Be More Chill

Danny Jonokuchi is a New York City-based multi-instrumentalist, composer, arranger, and recording artist originally from Los Angeles. He has performed in some of New York’s finest music establishments and a variety of Off-Broadway shows. His sound can be heard on the radio broadcast for the Ahrens & Flaherty musical Little Dancer as well as many ongoing projects including Charlie Rosen’s Broadway Big Band. He is a graduate of Temple University’s Boyer College of Music, in Philadelphia.

Dan McMillan is happy to be back in Red Bank after being part of Two River’s production of Camelot. A Monmouth County native (Freehold), he studied at Mannes College of Music, BM, MM. Orchestras include the Brooklyn Philharmonic, Princeton Symphony, and Long Island Philharmonic. Broadway: West Side Story (2009 revival), A Chorus Line (2006 revival), The Boy from Oz with Hugh Jackman. He was Associate Producer and drummer for Silence! The Musical. On screen: Music and Lyrics with Hugh Grant and Drew Barrymore. Recordings include the Grammy-winning West Side Story revival cast, Stephen Schwartz’s Children of Eden, and Douglas J. Cohen’s No Way to Treat a Lady. He proudly plays Pearl Drums, Paiste Cymbals and Yamaha Concert Percussion. Faculty Member, Guitar Center Studios, East Brunswick. Member of Local 802, American Federation of Musicians.

Josh Plotner is a composer, arranger, and saxophonist/woodwind player. He has received awards for both his writing and playing. He is experienced in many genres, especially jazz, musical theater, pop/rock, and Latin music. Josh graduated Berklee College of Music Magna Cum Laude with a double major in Performance and Jazz Composition. Currently Josh works as an arranger for singers on Royal Caribbean International Cruises, and performs around Boston and New York.

Mike Rosengarten is thrilled to be a part of the Be More Chill band! Mike has performed in over 60 plays and musicals as a musician, actor or musical director. He has played both on Broadway and off, has been on national and international tours and regional stages across the country. He also plays regularly with several bands, including “Joe Iconis and Family” and also teaches private music lessons. A NY native, Mike currently lives in Astoria, Queens. He has the greatest family and friends a guy could ask for, and would really like to get a dog but his landlord won’t allow it. www.mikerosengarten.com

Joe Iconis is a Tony Award®-nominated musical theater writer and performer. He is the recipient of the Ed Kleban Award, Jonathan Larson Award, and Richard Rodgers Award. His musical The Untitled Unauthorized Hunter S. Thompson Musical plays the Signature Theatre in Washington D.C. this June & July. Be More Chill (with Joe Tracz) played Broadway, London, and Tokyo after originating at Two River Theater in Red Bank, NJ. Joe is the author of Love in Hate Nation (directed by John Simpkins), Broadway Bounty Hunter (with Lance Rubin and Jason SweetTooth Williams), Bloodsong of Love, Punk Rock Girl! The Black Suits(with Robert Maddock), ReWrite, and many more. His work has been produced by La Jolla Playhouse, Ars Nova, Theaterworks USA, Urban Stages, Barrington Stage Company and his music has been heard on NBC’s Smash and Riverdale. Joe’s annual Christmas Extravaganza (produced by Jennifer Ashley Tepper) is in its fifteenth year, and he frequently performs his concert act at the Laurie Beechman Theater and 54 Below, where he is the Artist-in-Residence. His albums on Ghostlight Records include the 44-song retrospective Album (Joe Iconis & Family), Two-Player Game (with George Salazar), and many cast recordings. Joe is hugely inspired by Robert Altman, Dolly Parton, The Muppets, and the Family of artists he frequently surrounds himself with. 

Joe Tracz is a writer whose work has been seen on Broadway in Be More Chill (with Joe Iconis) and The Lightning Thief: The Percy Jackson Musical (with Rob Rokicki; Drama Desk nominee for Outstanding Book). Other credits include the musical Poster Boy (with Craig Carnelia, Williamstown Theatre Festival). TV: Netflix’s Lemony Snicket’s A Series of Unfortunate Events (Peabody Award recipient; Emmy, Humanitas Prize, and WGA Award nominee) and Dash & Lily, which premiered on Netflix in 2020. Joe is an alumnus of the Ars Nova Play Group and a former Playwrights Realm writing fellow. He has an BA from Kalamazoo College and an MFA from NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts. Tracz was also writer, executive producer and co-showrunner on Netflix’s One Pieceand writer on the Disney+ Original series Percy Jackson and the Olympians.

