Kiki Baby (2011)

Jenn Colella has starred on Broadway in High Fidelity and Urban Cowboy (Outer Critics Circle Award nomination, Outstanding Leading Actress). Off-Broadway: Lucky Guy, Beebo Brinker Chronicles (Lily Tomlin, producer), Don’t Quit Your Night Job, and Slut. Favorite regional credits: Amelia Earhart, Take Flight (McCarter); Hedda Hopper, Becoming Chaplin  (La Jolla), Annie Oakley, Annie Get Your Gun (PCLO); Georgie, The Full Monty (Paper Mill, with Elaine Stritch); Peter Pan, Peter Pan (Sondheim PAC); Cleo,The Times They Are A-Changin’ (Old Globe, Twlya Tharp, dir.); Daisy Hilton, Sideshow (Kennedy Center, Lonny Price, dir.). Television: Sondheim! The Birthday Concert at Lincoln Center, All My Children, The Good Wife, Cashmere Mafia, Rescue Me. Film: Lay It Down For Good, Uncertainty (with Joseph Gordon-Levitt). Stand Up Comedy: Laugh Factory and The Comedy Store in Los Angeles. Jenn proudly holds an MFA in Acting from UC Irvine.  

Jill Paice most recently appeared as Grazia in Death Takes a Holiday off Broadway at the Laura Pels and before that, as Susan in The New York Philharmonic production of Company, also released in movie theaters. BROADWAY: The 39 Steps, Curtains (Niki Harris, original cast recording), The Woman in White (Laura Fairlie).  WEST END: Gone with the Wind (Scarlett O’Hara), The Woman in White (Laura Fairlie, original cast recording), Night of 1000 Voices (Royal Albert Hall). NATIONAL TOUR: White Christmas (Betty, Detroit Company) Mamma Mia in Las Vegas (Sophie), Les Miserables. ENCORES: Where’s Charley? (Kitty). REGIONAL: Chess (Florence, Signature Theater), SCK BSTD (Afton, VSC), Curtains (Niki Harris, Ahmanson). EDUCATION: Baldwin-Wallace College.

Broadway: Guys and Dolls;The Farnsworth Invention; Monty Python’s Spamalot (original cast; Sir Bedevere, et. al.). Off-Broadway: Peter & The Starcatcher (NYTW), Knickerbocker Holiday (Avery Fisher Hall) The Golem, The Castle. Regional: La Jolla Playhouse, Goodspeed Opera House, Berkshire Theatre Festival, NY Stage and Film. TV: “Ed,” “Law & Order,” “Five Year Plan,” “Kings.” Film: Arthur (2011), Losing Control, Storytelling. Steve is a co-creator of 'Don't Quit Your Night Job'. NYMF: 'V-Day' (Outstanding Individual Performance Award), also co-author and composer. 

Jennifer Laura Thompson recently played the role of Jenny in the New York Philharmonic concert version of COMPANY directed by Lonny Price. She appeared on Broadway in last season's LEND ME A TENOR as Diana. She originated the role of Hope Cladwell in URINETOWN for which she received a Tony nomination for Best Leading Actress in a Musical. She portrayed Glinda in Broadway's WICKED and originated the role of Ariel Moore in Broadway's FOOTLOOSE. Other New York credits include ON THE TOWN, PARDON MY ENGLISH, and OF THEE I SING with the ENCORES! series at City Center; Off Broadway's LITTLE FISH and URINETOWN. She toured nationally in CAROUSEL, and has performed in concert nationally and internationally. Television and film: COMPANY, LAW AND ORDER SVU, CONSTRUCTION (soon to be released.) She is a graduate of The University of Michigan's Musical Theatre program. And she is a mom.

NYMF Debut! Louis made his Broadway debut as the Doctor in the Original Broadway Cast of the Pulitzer and Tony winning Next to Normal He appeared recently at Studio 54 in The Roundabout's People in the Picture as yet another doctor. He can be seen this winter bucking the trend as Deputy Hinton in the new Broadway musical, Bonnie & Clyde. Recent NYC: Gay Bride of Frankenstein, Carrie, Room with a View and Louis Hobson Sucks! at Joe's Pub. Regionally: Hair (Claude), West Side Story (Tony), Assassins (Czolgosz), Miss Saigon (Chis), Rocky Horror (Brad), Evita (Che/dir. Brian Yorkey) and Stupid Kids (Neechee). Recordings: Next to Normal & People in the Picture. Louis is a proud member of Equity and a student of Michael Howard.

