Tony Award nominee Joaquina Kalukango (Slave Play, One Night in Miami), will lead the cast of the new musical, Paradise Square, which will open on Broadway on Sunday, March 20, 2022 at the Shubert Organization’s Barrymore Theatre (243 West 47th Street), it was announced today. Previews will begin on February 22, 2022. The production will come to Broadway directly following a five-week engagement (November 2-December 5, 2021) at Chicago’s James M. Nederlander Theatre (24 West Randolph Street).
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Ms. Kalukango is a 2020 Tony Award nominee for Best Performance by a Leading Actress in a Play for her role as Kaneisha in Slave Play. She has also starred on Broadway in The Color Purple, Holler If Ya Hear Me and Godspell. Her film and television credits include the role of Betty X in Amazon’s One Night in Miami (SAG Award nomination, Cast in a Motion Picture), HBO’s “Lovecraft Country” and the Netflix series, “When They See Us.”
Paradise Square will also star Chilina Kennedy (over 1200 performances in Beautiful: The Carole King Musical on Broadway; International tour of The Band's Visit), Tony Award nominee John Dossett (Broadway's Pippin, Newsies, Gypsy, Ragtime), Sidney DuPont (Broadway's Beautiful: The Carole King Musical; National tours of Memphis, A Chorus Line), A.J. Shively (Broadway's La Cage aux Folles, Bright Star), Nathaniel Stampley (Broadway's The Gershwins' Porgy and Bess, The Color Purple), Gabrielle McClinton (Broadway's Pippin, Chicago), Jacob Fishel (Broadway's Fiddler on the Roof), and Kevin Dennis (Canadian productions of Young Frankenstein, Assassins).
The distinguished creative team for Paradise Square features direction by two-time Tony Award nominee Moisés Kaufman (I Am My Own Wife, The Laramie Project), choreography by two-time Tony Award winner Bill T. Jones (Spring Awakening, Fela!), and a book by Christina Anderson (Good Goods, Inked Baby), Marcus Gardley (The House That Will Not Stand), Craig Lucas (The Light in the Piazza) and Larry Kirwan (lead singer of Black 47). Ten-time Tony Award nominee Graciela Daniele (Ragtime, Once on This Island) will provide musical staging, in collaboration with Kaufman and Jones.
The score of Paradise Square is by the team of Grammy and Emmy Award winner Jason Howland (Beautiful: The Carole King Musical, Little Women - The Musical) and Nathan Tysen (Amélie, Tuck Everlasting), with additional material provided by Masi Asare (Monsoon Wedding, The Family Resemblance) and Mr. Kirwan. The musical features original songs as well as a reimagining of the songs of Stephen Foster, who was writing and living in the Five Points at the time.
Paradise Square is produced by Garth H. Drabinsky (Kiss of the Spider Woman (Tony Award, Best Musical), Show Boat (Tony Award, Best Revival of a Musical), Ragtime, Fosse (Tony Award, Best Musical), Parade). Mr. Drabinsky’s longtime colleague, documentary filmmaker Peter LeDonne (the Academy Award-nominated Curtain Call and Sister Rose’s Passion) is co-producing.
The production will also feature Karen Burthwright, Kennedy Caughell, Dwayne Clark, Garrett Coleman, Colin Cunliffe, Chloe Davis, Bernard Dotson, Jamal Christopher Douglas, Sam Edgerly, Shiloh Goodin, Jacobi Hall, Sean Jenness, Jay McKenzie, Ben Michael, Jason Oremus, Eilis Quinn, Sara Sheperd, Lael van Keuren, Sir Brock Warren and Hailee Kaleem Wright. Additional casting will be announced shortly.
The multi-award-winning creative team features scenic design by Allen Moyer, costume design by Toni-Leslie James, lighting design by Donald Holder, and sound design by Jon Weston. Dramaturgy is by Thulani Davis and Sydné Mahone. Projection design is by Wendall K. Harrington. Special effects are by Gregory Meeh. Hair and wig design is by Matthew B. Armentrout. Associate choreographers are Talli Jackson and Gelan Lambert. Irish and Hammerstep choreography is by Garrett Coleman and Jason Oremus. Anne Allan is Associate Producer and Senior Resident Director. Zachary Florence is Associate Producer. Jeff Chrzczon is General Manager. Casting is by Stewart/Whitley, CSA.
ABOUT THE MUSICAL
New York City. 1863. The Civil War raged on. An extraordinary thing occurred amid the dangerous streets and crumbling tenement houses of the Five Points, the notorious 19th-century Lower Manhattan slum. For many years, Irish immigrants escaping the devastation of the Great Famine settled alongside free-born Black Americans and those who escaped slavery, arriving by means of the Underground Railroad. The Irish, relegated at that time to the lowest rung of America’s social status, received a sympathetic welcome from their Black neighbors (who enjoyed only slightly better treatment in the burgeoning industrial-era city). The two communities co-existed, intermarried, raised families, and shared their cultures in this unlikeliest of neighborhoods.
The amalgamation between the communities took its most exuberant form with raucous dance contests on the floors of the neighborhood bars and dance halls. It is here in the Five Points where tap dancing was born, as Irish step dancing joyously competed with Black American Juba.
But this racial equilibrium would come to a sharp and brutal end when President Lincoln’s need to institute the first Federal Draft to support the Union Army would incite the deadly NY Draft Riots of July 1863.
Within this galvanizing story of racial harmony undone by a country at war with itself, we meet the denizens of a local saloon called Paradise Square: Nelly Freeman (Joaquina Kalukango), the indomitable Black woman who owns it; Annie O’Brien (Chilina Kennedy), her Irish-Catholic sister-in-law and her Black minister husband, Rev. Samuel Jacob Lewis (Nathaniel Stampley); Owen Duignan (A.J. Shively), a conflicted newly arrived Irish immigrant; Washington Henry (Sidney DuPont), a fearless freedom seeker; Frederic Tiggens (John Dossett), an anti-abolitionist political boss, and Milton Moore (Jacob Fishel), a penniless songwriter trying to capture it all. They have conflicting notions of what it means to be an American while living through one of the most tumultuous eras in our country’s history.
The world premiere of Paradise Square was produced in January 2019 by Berkeley Repertory Theatre (Artistic Director, Tony Taccone; Managing Director, Susan Medak). The musical is based on Hard Times, conceived by Mr. Kirwan, which was originally presented at the intimate Off-Broadway theatre, Nancy Manocherian’s the cell, in 2012.
With visceral and nuanced staging and choreography that captures the pulsating energy when Black and Irish cultures meet, Paradise Square depicts an overlooked true-life moment when hope and possibility shone bright.
TICKET INFORMATION:
Single tickets for Paradise Square will go on sale on June 8. Tickets are available now for groups of 10 or more by calling Broadway In Chicago Group Sales at (312) 977-1710 or email GroupSales@BroadwayInChicago.com. Paradise Square will be a part of the new BIC subscription which launches in August. For more information, visit www.BroadwayInChicago.com.
All Broadway In Chicago schedules and productions will continue to be reviewed as further guidance and recommendations are provided by the CDC, State of Illinois, and Chicago Departments of Health. For the latest health and safety procedures and guidelines visit BroadwayInChicago.com/COVID19.
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THE CAST
Joaquina Kalukango (Nelly Freeman) received a 2020 Tony Award nomination for Best Performance by an Actress in a Leading Role in a Play for her performance as Kaneisha in the critically acclaimed Broadway production of Slave Play. For that production, she also received an Outer Critics Circle Award for Best Actress and Broadway.com listed her as one of the top five performers (male or female) of the year. Joaquina is a 2021 SAG Award nominee for Cast in a Motion Picture for her role as Betty X opposite Kingsley Ben-Adir in Regina King’s directorial debut, One Night in Miami. Additionally, she recently recurred on the HBO series, “Lovecraft Country.” Other TV credits include Ava DuVernay’s Netflix series, “When They See Us,” and “Robin Roberts Presents: Mahalia,” directed by Kenny Leon. Recent Broadway credits include: The Color Purple, Holler If Ya Hear Me and Godspell.