Ned Vizzini (1981-2013) was the bestselling author of the acclaimed young-adult books It’s Kind of a Funny Story (also a major motion picture), The Other Normals, Be More Chill, and Teen Angst? Naaah…. He wrote for The New York Times, Salon, and The New Yorker. In television, he wrote for MTV’s Teen Wolf. His work has been translated into 25 languages.

Stephen Brackett is a New York City-based director of new plays and musicals. Credits include: Jonathan Tolins’ Buyer & Cellar (Rattlestick and Barrow Street Theaters/National Tour/London’s Menier Chocolate Factory), Anton Dudley’s City Of (The Playwrights Realm), Lucas Kavner’s Carnival Kids (Lesser America), Percy Jackson: The Lightning Thief (Theatreworks USA), David West Read’s The Great Pretender (TheatreWorks), Ken Urban’s The Correspondent (Rattlestick), Dan Fishback’s The Material World (Dixon Place), Micheline Auger’s American River (Lesser America), Bekah Brunstetter’s Nothing Is the End of the World (Waterwell/PPAS), Chad Beckim’s After (Partial Comfort), Brunstetter’s Be a Good Little Widow (Ars Nova), The Tenant (Woodshed Collective), Rick Viede’s Whore (Summer Play Festival), Bixby Elliot’s PN1923.45LS01 Volume 2 (Culture Project) and Kilroy Was Here: A Styx Rock Opera (Williamstown Theatre Festival). Stephen is a company member of Lesser America and Partial Comfort, and an alumnus of the Soho Rep Lab.

Chase Brock Broadway: Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark, Picnic. Off-Broadway: The Blue Flower (Second Stage, Lortel Award nomination); Tamar of the River (Prospect Theatre Company, Callaway Award finalist); Venice (Public Theater’s Public LAB); Much Ado About Nothing (Public Theater’s Mobile Shakespeare Unit); The Tempest, The Winter’s Tale (Public Theater’s Public Works); Lost in the Stars, Irma La Douce (City Center Encores!); The Cradle Will Rock (Encores! Off-Center); The Mysteries (Flea Theater). Regional: The Hunchback of Notre Dame (La Jolla Playhouse, Paper Mill Playhouse), Twelfth Night (The Old Globe). TV: Last Week Tonight with John Oliver (HBO), Late Show with David Letterman (CBS). Video games: Dance on Broadway (Nintendo Wii, PlayStation Move). Dance: 26 dances for The Chase Brock Experience including American Sadness; The Four Seasons; Mission: Implausible; Slow Float; Whoa, Nellie! and The Song That I Sing; Or, Meow So Pretty. Opera: Romeo et Juliette (Salzburger Festspiele). Brock is the subject of the documentary film Chasing Dance. Upcoming: Duncan Sheik and Steven Sater’s Alice by Heart and Randy Blair, Tim Drucker and Matthew roi Berger’s Fat Camp; Michael
John LaChiusa’s First Daughter Suite and Sara Bareilles’s Waitress. chasebrock.com

Charlie Rosen is a composer, performer, arranger, orchestrator, music director, and producer. Recent Broadway credits include Be More Chill (Music Sup/Orchestrations), Moulin Rouge (Horn Arrangements), Prince of Broadway (Orchestrations), American Psycho (Assoc MD/Keys), The Visit (Guitar/Zither), Honeymoon in Vegas (Orchestrations), Cyrano de Bergerac (Composer), One Man, Two Guvnors (Music Director, Bass), 13 The Musical (Guitars, Bass, Keys), Bloody Bloody Andrew Jackson (Assoc. MD, Bass). Off-Broadway/Regional/Other: Moulin Rouge (Orchestrations), The Colonial Theatre; Bounty Hunter (Orchestrations), Barrington Stage; The Boston Pops (Arranger); A Legendary Romance (MD/Orch.), Williamstown Theatre Festival; Miss You Like Hell (Orchestrations) and misc. Shakespeare in the Park, The Public Theater; Pamela’s First Musical (Orchestrations) and Be More Chill (MD/Orch.), Two River Theater; The Black Suits (MD/Orch.), Center Theatre Group; Unauthorized…Samantha Brown, Goodspeed; Bonfire Night, NYSF; Charlie Rosen’s Broadway Big Band (in residency at 54 Below); Chita Rivera: A Legendary Celebration (Orchestrations), August Wilson. TV/Film: The President Show (Composer), Comedy Central; Maya and Marty (MD/Composer/Arranger), NBC; Best Time Ever w/NPH (Orchestrations and Track Production), NBC; High Maintenance (Addl Music) HBO. ASCAP, Local 802, Equity, Berklee, WME. www.charlierosen.com, @CRosenMusic

