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The Theory of Relativity Cast and Creative Team

The Theory of Relativity Cast and Creative Team

Meet the Cast       Meet the Creative Team

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CAST

Jennifer Apple JENNIFER APPLE is truly honored and grateful to be amongst such a fantastic bunch of individuals! Some favorite credits include: Monty Python’s Spamalot (Lady of the Lake), Fiddler on the Roof (Tzeitel – Pennsylvania Shakespeare Festival; Hodel – Cape Fear Regional Theatre), Something Funny’s Going On (dir/chor: Martin Charnin, Lee Roy Reams), Factory Girls (Winnifred), [title of show] (Susan), Grease (Rizzo), and Les Misérables (Eponine). Jennifer wants to thank everyone at Goodspeed, Paul Hardt, the brilliant cast/creative team, JWS, and her family and friends for their endless love and support. "You're ready. Start making stuff." www.JenniferApple.net
   
Robert Ariza ROBERT ARIZA* is excited to be making his Goodspeed debut in The Theory of Relativity! Originally from Queens, Robert is a proud graduate of The University of Michigan with a BFA in Musical Theatre. Previously, he performed as a resident company member at Music Theatre Wichita for three consecutive seasons. Highlights include Bert/Oscar in 42nd Street, Chino in West Side Story, and Francis Lockwood in the US Premiere of Betty Blue Eyes. Recent credits: Joly/Ensemble in Les Misérables (Maltz Jupiter Theatre), Andrew Lippa’s I Am Harvey Milk (Lincoln Center). Thanks to Neil, Brian, Paul Hardt, and Harden Curtis Associates. www.robertariza.com
   
Michael Browne MICHAEL BROWNE A recent graduate of The Boston Conservatory, Michael couldn't be more excited to be a member of this production. Huge thanks to my mom and dad, Vinn, Kathy Olsen, Kristen Blodgette, and every friend who inspires me to continue along this path! "I am nothing without you!"
   
Jane Bruce JANE BRUCE is a Utah native, a proud University of Michigan graduate, and is thrilled to be a part of this exciting new work! NYC: The Bad Years (Kerrigan and Lowdermilk). National Tour: Elf (Emily). Regional: Martha in The Secret Garden (Farmers Alley Theatre), Dr. Charlotte in Falsettos (TriArts Sharon Playhouse), and Cathy in The Last Five Years. Member of The Viewpoints Collective, based in Brooklyn, NY.  Jane gives huge thanks to her family, friends, and Bob for their love and support, and the creative team for such a wonderful opportunity.
   

Victoria Cook

VICTORIA COOK* Off-Broadway: Into the Woods, The Public. Regional: Meet Me In St. Louis: A Live Radio Play, Bucks County Playhouse; The Marvelous Wonderettes, Utah Shakespeare; The Single Girls Guide, Capital Reparatory Theatre; Urinetown, Edinburgh Fringe. BFA, Cincinnati Conservatory of Music (CCM). Love to my family and friends, thanks to Goodspeed, Paul, and Steve. Proud member of Actors’ Equity.
   
Michael Coale Grey MICHAEL COALE GREY is so stoked to be back with ToR!! Michael previously worked on the show as part of Goodspeed’s 2014 Festival of New Musicals, and then once more last summer at Sheridan College up in Canada! Regional: Elf: the Musical (Paper Mill Playhouse), First Date (as Gabe, The Straz Center), A Christmas Carol - A Ghost Story of Christmas (Hartford Stage Company), Singin' in the Rain (as Cosmo Brown, The Mac-Haydn Theatre Inc.) BFA The Hartt School. Thanks to Mom, Dad, Alex, J-D-M, Neil & Brian, and the whole ToR gang! Twitter: @MichaelCGrey
   
Kurt Hellerich KURT HELLERICH* Goodspeed Debut. Regional credits: Lord of the Flies (The Denver Center Theatre Company); The Comedy of Errors (Repertory Theatre of St. Louis); Jackie & Me (Metro Theater Company); The Civil War (Theatreworks USA); Anything Goes, Jekyll & Hyde, The Drowsy Chaperone, Peter Pan, How To Succeed in Business Without Really Trying, A Chorus Line (Rocky Mountain Repertory Theatre); Snoopy!, Little Shop of Horrors (Crane River Theater Company). Other credits: Carousel, The Pig Iron People, Hello Again, The Threepenny Opera, and Fit for Feet. Training: BFA, Webster Conservatory.
   