Chilina Kennedy (Annie O’Brien) recently played Elle in the one-woman play The Human Voice (filmed for Toronto’s Ontario International College) and starred as Dina in the International Tour of The Band’s Visit opposite Sasson Gabay (Toronto Theatre Critics’ Award). Broadway: Carole King in Beautiful: The Carole King Musical (over 1200 performances) and Mary Magdalene in Des McAnuff’s Jesus Christ Superstar. Off-Broadway: originated the role of Binky in Stephen Trask and Peter Yanowitz’s This Ain’t No Disco (Atlantic Theater Company). 1st National Tour: Sophie in Mamma Mia! Film: With Me (BravoFact, NY Shorts and Whistler Film Festivals). Selected Regional: Phoebe in A Gentleman’s Guide to Love and Murder (CT and San Diego Critics' Circle Nominations), Evangeline in Evangeline (original production and album), Philia in Des McAnuff’s A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum (Toronto/Mirvish), Ross Petty’s Pantomime The Little Mermaid (Toronto Theatre Critics’ Award), three seasons at the Stratford Festival, three seasons at the Shaw Festival and The Lord of the Rings (World Premiere Mirvish/Toronto). Chilina is currently developing a show that she composed and co-wrote with Eric Holmes, Call It Love. She is also the Artistic Producer of Toronto’s Eclipse Theatre Company. www.chilinakennedy.com
John Dossett (Frederic Tiggens) has been a professional actor in NYC since 1979. He has appeared in 18 Broadway productions. Among them War Paint, Newsies, Pippin, The Constant Wife, Gypsy (Tony and Drama Desk nominations), Ragtime, Democracy, Prelude to a Kiss. Off-Broadway: Dear Evan Hansen (Second Stage), Giant (Public Theater, Drama Desk nomination), Saved (Playwrights Horizons), The Clean House and Hello Again (LCT), Dinner with Friends. As a Company Member of Circle Rep: Reckless, The Diviners, Childe Byron, Dalton's Back, Sunshine, El Salvador, others. TV/Film: “Madam Secretary,” “Blue Bloods,” “Elementary,” “Law & Order(s),” “Sex and the City,” and HBO’s “John Adams.”
Sidney DuPont (Washington Henry) is humbled to bring this character and powerful story to the stage. DuPont was last seen in Beautiful: The Carole King Musical on Broadway, as well as the 1st National Tour and Australian Company. Some other favorite National Tours include Memphis: The Musical and A Chorus Line. DuPont has also appeared in regional productions including the world premiere of Paradise Square (Berkeley Rep.), Man of La Mancha (The Shakespeare Theater), In the Heights (The Geva Theater), and Gypsy (North Carolina Theater). Television: “FBI: Most Wanted” (CBS). In recent years, DuPont has also stepped behind the scenes as a director, editor, cinematographer and award-winning screenwriter. A gigantic thank you to my incredible family, friends and agents, you all inspire me daily. Who am I?…I am the conclusion of my Ancestors’ story and I am the prologue to my descendants wildest dreams. You can continue to follow Sidney’s journey on Instagram: @SidneyDuPont.
A.J. Shively (Owen Duignan). Broadway: Bright Star (Drama Desk Nomination); La Cage aux Folles. National Tour: Bright Star; The Sound of Music. Off Broadway/New York: February House (The Public); Brigadoon (Irish Rep); The Suitcase Under the Bed (Mint); Unlock’d (Prospect); A Contemporary American’s Guide to a Successful Marriage (Cherry Lane); Things To Ruin (Second Stage); Little Airplanes of the Heart (Ensemble Studio Theatre); ReWrite (Urban Stages); NYMF; Fringe NYC. Regional: Berkeley Rep.; Kennedy Center; Old Globe; CTG; McCarter; Pioneer; CenterStage; TUTS; George Street Playhouse; Long Wharf; TheatreWorks - Silicon Valley. TV/Film: “Hunters”; “Homeland”; “Madam Secretary”; “The Blacklist”; “Younger”; “The Daily Show”; Nobody Walks In LA; From Nowhere; Syrup; HairBrained. Training: University of Michigan; RADA.
Nathaniel Stampley (Rev. Samuel Jacob Lewis). Broadway: Cats, The Gershwins’ Porgy and Bess, The Color Purple (original and revival), The Lion King (Broadway, West End). Off-Broadway: The Secret Life of Bees, Atlantic Theater Company; Big Love, Signature Theatre NY; The First Noel, Classical Theatre of Harlem (AUDELCO nomination). Regional: Paul Robeson, Crossroads Theatre Company; Man of La Mancha (Jeff Award), The Bridges of Madison County (Jeff nomination), Marriott Theatre; Pacific Overtures, Chicago Shakespeare Theater; Violet, Once on This Island and Big River (Jeff nomination), Apple Tree Theatre; Dreamgirls, Milwaukee Repertory Theater. He is a Lunt-Fontanne Fellow (Ten Chimneys Foundation). www.nathanielstampley.com
Gabrielle McClinton (Angelina Baker) originated the role of Angelina Baker in the world premiere of Paradise Square at Berkeley Repertory Theatre. Gabrielle recently starred as the Leading Player in the Australian debut of Pippin after playing the role on Broadway & 1st National Tour. She originated the role of Anita in Francesca Zambello and Julio Monje’s West Side Story at Houston Grand Opera. Broadway: Chicago, Pippin. 1st National Tour: Pippin, American Idiot. Regional: South Coast Repertory, Oregon Shakespeare Festival, Alliance Theatre, St. Louis Muny, Pittsburgh Civic Light Opera. TV/Film: “86’D,” “The Mentalist,” Won’t Back Down, Fun Size. BFA Carnegie Mellon School of Drama. www.GabrielleM.com
Jacob Fishel (Milton Moore). Broadway: Fiddler on the Roof. Off-Broadway: King Lear, The Broken Heart (TFANA), The Common Pursuit (Roundabout Theatre Company), Titus Adronicus (Public Theater), Women Beware Women (Red Bull Theater), Macbeth (NYSF). Off-Off Broadway/Regional: Paradise Square (Berkeley Rep.), Henry V, As You Like It (Two River Theater Company), Our American Hamlet (Commonwealth Shakespeare Company), Sense and Sensibility (The Folger Theatre), The Real Thing (Intiman Theatre Company), What Happened When (Rising Phoenix Rep). Television: "Elementary," "Cold Case, "Medium," "Without a Trace," "Numb3rs." Film: A Night Without Armor, Across the Sea, How I Got Lost.
Kevin Dennis (‘Lucky’ Mike Quinlan). BLACK LIVES MATTER. Never has there been a more poignant time to bring this American story to life. Kevin is honored to create this role, marking his Chicago and Broadway debuts. Canadian Theatre: Frederick in Young Frankenstein (Stage West); Assassins (TIFT/Birdland); Sweeney Todd, Romeo and Juliet (Neptune Theatre); Touchstone in As You Like It (Citadel); A Year with Frog and Toad (YPT); The Beard of Avon, Hair (Canadian Stage); Gypsy, Floyd Collins, Widowers’ Houses, Happy End (Shaw Festival); Forever Plaid (Charlottetown Festival). Film/TV: 8-Bit Christmas (Warner Bros.); Titans (DC Comics); “Murdoch Mysteries” (Ovation); “11.22.63” (Hulu); “Reign” (CBS); “Orphan Black” (BBC America); “The Strain” (FX). Love to Adrienne and all my friends and family back home in Canada! Twitter/Instagram/TikTok: @gottabekdee
Karen Burthwright (Ensemble). Theatre credits include Leading Player in Pippin (Nebraska Repertory Theatre - contract cut short during rehearsals due to Covid-19), Shug Avery in The Color Purple (Neptune Theatre, 2020 Merritt Award Best Supporting Actor, The Citadel/RMTC), Paradise Square (Berkeley Rep.), Woman 2 in I Love You, You’re Perfect, Now Change (George Street Playhouse), Janet in Play Like A Winner (NYMF 2017). Broadway/Off Broadway: Soul Sister in Jesus Christ Superstar (2012 Revival), Princess Who Kissed the Frog in Disenchanted US/Dance Captain (Westside Theatre); Chicago: Nickie in Sweet Charity (Writers’ Theatre), Ragtime, The Hot Mikado, and Aida (Drury Lane Oakbrook). Regional/Canada: Sousatzka Swing/Dance Captain (The Elgin Theatre); Cabaret (Cape Playhouse); Brenda in Smokey Joe's Cafe (FST); Soul Sister in Jesus Christ Superstar (La Jolla Playhouse/Stratford Festival). National tours: Featured female vocalist in Dirty Dancing; Dynamite in Hairspray; Lisa in Mamma Mia! Instagram: @kburth, and karenburthwright.com.
