Vote for Me: A Musical Debate (2010)

Catherine Cox received extraordinary reviews for her performance as MOTHER in the world premiere of THE MEMORY SHOW at Barrington Stage.  Her Broadway credits include leading roles in Footloose, Oh, Coward (Tony Nomination), Baby (Drama Desk Award), Rumors, Music Is, Whoopee!, Barnum, and One Night Stand.  Off-Broadway, she has appeared in William Finn's In Trousers, Rap Master Ronnie, By Strouse, It’s Better With A Band and The Waves.  She played Oolie in the LA production of City of Angels and has appeared extensively in regional theater.  Her television appearances include an assortment of Law and Orders and The Cosby Show.   Directing credits:  Baby, Quilters, Once on This Island, Seussical, Bye Bye Birdie and A, My Name is Alice.  Catherine is an adjunct professor for the Drama Department at Queens College and currently teaches Musical Theater Performance at AMDA (American Musical and Dramatic Academy) in New York.  She is happy to be married to David Evans, a composer and Associate Conductor of the long running Broadway musical, Wicked and is the proud mother of two wonderful young men, Joe and Henry.  She has also given birth to two plays, SWEET BETSY and THE DIVIDE.

RALPH BYERS  (Buddy Rounsaville) Broadway credits include Charlie Cowell in the revival of  The Music Man. The original production of  Big River, Goodbye Fidel, Herzl. Off Broadway: Promises, Promises (Encores!), Hamlet, Henry IV Part 1, Petrified Prince, NYSF, No End of Blame, MTC, Sunday in the Park..., Cassius, Julius Caesar, (Obie nomination). Chicago, Tom, The Glass Menagerie, (Jefferson nomination). Film: Regarding Henry, Working Girl, Star Trek, Franklin Court. Television: Numerous Law & Orders, including guest starring in this seasons “Disabled” episode. New York Undercover, Nurse, Kate & Allie, Kojak, Charlie’s Angels, Blind Ambition, The Cradle Will Fall, Concealed Enemies, most of the NY soaps. Ralph is grateful to have been an active participant in the NY voiceover community over the years.

Kristy Cates is thrilled to be part of Vote for Me - her first NYMF show!  Original Broadway Cast of Wicked (Elphaba understudy). Elphaba in the first National Tour and Chicago productions of Wicked. Off Broadway: Jerry Springer the Opera at Carnegie Hall,  Click Clack Moo at the Lucille Lortell, Boobs! The Music of Ruth Wallis, Princess Ida for NYGASP.  Select Regional: The World Premier of Unbeatable (“Zoni” Award  and Kevin Kline nomination- Best Actress in a Musical), Stephen Schwartz's Snapshots at the Oklahoma Lyric, Christine Colgate in Dirty Rotten Scoundrels at Mason Street Warehouse, and shows at the St. Louis MUNY, The Eugene O'Neill Conference and the NY Fringe Festival.  Concerts: sold out solo shows at the Fulton Opera House, the Metropolis in Chicago and various venues in and around NYC. Kristy is an instructor of Musical Theatre Performance at the New York Film Academy as well as a professional voice-over artist. She was the ASB President at her high school in Napa, California -  and won with the slogan, "Vote for me, ok?"  Amazing.  www.KristyCates.com

JAY RUSSELL Broadway: The Play What I Wrote. National tours: Beauty & the Beast, Applause. Off-Broadway: Our Town (Barrow Street); Around The World in 80 Days (Irish Rep); The Normal Heart (Public); The Green Heart (MTC); & more. Regional: Leading roles at Long Wharf, Arena Stage, Cincinnati Playhouse, Actors Theatre of Louisville (Humana Fest), Repertory Theatre of St. Louis, Utah Shakespearean Festival, Berkshire Theatre Festival, Westport Playhouse, Ordway, Pioneer Theatre & many more. International: Fully Committed (English Theatre of Vienna), and Cat on a Hot Tin Roof (English Theatre of Frankfurt). Film & TV: Morning Glory, Louie, Bored to Death, The Sopranos, Ugly Betty, Law & Order, Law & Order CI, The Unusuals, End of the Line, Spin City, Jamie Kennedy Experiment, Onion News Network, etc.