Eric Leviton has toured in such shows as Chicago (as Amos), The Full Monty (as Dave Bukatinsky), Seussical, the Musical (as Horton, the Elephant) starring Cathy Rigby, and Damn Yankees (as Sohovik) starring Jerry Lewis. Eric has also appeared in regional productions of The Full Monty in California, Colorado and Florida. He also took part in the Ovation-nominated revival of The Rocky Horror Show, starring David Arquette, in which he played both Eddie and Dr. Scott. He has taken on the role of The Cowardly Lion in The Wizard of Oz for McCoy/Rigby Entertainment (a performance for which he received the prestigious Drama-Logue Award) and twice for the Sacramento Music Circus. Eric's numerous television credits include roles on "Blue Bloods," "Law & Order," "Desperate Housewives," "Scrubs," Diagnosis Murder," "Beverly Hills 90210," and Disney's "Annie," as well as a recurring role as The Heckler on "Late Night with Conan O'Brien." Eric is also the co-creator of the Nightlife Award winning two-man show, "A Little Traveling Music," which has performed all over the country and on the high seas.

Broadway: Baby It's You; Caroline, or Change; A Class Act; Victor/Victoria; Falsettos; Les Miserables. Off-Broadway: Make Me a Song; The Immigrant; Endgame; Merrily We Roll Along; Normal. Recent regional: Old Globe; Arden; Goodspeed; Round House; DTC; Kennedy Center. TV: "The Sopranos;" "Law & Order" (all); "Queens Supreme;" "Oz." Graduate: NYU/Tisch.

Credits include Company at Avery Fisher Hall and the film version.  Other credits: Bye Bye Birdie, Guys and Dolls, The Music Man, Sweeney Todd (all revivals), And The World Goes Round, 42nd Street, and Merrily We Roll Along.  On PBS: Crazy For You, Follies: In Concert and Sondheim! The Birthday Concert.  With brother, Bob Walton, co-wrote Double Trouble (A Musical Tour de Farce) and Mid-life! The Crisis Musical (both licensed through Rodgers and Hammerstein Theatricals).  www.midlifethecrisismusical.com

Stacie Morgain Lewis was most recently seen on Broadway as Frieda/Betty in the critically acclaimed revival of Sunday in the Park With George.  Prior to that, she played Glinda in the Chicago production of Wicked.  B'way: Wicked (stand by/performed Glinda), Urinetown (performed Hope Cladwell & Little Sally), Titanic.  Off-B'way: Don't Quit Your Night Job.  National Tours:  Titanic, South Pacific (performed Nellie Forbush opposite Michael Nouri).  Regional: No Way To Treat a Lady (Sarah), My Fair Lady (Eliza, dir. Joe Calarco), Sarah, Plain and Tall (Anna), You're a Good Man Charlie Brown (Lucy), A Chorus Line (Kristine). Film: Elephant Shoes.  BFA Ithaca College.  For Vivian & Willa

Helen-Jean Arthur appeared in dozens of Broadway and off-Broadway plays, including  “Therese Raquin,” original productions of “A Lie of the Mind”, “Sister Mary Ignatius Explains it all to You,” and the New York premiere of Tom Stoppard’s “Indian Ink.”  Regional credits include CATF, the Humana Festival in Louisville, “Juno and the Paycock” (Arena Stage) “Foxfire” (Guthrie Theatre) “A Delicate Balance” (Virginia Stage).  She was on daytime’s “Loving” for four years, and NPR listeners hear her read Selected Shorts.  Her specialties are playing first violin in several orchestras, or as soloist in the repertoire for spoken voice with orchestra.  She tours and travels widely, most recently to Cuba, New Zealand, Australia, the North Pole, and Antarctica (which is a paradise!)

