Manager, Ethington Theatre); A Year With Frog and Toad (Assistant Stage Manager, Ethington Theatre); Peter/Wendy, Imaginary Things (Director, Grand Canyon University’s Second Series), The Lady’s Not For Burning, Radium Girls (Assistant Director. Ethington Theatre), The Addams Family (Assistant Production Manager, Ethington Theatre). Education: MFA in Technology and Design—Stage Management Candidate (UMKC); BA in Theatre and Drama (Grand Canyon University).

SYDNEY ALEXANDRA GRIFFIN (Assistant Lighting Design) KCRep: debut. New York: Memorial, World Premiere (Pan Asian Repertory Theatre). Regional: Big Love, The Magic Flute, Topdog/Underdog, Motherfu*ker with the Hat, Fall Dance Concert: other dances (Lighting Design, UMKC); Remove Shoes before Entering (Lighting Design, Heartland Opera Theatre). Educational: Emotions in Motion (Projection/Lighting Design, Missouri Southern State University); Exit Pursued by Bear, 5 tellers dancing in the rain, What Now/Now What, Company, Wind in the Willows, Tartuffe, Christmas with Little Women, Nevermore (Lighting Design, Missouri Southern State University). Education: 3rd year MFA in Lighting Design, UMKC; BA, Missouri Southern University; AA, Tulsa Community College.

MICHAEL BLAKE (Choreographer) KCRep: debut. Local: The Tempest (Heart of America Shakespeare Festival). Dance Companies: The Murray Louis Dance Company (1982), The José Limón Dance Company (until 1991). Contributions to Donald Byrd/The Group, PARADIGM Dance, Wylliams/Henry Contemporary Dance Company, and Shapiro and Smith, among others. Performances. Stage: What You Gonna Name that Pretty Little Baby? (Vinette Carroll); Film: The Tales of Cri Cri, Unsettled Dreams; Ted Talk: “Life is a Dance.” Mr. Blake served as Artistic Director at the Joffrey Ballet School and is currently an Assistant Professor of Modern Dance at UMKC. Awards: 2010 Bessie Award Dance and Performance. Education: MFA Purchase College. michaelrblake.com AEA Member

JZ CASTING
GEOFF JOSSELLSON, CSA
KATJA ZAROLINSKI, CSA(New York Casting) Geoff Josselson, CSA and Katja Zarolinski, CSA are New York-based casting directors, handling productions for theatre, film and television. Recent work includes productions for Arena Stage, Actors Theatre of Louisville, Baltimore Center Stage, Cape Playhouse, Denver Center, The Irish Repertory Theatre, Merrimack Rep, Oregon Shakespeare Festival, Paper Mill Playhouse, Pittsburgh CLO, Pittsburgh Public Theatre, Repertory Theatre of St. Louis, Round House Theatre, Seattle Repertory Theatre, Theaterworks Hartford, Weston Playhouse. jz-casting.com

ANDI MEYER (Kansas City Casting) (She/Her) Based in Osage/Kikapoo/Kansa/Sioux/Otoe Missouria ancestral territory (Kansas City), Andi is an award-winning Kanaka Maoli/Asian American theatre maker/activist, arts educator, and parent. She is the Producing Artistic Director of Tradewind Arts, a boutique arts organization devoted to illuminating, motivating, and amplifying the voice of Native Hawaiian, Oceanic, and Asian American artists. Andi was a 2017-18 Charlotte Street Foundation (CSF) Studio Resident. Her work has been recognized with support from ArtsKC, TCG, Asian Arts Initiative, The Kauffman Foundation, Charlotte Street Foundation, JOCO libraries, InterUrban ArtHouse, and the Dramatists Guild Fund, as well as two NEA award winning projects in partnership with The Coterie Theatre including Hana’s Suitcase and Justice at War. Andi has appeared in productions at The Unicorn Theatre, The New Theatre, The Coterie, The Kansas City Repertory Theatre, Disney’s Spirit of Aloha, with voice and on-camera clients including Hallmark, H&R Block, Sprint, and McDonald’s. AEA Member

MARY R. HONOUR (Production Stage Manager) (She/Her) KCRep/Missouri Repertory Theatre: Ghost Light 23 (Lead Event Coordinator), Noises Off, Fun Home, Cat On A Hot Tin Roof, Pride & Prejudice, Last Days of Summer, Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street, The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time, Between the Lines, A Raisin in the Sun, Side by Side by Sondheim, The Invisible Hand, The Fantasticks, The Diary of Anne Frank, Sunday in the Park with George, An Iliad, Our Town, Vanya and Sonia and Masha and Spike, Romeo and Juliet, American Buffalo, Death of a Salesman, Little Shop of Horrors, The Adventures of Tom Sawyer (including the New York production at New Victory Theatre), Peer Gynt (including the co-production at La Jolla Playhouse), Circle Mirror Transformation, Harriet Jacobs, Bus Stop, A Flea in Her Ear, Winesburg, Ohio, The Glass Menagerie, Radio Golf, The Drawer Boy, A Christmas Carol, The Syringa Tree, Love, Janis, Jitney, The Trip to Bountiful, Man and Superman, The Voysey Inheritance. Regional: Kansas City Starlight Theatre, Arizona Theatre Company, Lyric Opera of Kansas City, Light Opera Works.

CAROLINE B. JACKSON (Assistant Stage Manager) (She/Her) KCRep: A Christmas Carol, Twelfth Night (Assistant Stage Manager), Pride and Prejudice (Production Assistant). Local: Carmen, La Traviata, Amahl and the Night Visitors, The Shining, Sondheim on Sondheim, Cavalleria Rusticana & Pagliacci, The Sound of Music, Romeo et Juliette (Assistant Stage Manager, Lyric Opera of Kansas City); Smart People, Little Women, Grand Horizons, Gaslight (Production Stage Manager, Kansas City Actors Theatre). Regional Production Stage Manager: Something Rotten, Mamma Mia, Pageant: The Musical, Fully Committed, This Happened Once…Romance Depot, Babes In Arms, You’re a Good Man Charlie Brown, The World Goes Round, Altar Boyz (Forestburgh Playhouse); Into the Woods (Arkansas Repertory Theatre); Falstaff (IU Opera Theatre). Regional Assistant Stage Manager: Le Nozze di Figaro, Master Class (Utah Festival Opera and Musical Theatre). Tour Manager: Dog Man: The Musical (TheatreWorks USA/National Tour). Upcoming: West Side Story (Assistant Stage Manager, Starlight Theatre). Education: MFA Stage Management, UMKC; BA in Music & Theatre Performance, College of the Ozarks. AGMA Member, AEA Member

SKYLIGHT MUSIC THEATRE (Puppets) Since it’s  beginning in 1959, Skylight Music Theatre has established a reputation for broad and adventuresome repertoire, encompassing baroque opera, European operetta, Gilbert and Sullivan, Broadway musicals, contemporary chamber operas, and original musical revues. This tantalizing mix of repertoire fulfills the mission of the Skylight, which is to bring the full spectrum of musical theatre works to a wide and diverse audience in celebration of the musical and theatrical arts and their reflection of the human condition. The Skylight gives over 90 performances each season, winning national praise for its artistic excellence, versatility, and virtuoso ensemble productions. Emphasizing the development of emerging American artists, directors, and designers, Skylight Music Theatre attracts important new talent from around the country. With extended rehearsal and production periods, Skylight artists are able to hone their skills, expand their repertoire, and gain invaluable experience.

MUSIC THEATRE INTERNATIONAL (Licensor) Music Theatre International (MTI) is one of the world’s leading theatrical licensing agencies, granting theatres from around the world the rights to perform the greatest selection of musicals from Broadway and beyond. Founded in 1952 by composer Frank Loesser and orchestrator Don Walker, MTI is a driving force in advancing musical theatre as a vibrant and engaging art form. MTI works directly with the composers, lyricists and book writers of these musicals to provide official scripts, musical materials and dynamic theatrical resources to over 100,000 professional, community and school theatres in the US and in over 150 countries worldwide. MTI is particularly dedicated to educational theatre, and has created special collections to meet the needs of various types of performers and audiences. MTI’s Broadway Junior® shows are 30- and 60-minute musicals for performance by elementary and middle school-aged performers, while MTI’s School Editions are musicals annotated for performance by high school students. MTI maintains its global headquarters in New York City
with additional offices in London (MTI Europe), and Melbourne (MTI Australasia).