Kennedy Caughell (Ensemble) is a Broadway performer and voice over artist, who is based out of New York City. She got her BFA in Music Theatre from Elon University. Shortly after graduating, she performed across the nation and abroad as Heather in American Idiot. Kennedy then traveled the country by broomstick in the national tour of Wicked, covering the role of Elphaba. She performed on Broadway in The Great Comet with Josh Groban and was most recently seen playing Carole King in the Broadway and National Touring production of Beautiful: The Carole King Musical before the shut-down. Some of her favorite regional roles include Mary Poppins (Mary), White Christmas (Betty), Beauty and the Beast (Belle), Peter Pan (Peter) and Into the Woods (Little Red). Catch her on TV in “Law & Order: SVU,” “Parked For Love,” and “The Outlier.” Twitter/Insta: @KennedyCaughell. www.kennedycaughell.com Psalms 9:1
Dwayne Clark (Ensemble). Broadway: The Emmy and Tony Award-winning cast of The Color Purple revival, Spider Man: Turn Off the Dark, In The Heights, Cry-Baby, Tarzan The Musical, Urinetown The Musical, Smokey Joe’s Cafe. New York City Opera: Porgy and Bess(Sportin’ Life). National Tour: Rent. Regional: Ain’t Misbehavin’, Smokey Joe’s Cafe, Shrek, Tick, Tick... Boom! Dwayne has done many voice over commercials, audiobooks, and TV commercials. Dwayne is an author and motivational speaker. Youth: www.Motivator.com. Podcast: Inspirations by Dwayne.
Garrett Coleman (Ensemble) is a two-time solo World Champion in Irish dance and has won 17 other national and international titles. In addition to Irish Step, he has trained in hip hop, tap, African stepping, contemporary movement and martial arts. Garrett toured professionally with Riverdance, Trinity Irish Dance Company, Cherish the Ladies, The Chieftains, and others. He performed at the Kennedy Center in 2006 as a Presidential Scholar in the Arts, is a Young Arts award winner (top 2% of artistic talent in the U.S.), and has twice been named one of the “Top 100 Irish Americans” by Irish America Magazine. He is the cofounder of Hammerstep, a NYC-based dance company fusing Irish step with hip hop, stepping, and martial arts. Garrett has starred in Hammerstep performances worldwide from NYC’s Lincoln Center to London’s West End Palace Theatre to NBC’s “America’s Got Talent.” He has been granted artist residencies at New Museum's NEW INC and at the Nobel Prize-Winning Bell Labs as part of the highly selective Experiments in Art and Technology (E.A.T.) Program, following in the footsteps of artists like David Bowie, John Cage, and Robert Rauschenberg. Garrett is also the co-creator of the sci-fi theatre drama Indigo Grey, a narrative universe presented as episodic content including an award-winning film and a sold-out live immersive experience. His work has received critical acclaim from publications such as Rolling Stone, Billboard, Huffington Post, and Wired Magazine. Most recently, Garrett has been developing choreographic materials for Paradise Square, contributing as both a choreographer and featured performer for the show’s world premiere at Berkeley Repertory Theatre in 2019. Garrett is thrilled to return to the production while also making his choreographic debut on Broadway with Paradise Square.
Colin Cunliffe (Ensemble). Original Broadway companies of Finding Neverland, Pippin (2013 Tony Award, Best Revival), Evita (revival), The Addams Family and John Waters’ Cry-Baby. Other NY productions include Cats (revival), Evita and High Button Shoes at New York City Center, I am Harvey Milk at Avery Fisher Hall and Colin Cunliffe Presents... at Pangea. Productions at Berkeley Repertory Theatre, Paper Mill Playhouse, Barrington Stage Company, A.R.T and La Jolla Playhouse. National Tours of Sweet Charity, The Boy Friend (dir. Julie Andrews) and Fame. TV/Film: “The Good Wife,” “Do I Sound Gay?,” “Folsom Street.” Co-founder of The Fête Arts. BLM.
Chloe Davis (Ensemble). Theater: Paradise Square (Berkeley Repertory Theatre); BLACK GIRL: Linguistic Play (Kennedy Center); The Wiz (Muny); Porgy and Bess (Metropolitan Opera). TV/Film: “Jesus Christ Superstar Live in Concert” (NBC); Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom (Netflix); “Tell Me A Story" (CBS); Harlem (Amazon). Additional credits: Camille A. Brown and Dancers; Philadanco; Late Night with Seth Myers (Choreographer); For Colored Girls Who Have Considered Suicide When the Rainbow is Enuf (Associate Choreographer). Chloe’s debut book, The Queens’ English: The LGBTQIA+ Dictionary of Lingo and Colloquial Phrases, is a celebration of the spectrum of identity and promotes important conversations around inclusivity, sexuality, gender expression and gender identity.
Bernard Dotson (Ensemble). A native of Los Angeles, Bernard began performing nationally and internationally, singing the Walt Disney Songbook. Concerts: the music of Frank Loesser with The New York Philharmonic, Merrily We Roll Along, Live Arts Maryland’s “One Singular Sensation: The Music Of Marvin Hamlisch,” and “Dreamgirls.” Broadway: Finian's Rainbow, Chicago, Imaginary Friends, Sweet Smell of Success, Jesus Christ Superstar and Ragtime. Regional, National and International Tours: Smokey Joe's Cafe, Five Guys Named Moe, Kiss Me, Kate, Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat and Paradise Square. Bernard can be seen performing his critically acclaimed one-man show, “Unexpected Songs."
Jamal Christopher Douglas (Ensemble) is thrilled to be making his Broadway debut in Paradise Square. His previous theatre credits include Paradise Square at Berkeley Rep., A Wonderful World at Miami New Drama, His Girl Friday, and A Little More Alive at Barrington Stage Company. A huge thanks to God, his amazing mother, his incredible friends and The Mine agency for their support. @iamlamaj
Sam Edgerly (Ensemble). New York credits include A Bronx Tale (Broadway) and The Wild Party (Barrow St. Theatre). He toured nationally with the 1st National Tour of Dirty Dancing. His regional credits include Paradise Square (Berkeley Rep.), Ordinary Days (Round House Theatre and Helen Hayes Award Nomination), Saturday Night Fever (Merry-Go-Round Theatre), My Fair Lady (The Kennedy Center), Orphie and the Book of Heroes(The Kennedy Center). Sam’s TV credits include “Law & Order: SVU,” “Manifest” and “Inventing Anna.” He is a graduate of American University with a B.A. in Musical Theatre.
Shiloh Goodin (Ensemble). Off-Broadway: The Screwtape Letters, The Anthem, Babes in Toyland. Select regional: Paradise Square, Sousatzka (world premiere), South Pacific, Anything Goes, Hairspray, Rigoletto (Santa Fe Opera), My Fair Lady, Camelot. Choreography: Cabaret, Spring Awakening (Gallery Players), Aida (Weathervane). Pandemic: Danced for Prince Dance Theatre Co, started a community supporting mental wellness for creative professionals (joincollectus.com). Shiloh has worked with creatives such as Victoria Clark, Lorin Latarro, Michael Mayer, Josh Bergasse, Marcia Milgrom-Dodge, Peggy Hickey, Joanne Hunter and is thrilled to add this team to the list. Avid tree-climber. @shilohlovesyou.