On Broadway, Mr. Price directed Audra McDonald in 110 in the Shade for the Roundabout Theatre; Danny Glover in Athol Fugard's Master Harold... and the Boys; Joan Rivers in Sally Marr and Her Escorts (which he co-wrote with Ms. Rivers and Erin Sanders); Jenn Colella in Urban Cowboy and himself in A Class Act, for which he also co-wrote the book (with Linda Kline) and was nominated for a Tony Award. Most recently he directed and co-produced Company with the New York Philharmonic, (with Neil Patrick Harris, Patti LuPone and Stephen Colbert.) Previous Philharmonic collaborations include Sondheim: The Birthday Concert!, Camelot starring Gabriel Byrne (broadcast on Live from Lincoln Center), Candide starring Kristin Chenoweth and Patti LuPone (Great Performances, Emmy nomination) and Sweeney Todd starring Ms. LuPone and George Hearn, for which he won an Emmy Award.  Mr. Price directed the Emmy Award-winning production of Sondheim's Passion, starring Ms. Lupone, Audra McDonald and Michael Cerveris.  Mr. Price's Off-Broadway directorial work includes Visiting Mr. Green starring Eli Wallach; Jules Feiffer's Grown Ups; and Mary Pat Gleason's Stopping Traffic for the Vineyard Theatre.  He made his opera directing debut at the Houston Grand Opera directing Audra McDonald in Poulenc's La Voix Humaine and Michael John LaChiusa's Send.  He recently finished shooting his first feature film, Master Harold... and the Boys, starring Freddie Highmore and Ving Rhames, and has directed several episodes of ABC's Desperate Housewives. Lonny Price is a member of the Stage Directors and Choreographers Society, a national theatrical union.

Mr. Sturiale is the recipient of the Theater For The American Musical Award for his musical UNDER FIRE (written with Barry Harman) presented in 2009 at NYMF.   Mr. Sturiale garnered an Outer Critic’s Circle Award nomination for his score for the Off-Broadway musical OLYMPUS ON MY MIND, and conducted its New York run and original cast album.   For 8 seasons, Mr. Sturiale was principle conductor and composer for the annual Christmas Spectacular at Radio City Music Hall. He was Associate Conductor for the Broadway productions of DREAM and JOSEPH AND THE AMAZING TECHNICOLOR DREAMCOAT, conducted the Off-Broadway revivals of THE ROTHSCHILDS and JUNO, the national tours of BLOOD BROTHERS and THE MUSIC OF ANDREW LLOYD WEBBER, a North American tour of the musical DURANTE and a European tour of EVITA.   An evening of his work as a composer was presented in April 2010 at Lincoln Center produced by Arts And Artists At St. Paul.

Kitt Lavoie has written twenty-three produced plays and musical books, including Twice Rather Perish, The Median Line (both winners of the Herbert J. Robinson Award for Dramatic Writing), realer than that (published by Samuel French; winner, 2009 Samuel French OOB Festival), [pwnd] (2009 NYIT Award Nominee, Best Original Short Script), and the widely produced Good Enough, Party Girl, and Not Entirely Platonic: Variations on a Confession.  Also a filmmaker, Kitt wrote and directed the film Rainbow Rabbit Reliant (Best Dramatic Short, Best Director, Audience Award - Atlantic City Cinefest).  Member: SDC, Dramatists Guild.  MFA in Directing: Actors Studio Drama School.  Kitt is the Artistic Director of The CRY HAVOC Company (www.cryhavoccompany.org), where he has overseen the development of over 250 plays through the weekly CRY HAVOC Workshop – which celebrates its tenth anniversary this fall.  www.kittlavoie.com

