Bob Merrill was one of the most successful songwriters during the 1950s, with a string of novelty hits such as "How Much Is That Doggie in the Window?", “(If I Knew You Were Comin’ Id‘ve) Baked a Cake”, “Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania”, “Mambo Italiano”, “Honeycomb” and “Make Yourself Comfortable”. Longing to write more profound songs, Bob turned his efforts toward the musical theatre. By the late fifties, he had written music and lyrics for Broadway’s “New Girl In Town”, followed by “Take Me Along”, “Carnival”, “Henry, Sweet Henry” and eventually “Funny Girl” featuring the hit songs “People” and “Don’t Rain On My ... read more
Alison Franck (CSA) is a casting professional with over 20 years of Broadway, Off-Broadway, Touring, Regional Theatre, TV, Film, Commercial and Voice Over Casting experience. For a decade, she was the Casting Director for the prestigious regional theatre Paper Mill Playhouse in New Jersey, where she cast over 50 productions with some of the theatre community's finest talent. Notable credits at Paper Mill include the Broadway transfer of I’m Not Rappaport starring Judd Hirsch and Ben Vereen, Anything Goes starring Chita Rivera, The Baker’s Wife starring Alice Ripley, The Chosen starring Theodore Bikel and John Lloyd Young, Baby starring La ... read more
Donald Holder 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 ... read more
Christened the "soft-spoken conceptualist of sorcery" by the New York Times, Peter Samelson has performed atop the Great Wall of China, in the jungles of Bali and the universities of Tokyo, He has performed for Mexican peasants, and Grand Prix race car drivers on the World Cruise of the Queen Elizabeth II.
He has entertained Princess Stephanie of Monaco, the jet-set of Paris and the fishermen mending their nets on the beaches of Cartegena. From Kenya to the Magic Castle, from television to trade shows, college campuses to commercials, the New York stage, night clubs and celebrity events, Peter Samelson has ... read more
ERICA SCHMIDT is a playwright, screenwriter and theatre director. Her theater works includes the adaptation of Cyrano in collaboration with The National that she directed at The Goodspeed and Off-Broadway at The New Group. She directed and adapted MacBeth which ran at Seattle Rep and off Broadway at the Lucille Lortel and HTP for which she received a Drama Desk nomination for Outstanding Direction and Outstanding Revival and a Lortel nomination for Outstanding Revival; MacBeth is now published by DPS. Schmidt wrote and directed All the Fine Boys for The New Group; now published by Samuel French. She directed Richard ... read more
