Songbird

Michael Kimmel created Songbird, based on Chekhov’s The Seagull and set in Nashville, TN with music and lyrics by Lauren Pritchard (LOLO). Songbird had its Off-Broadway debut at 59E59 in October 2015 as a NY Times Critic’s Pick, and was a finalist for the 2016 Kleban Award. He is also the creator and adaptor of The Last Goodbye, a musical adaptation of Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet with music and lyrics by famed singer/songwriter Jeff Buckley. TLG performed a series of sold-out concerts at Joe’s Pub at The Public Theater before its world premiere at Williamstown Theatre Festival where it went on to break box office records for WTF’s Nikos Stage. TLG also had an acclaimed production at The Old Globe, San Diego, CA (nominated for two Craig Noel Awards), helmed by two-time Tony nominee Alex Timbers. Michael’s work has been featured at Joe’s Pub at The Public Theater, Lincoln Center, Ars Nova, Soho Rep, LPR, the Westside Theatre, and many other venues. Other works by Kimmel include Stand.Up., exploring the world of podcasts and stand-up comedy (reading, Vineyard Theater starring Zachary Levi and Ben Shenkman); Todd and Mitzy, about a couple dealing with infertility; and Dog Whistle, an in-depth theatrical examination of a US Senate campaign (presented at Playhouse on Park, CT, Election Day 2017). Upcoming musicals conceived and written by Kimmel include KareHouse, a grunge pop musical inspired by Ferdinand Bruckner’s Pains of Youth, with music and lyrics by Libby Winters (debut at Joe’s Pub at The Public Theater, Sept. 2017); Everything Is Going Okay, about a woman dealing with a terminal cancer diagnosis; and Wildwood, a new musical about the legendary Jersey shore town. Michael most recently was commissioned to write a theater piece exploring Frank Lloyd Wright to commemorate the 150th anniversary of his birth. The Space to Be Lived In was completed months after it was commissioned, and was presented to producers starring Michael Urie, Bill Irwin and Kellie Barrett.

Lauren Pritchard was born and raised in the small town of Jackson, Tennessee, which most people only know as a Johnny Cash lyric. She originated the role of Ilse in the eight-time Tony Award-winning Broadway musical Spring Awakening. In 2008, she signed with Sony/ATV Music Publishing and began her professional songwriting career. Her first album, Wasted in Jackson, was a collaborative project between Lauren and Ivor Novello-winning writer/producer Eg White. It was released in 2010 with Island Records UK to critical acclaim and she spent three years touring in the United Kingdom and mainland Europe in support of the material. In 2013 Lauren returned to America to continue her writing and touring journey. She has had the opportunity to tour alongside and perform with many artists and bands, some of her favorites being Florence and the Machine, Fall Out Boy, Matt Nathanson, ThirdStory and Annie Lennox. Lauren is the composer and lyricist of the country/folk musical Songbird (book by Michael Kimmel). It had its Off-Broadway debut at 59E59 Theater in October 2015 and debuted as a NY Times Critic’s Pick. Her second album, In Loving Memory of When I Gave a Shit, was released in 2016 under the name LOLO with Atlantic Records/Crush Music. The second single from the album, “Shine,” reached the #5 position on the iTunes Music charts. When Lauren is not on stage performing as LOLO, she spends her time writing for other artists and bands. In 2017, she was nominated for a Grammy Award for her writing work on Panic! At The Disco’s hit album, Death of a Bachelor, which has been RIAA Certified Platinum twice.

Gaye Taylor Upchurch is a freelance director living in New York City. Her background is in dance. She has directed many world premieres including Clare Lizzimore’s Animal (Studio Theatre, DC, Helen Hayes nomination for Best Director; Atlantic Theater with Rebecca Hall); Laura Marks’s Bethany with America Ferrera (Women’s Project, Lortel nomination for Best New Play and Best Lead Actress and at The Old Globe); Melissa Ross’s Of Good Stock (South Coast Rep). She has also directed the Off-Broadway productions of Simon Stephens’s Harper Regan with Mary McCann (Atlantic Theater, NY Times Top Ten Production 2012); Simon Stephens’s Bluebird with Simon Russell Beale (Atlantic Theater); The Year of Magical Thinking with Kathleen Turner (Arena Stage); Lucy Thurber’s Stay (Rattlestick Theater, Obie Award for Hilltown Play Cycle); Nancy Harris’s Our New Girl (Atlantic Theater), Chris Chen’s You Mean to Do Me Harm (Vineyard Theatre), and Anna Ziegler’s The Last Match (The Old Globe; Roundabout). Her work has been seen at Culture Project, La Mama, Juilliard, and Lincoln Center Institute among others, and she has developed new work at New Dramatists, Playwrights Realm, NY Stage & Film, The Kennedy Center, Playwright’s Center, LCT Director’s Lab, and SPACE on Ryder Farm. She is an alumna of The Women’s Project Directors Lab, The Drama League and North Carolina School of the Arts.

