American Theatre Artists Online

Ann Harada is an actor and singer, probably best known for originating the role of Christmas Eve, in the Tony Award winning Broadway musical Avenue Q. In a career spanning more than three decades, Harada has also appeared on Broadway in M. Butterfly, Seussical, Les Miserables, 9 To 5 and Cinderella, as well as in many Off-Broadway and regional productions including at City Center’s Encores!, Playwrights Horizons, The Papermill Playhouse and The Muny. She most recently starred Off-Broadway in Fairycakes by Douglas Carter Beane. Television audiences might know her best as Florence Menlove, the wife of the Mayor (played by Alan Cumming) in the hit musical spoof Schmigadoon! on Apple TV+ starring Cecily Strong and Keegan-Michael Key.  

Suli Holum is a theatre artist whose work has been supported by the Orchard Project, Actors Theatre of Louisville, Playwrights Horizons, New Dramatists, the Playwright’s Center, The Ground Floor at Berkeley Rep, and HERE, and presented by FringeArts, The Public Theatre/UTR, La Jolla Playhouse, Center Theatre Group, Z Space and The Gate in London.  As a member of Philadelphia’s Wilma Hothouse she has appeared in Romeo and Juliet and Dance Nation. Other acting projects include Sweat at Philadelphia Theatre Company, On the Exhale at Theatre Exile, The Few at Theatre Horizon, and Cabaret at the Arden, and an appearance on HBO’s Mare of Eastown. As a writer and director, she is a longtime collaborator with choreographer Nichole Canuso and has developed commissions for the National Constitution Center and the Institute on Disabilities at Temple University. A founding member of Pig Iron Theatre Company, she went on to co-found Stein | Holum Projects with Deborah Stein where she co-created and performed the Drama Desk-nominated Chimera, and The Wholehearted.  She recently launched Suli Holum/The Work, a Philadelphia-based incubator for live performance. A recipient of a Drama Desk Award, a TCG/Fox Resident Actor Fellowship, and a Barrymore Award, she is currently pursuing her MFA in Creative Writing at Goddard College where she was the recipient of the 2020 Engaged Artist Award.

Ryan Duncan has performed on Broadway in Shrek and Gettin' the Band Back Together (for which he wrote additional material) with Marilu Henner. He has also performed in many Off-Broadway productions including Liberty, The Yellow Brick Road, Nassim, Soul Doctor, and he originated the role of "Juan" in the now international hit, Altar Boyz, for which he earned a Drama League Nomination for Distinguished Performance. He has also appeared at various regional theatres, especially in the DC area, like Ford’s Theatre, Signature Theatre and Studio Theatre and he has toured nationally and performed in both film and television. Ryan works for Only Make Believe, a non-profit that provides theatrical experiences to kids in hospitals (for which he's translated shows into Spanish), as well as Mursion, one of the fastest growing American companies, which fosters social skills, diversity, equity, and inclusion, and empathy through online virtual reality. He is in development with the Broadway-aimed shows Distant Thunder, a contemporary Native American musical by Shaun Taylor-Corbett, and Passing Through. Ryan also wrote the twistedly funny holiday musical A Gander Family Christmas

Marcia Milgrom Dodge is a Tony Award nominated Director, Choreographer and Writer, whose work has been seen throughout the US, in Canada, England, Asia, Denmark and the Middle East, on Broadway, Off-Broadway, and at acclaimed regional theatres such as the New York City Opera, The Kennedy Center, Arena Stage, Goodman Theatre, Denver Center Theatre Company, Glimmerglass Festival, La Jolla Playhouse, Pittsburgh Public Theatre and many more. She received the Tony Award nomination for Directing for the 2009 Revival of Ragtime on Broadway and is one of just a handful of women who have climbed the ranks as successful and commercially viable theatre director/choreographers. She is currently directing a new revival of Disney’s Beauty and the Beast that as she puts it “really challenges each of us to look around the room with an equitable lens in which all races, ethnicities, body shapes and abilities can be identified and celebrated.”

Rashad V. Chambers is an award winning producer, talent manager and lawyer. His Broadway producing credits include American Son, Ain’t Too Proud – The Life and Times of The Temptations, Betrayal, The Inheritance and Caroline, or Change. A licensed attorney in New York and Connecticut, Rashad is the Founder and President of Esquire Entertainment.  He recently produced Little Girl Blue: The Nina Simone Musical in association with Goodspeed Musicals as well as the world premiere of It Happened In Key West in London. Rashad attended Morehouse College where he graduated magna cum laude with a Bachelor of Arts degree in Business Administration. He also earned his JD and MBA degrees from The Ohio State University. Rashad is a board member of On Broadway Performing Arts Training Program and Houses on the Moon Theater Company.

Kate Reinders is an actor and singer who has appeared in multiple stage and screen projects. On Broadway she originated the role of Portia in Something Rotten!, played Cynthia Weil in Beautiful: The Carole King Musical, and appeared in Meteor Shower, The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, Good Vibrations, the 2002 revival of Into The Woods, the 2003 revival of Gypsy and in Wicked, where she replaced Megan Hilty as Glinda. Kate has also appeared Off Broadway, and at various regional theatres across the country. Young audiences may know her best for her TV appearances, especially her portrayal of Miss Jenn in High School Musical: The Musical: The Series now streaming on Disney+. I interviewed this week’s guest live during the Keynote presentation of the Virginia Theatre Association (VTA) conference online. VTA is one of the largest statewide theatre associations in the country and is the central resource for connecting, creating, cultivating and advocating for practitioners of theatre in the Commonwealth of Virginia.  For more information about VTA or to donate, please go to virginiatheatre.org  

James Seol is currently appearing in Come From Away on Broadway where he last appeared in A Naked Girl on the Appian Way at Roundabout Theatre Company. He has appeared Off-Broadway in KPOP receiving a Lucille Lortel nomination as Outstanding Lead Actor, and in Ten (Second Generation) and The Long Season at The Public Theater. James has also appeared at some of the most prestigious regional theatres across the country including The Papermill Playhouse, The American Conservatory Theatre, Steppenwolf, Goodspeed, Shakespeare Santa Cruz, Hartford Stage and The Shakespeare Theatre Company and Woolly Mammoth Theatre Company in Washington, DC. You may have also seen James on television in The Flight Attendant on HBO Max, and in Living With Yourself on Netflix. He is a graduate of The Juilliard School Drama Division and The University of Virginia.

