Archives: Creative Bios
Music
JEANINE TESORI
JEANINE TESORI
Music
JEANINE TESORI (Music) is a composer of musical theatre, opera and film. She is a two-time Tony Award winner for Best Score, for Kimberly Akimbo with David Lindsay-Abaire and for Fun Home with Lisa Kron. Her other musicals include Caroline, or Change (with Tony Kushner); Shrek (David Lindsay-Abaire); Thoroughly Modern Millie (Dick Scanlan); Violet (Brian Crawley); and Soft Power (David Henry Hwang), which was her second work after Fun Home to be a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize in Drama. Her operas include A Blizzard on Marblehead Neck (Tony Kushner); The Lion, The Unicorn and Me (J.D. McClatchy); and Blue (Tazewell Thompson). Her latest opera, Grounded (George Brant), marks Tesori as one of the first women, along with Missy Mazzoli, to be commissioned by the Metropolitan Opera and will open the 2024-2025 season. In addition to her work as a composer, Tesori is the founding artistic director of New York City Center’s Encores! Off-Center series, the supervising vocal producer of Steven Spielberg’s West Side Story and a lecturer in music at Yale University. Proud member of the Dramatists Guild.
Book, Lyrics, Original Play
DAVID LINDSAY-ABAIRE
DAVID LINDSAY-ABAIRE
Book, Lyrics, Original Play
DAVID LINDSAY-ABAIRE (Book, Lyrics, Original Play) is a playwright, screenwriter, lyricist and librettist. He received Tony Awards for Best Score and Best Book of a Musical for his work on Kimberly Akimbo. Other Broadway credits include Rabbit Hole (MTC, Pulitzer Prize); Good People (MTC, NY Drama Critics Circle Award for Best Play, Horton Foote Prize); Shrek with Jeanine Tesori (Kleban Award for Lyrics); High Fidelity with Tom Kitt and Amanda Green. Off-Broadway: at ATC, Kimberly Akimbo (Lortel, NYDCC, OCC and Drama Desk awards for Best Musical); at MTC, Ripcord, Kimberly Akimbo (the play), Wonder of the World, Fuddy Meers; at Soho Rep, A Devil Inside. Film: The Family Fang, Rise of the Guardians, Rabbit Hole, Oz the Great and Powerful, Poltergeist, Inkheart, Robots. Member: Dramatists Guild, WGA, ASCAP. David is also, along with Tanya Barfield, co-director of the playwriting program at The Juilliard School.
Scenic Design
DAVID ZINN
DAVID ZINN
Scenic Design
DAVID ZINN (Scenic Designer). Broadway: Scenic Design for Funny Girl; The Minutes; Diana; Torch Song; The Humans. Scenic and Costume Design for Choir Boy; Boys in the Band; SpongeBob SquarePants; Amélie; Fun Home; The Last Ship. Costume Design for A Doll’s House Part 2; Airline Highway; Xanadu. Off-Broadway: Playwrights Horizons, Atlantic Theater, Public Theater, New York Theater Workshop, Second Stage, Clubbed Thumb, ERS, Target Margin; Regional and International: A.C.T, Berkeley Rep, Old Globe, La Jolla Playhouse, CTG, Guthrie Theater, Yale Rep, San Francisco Opera, Lyric Opera of Chicago, Santa Fe Opera, Glimmerglass Opera, National Theatre and Young Vic (UK), Theater Basel, and the Berlin Staatsoper. Tony, Obie, Drama Desk, Hewes awards.
Costume Design
SARAH LAUX
SARAH LAUX
Costume Design
Sarah Laux (Costume Design) Broadway: The Band’s Visit, Fully Committed, The Humans. Selected Off Broadway: Wish You Were Here (Playwright’s Horizons); The Wanderer (Papermill Playhouse); Prayer For The French Republic (MTC); Kimberly Akimbo, This Ain’t No Disco, The Band’s Visit (Atlantic Theater Company); Jerry Springer: The Opera (New Group, Obie Award); A Play Is A Poem (Taper Theater); Before The Meeting (WTF). Film: Not Okay, The Sixth Reel, Freakshow. Television: High Fidelity, Godfather of Harlem: S2.