Jacobi Hall (Ensemble) is delighted to be back with Paradise Square after appearing as Levi Butler in Berkeley Rep.’s production. Most recently, Hall appeared as Nick & Billy Ivy Zippers in the world premiere of Pamela’s First Musical at Two River Theater. Prior to that, Jacobi was a nominee for the Connecticut Critics Circle Award (Trav’lin) and on the winning team of The KCACTF Musical Theatre Award (Single Girl’s Guide). Notable roles include Sebastian in The Little Mermaid and Kerchak in Tarzan. Blessed to be performing, Hall is determined on breaking into show business and leaving a mark on the arts and entertainment industry forever.
Sean Jenness (Ensemble). Broadway: The Last Ship, Jekyll & Hyde, Bonnie & Clyde. Tours: Rock of Ages (1st National), Jekyll & Hyde, Tommy, Hair. NYC: Jerry Springer: The Opera at Carnegie Hall, many Off-Broadway productions. Regional: Ford’s Theatre, North Shore Music Theatre, Denver Center Theatre Company, Actor's Theatre of Louisville, O’Neill Theatre Conference. Bands: The Doug Flutie Band, Done Dirt Cheap, The Kootz, Angry Kickin’ Feet, Anything for Loaf, many others. Jingles and voiceovers for dozens of products that you eat in the morning, drive to work, or drink at night. Voice of “Written In My Face,” ring entrance music for WWE superstar Sheamus.
Lael Van Keuren (Ensemble). Broadway: Sister Act (original cast). 1st National: Finding Neverland (Sylvia Davies), Sister Act (Sister Mary Robert). Select regional: Paradise Square (Berkeley Rep.), The Will Rogers Follies (Maltz Jupiter Theatre), Mary Poppins (North Shore Music Theatre), Hello, Dolly! (Paper Mill Playhouse). TV: “The Tony Awards,” “Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade,” “Dancing with the Stars.” In Him.
Jay McKenzie (Ensemble) is ecstatic to join the cast of Paradise Square. A Springfield, Massachusetts native and a singer/songwriter, Jay is most at home behind a microphone, collaborating with incredible musicians. Previous credits: Memphis (National Tour), Beautiful: The Carole King Musical (Closing Broadway cast), Unknown Soldier (Off-Broadway). TV: “America's Got Talent” (NBC), “A Capitol Fourth” (PBS). Love to family and friends and his dog, Lucas. Much gratitude to Michael Rodriguez and The Roster. @onejaymckenzie
Ben Michael (Ensemble) is an original cast member of Paradise Square at Berkeley Rep. Other credits include An American in Paris (Henri, National Tour); Beauty and the Beast (The Beast, North Carolina Theatre); Daddy Long Legs (Jervis, George Street); South Pacific (Lt. Cable, Walnut Street).
Jason Oremus (Ensemble). Former lead of Riverdance, co-creator of the award-winning dance company Hammerstep, and five-time national Irish dance champion, Jason is a multidisciplinary creative whose work has been featured in Rolling Stone, Billboard, Dance Magazine and Wired magazine. Originally from Sydney, Australia, Jason’s breakout performance role was with Riverdance as principal lead dancer, a tenure that spanned over 40 countries and venues such as London’s Hammersmith Apollo, Palais des Congrès de Paris, and The Kremlin State Palace in Moscow. Jason has produced and starred in international Hammerstep appearances at New York City's Lincoln Center, The Palace Theatre on London’s West End, and on NBC’s “America’s Got Talent.” As resident artist of the New Museum’s NEW INC NYC and the Bell Labs Experiments in Art & Technology (E.A.T.) program, Jason co-created and developed the original sci-fi universe Indigo Grey, producing multimedia releases such as the internationally award-winning short film Indigo Grey: The Passage, and a sell-out run of live immersive theatre show Indigo Grey: The Micah Grey Experiment at Mana Contemporary in 2018. Most recently, Jason has been developing choreographic materials for Paradise Square, contributing as both a choreographer and featured performer for the show’s world premiere at Berkeley Repertory Theatre in 2019. Jason is thrilled to return to the production while also making his choreographic debut on Broadway with Paradise Square.
Eilis Quinn (Ensemble) is thrilled to be a part of the company of Paradise Square. Regional credits: Saturday Night Fever at the Arts Center of Coastal Carolina. She has toured with the Andy Cooney Irish Band and performs with an Irish dance troupe around New York City. She is a graduate from Marymount Manhattan College
Sara Sheperd (Ensemble). Broadway/ National Tours: Beautiful: The Carole King Musical, (u/s Carole, swing, Dance Captain, OBC); Cry-Baby: The Musical (ensemble); Legally Blonde: The Musical, (Kate/ Chutney, u/s Vivienne and Enid). Other favorite credits: Funny Girl (Fanny Brice), Drury Lane Theatre; Oliver! (Nancy), Human Race Theatre; Little Women (Jo March), John W. Engeman Theatre and CCM. Presidential Scholar in the Arts. Beyond thrilled to be here and a part of live theatre again! Thanks to everyone who made this possible!
Sir Brock Warren (Ensemble). First National: Summer: The Donna Summer Musical. The A.R.T/New York: Personality. Berkeley Rep.: Paradise Square (Ensemble). The Public: The Harder They Come. Radio City Christmas Spectacular. Regional: Weston Playhouse: Oklahoma! (Dream Curly); Muny: The Wiz (GateKeeper); American Stage: In The Heights; NCL: After Midnight (The Mooche). Film/TV: In The Heights (Warner Bros.) Awards: Project Gen Yes grant recipient by The Doris Duke Charitable Foundation. Training: Saint Leo University: MBA concentration in Marketing; Full Sail University: MS in Entertainment Business; The Boston Conservatory: BFA in Dance. Follow: @only1sirbrock. Agent: Clear Talent Group (CTG).
Hailee Kaleem Wright (Ensemble) has appeared in regional musicals such as The Black Clown at the American Repertory Theatre/ Lincoln Center and Paradise Square at Berkeley Repertory Theater. Other credits include the National tour of Beautiful: The Carole King Musical, and a long list of national commercials for IKEA, Samsung, and Book of the Month Club to name a few. Hailee is a singer-songwriter, and her original music can be streamed under the pseudonym Sapphire Hart. A native of Houston Texas and raised in Tennessee, Hailee is now happily bicoastal in NYC or LA. Look for Hailee on Instagram: @sapphire_hart or on her website at www.sapphirehart.com.
THE CREATIVE TEAM
Moisés Kaufman (Director) is the founder and artistic director of Tectonic Theater Project, a Tony- and Emmy-nominated director and playwright, and a 2015 recipient of the National Medal of Arts. Mr. Kaufman’s Broadway directing credits include the revival of Harvey Fierstein’s Torch Song, the revival of The Heiress with Jessica Chastain, 33 Variations (which he also wrote) starring Jane Fonda (Five Tony nominations); Rajiv Joseph’s Pulitzer Prize finalist Bengal Tiger at the Baghdad Zoo with Robin Williams; and Doug Wright’s Pulitzer and Tony Award-winning play I Am My Own Wife with Jefferson Mays. His play The Laramie Project (which he wrote with the Tectonic Theater Project company) is among the most performed plays in America. Kaufman also co-wrote and directed the HBO film adaptation of “The Laramie Project,” which received two Emmy Award nominations for Best Director and Best Writer. He is an Obie Award winner and a Guggenheim Fellow in Playwriting.