Marc Kimelman is the associate choreographer for Broadway’s A Bronx Tale. He choreographed Saturday Night Fever (National Tour), The Ballad of Little Jo (Two River Theater), Man of La Mancha (Stratford Festival), Play It Cool (Off-Broadway), Once on This Island��(Dora Award for Outstanding Choreography), Tonya & Nancy: The Rock Opera (NYMF), Jesus Christ Superstar (North Carolina Theatre). TV/Film: Degrassi: The Next Generation, Instant Star, Don’t Talk to Irene (starring Geena Davis). Marc is movement consultant for Vogue magazine (Annie Leibovitz, Charlize Theron) and on faculty at Broadway Dance Center. Associate/Assistant: Broadway revival of Jesus Christ Superstar, Queen’s We Will Rock You (National Tour), Freaky Friday (Disney workshop), Once on This Island (Paper Mill Playhouse), Hands on a Hardbody (Broadway workshop), Seven Deadly Sins (NYC Ballet), Elementary. www.marckimelman.com

Kristopher Kukul is a New York City-based Orchestrator/Arranger/Music Director and Composer. Current projects: Beetlejuice The Musical (Warner Brothers), Runaways (Public Theater/NY City Center – Arrangements), The Last Goodbye. Recent work: Joan of Arc: Into the Fire (Public Theater – Music Supervisor/Arrangements), American Songbook: Elizabeth Swados (Lincoln Center – MD/Arrangements), Shakespeare in Love (East Coast premiere – STNJ), Kate Baldwin – Extraordinary Machine (MD/Arrangements), The Last Goodbye (The Old Globe), Songbird (59E59), Darko Tresnjak’s Kiss Me, Kate (The Old Globe/Hartford Stage), The Heart of Robin Hood (A.R.T/Royal Alexandria Toronto). Williamstown Theatre Festival 10 seasons; resident music director. Twelve years as Elizabeth Swados’s Music Director/Orchestrator. He has written the music for Beauty Queen, Dash Dexter, Oliver Twist and the family musicals Camp Monster and Wing It!, both produced at the Williamstown Theatre Festival. International work: Andrei Serban’s Heracles (Epidaurus/National Theatre Greece), The La MaMa Cantata (Japan, Serbia, Turkey, Italy, Croatia, Macedonia), Bokán (Bogota), From the Fire (Edinburgh), Bacchae (Warsaw). Adjunct faculty NYU, Tisch School of the Arts.

Jason Sherwood is a Drama Desk Award, Lucille Lortel Award, and American Theatre Wing Henry Hewes Design Award nominee. He recently designed Sam Smith’s Arena World Tour, and TV appearances (including Grammys, Brits, SNL).Off-Broadway: New York Theatre Workshop, Playwrights Realm, 59E59, and The Flea. Regional: The Old Globe, Signature Theatre, Denver Center, Shakespeare Theatre, Goodspeed Musicals, the Alliance, among others. Upcoming: This Ain’t No Disco at the Atlantic, production design for The People’s Choice Awards on E!. NYU grad. Instagram: @JasonSherwoodDesign

Sarah J. Holden is pleased to be making her Two River Theater debut. Broadway: The Price, reasons to be pretty. World premieres: Richard Greenberg’s The Babylon Line (Lincoln Center & NYSAF), Neil LaBute’s The Money Shot and Reasons to Be Happy (MCC Theater), The Undeniable Sound of Right Now (Women’s Project & Rattlestick Theater), and Bethany (Women’s Project & The Old Globe). Other notable credits: Animal, Our New Girl, Harper Regan and Bluebird (Atlantic Theater), Fifth of July (Williamstown Theatre Festival), Robert Altman’s mini-series Tanner on Tanner, Neil LaBute’s TV series Billy & Billie, Comedy Central’s series Stella, plus numerous feature films.