is a composer, lyricist and playwright living in New York City.  His work includes COLLEGE The Musical (NYMF 2008; pub Dramatic Publishing); Uncle Pirate (commissioned by Vital Theatre, pub. Samuel French); Claudio Bros: A Videogame Musical (commissioned by New Musical Dev’p Fund); and Thucydides (Samuel French OOB Festival Winner).  His original underscore and sound design for Buddy Thomas’ Devil Boys from Beyond (Fringe Best Play ’09) is also published by Samuel French and expected to reopen off-Broadway in Fall 2010.  Drew is a graduate of Princeton University and the BMI Workshop.  www.drewfornarola.com

is a playwright, composer, and sound designer whose work has premiered Off Broadway, Off Off Broadway, around the country, and internationally.  Writing credits include COLLEGE The Musical (NYMF 2008; Dramatic Publishing Company) and Thucydides (Samuel French OOB Festival Winner).  Sound design credits include Colin Quinn Long Story Short (Bleecker Street Theater), What I Took in My Hand (Ontological-Hysteric Theater; Brick Theater), Daguerreotype (Abingdon Theater), We Can’t Reach You, Hartford (Bedlam Theater; Fringe First nomination), and Joyce Carol Oates’ Tone Clusters (Fringe Report Award, Best Play).  Scott is a graduate of Princeton University.  www.scottelmegreen.com

is the Director of the BFA Musical Theatre Program at Pace University in New York City, where she created and developed the BFA Musical Theatre degree program. Amy’s professional and academic directing credits include the original workshops of Quanah (Larry Gatlin), Darling (Ryan Scott Oliver/B.T Ryback), COLLEGE The Musical (Fornarola, Elmegreen), the R&B musical Warm, But I’m a Cheerleader (conceptual director), Hoods and Hoofers (Rob Lindsay Nassif) and LUCK! (Brad Ross and Mark Waldrop). Full productions include: City of Angels, Ragtime, Damn Yankees, Carousel, The Wild Party (Lippa), and The Most Happy Fella, among others. Amy assisted critically acclaimed director Lonny Price on the pre-Broadway workshop of 110 in The Shade, the Emmy Award-winning Passion for Live at Lincoln Center on PBS; Candide with the New York Philharmonic; Anyone Can Whistle at the Ravinia Festival, and both Kismet and Can-Can with Encores! at City Center.

REGIONAL: Fly-By-Night (Theatre Works), Band Geeks! (Goodspeed), Plagued (NYMF).  SIGNATURE THEATRE: Sweeney Todd, Les Miserables, See What I Wanna See, Ace, Anyone Can Whistle, The Hollow.  KENNEDY CENTER: Broadway: Three Generations. COMPOSITION: Office Space: The Musical, A Question of Faith.  Second year composer, BMI’s Lehman Engel Musical Theatre Writing Workshop.  UPCOMING: Snow White, Rose Red (and Fred) (Kennedy Center).  EDUCATION: Yale, B.A., Music.

Jen Littlefield is happy to be returning to NYMF this year as choreographer. Currently she is an adjunct professor for the Musical Theater Department at Pace University in New York City. Recent choreography projects in and around New York include: the new musical Eat, Drink, and be Merry (NY Fringe Festival), South Pacific and Damn Yankees! (Maine), Cabaret, Carousel, Dance Out Loud, and Our Urban Jungle: A Benefit for ASTEP (Pace University), the spring 2010 benefit show and fall 2010 choreographer’s showcase for Jazz Choreography Enterprises.  Associate and assistant choreography to Rhonda Miller: All Shook Up (Pace), Austentatious, Gemini: the Musical, and Common Grounds (NYMF), Nothing Like a Dame (also a performer) and Broadway Bares ’07 & ’08 (BC/EFA). Other credits include a commercial for Berkshire Bank, the music video for Sofia Strati’s single, This Can’t Be Love, and KTU's Disco Ball in Atlantic City, where she performed with Bonnie Pointer, Carol Douglas, Tavares, Machine, and the Sugar Hill Gang. Thank you to Amy, Scott, and Drew for this ridiculously fun opportunity.