Matt recently co-produced, with Lonny Price, Company with the New York Philharmonic, staring Neil Patrick Harris, Patti LuPone, and Stephen Colbert. He has worked with co-producer Lonny Price on numerous productions during the last four years, including Sondheim: The Birthday Concert! (Lincoln Center, associate director); Broadway: Three Generations (Kennedy Center, associate director); My Favorite Things, a Rodgers and Hammerstein revue starring Shirley Jones (for which he was associate director); Beautiful Girls, a Stephen Sondheim revue starring Zoe Caldwell, Patti LuPone, Marin Mazzie, Donna McKechnie, and Jenn Colella (associate director]; the Broadway revival of 110 in the Shade starring Audra McDonald (assistant director. In the summer of 2009 he co-wrote and co-directed the children’s original musical, Dream Machines, with collaborator Isaac Klein. Other directing credits include Camp Wanatchi (LaMama E.T.C.); Kiki Baby (Eugene O'Neill Music Theater Conference); the world premiere of We Three (Clark Studio Theater, Lincoln Center), and the critically acclaimed Salacious Uncle Baldrick (NYC Fringe). Mr. Cowart is currently the co-artistic director of MUDasMAN productions, and has served as artistic director of the OffBeat Theater Company and as the associate artistic director of the 78th Street Theatre Lab. He was a 2004–05 Kenan Directing Fellow at the Lincoln Center Institute, and is an alumnus of the 2005 Lincoln Center Theater Directors Lab and a member of the Society for Stage Directors and Choreographers. Mr. Coward is a graduate of the University of North Carolina School of the Arts, and is currently developing a new hip-hop musical, Legend of the Word, with Isaac Klein and James Stewart.

Josh’s choreography credits include the film version of Company with the New York Philharmonic,  Sondheim: The Birthday Concert on PBS,  2011 Tony Awards on CBS, Broadway: Three Generations at the Kennedy Center, Working at the Old Globe and the Broadway Playhouse in Chicago, Annie Get Your Gun (starring Patti Lupone) at Ravinia, They're Playing Our Song (starring Jason Alexander) at Reprise in L.A.. Barnum at the Asolo Rep (Sarasota Theatre Award), Tintypes at the Maltz Jupiter, 1776 at the Papermill Playhouse,Breaking Up Is Hard To Do at the Ogunquit Playhouse, Chess, The Full Monty, and Dreamgirls at North Carolina Theatre, Beautiful GIrls at the Manhattan School of Music.  Josh recently directed  Broadway Bares: Masterpiece! in New York. His performance credits on Broadway include: Fosse, Bells are Ringing, Sweet Smell of Success, Urban Cowboy, Man of La Mancha, The Boy from Oz, and Chicago.

NYMF:  Yank!; The Shaggs.  Broadway: The Story of My Life. Tours: Disney’s High School Musical and HSM2, including companies in the US, Australia, Spain and London’s West End; White Christmas. Off-Broadway: Side Effects; Zanna, Don’t! and Shakespeare’s R&J. Regional: Ford's Theatre (Associate Artist;) The Kennedy Center; CenterStage; Dallas Theater Center; Goodspeed; Cincinnati Playhouse; Portland Center Stage and Yale Rep. Written and published two volumes in the Blueprints of Fashion book series. Prior to designing, he performed on Broadway in Cats and On Your Toes and in tours of La Cage and 42nd Street. Yale School of Drama Graduate Design Program.

James Noone has been a Scenic Designer in NYC since 1983 and a member of USA local 829 since 1986. During this time he has worked for some of NYC’s most prestigious theatre companies including Playwrights Horizons, Manhattan Theatre Club, Lincoln Center Theatre, Roundabout Theatre Company and numerous others. Off Broadway he has designed the original productions of Terrance McNally’s FRANKIE AND JOHNNY IN THE CLAIR DELUNE, Edward Albee’s Pulitzer Prize winning play THREE TALL WOMEN, the long running solo shows FULL GALLOP and FULLY COMMITTED. Other long running Off-Broadway shows include COWGIRLS and BREAKING LEGS, The original production of A BRONX TALE, the first revival of BOYS IN THE BAND and the musical RUTHLESS. Broadway productions include the long running JEKYLL AND HYDE, Tony nominated best Musical A CLASS ACT, many productions for Tony Randall’s NATIONAL ACTORS THEATRE including THE PERSIANS, JUDGEMENT AT NUREMNBERG, NIGHT MUST FALL, THE SUNSHINE BOYS and THE GIN GAME and the recent revival of A BRONX TALE and COME BACK LITTLE SHEBA.

