Private Jones Cast & Creative Team
VINCENT KEMPSKI (Edmund) NEW YORK: Musical Theatre Factory: The Greenwood Tree. REGIONAL: The Muny: RENT; Kennedy Center:?The Greenwood Tree; Signature Theatre: Into The Woods, RENT, Assassins (Helen Hayes Nomination), A Chorus Line, Gypsy, Grand Hotel, Billy Elliot, Jesus Christ Superstar, Miss Saigon; Ford's Theatre: The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee; Round House Theatre: The Nutcracker; Olney Theatre Center:?Kinky Boots, Grease, Joseph...Dreamcoat; Keegan Theatre:?Spring Awakening;?Capital Fringe Festival: Gilded. TELEVISION: A Capitol Fourth. MUSIC: Sinderella. Education: BM, CUA. @vinnykempski
JOHNNY LINK (Private Gomer Jones) Select theatre: Baby (Off-Broadway, cast recording), R&H’s Cinderella (Broadway national tour), and various developments with The Rev Theatre, Queens Theatre, and NAMT. TV: My Life with the Walter Boys coming soon to Netflix, Dear Edward, Zoey’s Extraordinary Playlist.
CLAIRE NEUMANN (Jack King) is honored to be a part of this incredible ensemble and Goodspeed community, bringing the magic of Private Jones to the stage! Her favorite credits include: Broadway: Charlie and the Chocolate Factory (1st National tour); Off-Broadway: Who’s Your Baghdaddy? * (NYTimes Critic's Pick), Triassic Parq* (TimeOut Critic's Pick); Regional: Bliss* (5th Ave Theatre), Mystery of Edwin Drood (Riverside Theatre), Annie Get your Gun**, Floyd Collins** (Weathervane Theatre), How to Succeed… (Stages St. Louis), Boston Marriage (Hudson Stage Company); TV/Film: Law & Order: SVU, Late Show with David Letterman, The Ellen DeGeneres Show. *Original Cast Recording. **Best Actress Nomination. www.ClaireNeumann.com
DAVID ARON DAMANE (Ensemble) BROADWAY: The Book of Mormon, Don’t Dress for Dinner, Big River, Riverdance, The Life. NATIONAL TOURS: The Book of Mormon, The Color Purple, Big River, Riverdance, Tommy. OFF-BROADWAY: The Unsinkable Molly Brown (Drama Desk nomination, Best Actor in a Musical), Carmen Jones, Dinah Was. REGIONAL: Show Boat (Goodspeed), Porgy & Bess (NYC Opera), Macbeth, Ragtime, Othello, Titus Andronicus, The Color Purple, To Kill a Mockingbird... etc. TELEVISION: Dynasty, Jett, Chicago Fire, Chicago PD, The Good Fight, Instinct, Law & Order: SVU, Law & Order...etc.
BRANDON ESPINOZA (Ensemble) Broadway: SpongeBob SquarePants, Tuck Everlasting, Big, Les Misérables, Will Rogers Follies. Off-Broadway: Substitution (Playwrights Realm), Scarcity (Atlantic Theater Company), Tea and Sympathy (Keen Company). Select Regional: Anna in the Tropics (Miami New Drama; Director/Playwright: Nilo Cruz), Way of the World (Director/Playwright: Theresa Rebeck; Folger Theater), A View from the Bridge (Director: Ivo van Hove; Goodman Theater). Current TV: Raising Kanan (Detective Garcia; Starz). Other TV: Blacklist (NBC), Law & Order: Organized Crime (NBC), The Equalizer (CBS), FBI (CBS), The Leftovers (HBO), The Mysteries of Laura (NBC), The Carrie Diaries (CW).
DICKIE HEARTS (Ensemble) is Deaf, and his TV credits include Netflix's Tales of the City (2019), HBO's High Maintenance (2020), and Netflix's Grace & Frankie (2017). Stage credits include his Off-Broadway debut in Dark Disabled Stories (2023) at Public Theater—for which he received his first Lucille Lortel nomination. He pushes for more Deaf, LGBTQ+, and BIPOC representation onstage and onscreen. Hearts is a Disability Futures Fellowship '22 recipient and is repped by Nicolosi & Co.
AMELIA HENSLEY (Ensemble) is a Deaf artist, and actor, widely well-known for her role as Thea in Deaf West’s Spring Awakening on Broadway. She recently made appearances on Station 19 (ABC/Hulu) and Sesame Street (YouTube). Her selected credits: I Was Most Alive with You (Playwrights Horizons), Beethoven’s Fidelio (LA Philharmonic), Meredith Willson’s The Music Man (Olney Theatre Center), Oedipus (Getty Villa / Deaf West), and Into the Woods (Lincoln Center). She’s also currently writing a new musical with Kailyn Aaron-Lozano, Soldiers Without Guns.