Aaron Porter is a New York City-based lighting designer for theater, opera, dance and events. Selected New York designs: One Flea Spare (Off-Broadway), Songbird (Off-Broadway), Great Awakening (Ars Nova), The Strangest (4^th Street Theatre), Dance Legends at the Hammerstein Ballroom. Regional: A Christmas Carol (Triad Stage), Beauty and the Beast, Mary Poppins, Chitty Chitty Bang Bang (Paramount Theatre), The Nutcracker (High Point Ballet). Upcoming designs: Monster Stomp (SeaWorld San Antonio), Waitress (Manila, Philippines). Selected Broadway Associate: Waitress, Getting the Band Back Together, The Price, The Cherry Orchard and Constellations. Aaron is the Lighting Supervisor at ARS Nova in NYC. Aaron received the 2013 Rising Star Award, presented by Live Design/USITT www.aporterld.com

Broken Chord Broadway: The Parisian Woman, Eclipsed. Off-Broadway: TFANA (The Winter’s Tale); MCC (Relevance, Transfers); Atlantic Theater Company (Scarcity, The Lying Lesson); Incubator Arts Project (OZET); LCT3 (Bull in a China Shop); Manhattan Theatre Club (When We Were Young and Unafraid); Primary Stages (Informed Consent); Public Theater (The Good Negro, Party People); Signature Theatre (The Dance and the Railroad, Appropriate). Regional: Guthrie (Enemy of the People); Alley Theatre (Lover Beloved, All the Way); Actors Theatre of Louisville (The Adventures of Tom Sawyer); Berkeley Repertory (Ruined); Cleveland Play House (Fairfield); Dallas Theater Center (Hair, The Great Society); Hartford Stage (A Midsummer Night’s Dream); Huntington Theatre (Top Girls, A Raisin in the Sun); Oregon Shakespeare Festival (UniSon); Yale Repertory (These Paper Bullets!). Film: Fall to Rise. www.brokenchord.us

Ada Westfall is a musician – Joan of Arc: Into the Fire (The Public Theater), The Last Goodbye (The Old Globe), Death of a Salesman (BAM); composer – Rimbaud in New York (BAM), A Play on War (Connelly Theater), Juárez: A Documentary Mythology (Rattlestick Playwrights Theater); and actor – Songbird (59E59), Rimbaud in New York (BAM), The Apostle Project (NYTW). Her original score for A Play on War earned a 2010 Drama Desk nomination for Outstanding Music in a Play, and she has composed music for a number of theater companies, including The Civilians, NAATCO, Built for Collapse, and Theater Mitu, with whom she’s been a company member for 12 years. She has participated in residencies at New York Theatre Workshop and The Watermill Center, and has also taught as a guest artist at NYU, NYU Abu Dhabi, The American Academy of Dramatic Arts, and Tamagawa University in Tokyo. Projects in development include Theater Mitu’s Remnant (a meditation on war and death to premiere in August 2018), Tony Torn’s Action Kylie (a dance piece based on the poetry of Kevin Killian), and Woyzeck & Herself (Ada’s own queer reimagining of Georg Büchner’s classic). www.adawestfall.com. Instagram: @adawestfall

Kristin Stowell is excited to be working on Songbird again after serving as the Assistant Music Director for the Off-Broadway production. She is a music director, pianist, composer and copyist currently living in Brooklyn. Recently she served as the music director for Matthew McConaughey vs. the Devil (NYMF) and was the music director and orchestrator for the world premiere of Dance Divas Nutcracker. She spent the last year as a visiting faculty member at the University of Mississippi where she served as music director and taught courses in musical theater performance and music theory. In 2017, she completed her master’s degree in collaborative piano performance from NYU Steinhardt, where she served on the adjunct faculty teaching private piano lessons and keyboard skills classes.

David Bova Broadway designs include The Visit, The Real Thing, Violet, Lady Day at Emerson’s Bar & Grill, Motown, The Gershwins’ Porgy and Bess, All About Me, and Next to Normal. Films include Angelica and The Night Before. TV includes Six by Sondheim, Scream Queens, Gotham, Mozart in the Jungle, and Inside Amy Schumer.

Shane Ann Younts Broadway: Newsies, Clybourne Park, Bonnie & Clyde, Mary Poppins, The Lion King, Jekyll & Hyde, Mamma Mia!, Spamalot, Tarzan. Off-Broadway and Regional: Timon of Athens, Edward II, Duchess of Malfi, The Miracle Worker, 1776, Steel Magnolias, Cyrano, Permission, Stunning, Luck of the Irish; Winter’s Tale and Midsummer (Hudson Valley Shakespeare), Skin of Our Teeth (TFANA); Bedroom Farce and Romeo and Juliet (Westport Country Playhouse). Shakespeare in the Park: All’s Well, Measure for Measure, Hamlet, Macbeth. The Guthrie: A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Twelfth Night, Antony and Cleopatra. Tours: Newsies, War Horse, Mary Poppins, Jekyll & Hyde, Les Mis. Faculty – NYU Tisch Graduate Acting. Co-creator of the Audio Shakespeare pronunciation app. www.audioshakespearepronunciatonapp.com