Bill T. Jones (Choreographer) is the artistic director/co-founder of Bill T. Jones/Arnie Zane Company and founding artistic director of New York Live Arts. He is the recipient of the 2014 Doris Duke Award; the 2013 Presidential Medal of the Arts, the 2010 Kennedy Center Honors; Tony Awards for Best Choreography for Fela! and Spring Awakening; Obie Award and Stage Directors and Choreographers Foundation Callaway Award for his choreography for Spring Awakening; the 2010 Jacob’s Pillow Dance Award; the 2007 USA Eileen Harris Norton Fellowship; the 2006 Lucille Lortel Award for Outstanding Choreography for The Seven; the 2005 Wexner Prize; the 2005 Samuel H. Scripps American Dance Festival Award for Lifetime Achievement; the 2005 Harlem Renaissance Award; the 2003 Dorothy and Lillian Gish Prize; and the 1994 MacArthur “Genius” Award. In 2010, Bill T. Jones was recognized as Officier de l’Ordre des Arts et des Lettres by the French government, and in 2000, the Dance Heritage Coalition named Mr. Jones “An Irreplaceable Dance Treasure.”
Graciela Daniele (Musical Staging) has earned 10 Tony Award nominations and six Drama Desk nominations. Her Broadway Director/ Choreographic credits include Chita Rivera, The Dancer’s Life, Annie Get Your Gun, Marie Christine, Once on This Island, Chronicle of a Death Foretold and Dangerous Game. She directed and choreographed Michael John LaChiusa’s Hello Again and Marie Christine and Lynn Ahrens and Stephen Flaherty’s Dessa Rose and The Glorious Ones (Lincoln Center). She has Musical Staged/ Choreographed Ragtime (Astaire, Ovation [L.A.], NAACP, and Callaway Award), The Goodbye Girl, Zorba with Anthony Quinn, The Rink starring Liza Minnelli and Chita Rivera, and The Mystery of Edwin Drood. She choreographed the New York Shakespeare Festival’s The Pirates of Penzance on Broadway, Los Angeles and London, the motion picture of Pirates, and three Woody Allen films including Mighty Aphrodite (1996 Fosse Award), and Everyone Says I Love You (1997 Fosse Award). Ms. Daniele directed and choreographed A New Brain at Lincoln Center Theatre. She is recipient of the 1998 “Mr. Abbott” Award for Outstanding Achievement by a Director / Choreographer. Ms. Daniele directed and choreographed Michael John LaChuisa’s Little Fish (Second Stage) and Bernarda Alba (Lincoln Center Theatre) along with the Lincoln Center Theatre production of William Finn’s Elegies, A Song Cycle. Most recently, she has choreographed The Visit on Broadway. Upcoming: The Gardens of Anuncia (Old Globe). She is a member of the Theater Hall of Fame.
Christina Anderson (Book) is a playwright, tv writer, educator, and creative. Her plays have appeared at The Goodman Theatre, OSF, The Public Theatre, Yale Repertory Theatre, Kansas City Rep, and other theaters in the United States and Canada. Awards and honors include: 2020 United States Artists Fellow, MacDowell Fellowship, Lily Awards Harper Lee Prize, Herb Alpert Award nomination, Barrymore Nomination, and New Dramatists Residency. Her work has appeared multiple times on the annual Kilroy's List, an industry survey of excellent new works by female playwrights. She is also the winner of the Lucille Lortel Fellowship. Christina’s plays include: How to Catch Creation; The Ripple, The Wave That Carried Me Home; Man In Love; pen/man/ship; The Ashes Under Gait City; and Blacktop Sky. She taught playwriting at Wesleyan University, Rutgers University, SUNY Purchase College, and served as the interim Head of Playwriting at Brown University. Christina worked as a television staff writer on the CBS drama, “Tommy.” Current projects include: producing an album of instrumental hip hop music titled The Montage Flow, and writing her first tv pilot “The Only Isaac.”
Marcus Gardley (Book) is a proud Bay Area-born playwright-poet whom The New Yorker calls “the heir to Garcia Lorca, Pirandello and Tennessee Williams.” He received a 2019 Obie Award for his play The House That Will Not Stand and is the recipient of the 2019 Doris Duke Artist Award. His play X or The Nation V. Betty Shabazz was a New York Times Critic’s Pick and was remounted Off-Broadway in the spring of 2018. He is a 2019 Library Laureate of San Francisco, the recipient of the 2018 Guiding Light Award presented by California Shakespeare Theater, and won the 2017 Special Citation Theater Award for his play black odyssey, which swept the Theatre Bay Area Awards, garnering six other prizes including Best Production. He is the 2013 USA James Baldwin Fellow and the 2011 PEN Laura Pels Award winner for Mid-Career Playwright. He wrote the screenplay for The Color Purple musical feature film and What's Going On, a biopic about Marvin Gaye produced by Dr. Dre. Currently, Gardley is developing several tv projects for Amazon studios and writing a musical about Jean-Michel Basquiat with music composed by Jon Batiste.
Craig Lucas (Book). Plays include Missing Persons, Reckless, Blue Window, Prelude to a Kiss, God’s Heart, The Dying Gaul, Stranger, Small Tragedy, The Singing Forest, Ode To Joy, I Was Most Alive With You. Screenplays include Longtime Companion (Sundance Audience Award), The Secret Lives of Dentists (NY Film Critics Best Screenplay Award), Reckless, Blue Window, The Dying Gaul. Libretti include The Light in the Piazza, Two Boys, Orpheus in Love, 3 Postcards, An American in Paris, Amélie, Sousatzka. He directed the world premiere of The Light in the Piazza, Harry Kondoleon’s plays Saved Or Destroyed and Play Yourself, and the films The Dying Gaul and Birds of America. He received the Excellence in Literature Award from the American Academy of Arts & Letters, the Laura Pels/PEN Mid-career Award, the Greenfield Prize, LAMBDA Literary Award, Hull-Warriner Award, Flora Roberts Award, Steinberg/ACTA Best Play Award among others. He has three Tony nominations and three Obie Awards.
Larry Kirwan (Book, Music, Conceiver, Arranger) was born in Wexford, Ireland and lives in New York City. He was leader of Black 47 for 25 years during which the political rock band played 2,500 gigs, released 16 albums and appeared on Leno, Letterman, O’Brien, Fallon and every major US TV show. He has written three novels including Liverpool Fantasy and Rockin' The Bronx, a memoir, Green Suede Shoes, and A History of Irish Music. His latest novel Rockaway Blue was recently published by Cornell U. Press. He has written or collaborated on 19 plays and musicals including Paradise Square which began at the cell in Manhattan as Hard Times (produced by Nancy Manocherian, directed by Kira Simring). He collaborated with Thomas Keneally (Schindler’s List) on the musical Transport for which he wrote music and lyrics. It was produced at The Irish Repertory Theatre (directed by Tony Walton). His political thriller Rebel in the Soul was also produced at “The Rep.” He is currently adapting The Informerfor stage. A political activist, he is an Irish Echo columnist and celebrity host of Celtic Crush on SiriusXM Satellite Radio. He was president of Irish American Writers & Artists for five years.
Jason Howland (Music, Music Supervisor, Orchestrator, Arranger), an honors graduate of Williams College, is a Grammy Award-winning producer, Emmy Award-winning arranger, and Tony-nominated producer. Composer: the Tony-nominated Little Women – The Musical, Paradise Square (world premiere, Berkeley Rep), Ikiru for Horipro Productions (world premiere, Tokyo), Last Days of Summer (Kansas City Rep, George St. Playhouse) and the streaming hit, A Killer Party. Upcoming: Captain Nemo in Seoul, Tokyo Love Story in Tokyo. Howland won an Emmy in 2007 for “Handel’s Messiah Rocks” for PBS. He was nominated for a Tony in 1999 for co-producing The Lonesome West by Martin McDonagh. He won a Grammy in 2015 for producing the Original Cast Album of Beautiful: The Carole King Musical. He is the Arranger and Music Supervisor for Beautiful (Broadway, West End, US National Tour, Tokyo, Australian National Tour, UK National Tour). As musical supervisor/ director/conductor and arranger: Broadway’s Bonnie and Clyde, Wonderland, Jekyll & Hyde, Les Miserables, The Civil War, The Scarlet Pimpernel, Boy George’s Taboo and guest conductor for Bono and The Edge’s Spider-Man: Turn Off The Dark. He has worked around the world as Music Supervisor, Orchestrator and Arranger for Death Note (Horipro/Tokyo), Mata Hari and The Man Who Laughs for EMK in Seoul, Your Lie in April for Toho Japan, Fist of the North Star (Horipro) and Casanova for Vienna’s VBW. Recording projects also include: Japanese star May’n’s latest album, Megumi Hamada’s solo CD Attitude (Producer, arranger, conductor); the Grammy-nominated cast album of Jekyll & Hyde (Musical Director/Conductor/Vocal Arranger); The Dreams in You for the September 11th Fund (Producer, Composer); The Scarlet Pimpernel (OBC; Associate Producer/Additional Arrangements); Atlantic Records' release of The Civil War (Choral Conductor, Arranger); Jekyll & Hyde: The Complete Work (Vocal Arranger); the solo album for acclaimed international harpist Jung Kwak (Conductor); and Linda Eder’s albums Christmas Stays the Same and It’s Time (Arranger/Pianist/Vocal Arranger).