Caitlin Houlahan CAITLIN HOULAHAN* Goodspeed debut! Recent credits include Parade (Lincoln Center), Carrie (Beck Center, Cleveland Critics Circle Award), Sweeney Todd (Great Lakes Theatre Festival), The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee (Clinton Showboat Theatre), Follies, Pokémusical. TV/film: Peter Pan Live! (NBC/Dir. Rob Ashford). Baldwin Wallace Conservatory of Music grad. Much love to her crew and her cat Bellatrix. Special thanks to Stone Manners Salners. For my family. @caitlinhoulahan
   
Gizel Jimenez GIZEL JIMÉNEZ* National Tour: West Side Story (Rosalia). Regional: Smokey Joe’s Café (DeLee) at Capital Repertory Theater, In the Heights (Vanessa) at Walnut Street Theater and Westchester Broadway Theater. Downtown: Rosario and the Gypsies (Mary) at Theater for the New City. TV/Film: Law & Order SVU: “Presumed Guilty,” “The Tale of Timmy Two Chins.” Other credits include Broadway workshop 21 (Vera), Barclays Center (National Anthem), music video with Will Sparks, and a commercial with comedian Nick Kroll for Comedy Central. Graduate: New World School of the Arts, BFA in Musical Theater. Upcoming: Up Here (Cool Girl) at La Jolla Playhouse in CA.
   
Kyra Maureen Kennedy KYRA MAUREEN KENNEDY* is psyched to be making her Goodspeed debut! Regional credits include Murder Ballad (Sara) and Spring Awakening (Wendla). Others favorites: Carousel (Carrie), Rent (Joanne), and Hair (Sheila). Endless thanks to Abrams Artists, Tony Cloer, Mom, Daddy, and her Soldier. Kyra is a proud graduate of Baldwin Wallace Conservatory and member of AEA.
   
Erin Kommor ERIN KOMMOR* is thrilled to return to Goodspeed after appearing in Come From Away (Festival of New Artists) as Diane and in Stephen Schwartz' Snapshots preview concert as Susie. Other credits include Grace/ Mary in Animal Crackers (Baltimore Centerstage), and Eve in The Apple Tree and Nuna in Necessary Target (Boston Conservatory). Training: Boston Conservatory Musical Theatre BFA 2013, B.A.D.A Oxford/ Yale Shakespeare Academy, PIT Improv School NYC. All of my love/ gratitude to my incredible parents, CGF, Paul Hardt, The Goodspeed team, and AB.
   
Keith Potts KEITH POTTS* is beyond thrilled to be back in the Goodspeed neighborhood, having performed at Goodspeed’s 2012 Festival of New Artists in Bartram and Hill’s Not Wanted on the Voyage. Other recent credits include Fiddler on the Roof at Beef and Boards, Ring of Fire at Lake Dillon Theatre Company, and Hank Williams: Lost Highway at the Merry-Go-Round Playhouse. Upcoming: Twelfth Night at Heartland Actors Repertory Theatre. Thanks and love to Bryan, Mom and Dad, the family, Mrs. M., and HP. Endless gratitude to Neil, Brian, Dan, the cast, and everyone at Goodspeed. BFA Boston Conservatory. @kthpotts
   
Mack Shirilla MACK SHIRILLA* is thrilled to be joining the Goodspeed family for this wonderful production! Previous credits include: Huck Finn (Big River), Cain/Japeth (Children of Eden), Chad (All Shook Up)Bobby C (Saturday Night Fever), Lockwood (Histroy Boys), and George (Spring Awakening).  Mack is also the owner/creative director of his own web design studio (bigstachedesign.com) and is a proud graduate of the Baldwin Wallace University Conservatory. He sends his love to Mom, Dad, and Kristin, as well as his friends and everyone at Abrams Artists Agency for their never-ending support. @mackshirillla
   


CREATIVE TEAM

Neil Bartram

NEIL BARTRAM (Music & Lyrics, Orchestrations) is the composer and lyricist of Broadway’s The Story of My Life with book writer Brian Hill (four Drama Desk Award nominations). Prior to Broadway, The Story of My Life played at CanStage in Toronto and Goodspeed’s Norma Terris Theatre. Neil has also written music and lyrics for Somewhere in the World (five seasons at the Charlottetown Festival), Claras Piano (Stratford Festival), Not Wanted On The Voyage (AMTP, 2012 Goodspeed Festival), The Adventures of Pinocchio (Chicago Shakespeare Theater), Spin (Signature Theatre) and Belles Soeurs (Segal Centre Montreal). His musical The Theory of Relativity, commissioned by Toronto’s Sheridan College was part of Goodspeed’s 2014 New Works Festival and had its London premiere in May of 2014.

Current projects include a musical based on Ray Bradbury’s classic novel Something Wicked This Way Comes and the stage adaptation of Disney’s beloved film Bedknobs & Broomsticks, all with book writer Brian Hill. Neil’s awards include a Jonathan Larson Foundation Award, a Dramatists Guild Fellowship, and a Dora Award. Cast albums include Somewhere in the World and The Story of My Life (PS Classics). Neil is a member of the Dramatists Guild, ASCAP, and is an alumnus of the BMI Lehman Engel Music Theatre Workshop. He is published by Warner/Chappell Music.
   