Outside of NYC he has designed at many of the leading regional Theatres in America as well as many national tours. His work in Opera has been seen at GLIMMERGLASS, NYC OPERA, LYRIC OPERA OF CHICAGO, HOUSTON GRAND OPERA, LA OPERA, WASHINGTON NATIONAL OPERA, and AND CANADIAN OPERA CO.

For television he designed SWEENEY TODD,CANDIDE,PASSION,CAMELOT, AND STEPEHN SONDHEIM’S 80TH BIRTHDAY CONCERT for PBS and COMPANY seen in select movie Theatres.

Currently he is head of The Scenic Design department at Boston University, apposition held since 2001.

Awards include THE DRAMA DESK (and multiple nominations), AMERICAN THEATRE WING DESIGN AWARD, 2 HELEN HAYES AWARDS (DC) The LA OVATION AWARD. AND 2 NAACP THEATRE DESIGN AWARDS.

New York:  Irish Repertory Theater; LaMama E.T.C.; Minetta Lane Theater; The Classical Theater of Harlem; Theater 59E59; The Cell Theater , The Lyceum, Wings Theater Regional: Playhouse in the Park and Downtown Theater Cabaret, Bridgeport, CT.; Cumberland Theater, MD. National Tours : “Buddy, the Buddy Holly Story”; “The Sound of Music” Europe:    Mickery Theater, Amsterdam and  RO Theater, Rotterdam, The Netherlands; Theater 140, Brussels; Theater Bagnolet, Paris, Hamburg and Bochum Schauspielhaus, Germany ; I.C.A., Oval House,  Birmingham Rep, UK; Citizens Theater, Glasgow, Scotland; Chapter Arts, Cardiff, Wales Regional: Playhouse in the Park and Downtown Theater Cabaret, Bridgeport, CT.; Cumberland Theater, MD.; Trilogy Repertory Theater, NJ

Music Coordinator: How to Succeed, Bye-Bye Birdie, Grease, Times They Are A-Changin’, Dirty Rotten Scoundrels, Vanities, Romantic Poetry, Adrift in Macao.  Conductor/Percussionist: Billy Elliot, Scoundrels, Never Gonna Dance, Flower Drum Song, Full Monty, Jesus Christ Superstar, Miss Saigon, Les Misérables, Singing in the Rain, King and I, Cleavage, Radio City.  Recordings/performances: Jewel, Celine Dion, Whitney Houston, Rochester Philharmonic,  Across the Universe, Alamo, Snake Eyes, Twilight, Age of Innocence, Femme Fatale, Maid in Manhattan, MTV Music Video Awards.

Mr. Passero produced the HBO movie, “Power 98” with Eric Roberts and the indy feature, DEBATING ROBERT LEE with Beau Bridges & Kaley Cuoco.  Jeff & his wife & partner, Elizabeth Hayden-Passero formed Blunt Productions, a film and theatre producing entity. One of their first projects was associate producing FLYPAPER for HBO with Lucy Liu. Current projects include the film LOVE, MARRIAGE AND MARILYN MONROE by Susan Baskin, a coming of age story set in upstate New York circa the 1960’s (set up with Ira Deutchman’s Emerging Pictures.)

As a casting director, N.Y. stage credits include UNIDENTIFIED HUMAN REMAINS AND THE TRUE NATURE OF LOVE with Sam Rockwell at the Orpheum Theatre; 3 productions at the American Place Theatre under Wynn Handman; Musical Theatre Works; Manhattan Punchline; Theatre-Off-Park; and 2 seasons at the Roundabout Theatre, where he cast LOOK BACK IN ANGER with Malcolm McDowell, THE BLOODKNOT with Danny Glover, A MONTH IN THE COUNTRY with Tammy Grimes, Amanda Plummer, Phillip Bosco, Boyd Gaines & Kelsey Grammer, and PINS AND NEEDLES with Tony Award winner Randy Graff, among other plays. 

For television, Mr. Passero cast LARGO DESOLATO with F. Murray Abraham and THE LOST LANGUAGE  OF CRANES (U.S. Casting) for PBS/Great Performances. Also for TV, he cast PRANCER RETURNS with John Corbett (USA) and the SEX AND THE SINGLE MOM series with Gail O’Grady (Lifetime).