Nathan Tysen (Lyrics). West End: Amélie (Olivier & Grammy Nominations). Broadway:Amélie, Tuck Everlasting. Off-Broadway: The Burnt Part Boys, Fugitive Songs, Stars of David. Regional: Paradise Square, Dreamland (or a musical riff on Shakespeare’s Midsummer set during the declassification of Area 51), Stillwater, The Mysteries of Harris Burdick and two circuses for Ringling Bros. Barnum & Bailey. TV/Film: A Killer Party,“Sesame Street,” “Elmo’s World,” and “The Electric Company.” Awards from the Kleban, Ebb, Rodgers, and Larson Foundations. Writer and director for Lovewell Institute, creating original musicals with young adults. MFA NYU Graduate Musical Theatre Writing Program, BFA Missouri State Univ. Husband to writer Kait Kerrigan, father to Lucy and Tess. www.nathantysen.com
Masi Asare (Lyrics) is a composer, lyricist, and playwright. Her shows include: The Family Resemblance (book/music/lyrics, commissioned by Theatre Royal Stratford East, developed Eugene O’Neill Center); the musical adaptation of Mira Nair’s film Monsoon Wedding(lyrics), slated to tour internationally in 2022; Mirror Of Most Value (Concord/Samuel French), a one-act play for Marvel about teen super hero Kamala Khan aka Ms. Marvel, featured on “Marvel’s 616” (Disney+); the spy musical Sympathy Jones(music/lyrics/concept, published by Playscripts with nearly 50 productions to date); and commissions from Barbara Whitman/Grove Entertainment and Victory Gardens Theatre/Toulmin Foundation. A past Dramatists Guild Fellow, Masi won the inaugural Billie Burke Ziegfeld Award for a woman composer of musicals, as well as awards for composition and lyrics from the O’Neill Center, a Theater Hall of Fame Emerging Artist Grant, and the Stacey Mindich “Go Write A Musical” Lilly Award. An advisory board member for Maestra Music, she holds a bachelor’s degree from Harvard and a PhD from New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts in performance studies. She is assistant professor of theatre at Northwestern University. https://masiasare.com
Garth H. Drabinsky (Producer) is the only Canadian to have achieved international success in almost every facet of the entertainment business. His Broadway productions include Kiss of the Spider Woman (1993 Tony Award, Best Musical), the Hal Prince restoration of Show Boat (1995 Tony Award, Best Revival of a Musical), Candide, Barrymore, Fosse (1999 Tony Award, Best Musical), and the internationally acclaimed Ragtime. Mr. Drabinsky’s productions have collectively won 19 Tony Awards (out of 61 nominations). Mr. Drabinsky was also responsible for the Canadian productions of Andrew Lloyd Webber’s Aspects of Love, Sunset Boulevard and The Phantom of the Opera, which remains the longest running musical in Canadian history, and the North American production of Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat, starring Donny Osmond. Other works originally developed by Mr. Drabinsky but subsequently staged on Broadway by different producing entities include Parade, Sweet Smell of Success and Seussical. In addition to developing state-of-the-art legitimate theatres in both Toronto and Vancouver, Mr. Drabinsky has been devoted to the restoration and historic preservation of North America’s most acclaimed theatres, including the Pantages in Toronto, the Lyric and Apollo Theatres in New York and the Oriental (now Nederlander) Theater in Chicago. A recipient of two Honorary Doctorate Degrees, Garth Drabinsky is an ardent spokesman on behalf of individual liberty.
Allen Moyer (Scenic Design). Broadway credits include: The Lyons, Lysistrata Jones, Grey Gardens (Tony and Drama Desk Nominations, Henry Hewes Award), Thurgood, The Little Dog Laughed, The Constant Wife, Twelve Angry Men. Off-Broadway credits include: Log Cabin (Playwrights Horizons), Giant (The Public Theater) and four seasons of Encores! (New York City Center). Extensive opera credits include Orfeo et Euridice for the Metropolitan Opera and productions for New York City Opera, Santa Fe Opera, Canadian Opera Company, English National Opera, Welsh National Opera, Scottish Opera, Houston Grand Opera, San Francisco Opera, Washington National Opera and Opera Theater of St. Louis. Also, Romeo and Juliet; On Motifs of Shakespeare (with the Mark Morris Dance Group), and Paradise Square (Berkeley Rep).
Toni-Leslie James (Costume Design). Broadway: Bernhardt/Hamlet; Come From Away; August Wilson’s Jitney; Amazing Grace; Lucky Guy; The Scottsboro Boys; Finian’s Rainbow; Chita Rivera: The Dancer’s Life; Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom; King Hedley II; One Mo’ Time; The Wild Party; Marie Christine; Footloose; The Tempest; Twilight: Los Angeles, 1992; Angels in America: Millennium Approaches & Perestroika; Chronicle of a Death Foretold; and Jelly’s Last Jam. Off-Broadway: The Public Theater, Playwrights Horizons, Second Stage, Soho Rep, Lincoln Center Theater, New York Theatre Workshop, Manhattan Theatre Club, and the Roundabout Theatre, among others. Regional: Berkeley Repertory Theatre, La Jolla Playhouse, Steppenwolf, Hartford Stage, Long Wharf Theatre, the Old Globe, Mark Taper Forum, Arena Stage, Cleveland Playhouse, Cincinnati Playhouse, Seattle Rep, and internationally on the West End in the UK. She has 38 costume design nominations and awards for her contributions to various theatrical productions, including two Tony Award nominations, five Drama Desk nominations, two Hewes Design Awards, the Irene Sharaff Young Masters Award for Costume Design Excellence, and an Obie Award for Sustained Costume Design Excellence.
Donald Holder (Lighting Design) has worked extensively in Theatre, Opera, Dance, Architectural and Television lighting in the US and abroad for over 30 years. He has designed 58 Broadway productions and has been nominated for 13 Tony Awards, winning the Tony for Best Lighting Design for The Lion King in 1998, and for the 2008 revival of South Pacific. Recent Broadway productions include Tootsie, Kiss Me Kate, Anastasia, Oslo, Straight White Men, She Loves Me, Fiddler on the Roof, The King and I, On the Twentieth Century, The Bridges of Madison County, Bullets Over Broadway and many others. Projects at the NY Metropolitan Opera include Rigoletto (2022), Porgy and Bess, Samson et Delilah, Otello, The Magic Flute and the premiere of Two Boys. He has worked at most of the nation’s leading resident theatres and has designed over 100 Off-Broadway productions. His television/film work includes the theatrical lighting for two seasons of “Smash” (NBC - Dreamworks), Oceans 8 (Warner Brothers Pictures), “The Bad Witch” (HBO Max), and “The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel” (Amazon). Mr. Holder is an Associate Professor and head of the lighting program at Rutgers University, Mason Gross School of the Arts.