Kathy Voytko made her Broadway debut in the original cast of the 2002 revival of Oklahoma! directed by Trevor Nunn and she was in the Tony Award-winning Nine starring Antonio Banderas and Chita Rivera. She originated the role of Ariadne in Stephen Sondheim’s The Frogs opposite Nathan Lane at Lincoln Center and her other Broadway credits include The Pirate Queen, the Pulitzer Prize-winning Next To Normal, the 2014 Tony Award-winner for best musical A Gentlemen’s Guide to Love and Murder and the original Broadway cast of Tuck Everlasting. Kathy toured the United States as Christine in The Phantom of the Opera and as Eva Peron in the 25th anniversary tour of Evita, working with legendary director/producer Hal Prince on both projects. She is often a soloist for symphonies and concerts around the world and she has performed at Carnegie Hall, the Royal Albert Hall in London as well as in Mexico and Canada.    Kathy has also played leading roles at various regional theatres across the country including Clara in Passion, Fantine in Les Miserables, Fiona in Brigadoon, Polly in Crazy For You and Francesca in The Bridges of Madison County.  She is a two-time recipient of Chicago’s Joseph Jefferson Award for Best Actress in a Musical. She received a BFA in Music/Theatre from Shenandoah Conservatory.  She will be appearing next in the upcoming Broadway revival of The Music Man, where she will be performing in the ensemble, and understudying Sutton Foster.

Eric Jordan Young is an accomplished Producer, Director, Choreographer, Entertainer, Playwright and Songwriter. He has appeared on Broadway in Ragtime (’98 and ’09 revival), Chicago, Seussical, and The Look of Love, as well as Off-Broadway, in national tours and for various regional theatres. Eric has also performed with several Symphonies throughout the country and the New York Pops at Carnegie Hall. His solo album Once In A Lifetime, was produced by his company EnJoY! Productions and his one-man musical Sammy & Me is the winner of the ArtVoice and Salt Awards. Eric served as the Resident Director of Baz (Venetian/Palazzo) and loves working as a Creative Director for original projects including Renegades at Caesars Palace and Drag Supper Club.  Eric is currently the Associate Director for the Norwegian Cruise Line production of Footloose and the recent production of Rock of Ages in Hollywood, CA.

Geno Carr is a professional actor, singer, director and educator who starred in the Tony Award-winning musical Come From Away on Broadway. He starred Off-Broadway in the musical satire Bush Wars and has been seen in the national tours of Grease, Phantom and The Buddy Holly Story. He has appeared in leading roles in numerous plays and musicals regionally at The Old Globe, Merry-Go-Round Playhouse, Lyric Opera San Diego, Maine Shakespeare Festival, Heritage Theatre Festival and many others. In addition to having served for two years as Assistant Professor of Theatre and Resident Artist at Stephens College in Columbia, MO, he has also taught at MiraCosta College in Oceanside, CA and currently serves on the Theatre Arts faculty at Grossmont College in San Diego, CA.  He is a summa cum laude graduate of Hartwick College with a dual BA in Music and Theatre Arts, holds an MFA in Theatre from Sarah Lawrence College and is a proud member of Actors Equity Association and the Stage Directors and Choreographers Society.

Priyanka Shetty is an award-winning actor, director, and playwright heralded by the New York Times as someone to watch. Her critically acclaimed one-woman show The Elephant in the Room has been performed at numerous venues across the country including The Kennedy Center and will be staged at the 2022 Edinburgh Fringe as part of the Assembly Festival. Priyanka made her Off-Broadway debut with her second solo play #Charlottesville at the Drama Desk award-winning 59E59 Theaters’ “East to Edinburgh” Festival in July 2021. She was also handpicked for the prestigious Kennedy Center Playwriting Intensive 2021, where she further developed The Wall, the final play in her triptych of solos. Priyanka earned a Master of Fine Arts in Acting from the University of Virginia and has served on the faculty of the University of Virginia’s Department of Drama.

Matthew Gardiner is the newly appointed Artistic Director of the Tony Award winning Signature Theatre. The Washington Post has called him “One of the top young musical-theater directors in the land.” At Signature, Gardiner has directed or choregraphed over 25 productions including revivals of classic and contemporary musicals, new works, and world premieres and of course many musicals by Stephen Sondheim, as part of Signature’s special commitment to producing the great master’s work. Over the past year, amid a global pandemic that has made live performance nearly impossible, Matthew has worked to ensure Signature continues to engage audiences with bold and exciting new online content, while also actively working to expand its reach. Matthew is the recipient of three Helen Hayes Awards for Outstanding Director of a Musical and has been honored with over a dozen nominations. He holds a BFA in Directing from Carnegie Mellon University and is a member of the Stage Directors and Choreographers Society.

Award winning Broadway veteran Florence Lacey holds the world record for the most performances of Eva Peron in Evita, having played the role on Broadway, national tours & several international tours. She has also starred in Broadway productions of The Grand Tour, