Living With Henry (2012)

Christopher Wilson (Book, Music and Lyrics)

Christopher Wilson is a professional performer and professional arts educator whose credits include both national and international appearances. Selected performing credits include: Treemonisha (Nathaniel Dett Chorale); The Pirates of Penzance (Toronto Operetta Theatre); Aida (Canadian Opera Company); The Red Queen Effect (Next Stage Theatre Festival); You’re A Good Man, Charlie Brown (Da Capo Productions); Timebomb (Toronto Fringe Festival); The Mikado (Drayton Entertainment); The Man of La Mancha (Waterloo Stage Theatre); Cinderella (Ross Petty Productions); Carmen (Royal Opera Canada); The Mikado (the National Arts Centre); The Gondoliers (Stratford Festival); Anne of Green Gables (Charlottetown Festival); and The Music Man (Disney Entertainment ABC). Christopher is the Artistic Producer of Beyond Boundaries.

 

Donna Marie Baratta (Director and Choreographer)

Donna Marie Baratta performed professionally in Crazy For You (Mirvish Productions, Snapshot Productions); Sunset Boulevard (Livent); the Charlottetown Festival and Magnus Theatre (Reflections on a Crooked Walking, Ned Durango Comes to Big Oak). She has directed, choreographed and produced numerous plays, dance performances and musicals including: How I Learned to Drive; Strange Mary Strange; Death and the Maiden; Embedded; Low Level Panic; Aftershock; Candide; Honk!; Footloose; Perfect Life; Spirit of a Nation; Bridgefest’97; You’re a Good Man, Charlie Brown; Crazy for You; The Vagina Monologues; Alice in Wonderland; You Can’t Take it with You; 7 Stories; Jitters; Peter Pan; Seussical the Musical and Grease. In 2005, she was Assistant Choreographer on a French Film entitled Gone for a Dance. She recently completed the MFA Directing program at the University of Alberta.

James Higgins (Musical Director)

In his 20-year plus career, James has performed in over 80 countries on all 7 continents (including a performance in the middle of the Southern Ocean off the coast of Antarctica!). This past April, he conducted the world premiere of Goddess Wheel by Galt MacDermot and Matty Selman. He was recently the  music coordinator and orchestrator for the premiere of Slow Dance with a Hot Pick Up by John Pielmeier (Agnes of God) and Mr. Selman. Working in regional theatres and operas houses across North America, he has conducted over 75 musicals and operas including Sweeney Todd; Candide; Ragtime; Madama Butterfly; South Pacific; Kiss Me Kate; Vanessa; Evita; The Pirates of Penzance; and The Rocky Horror Show. In 1996, he worked with Tony Award-winners Martin Charnin (Annie, Two by Two) and orchestrator Doug Besterman (The Producers, Carrie) on the Broadway-bound Jeanne La Pucelle.  From 2002-2005, he was the resident music director and co-executive director of Musical Theatre Southwest in Albuquerque NM, the largest community musical theatre company in the U.S. at the time.

Ryan Kelly (Michael)

Ryan Kelly was recently seen in Living With Henry (Next Stage Festival 2012); The Normal Heart (Studio 180/Buddies); Living With Henry (Toronto Fringe/Best of Fringe 2011); Twelfth Night at the Gladstone and in Craplicker in the Best of the Fringe '10! In '09, Ryan was part of the Best of Fringe in Hipcheck: The Musical. He has performed in all three Shakespeare Experiment at Buddies in Bad Times and in You're A Good Man, Charlie Brown for Beyond Boundaries. Ryan was seen at Rhubarb Fest '09 with Cordelia. Favourite theatre credits include: I Have AIDS (Cabaret Co.); Mamma Mia (Mirvish); Suzie Goo: Private Secretary (BIBT) and Will the Real JT LeRoy Please Stand Up? (Cabaret Co.) for which he earned a Dora Award in '07. TV and film credits include: The Dog Walker (Genie Nom); Queer As Folk (Season 4) and Almost Audrey (Canada Comedy Award Nom).

Dale Miller (Henry)

Dale Miller is an accomplished performer based in Toronto. He holds a Bachelor's degree in Music Performance (voice) and a Bachelor's degree in Music Education from Acadia University. Selected theatre credits include Sesussical; Living With Henry; Dirty Rotten Scoundrels; Cabaret;Jesus Christ Superstar; I Love You, You're Perfect, Now Change!; CATS; Forever Plaid;Plaid Tidings; Side by Side by Sondheim; TheGiant's Garden; Evita; I Do, I Do; The Handmaid's Tale; Victor/Victoria and Les Miserables where he starred as Marius. Recently, Dale performed in his own one man show called Dave Millen Presents...Dale was the lead vocalist onboard a Holland American cruise ship, spent two years as a member of a comedy troupe called The Improv Knights and sings lead in a Celtic folk-rock band called Up All Night.

Lizzie Kurtz (Jenni, Sustiva)

Lizzie Kurtz is thrilled to be continuing this exciting journey with Living with Henry. Previously, she appeared in Living With Henry (Toronto Fringe/Best of Fringe 2012); Hipcheck: The Musical which also won Best of Fringe ‘09. She has also performed at The Victoria Playhouse and with Drayton Entertainment in Cowgirls. Other favourite theatre credits include:You're a Good Man, Charlie Brown (Beyond Boundaries); Don't Tell Mama (Buddies in Bad Times); The Secret Garden (Theatre Orangeville); CATS (Neptune Theatre, Stella Productions - Germany); Forever Swing (Winter Garden Theatre); Grease (Jean Ann Ryan) and Top Girls (Theatre Sheridan). She would like to thank Christopher and Donna Marie for thinking of her once again to play with them! For Henry - and all those who have come to know him.

John Edwards (Mathew, Nurse, Truvada, Boy 1)

John Edwards is very excited to be joing the team of Living With Henry at the Next Stage Festival. Theatre credits include: Link Larkin in Hairspray (Port Hope); Skimbleshanks in Cats (Rainbow Stage); Aladdin in Alladin Jr. (Silvermist); Moose in Hercules the Muse-icle (Disney Cruise Lines); and three seasons with the Charlottetown Festival in Anne of Green Gables, British Invasion II: America Strikes Back, Stan Rogers: A Matter of Heart, Disco Cirque, and Somewhere in the World. Other credits Include: Rocky Horror Show(Citadel); West Side Story, Annie (Theatre St. John's); British Invasion (Stage West Miss/Calgary); Jesus Christ Superstar(Sunshine Festival); and Disney Dreams and Wishes (Disney Special Events - Australia).

Mary Kelly (Mom, Dr. Kenny)

Most recently, Mary Kelly appeared in Nunsense II as Mother Superior (Thousand Islands Playhouse); Living With Henry (Toronto Fringe/Best of Fringe 2012); Oliver!(Grand Bend, Theatre Aquarius); Anne of Green Gables (Grand Theatre) and in Man of La Mancha (Drayton Entertainment). Other favourite credits include: Sophie Tucker inSophie Tucker: The Last of the Red Hot Mamas; creating When All the Slaves are Free- words and music of Joni Mitchell (Great Canadian Theatre Company); originating the roles of Honour in Tom Jones and Amelia in The Little Match Girl (Stage by Stage Productions); and originating the role of Flipote and Mme. Graille inNapoleon. Other favourite credits: Closer than Ever; Damn Yankees; Emily; Side by Side by Sondheim; The Baker’s Wife and Nunsense.