Jon Weston (Sound Design). Paris and West End: An American in Paris. West End: Thoroughly Modern Millie; Rent; The Who’s Tommy. Broadway design credits include Prince of Broadway; She Loves Me; Amazing Grace; An American in Paris; On the 20th Century; You Can’t Take It With You; The Bridges of Madison County; How to Succeed in Business…; The Color Purple; Caroline, or Change; Nine; The Green Bird; Thoroughly Modern Millie. Off-Broadway and Regional: Paradise Square (Berkeley Rep); Unmasked: The Music of Andrew Lloyd Webber (Papermill Playhouse); Footloose (Kennedy Center); Scotland, PA (Roundabout); Evita (Bay Street); Grey Gardens (Bay Street); The Last Five Years (Second Stage); Death Takes a Holiday (Roundabout); Parade (Mark Taper Forum); Family Guy, Live! (Carnegie Hall).
Thulani Davis (Dramaturg) is an interdisciplinary artist and historian, whose work includes poetry, theater works and cultural criticism. Her work as a dramaturg includes Anna Deavere Smith’s Fires in the Mirror: Crown Heights, Brooklyn and Other Identities, and Twilight Los Angeles, 1992, and foundational work on Ntozake Shange’s For Colored Girls Who Have Considered Suicide When the Rainbow is Enuf. Davis wrote the libretti for Anthony Davis’s X: The Life and Times of Malcolm X, and his Amistad, and many other musical works. Her forthcoming operas are The Little Rock Nine by Bernadette Speach, and Fire Across the Tracks: Tulsa 1921 by Anthony Davis. Her produced plays include: Everybody’s Ruby: Story of a Murder in Florida, The Souls of Black Folk: An Oratorio for Five Actors, the adaptation for George C. Wolfe’s production of The Caucasian Chalk Circle, and Where the Mississippi Meets the Amazon, with Shange and Jessica Hagedorn. Davis wrote the book and lyrics for The Sojourner Washing Society, A Musical in Gospel & Blues, with Steven Robinson. She has written the scripts for several narrative films, and award-winning documentaries. The author of six books, she has two new works: Nothin but the Music (2020), and The Emancipation Circuit: Black Activism Forging a Culture of Freedom, forthcoming from Duke University Press. She is a professor and a Nellie Y. McKay Fellow in Afro-American Studies at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
Sydné Mahone (Dramaturg) is an independent dramaturg and editor. Commercial credits: Script consultant: King Kong, The Musical, book by Jack Thorne. Broadway, 2018. Dramaturg: King Kong, book by Craig Lucas, Melbourne’s Regent Theatre (world premiere, Broadway tryout), Australia, 2013. Dramaturg: Hard Times, book by Craig Lucas (development of Paradise Square). She is the editor of two books: Moon Marked and Touched by Sun: Plays by African American Women (TCG, 1994); and With Ossie and Ruby: In This Life Together (William Morrow, 1998). She was an associate professor of Theatre Arts and African American Studies at the University of Iowa, and served as the first director of play development at Crossroads Theatre.
Anne Allan (Associate Producer/Senior Resident Director) began her career at Royal Ballet school in London, England. She went on to dance with many ballet companies worldwide, including Scottish Ballet and Ballet International. Her career in dance led to many highlights including the great honour of being the private dance teacher to Her Royal Highness, Diana, Princess of Wales. Anne transitioned into musical theatre when she began assisting esteemed choreographer Gillian Lynne on the original London Production of Phantom on the Opera. She became a member of the LIVENT resident creative team for ten years, where she collaborated on Tony Award-winning productions including The Phantom of the Opera, Kiss of the Spider Woman, Show Boat and Ragtime. After directing across Canada with Festivals such as The Stratford Festival and Canadian Stage, Anne became the Artistic Director for the Charlottetown Festival. During her 10-year tenure she curated new original musicals and Canadian classics, as well as developing multifaceted educational programs for young and aspiring Canadian Artists. Anne reunited with Mr. Drabinsky for the acclaimed remount of Barrymore with renowned, award-winning actor Christopher Plummer. Since 2015, Anne has been delighted to be working as Associate Producer and Senior Resident Director for Paradise Square.
Zachary Florence (Associate Producer) was born and raised in Toronto, Canada. He has created theatrical productions in five countries on two continents, in venues ranging from shipping containers to opera houses, and has produced theatre under a wide variety of professional circumstances from artists collectives to Broadway partnerships, including Paradise Square and Sousatzka, as well as numerous readings and workshops. Zachary trained as a director at the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art and is also an award-winning composer. His directing credits include the Canadian premiere of The Container, the world premieres of Little Death and Gwen Powers, and the U.K. premieres of Strawberries in January and Hydriotaphia. He has written words and music for Experimental Selves and Children of Israel, and music for Enchanted April, Peace in Our Time, Come Back, Little Sheba, The Passion of Adele Hugo and A Spider’s Tale.
Peter LeDonne (Co-Producer). A successful advertising/marketing executive, LeDonne was owner of one of the world’s most prominent entertainment marketing firms, Ash/LeDonne. He completely redefined theatrical advertising by making the first live action television commercial for a Broadway musical (Pippin). He has written, produced, and directed literally hundreds of radio and television commercials for theatre, movies, hotels, casinos, sports venues, and major rock and pop stars, including Frank Sinatra. He is the recipient of many industry honors, including the Clio and International Broadcasting Award. LeDonne and producing partner and wife, Kellie, own Stonybrook Productions. With Steve Kalafer, they have made several documentary films, which have won honors at film festivals, been nominated for Academy Awards, and aired on HBO, Cinemax, and PBS.
Jeffrey Chrzczon (General Manager). Broadway credits include: Billy Crystal’s 700 Sundays, Mike Tyson: Undisputed Truth directed by Spike Lee, The Lyons starring Linda Lavin, Saturday Night Fever, Jekyll & Hyde, Kathy Griffin Wants a Tony, Sandra Bernhard’s I’m Still Here Damn It!, , Rain: A Tribute to the Beatles on Broadway, Ruben & Clay’s Christmas Show, Home for the Holidays, The Temptations & Four Tops on Broadway, Patti Labelle on Broadway, The Kentucky Cycle and Solitary Confinementstarring Stacey Keach. Off-Broadway: The Bench, Shear Madness, Bikeman: A 9/11 Play, Lady Day starring Dee Dee Bridgewater, Falling (Drama Desk Nomination), Manipulation,RFK, Dr. Sex, and Ministry of Progress. National tours: Man of La Mancha, Damn Yankees, Spider-Man Live! Stunt Spectacular, Saturday Night Fever, The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas starring Ann-Margret, Evita, Selena the Musical, Man of La Mancha starring Robert Goulet, West Side Story, Fiddler on the Roof, A Chorus Line, Ain’t Misbehavin’ starring Martha Reeves & the Vandellas, Jesus Christ Superstar, She Loves Me, and Hair. Mr. Chrzczon is a member of the Association of Theatrical Press Agents and Managers.
Wendall K. Harrington (Projection Design). Broadway: All The Way, Driving Miss Daisy, Grey Gardens, They’re Playing Our Song, The Elephant Man, My One and Only, The Heidi Chronicles, The Will Rogers Follies, Having Our Say, Company, Racing Demon, Ragtime, John Leguizamo’s Freak, The Capeman, Putting It Together and The Who’s Tommy. Off Broadway: Sunday in the Park with George, Angels in America, Hapgood, Merrily We Roll Along (four times!) and Whistle Down the Wind. Opera: Werther at the MET, Julie Taymor’s The Magic Flute in Florence, Italy, A View from the Bridge at Chicago Lyric, Die Gezeichhneten at LA Opera, The Photographer at BAM, Transatlatic, The Grapes of Wrath, Rusalka for Minnesota Opera, Nixon in China for OTSL. Ballet: The Fairy’s Kiss, Pictures at an Exhibition, Anna Karenina, Firebird, Cinderella and Opera for Alexei Ratmansky, Othello for Lar Lubovich, Ballet Mechanique for Doug Varone, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, The Nutcraker and The Firebird for Miami City Ballet, Sylvia for Houston Ballet. Concerts: The Talking Heads “Stop Making Sense,” Pete Townshend’s “Psychoderelict,” as well as tours for Chris Rock and Simon and Garfunkel. Recipient of the Drama Desk Award, the Outer Critics Circle Award, the American Theatre Wing Award, the TCI Award for Technical Achievement and the OBIE Award for Sustained Excellence of Projections, the Michael Merrit Award for collaboration, Ruth Morley Women in Design Award, USITT Education and Digital technology awards and Lifetime Recognition from the Knights of Illumination. As design director of Esquire magazine, Ms. Harrington was responsible for the re-design and re-launch of the “Men’s Magazine of the 90’s.” Later, as editor-at-large for Esquire, she conceived and edited Randy Shilts’s “My Life on the AIDS Tour,” nominated for a National Magazine Award and published in Best American Essays of 1990. Ms. Harrington has been lecturing on Projection Design for Theatre since the early 90’s and is the head of the Projection Design Concentration at the Yale School of Drama.