Mr. Passero has cast over 50 feature films including, THE SASQUATCH GANG with Justin Long for Kevin Spacey’s Trigger Street Films; FRANKIE AND JOHNNY ARE MARRIED, written and directed by Michael Pressman and SONNY, Nicolas Cage’s directorial debut starring James Franco, Mena Suvari, Scott Caan and Brenda Blethyn.  Other films include POISON IVY with Drew Barrymore; BLACK DOG with Patrick Swayze; KULL THE CONQUEROR with Kevin Sorbo; THE HUNTER’S MOON with Burt Reynolds and Keith Carradine; THE BALLAD OF LITTLE JO with Suzy Amis and Sir Ian McKellen; LAST EXIT TO BROOKLYN with Jennifer Jason Leigh; TWO SMALL BODIES with Fred Ward and Suzy Amis; TRADING MOM with Sissy Spacek and FLYPAPER with Robert Loggia, Lucy Liu and Craig Sheffer.  He did the New York casting on BONFIRE OF THE VANITIES, THE DOCTOR and the horror classic, PET SEMETARY.

In addition to casting, Mr. Passero has taught acting and musical theatre audition technique with various classes and workshops for the past 20 years.  He studied acting & directing in college (Catholic University) and at the University of Connecticut and then in New York with Uta Hagen and Ed Moorhouse (HB Studios), Terry Schrieber and Larry Moss.  Jeff studied musical theatre audition technique with David Craig and was greatly influenced by Craig’s technique and his landmark book “On Singing On Stage”. He recently directed MOLLY by Simon Gray at the Victory Theatre Center in Burbank.

 Mr. Passero will soon be performing his play, Casting Aspersions, in which he reflects on his life as a casting director.

After many years of casting films, Elizabeth & husband Jeff decided to form their own production company: Blunt Productions, so that they could produce the quality films and plays that might be overlooked in a commercial world. They have optioned several scripts and two novels, most notably the novel upon which Kiki Baby is based. On stage, favorite starring roles include I DO, I DO; A CHORUS LINE; EVITA; & SONS OF DON JUAN. In the mid-1980’s, Liz & husband Jeff ran The Music Room at the Horn of Plenty in Greenwich Village, where they booked performers such as Margaret Whiting, Carol Woods & Helen Gallagher, and she performed her Cabaret Act several times as well as running the weekly Open-Mic Night. Liz has also performed her act at the Cinegrill in Los Angeles, and as a vocalist, she’s performed with orchestras around the country. As a casting director, Liz has cast over a dozen feature films, including Nicolas Cage’s SONNY. After a recent foray back to college for a degree in design, she recently completed her first set design job on the Simon Gray play MOLLY, happily to rave reviews! Above all, Liz’s most successful & gratifying productions are her three daughters.

Off-Broadway: Jurassic Parq, The Broadway Musical Off-Broadway (late fall 2011); Tennessee Williams’s The Two Character Play (fall of 2011); Lidless (Page 73 Productions September 2011), Kiki Baby, The Brain That Wouldn’t Die…In 3D! (NYMF 2011); Previous NY Productions:  Tales From The Tunnel (Bleecker Street Theatre); The Road To Qatar! (The York Theatre); Glimpses of The Moon (The Oak Room); 2011 Repertory Season for The Actors Studio Drama School.  Out of Town/Touring: Rest, In Pieces (Glens Falls, NY); Wallenberg, The Musical, Renovations, and That Time of The Year (White Plains Performing Arts Center 2010-2011 Mainstage Season); The Playboy of Balyduff (2012/2013 tour). Showcase Productions: Comm Comm (Page 73); The Toymaker (NYMF 2009); Marrying Meg (NYMF 2009); Frog Kiss (NYMF 2010); Shine! (NYMF 2010); and Bloodties. (NYMF 2010). Under Development: The Road To Skye; First Kids; Enchanted April, the Romantic Musical Comedy; Frog Kiss; a revival of Elegies for Angels, Saints and Raging Queens.