Nathan Dame Music Director: A Little Night Music (Berkshire Theatre Group); Pretty Filthy (The Civilians); Dying for It (Atlantic Theater Company); Pump Boys and Dinettes (Geva Theatre); The Lightning Thief (Theatreworks USA); Fly Guy and Other Stories (Theatreworks USA); Adam Lives (Goodspeed NMF). Music Supervisor: Mr. Burns by Anne Washburn, music by Michael Friedman (Playwrights Horizons). Assoc. Music Director: What’s It All About? (New York Theatre Workshop); Fly by Night (Dallas Theater Center); Triassic Parq: The Musical (Amas Musical Theatre); Himself and Nora (NYMF, Tritone Productions); Nightmare Alley (NYMF, Tritone Productions). Music Assistant: First National Tour of The Addams Family.

Dane Laffrey at Two River: My Wonderful Day (costumes) and Be More Chill (set). Broadway: set and costumes for Deaf West’s Spring Awakening, set for Fool for Love. Recent Off-Broadway credits include set and/or costumes for Iowa, The Christians and Indian Summer (Playwrights Horizons), Cloud Nine (Atlantic Theater Company), The Glory of the World (BAM Harvey), Bad Jews and Tigers Be Still (Roundabout), Disgraced (Lincoln Center), Arlington (Vineyard), King Liz, American Hero and The Talls (Second Stage), The Maids (Red Bull), I Remember Mama and The Patsy (Transport Group), The Few (Rattlestick). Regional work at the Humana Festival, Mark Taper Forum, Williamstown, Old Globe, Huntington, Denver Center, Deaf West, Goodspeed, Center Stage, Dallas Theater Center, New York Stage & Film, The Studio, Signature, others. International work in Tokyo, Oslo, Osaka, and throughout Australia. Nominations for a Drama Desk Award and four Henry Hewes Awards. www.danelaffrey.com

Bobby Frederick Tilley Costume designs for theater include: the world premiere of Guards at the Taj, The Loneliness of the Long Distance Runner, The Pinter Plays: The Collection and A Kind of Alaska, world premiere of Annie Baker’s Body Awareness, and Birth and After Birth, The Butter and Egg Man (Atlantic Theater Company); The Power of Duff (Geffen Playhouse); The Taming of the Shrew (Virginia Stage Company); world premiere of Open House (Signature Theatre); The Power of Duff, Captors, Sons of the Prophet, and Circle Mirror Transformation (Huntington); Chapter Two (Bucks County Playhouse); The Power of Duff (NYS&F); Sons of the Prophet (Roundabout); world premiere of All New People (Second Stage); Proof (Merrimack Rep); Thinner Than Water (LAByrinth Theater Company); world premiere of Annie Baker’s The Aliens (Rattlestick); The Aliens (Company One, Elliot Norton Award for Outstanding Design), Body Awareness (Speakeasy Stage Company); Lizzie Borden (The Living Theatre, Drama Desk nomination); Top Girls (Act 1, MTC/Biltmore); Mel and El: Show & Tell (Ars Nova). His costume designs for film include Hello, I Must Be Going; The Green; Four Lane Highway; Little Kings; and Rubout.