Gregory Meeh (Special Effects) designs special effects for theatre, opera and film. Credits: Kà, Cirque du Soleil. Broadway: An Act of God, Misery, Doctor Zhivago, The Last Ship, The Addams Family, Spamalot, Twelfth Night (Lincoln Center, Eddy Award), An Inspector Calls(Drama Desk Award), The Phantom of the Opera.
Matthew B. Armentrout (Hair/Wig Design) is beyond thrilled to be revisiting Paradise Square, cast and creatives! Upcoming productions Flying Over Sunset (LCT), The Visitor (The Public), Sing Street, Birthday Candles, Come From Away (Live Capture). Broadway: Bernhardt/Hamlet, The Sound Inside (Hair Consultant). Off-Broadway: Merrily We Roll Along (Roundabout). National Tour: Jitney. Regional: A Raisin in the Sun (Yale Rep), Bliss! (The 5th Avenue), Paradise Square (Berkeley Rep).
Garrett Coleman & Jason Oremus (Irish & Hammerstep Choreography) are co-founders of Hammerstep, an award-winning dance and production company based in NYC. The original Hammerstep dance form fuses formerly rebellious movement disciplines, including Irish dance, tap, hip hop, stepping, and martial arts. The company specializes in live theatrical shows, film and video content, community engagement, and site-specific immersive experiences in a mission to challenge how dance is presented and to create space for different cultures to engage in rhythmic dialogue. Hammerstep has toured worldwide to international acclaim, from community work with orphans in South Africa to one ofthe top 10 most successful viral flash mobs of all time in Sydney, Australia, to the stages of London’s Palace Theatre and NYC’s Lincoln Center, to the cameras of NBC’s “America’s Got Talent.” Hammerstep’s latest endeavor is a sci-fi immersive theatre drama called Indigo Grey, told through a choice-based narrative and a unique blend of live performance and interactive technology. While developing the project, Hammerstep recently completed dual artist-in-residencies at the New Museum and at the Nobel Prize-winning Nokia Bell Labs, released an award-winning short film, Indigo Grey: The Passage, and produced a 2018 sold-out run at Mana Contemporary Museum. hammerstep.com.
Talli Jackson (Associate Choreographer) is a choreographer, teacher, and movement artist based in the San Francisco Bay Area. His work has been presented at The Milkbar, SAFEhouse Arts, Temescal Art Center, Tisch School for the Arts, ODC, and FABnyc. Talli was a member of the Bill T. Jones/Arnie Zane Company from 2009-2017. During that time, he originated roles in ten evening-length works and was honored to be involved with the re-staging and extensive touring of some of Jones’s and Zane’s pioneering duets, including Monkey Run Road (1979), Blauvelt Mountain (1980) and Valley Cottage (1981). Talli was honored with a Princess Grace Award in dance, in 2013. From 2014 to 2017 he was a lead organizer and teacher for the Bill T. Jones/Arnie Zane Company Summer Workshop and has been teaching contemporary dance forms nationally and internationally since 2009.
Gelan Lambert (Associate Choreographer). Choreography credits: The Royal Shakespeare Company, The Public Theater, GableStage and Ohio University’s Antony & Cleopatra, Jacob’s Pillow, Stella Adler Studio (Resident Artist), Florida International Univ., City Center Studio, Long Island University, FiveMyles, Gibney Dance and George Faison Firehouse Theater. Performance credits: Fela! (Broadway/Nigeria/World Tour), playing the role of JK (rhythm tapper)/Ogungun; described by Ben Brantley of the New York Times as “the brilliant, tap dance artist sui generis.” A graduate of The Juilliard School BFA, where he was awarded The Martha Hill Prize for excellence in dance artistry and leadership. Other credits: The Martha Graham Dance Company, Sean Curran Company, Fosse (1st National Tour), A Christmas Carol (Madison Square Garden Theater), City Center Encores! Golden Boy, NYC Opera’s Alcina/Turandot, and a featured performer for Jacob’s Pillow Katherine Dunham Tribute, conceived and directed by Reginald Yates. His awards/honors are: Martha Hill Prize from The Juilliard School, Young Arts-1st Place, Presidential Scholar for the Arts, National Society of Arts and Letters-1st Place, Key to the City of North Miami in 2013 and a Jerome Foundation Fellow to Ghana, West Africa. A principal artist and assistant to Reginald Yates. Ayo!
Peter W. Lamb (Production Supervisor) is a Producer, Director, Production Supervisor, Technical Director, Theatre Consultant, with a career spanning 40+ years. Selected credits include: Technical Director and Production Manager at the Stratford Festival and LIVENT Inc.: The Phantom of the Opera (Toronto, Touring); Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat (Toronto, Touring); Show Boat (Toronto, Broadway, Chicago, Touring); Sunset Boulevard (Toronto, Vancouver) and Ragtime (Toronto, Los Angeles, Broadway, Chicago, Touring). He was also technical consultant and theatre planner for Livent’s renovation-construction projects: The Pantages, Toronto; The Ford Centres for the Performing Arts (TCA), North York and Vancouver; The Ford Center (Lyric) in New York and The Oriental (Nederlander), Chicago. While Principal Consultant at New York-based Artec Consultants Inc, among the performing arts building projects he worked on were: The Kimmel Center for the Performing Arts, Philadelphia; Orange County Performing Arts Center, Costa Mesa; National Concert Hall, Budapest; Jazz at Lincoln Center, New York; Salle Pleyel,(renovation) Paris; Roy Thomson Hall,(renovation),Toronto and York University, Toronto. In 2003 Peter established PWL Associates, a theatrical production consulting firm whose clients included: Follies for Roundabout Theatre Company (Broadway); Blue Man Group (Panasonic Theatre, Toronto; Venetian Resort, Las Vegas) and The Pirate Queen, River Productions (Chicago, Broadway). In 2007, he joined the new Dancap Productions Inc. as Producer, Executive VP, presenting five subscription seasons of Tony Award-winning musicals across Canada, including co-producing the hit Toronto production of Jersey Boys. From 2012-2016 as Director of Production for the Canadian Opera Company, Peter oversaw Canada’s largest theatre production operation. In 2018-19, he was delighted to be the International Production Supervisor of Paradise Square, receiving its world premiere at Berkeley Repertory Theatre.
Stewart/Whitley (Casting). Duncan Stewart CSA & Benton Whitley CSA, with Joey Montenarello CSA, Luke Schaffer, Micah Johnson-Levy, & Joseph Hayes. Broadway/NY: Hadestown, Chicago The Musical, The Lightning Thief, Rock of Ages, The Great Comet, Elf, On The Town, Pippin, La Cage aux Folles, Radio City Christmas Spectacular; TV/Film: Netflix, 20th Century Fox, NBC, Lionsgate, Disney Channel; West End/UK: Hadestown, Thriller Live, Menier Chocolate Factory, West Side Story; Current Tours: Hadestown, Hairspray, Charlie & the Chocolate Factory, Waitress, The Sound of Music; Regional: American Repertory Theater, La Jolla Playhouse, Berkeley Rep, Alley Theatre, Bay Street, Goodspeed, For The Record, TUTS, Hollywood Bowl, RCCL. Artios Award Winning Office. Members of The Casting Society of America. Follow: @stewartwhitley & stewartwhitley.com