Lighting Design
JEANETTE OI-SUK YEW
JEANETTE OI-SUK YEW
Lighting Design
JEANETTE OI-SUK YEW (Lighting Design). Award-winning designer for theatre, dance, opera, musicals, music performances and large-scale immersive installation. NY Times described her designs as “clever” and “inventive”. Kimberly Akimbo is her Broadway debut.The Nosebleed (LCT3), Gloria: A Life (Daryl Roth Theatre), Golden Shield (MTC), cullud wattah (The Public), american (tele)visions (NYTW), Oratorio For Living Things (Ars Nova), Snow in Midsummer (CSC), Suicide Forest (Ma-Yi), KPOP! (Ars Nova), WILD: A Musical Becoming (A.R.T.), Walden (Theaterworks), Blue (Detroit Opera), Sweetland (The Industry), A Dozen Dream (Engarde Arts). www.jeanetteyew.com
Sound Design
KAI HARADA
KAI HARADA
Sound Design
KAI HARADA (Sound Design). Broadway: Mr. Saturday Night; Head Over Heels; The Band’s Visit (Tony, Drama Desk Awards); Amélie; Sunday in the Park With George; Allegiance; Gigi; Fun Home; On the Town; First Date; Follies (Tony, Drama Desk Nominations); Million Dollar Quartet. Regional: The Karate Kid; The Bedwetter; Swept Away; Soft Power; Marie: Dancing Still; The Light in the Piazza, Candide; We Live in Cairo, The Black Clown; many musicals at City Center and Kennedy Center. Education: Yale University.
Wig, Hair, and Makeup Design
J. JARED JANAS
J. JARED JANAS
Wig, Hair, and Makeup Design
J. JARED JANAS (Wig, Hair, and Makeup Design) Broadway: & Juliet, How I Learned to Drive, American Buffalo, Jagged Little Pill, Frankie and Johnny in the Claire de Lune, Gettin’ the Band Back Together, Bandstand, Indecent, Sunset Boulevard, The Visit, The Real Thing, Lady Day at Emerson’s Bar & Grill, Motown, Peter and the Starcatcher, The Gershwins’ Porgy and Bess, All about Me. Recent Off Broadway: Between the Lines, Prayer for the French Republic, The Tap Dance Kid, Kimberly Akimbo.
Video Design
LUCY MACKINNON
LUCY MACKINNON
Video Design
LUCY MACKINNON (Video Design) Broadway: A Christmas Carol, How I Learned to Drive, Jagged Little Pill, The Rose Tattoo, Lifespan of a Fact, Six Degrees of Separation, Deaf West Theatre’s Spring Awakening. Recent Off-Broadway: The Bedwetter (Atlantic Theater Company), Unknown Soldier (Playwrights Horizons), The Mother (Atlantic Theater Company), White Noise (The Public Theater), After the Blast (LCT3), The Treasurer (Playwrights Horizons), Yen (MCC).
Choreography
DANNY MEFFORD
DANNY MEFFORD
Choreography
DANNY MEFFORD’s (Choreographer) choreography includes Dear Evan Hansen (Tony and Olivier Award, Best Musical), Fun Home (Tony Award, Best Musical), Bloody Bloody Andrew Jackson, and The Bridges of Madison County. Off-Broadway, Tour: Much Ado About Nothing and Love’s Labour’s Lost for Shakespeare in the Park, Miss You Like Hell and February House (The Public); Good Person of Szechwan (The Public/Foundry), The Sound of Music international tour, Pump Boys and Dinettes (Encores! Off-Center); Melancholy Play (13P); and Dance Dance Revolution (Les Freres Corbusier). Danny’s choreography has been featured on television in “Dickinson” (Apple+) and “Rise” (NBC). He has received Drama Desk, Astaire, and Lucille Lortel Award nominations. Directing credits include: The Fitzgeralds of St. Paul, Becoming Liv Ullman (NY Fringe), and Wasted (Ars Nova). MFA in Acting: Brown University.
Direction
JESS STONE
JESS STONE
Direction
JESSICA STONE (Director) worked as an actress on and off Broadway, in television and film before transitioning to directing. Her directing career began in earnest with her all-male 2010 production of A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum for the Williamstown Theatre Festival. She has since been nominated for two Tony awards for her work on Broadway in Kimberly Akimbo (2023) and Water for Elephants (2024). In addition, both productions garnered nominations for Best Musical, with Kimberly Akimbo taking home the prize. She has directed all over the country at such theatres as The Old Globe, A.C.T., Shakespeare Theatre Company, Huntington Theatre Company, Two River Theater and Williamstown Theatre Festival. Productions include As You Like It, Kate Hamill’s Vanity Fair, Barefoot in the Park, Dancing at Lughnasa, Bad Dates, Ken Ludwig’s Robin Hood! (world premiere), Ripcord, Bad Jews, Arms and the Man, Vanya and Sonia and Masha and Spike, Charlotte’s Web, June Moon, Last of the Red Hot Lovers, The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee and Absurd Person Singular. As a performer her Broadway credits include Anything Goes, Butley, The Odd Couple, The Smell of the Kill, Design for Living, How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying and Grease.