Brian Hill

BRIAN HILL (Book, Director) As an actor, Brian spent three seasons with the Shaw Festival repertory company, played Raoul in the The Phantom of the Opera, Joe Gillis in Sunset Boulevard, and won a Dora Award as a member of the original Canadian cast of Forever Plaid. For the Stratford Festival, he directed Gilbert & Sullivan’s Patience and was associate director of Susan H. Schulman’s productions of Man of La Mancha and Fiddler on the Roof. He served as associate director of the US National Tour of Sunset Boulevard and the First National Tour of The Sound of Music. For Disney Theatrical Productions, he was resident director of the Broadway production of The Lion King and associate director of The Little Mermaid.

With Neil Bartram he has written, among others, Not Wanted on the Voyage (Goodspeed’s New Works Festival 2012), The Adventures of Pinocchio (Chicago Shakespeare Theater), and The Theory of Relativity (Goodspeed’s New Works Festival 2014 and London 2014). Current projects include Spin (Signature Theatre 2013), and stage adaptations of Ray Bradbury’s Something Wicked This Way Comes and Disney’s Bedknobs and Broomsticks. Brian is best known as the book writer for The Story of My Life, which was developed at Goodspeed’s Norma Terris Theatre, premiered on Broadway in 2009, and earned four Drama Desk Award nominations for outstanding musical, music, lyrics, and book. Brian most recently wrote the new book for the acclaimed Goodman Theatre production of Lerner & Loewe’s Brigadoon.
   
  DANIEL GREEN (Music Director) is a composer/lyricist and musical director. On Broadway, he has played or conducted for Rocky (Associate Conductor), Big Fish, Matilda, Peter and the Starcatcher, The Addams Family, and Wicked. Workshops include Junie B. Jones (Goldrich & Heisler), Between the Lines (Samsel & Anderson), and Not Wanted on the Voyage (Bartram & Hill). He is also an award-winning composer. His show The Remarkable Journey of Prince Jen, written with Lezlie Wade, was recently selected for ASCAP’s Musical Theatre Workshop with Stephen Schwartz, after presentations at the American Musical Theatre Project, the Finger Lakes Musical Theatre Festival, and the Toronto Summerworks Festival.
   
  DANE LAFFREY (Scenic & Costume Design) has recent off-Broadway credits that include set and/or costumes for Iowa (Playwright’s Horizons), Bad Jews and Tigers Be Still (Roundabout), Disgraced (Lincoln Center), Arlington (Vineyard), American Hero and The Talls (2econd Stage), The Maids (Red Bull), I Remember Mama and The Patsy (Transport Group), The Few (Rattlestick). Regional work at major theaters including The Humana Festival, Williamstown, Old Globe, Huntington, Denver Center, Deaf West, Center Stage, Dallas Theater Center, New York Stage & Film, The Studio, Signature, Two River. International work in Tokyo, Oslo, Osaka, and throughout Australia. Nominations for a Drama Desk Award and four Henry Hewes Awards.
   
 

JENNIFER SCHRIEVER (Lighting Design) Broadway: Ghetto Klown. Opera: Die Fledermaus (Metropolitan); Faust, Midsummer Night's Dream (Mariinsky); Pearl Fishers (ENO). Off-Broadway: Toast, A Second Chance (Public); I’m Looking For Helen Twelvetrees (Abrons), Bright Half Life, (Women’s Project); Mala Hierba, American Hero (Second Stage)Sunset Baby (Labyrinth); Triassic Parq (Soho Playhouse); Stuffed and Unstrung (Union Square); An Evening Without Monty Python (Town Hall). Regional/other: Carousel (Olney); Our Betters (Asolo); Rapture Blister Burn (Goodman); Marie Antoinette (Woolly Mammoth); Sunday in the Park with George (Signature); The Other Josh Cohen (Paper Mill); Romeo and Juliet, Conference of the Birds, Taming of the Shrew (Folger); Stones in His Pockets (CenterStage). Dance: Liz Lerman: Healing Wars. Adjunct Professor, Purchase College.

   
 

JAY HILTON (Sound Design) is pleased to continue his long association with Goodspeed Musicals.  Jay has designed countless productions at both The Norma Terris Theatre and the Goodspeed Opera House in East Haddam.  His work has also been heard on Broadway, National Tours, and at Regional Theatres from coast to coast.  In addition to being Goodspeed’s Resident Sound Designer, Jay also serves as their Lighting & Sound Supervisor.  He and his wife, Goodspeed Line Producer Donna Lynn Hilton, make their home (and garden) in Hadlyme, Connecticut.

   

 

*Member of Actors' Equity Association, the Union of Professional Actors and Stage Managers in the United States.