Quiara Alegria Hudes (Book) is a playwright and composer originally from
Philadelphia, who made her New York debut last January at the Culture
Project with her play Elliot, A Soldier's Fugue, which is being given
regional productions this season at The ALLIANCE THEATRE, Teatro
Vista/Steppenwolf Garage, and The New Theatre. Her previous play, Yemaya's
Belly, earned three national honors: The Clauder Prize, The Paula Vogel
Award in Playwriting, and The Kennedy Center American College Theatre
Festival Latino Playwriting Award. Yemaya's Belly has been seen on stages
around the country including Portland Stage Company, People's Light and
Theatre, and Signature Theatre and is published in Kennedy Center Presents:
Award-Winning Plays from the American College Theatre Festival. Upcoming
projects include a TV adaptation of her play The Adventures of Barrio Grrrl!
and commissions from South Coast Repertory and Signature Theatres. Quiara
holds a B.A. in Music Composition from Yale University and an M.F.A. in
playwriting from Brown University. Her first production came in the tenth
grade as part of the Philadelphia Young Playwrights Festival. Hudes still
returns home to teach young writers in the Philadelphia public schools.
Thomas Kail (Director) is the artistic director, and a co-founder, of Back
House Productions, the resident theater company of New York City's the Drama
Book Shop, and home of the Arthur Seelen Theater. Kail co-created and
directs Freestyle Love Supreme (FLS), which had a run at Ars Nova in New
York City and was selected to participate in the 2005 U.S. Comedy Arts
Festival, the 2005 Edinburgh Fringe Festival, and the 2006 Melbourne Comedy
Festival. The show still performs regularly in NYC, and is gearing up for a
college tour in spring of 2007. In March of 2006, Back House produced
Savages, a new play Anne Nelson. Nelson is author the long-running
off-Broadway 9/11 play, The Guys, which was made into a film starring
Sigourney Weaver and Anthony LaPaglia. Kail directed the 5th anniversary of
The Guys at The Flea Theater in Tribeca last September.
Andy Blankenbuehler (Choreographer) is represented this season on Broadway
with the Encores! Production of The Apple Tree and regionally with the
national tour of Barbie Live, In Fairytopia. Recent productions include
Burleigh Grimes, off-Broadway, the new Broadway bound Frank Wildhorn musical
Waiting For The Moon and the world premiere of the musical A Little Princess
(music by Andrew Lippa). Other works in NYC include Pippin (benefit concert
starting Ben Vereen), A Bad Friend (Lincoln Center Theatre) and Postcards on
Parade (York Theatre). Regionally, his choreography has been seen in Red,
Hot and Blue (Paper Mill Playhouse, Goodspeed Opera House), Kept
(Theatreworks), Quark Victory (Williamstown Theatre Festival), Bells Are
Ringing (Pittsburgh Civic Light Opera), and Gypsy (Portland Center Stage).
Television credits include The Sopranos and MTV. Andy has staged concert
work for Bette Midler, and he directed, choreographed and co-conceived the
hit Caesars Palace production of Nights On Broadway.
Alex Lacamoire (Music Direction, Arrangements and orchestrations) was most
recently the Music Director of Wicked on Broadway, where he also contributed
music arrangements. He is also co-orchestrator and music director of the
Broadway production of High Fidelity. Other credits as Music Director and
Arranger/Orchestrator include: Bat Boy: The Musical Off-Broadway, the 2001
National Tour of Godspell, and Stephen Schwartz's Captain Louie. As a
pianist, Alex has performed with Lou Rawls, The Funk Brothers, and Idina
Menzel.
Bill Sherman (Music Arrangements and Orchestrations) As
arranger/orchestrator Bill Sherman has worked on a number of shows including
A Night for Comden and Green and Lover, Liar, Lady featuring the music of
Kander and Ebb. Music preparation credits include Captain Louie by Stephen
Schwartz and Bare: A Pop Opera by Damon Intrabartolo. As a member of New
York's premier hip-hop, improv group Freestyle Love Supreme, Bill has
traveled to the Aspen Comedy Festival, the Edinburgh Fringe Festival and the
Melbourne Comedy Festival.
CAST BIOGRAPHIES
Andrea Burns (Daniela) Broadway: Disney's Beauty and the Beast (Belle).
Off-Broadway: Stephen Sondheim's Saturday Night, Sail Away! with Elaine
Stritch (Carnegie Hall) and Jason Robert Brown's Songs for a New World.
Recordings: Songs for a New World, Saturday Night and Broadway Bound.
National tours: The Full Monty, Parade.
Janet Dacal (Carla) made her Broadway debut in Good Vibrations.
Off-Broadway: Five Course Love. Regional: Four Guys Named Jose... (Maria),
Annie, Ain't Misbehavin'; Fiddler on the Roof.
Mandy Gonzalez (Nina) stared as Sarah alongside Michael Crawford in Dance of
the Vampires. Other Broadway credits include Aida and Lennon. Mandy won an
Obie Award for her performance in the Off-Broadway production of Eli's
Comin'. She has also performed as a backup singer for the Divine Bette
Midler on a tour.
John Herrera (Kevin) Broadway: The Mystery of Edwin Drood (Tony nom.), Man
of La Mancha (Quixote u/s), 1776 (Roger Sherman), Evita (Che), Shogun.
National tours: Evita, Chess, Martin Guerre and Les Misérables. Regional:
George in Sunday in the Park with George at Chicago's Goodman Theatre.
Christopher Jackson (Benny) made his Broadway debut in The Lion King. A
graduate of AMDA, he has been seen Off-Broadway in Time and the Wind. He is
currently involved with several recording projects with his group Deacon
Good Day.
Robin De Jesus (Sonny) made his Broadway debut in Rent. Past theatre credits
include In the Heights at the O'Neill Center, Kander and Ebb's Skin of Our
Teeth at the McCarter, Kingdom at the Public. Film credits: Camp, Pet the
Goat and Fat Girls.
Priscilla Lopez (Camila) Broadway: Anna in the Tropics, A Day in Hollywood/A
Night in the Ukraine (Tony Award for Best Featured Actress for her
performance as Harpo Marx), DiAna Morales in A Chorus Line (Tony
nomination), The Sisters Rosensweig; Nine, Lysistrata, Pippin, Company, Her
First Roman, Henry, Sweet Henry, Breakfast at Tiffany's. Off-Broadway: Class
Mothers '68 (Drama Desk nomination), newyorkers, The Passion of Frida Kahlo,
Antigone in New York, Other People's Money, Extremities, Key Exchange, Buck,
Your Own Thing. She is a recipient of the Rita Moreno HOLA Award for
Excellence.
Olga Merediz (Claudia) Broadway: Mamma Mia, Reckless at MTC, Man of La
Mancha, Les Misérables, The Human Comedy. Off-Broadway: The Taming of the
Shrew (NYSF), The Blessing, The Lady from Havana, Thornhill, Lullaby and
Goodnight, The Haggadah (Public), El Grande de Coca-Cola, El Bravo! Film:
Changing Lanes, K-Pax, Music of the Heart, Center Stage, Evita, Isn't She
Great, City of Hope, Requiem for a Dream, Marvin's Room, Apartment 5-C
(Cannes Film Festival upcoming), Angie, The Milagro Beanfield War.
Karen Olivo (Vanessa) Broadway credits include Brooklyn and Rent. She
starred as Mimi in the first national tour of Rent. Television: "As the
World Turns." Karen attended CCM (Cincinnati Conservatory of Music) for
musical theatre.