Calleri Casting (James Calleri, Paul Davis, Erica Jensen) Broadway: Fool for Love, Hughie, The Elephant Man (also West End), Hedwig and The Angry Inch, The Visit, Of Mice and Men, Venus in Fur, Living on Love, 33 Variations, A Raisin in the Sun, Chicago, James Joyce’s The Dead. Previously at Two River Theater: Songbird. National Tour: Hedwig and The Angry Inch, Bright Star (NY Casting). Select Theater: Casting for the Alliance, Berkeley Rep, Classic Stage Company (14 seasons), CTG, The Flea, Keen Company, Long Wharf (15 seasons), McCarter, OSF, Playwrights Horizons (10 seasons), The Playwrights Realm, Williamstown (4 Seasons) Television: Dickinson for Apple, The Path for Hulu, Army Wives, Lipstick Jungle, Monk, Hope & Faith, Ed. Select Film: Mike Cahill’s Sundance winners Another Earth and I Origins. Calleri Casting has been awarded 14 Artios Awards for Outstanding Casting Achievement. They are members of the Casting Society of America. callericasting.com

HANNAH WOODWARD (she/her) (PRODUCTION STAGE MANAGER) Recent: Kiss My Aztec! (Hartford Stage), On Your Feet! (Paper Mill Playhouse). Broadway: Be More Chill. Off Broadway: Between the Lines, A Commercial Jingle for Regina Comet, Our Dear Dead Drug Lord, Jersey Boys, Harry Clarke, The Government Inspector, The Moors, The Woodsman, The Absolute Brightness of Leonard Pelkey (also National Tour), Buyer & Cellar (also National Tour).  Regional: Paper Mill Playhouse, Hartford Stage, McCarter Theatre, A.C.T., Pennsylvania Shakespeare Festival, Shakespeare Theatre of New Jersey.

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.

Allison Bressi is a New York-based creative producer and the 2018 Recipient of the T Fellowship founded by Harold Prince and Columbia University. Her world-premiere production of Songbird by Michael Kimmel and Lauren Pritchard, starring​Tony Award nominee Kate Baldwin, ran Off-Broadway and was a New York Times Critic’s​ Pick. Upcoming: Broadway Bounty Hunter by Joe Iconis, Lance Rubin, Jason Williams (Off-Broadway), The Preacher’s Wife by Titus Burgess (workshop), The Mar Vista by Yehuda Hyman. Selected credits: This Is Reading, a site-specific, multimedia performance installation conceived by two-time Pulitzer Prize winner Lynn Nottage, Tony Gerber, and Kate Whoriskey; Indigo Theatre Project’s reading of Wendy Wasserstein’s An American Daughter to benefit She Should Run, directed by Christine Lahti; The Strangest by Betty Shamieh, directed by May Adrales; and the Off-Broadway revival of One Flea Spare by Naomi Wallace. Works in early development include an untitled clown-jazz collaboration between Bill Irwin and Sammy Miller and the Congregation and Chant Bank, a social action movement created by Lisa Kron. Allison is the co-founder of Plan Bee Collective with Nicole Martorana and the Creative Producer for Theatre for One under Scenic Designer & Artistic Director Christine Jones. Allison works at Signature Theatre and is from Hudson, Ohio.

Diana Buckhantz was one of the lead producers on Songbird when it had its acclaimed, premiere production at 59E59 Theaters in NYC. She has also been part of the producing team that brought the Tony-nominated musical Leap of Faith from the Ahmanson Theatre to Broadway. Her producing credits also include Standing on Ceremony: The Gay Marriage Plays at the Minetta Lane Theatre in New York and The Last Goodbye at The Old Globe. Diana began her professional career producing award-winning documentaries including Dying with Dignity, Hunger in the Promised Land, and Not a Question of Courage, all for KTLA. Her documentaries have also received two National EMMY Awards, two local EMMY Awards, the Scripps Howard Award for Broadcast Journalism, the State Bar of California Public Service Award, the NAPTE National Iris Award, the National Education Award, three Angel Awards, and the Kenny Rogers World Hunger Media Award. Currently, she also runs her family foundation which focuses on issues around runaway and homeless youth, arts education in the schools, aging, reproductive rights, and combating genocides and mass atrocities. She proudly serves on the Boards of Center Theatre Group, the Fountain Theatre, Los Angeles Youth Network, Jewish World Watch and Capital and Main. Her greatest production, however, is her son Sam.