Gavin Hope (Peter, Boy 2)

Gavin's diverse professional career has included solo concert performances, stage, television and film. He is a three-time Juno nominated recording artist and has been fortunate enough to perform around the world, sharing the stage with such greats as Aretha Franklin, Natalie Cole, Jill Scott, James Brown, and Deborah Cox. Theatre highlights include: lead roles in the original Canadian companies of RENT (Collins) and The Lion King (Simba). Other selected credits include: The Tempest (CanStage); As You Like It (CanStage); and Smokey Joe's Café (Stage West). Gavin also toured with, and recorded six albums  with internationally-renowned Canadian a cappella group, The Nylons. He is currently a core featured solo vocalist with Jeans ‘n Classics, and performs many Pops concerts with Symphony Orchestras across North America each year.

Alexa Carroll (Stage Manager)

Alexa is delighted to be part of the LWH team! She recently stage managed Underbelly Diaries off-Broadway and at the 2011 NY Fringe, and Operation Impervious in Toronto (which is just like New York, but without all the stuff). She also stage managed the original Toronto Fringe Festival production and remount of Bella Donna; Burning Passions’ production of Mrs. Warren’s Profession; The Drawer Boy for the Georgian Theatre Festival; as well as How to Get Rid of a Monster and Radio Dazefor Smile Theatre. Other credits include: Jane Moffat’s Gink and The Dizzy and Dale Chronicles; 2 tours with Mermaid Theatre of Nova Scotia; The Sea for Actors Repertory Company; The Chairs for Modern Times Stage Company and Clouds: The Musical. 

Jessica Parr (Assistant Stage Manager)

Jessica Parr is thrilled to be continuing the journey with Living With Henry at the New York Musical Theatre Festival - having been a part of the company this past Toronto Fringe Festival 2011, Best of Fringe Uptown 2011; and the Next Stage Festival 2012. She is fortunate to be able to have some part in the telling of this story and is grateful for the opportunity to work with such amazing artists and people on her first professional show. Jessica just completed her second year of the University of Alberta’s BFA Stage Management program and looks forward to working with everyone again on this NYMF production!

Jennifer Goodman (Set, Costume and Lighting Designer)

Jennifer is a set, costume, lighting and projection designer, and a graduate of both the MFA Design program at the University of Alberta and the BFA theatre design program at Concordia University. Her theatre training includes design assistantships at the Banff Centre (opera and dance programmes) and with Catalyst Theatre’s production ofHunchback. Her theatre design work has been seen across Canada in Edmonton, Calgary, Montreal, Toronto, and Kingston, as well as overseas in Germany, Austria, Belgium, the Ukraine, and the United Kingdom. In 2008, Jennifer was the recipient of a Montreal English Critics Circle Award (MECCA) for best set design for 7 Stories (Tableau d’Hôte). Recent credits include: The Farnsworth Invention, Chicago (Keyano Theatre Company); Vernon God Little, Xanadu, Company (Grant MacEwan University); Excess Unwanted Growth, How I Learned to Drive (Liquid Meld); Tumit (Akpik Productions); Dark Owl (Tableau d’Hôte); Much Ado About Nothing, Othello (Shakespeare in the Park Calgary); The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee, While We’re Young (Citadel Young Companies). Jennifer is currently in her second season as an assistant designer for the Stratford Shakespeare Festival.

Justin Huebener (General Manager/Line Producer)

Justin Huebener is a New York based producer and general manager. Justin graduated cum laude from Washington University in St. Louis with majors in Drama and Dance and was the recipient of the John G. Jutkowitz Award for Outstanding Achievement in Performing Arts. Previous NYMF production experience includes Jack Perry is Alive (and Dating), The History of War, The Great Unknown and Travlin’. Justin previously appeared in the national tour of CATS and has worked with theatres such as Stages St. Louis, The MUNY, and Theatre at the Center. When he is not “putting things together” Justin is a marketing and digital strategy professional in the real estate group of a leading global alternative asset management and financial services company.

Sunny Naughton (Social Media Coordinator)

Sunny Naughton is thrilled to be the Social Media Coordinator for Living With Henry, her second production working for General Manager, Justin Huebener. Studying Media Journalism at The New School, Ms. Naughton also works for Camp Broadway as their Program Coordinator and Social Media Correspondent.