Tyler Micoleau has designed lighting for over 350 live productions including plays, dance, movement-theater, multimedia performance, and puppetry. Designs for Two River Theater: A Wind in the Willows Christmas, Opus, Orestes: A Tragic Romp, The Charlatan’s Seance. Recent Off-Broadway credits: Iowa (Playwrights Horizons); The World of Extreme Happiness (Manhattan Theatre Club); The Invisible Hand (NYTW); The Fortress of Solitude (Public); The Wayside Motor Inn (Signature); The City of Conversation (LCT). Notable design credits: When the Rain Stops Falling (Lincoln Center Theater); The Aliens (Rattlestick); Blasted (Soho Rep); God’s Ear (Vineyard); Bug (Barrow Street). Regional credits: Huntington, Goodman, American Repertory Theatre, Trinity Rep, Old Globe, Dallas Theater Center, Long Wharf, among others. He is the recipient of an American Theatre Wing Hewes Award, two Lucille Lortel Awards, two Village Voice OBIE Awards, the Connecticut Critics Circle Award, a Helen Hayes nomination, four Barrymore nominations, a Jefferson nomination, and the NEA/Theatre Communications Group Career Development Program. He has held visiting artist positions at Yale University, Dartmouth College and for six years served as adjunct faculty at Sarah Lawrence College Department of Dance. www.tylermicoleau.com

Zachary Williamson is very pleased to be designing again for Two River, where previous designs include A Wind in the Willows Christmas, Carry It On, Jacques Brel, Opus, Charlie Brown, 26 Miles, ReEntry, Glass Menagerie, Charlatan’s Seance, Umbrellas of Cherbourg and House of Blue Leaves. Broadway credits (Associate): Lysistrata Jones, The Ritz, and Pal Joey. Off-Broadway credits: Irish Repertory Theater, Second Stage, Origin, Partial Comfort, American Records and Urban Stages. Recent regional credits: Denver Center Theatre Company, Cincinnati Playhouse, Dallas Theater Center, Kansas City Rep, Baltimore Center Stage, Westport Country Playhouse, 5th Avenue Seattle, Ordway Center, Clarence Brown, Long Wharf, Round House, St. Louis Rep, Syracuse Stage, Vermont Stage, Virginia Stage, Pasadena Playhouse, Goodspeed, Asolo, and TheaterWorks Hartford. International credits: Broadway Asia International and Edinburgh Fringe.

UNKLEDAVE’S FIGHT HOUSE (FIGHT DIRECTION) is a team of fight/
intimacy coordinators comprised of LGBTQ theater makers. Two River credits: Hombres; El
Coqui Espectacular & The Bottle of Doom; Theo; Raisin In The Sun, Be More Chill; Seven
Guitars, King Hedley ll. Broadway: Ain’t No Mo; Kimberly Akimbo; Girl From The North Country;
Tuck Everlasting; Escape To Margaritaville; The Great Society ; An American In Paris; Disgraced.
Off-Broadway: Merrily We Roll Along (NYTW) ; On Sugarland (NYTW) ; soft (MCC) ; Halfway
Bitches Go Straight To Heaven (Labyrinth/Atlantic, Drama Desk Nom.); Oedipus El Rey (The
Public)(Drama Desk Nom.) Film: Poor Behavior; Emoticon. TV: AnnieLive!

Adam Caldwell works with Cindy Tolan. Broadway: The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time, Betrayal, Cinderella, The Performers, Lysistrata Jones, Relatively Speaking, That Championship Season, A View from the Bridge, All My Sons, Avenue Q, and Xanadu. Previous productions with Vineyard Theatre, Bay Street, Dallas Theater Center, Playwrights Horizons, The Public Theater, and Lincoln Center Theater. Film: This Is Where I Leave you, The Place Beyond the Pines, Beasts of the Southern Wild, Winter’s Tale, The Reluctant Fundamentalist, Blue Valentine, Another Happy Day, It’s Kind of a Funny Story, Letters to Juliet, The Private Lives of Pippa Lee, Starting Out in the Evening, Death of a President, The Darjeeling Limited. Upcoming films: Katie Says Goodbye, Breakable You. Television: Odd Mom Out, Deadbeat, Curb Your Enthusiasm, Flight of the Conchords, Fringe, The Return of Jezebel James, and multiple HBO pilots. Member of CSA.

Bertie Michaels (Stage Manager) Broadway: Be More Chill, Come From Away, Beautiful – The Carole King Musical, Thérèse Raquin, A Bronx Tale. Off-Broadway/NYC: Encores! Mack & Mabel, Signature Theatre, Lincoln Center/LCT3, 2ndStage. Regional: Buck’s County Playhouse, Paper Mill Playhouse, Williamstown Theatre Festival, Two River Theater, Dallas Summer Musicals, Shakespeare on the Sound, Folger Shakespeare Theatre, Shakespeare Theatre of NJ. Other: August Wilson’s American Century Cycle with WNYC. Love and thanks to my family and to Sean.