GEORGE PSOMAS (Ensemble) Broadway: Fiddler on the Roof, South Pacific. Broadway National Tour: My Fair Lady. Regional: 6 World Premiere plays and musicals including, Ken Ludwig’s The Gods of Comedy (Old Globe/McCarter Theatre) and Errol and Fidel (NYMF, Best Supporting Actor Award). Voiceover: Transitions (40th Anniversary Audiobook), Pizza Hut, Animated pilot for the Cartoon Network. George was also the 2016-2019 Host of Broadway Under The Stars in NYC, and the season 2 winner of Broadway Idol. Instagram @George_Psomas
JON-MICHAEL REESE (Ensemble) Favorite Credits: Broadway: A Strange Loop. Off-Broadway: White Girl in Danger (Second Stage). Regional: James Baldwin, Jimmy and Lorraine (Pillsbury); This Bitter Earth (Penumbra); Theo (Two River); Marry Me a Little (New Ohio Theatre); Nikola Tesla Drops The Beat (ATF); Man of la Mancha, To Let Go and Fall (Theatre Latté Da); Lear (Exit Pursued By Bear); My Heart is the Drum (Village Theatre, Gregory Award: Outstanding Actor). Rep: SAKS&. @theJMRavatar
EMILY STEINHARDT (Ensemble) [she/her] International Tour: A Chorus Line (Shelia). Emily is a proud graduate of Shenandoah University for Musical Theatre. Many thanks to Marshall and the incredible creative team, and to Goodspeed, for the opportunity to be a part of this story. Endless gratitude to Mom, Richard, and Shannon for their constant love and support. @_esteinhardt
MISHA SHIELDS (Choreographer) is a theater choreographer working in the New York and Boston areas. She is a Chita Rivera Award Nominee for Best Choreography for her work in the Off-Broadway production of Baghdaddy, and has won both an Elliot Norton Award for Best Choreography (K-I-S-S-I-N-G/Huntington Theatre) and a BroadwayWorldCNY Award for Best Choreography for A Professional Production (Lochness/The Rev). Credit highlights include: The Lehman Trilogy, Witch, I Was Most Alive with You, Yerma, Ripcord, A Doll’s House, and Milk Like Sugar (Huntington Theatre), The Winter’s Tale (Hartford Stage), Once (Bucks County Playhouse), The Lehman Trilogy (The Repertory Theatre of St. Louis), Baghdaddy (St. Luke's Theater), and Wonderland (Atlantic Theater Company). Misha has taught and choreographed at various colleges and universities including Yale, MIT, The Boston Conservatory at Berklee, Fordham and Christopher Newport University. Upcoming: Private Jones (Signature Theatre in D.C./Winter 2024). mishashields.com
MYRNA CONN (Music Director) is a music director and composer based in New York City. Broadway: Pretty Woman (Key 1/Conductor & Key 2 sub). National Tour: Come From Away (Associate Conductor). Film: Spirited (Music Associate), Come From Away (Music Associate). Music directing credits include The Lonely Few (Geffen Playhouse), Fountain (National Music Theater Conference at the O’Neill & New Victory LabWorks), Bagels from Benny (92ndStreet Y), and SHIZ: Broadway Meets Sketch Comedy (Feinstein’s/54 Below & UCB Theatre). Writing: Finding Nemo JR & KIDS with Disney Theatrical Group (Music & Orchestration Adapter), The Story Pirates Podcast (Gimlet Media/Spotify). Proud graduate of Northwestern University.
ALEXANDRIA WAILES (Director of Sign Language) [she/her] is a multi-hyphenated award-winning artist who has worked on stage, TV, and film as a member of creative teams and as a performer. Associate choreographer on Deaf West’s Broadway revival of Spring Awakening. Director of Artistic Sign Language: Broadway’s Children of a Lesser God revival and King Lear; Television: This Close seasons 1 & 2, Quantico season 3; Film: A Quiet Place 1 & 2, Wonderstruck, and CODA (2022 multiple Academy Award winner). Co-founder of BHo5.org. Proud member of SDC, SAG-AFTRA and AEA unions. www.alexandriawailes.com
CHRISTOPHER & JUSTIN SWADER (Scenic Designers) Previous designs with: Dallas Theater Center, Two River Theatre, Alabama Shakespeare Festival, Everyman Theatre, Miami New Drama, Resident Ensemble Players at UD, Dorset Theatre Festival, Weston Theater, Primary Stages, Red Bull Theater, Fiasco Theater, Tectonic Theater Project, The New Victory Theatre, Classical Theatre of Harlem, Lincoln Center Education, York Theatre Company, SpeakEasy Stage Company, Kitchen Theatre Company, Penguin Rep, Shadowland Stages, IBEX Puppetry, Trusty Sidekick, A$AP Rocky, Sotheby’s, 2020 Summer Olympics, Big Apple Circus, National Geographic. www.cjswaderdesign.com
JAY HILTON (Sound Designer) has designed countless productions at both The Goodspeed and The Terris Theatre in Chester. In addition to being Goodspeed’s Resident Sound Designer, Jay serves as their Audio Supervisor and also spends some of his time recording, mixing and mastering musical theatre content for streaming platforms. He and his wife, Goodspeed Artistic Director Donna Lynn Hilton, make their home (and garden) in Hadlyme, Connecticut with Cookie and Macy.
AMANDA STAR HOLTZMAN (Assistant Stage Manager) is excited to be at Goodspeed with Private Jones! Previous credits include Broadway: Wicked (Stage Management Intern). Off-Broadway: The Book of Merman (Assistant Stage Manager). National Tour: Wicked (Miami Covid Compliance Assistant). Workshops/ Presentations: Private Jones (Signature Theatre, NAMT), Fallout (ADH Theatricals). She is so grateful to be a part of this wonderful team. She thanks her friends and family for their love and support!
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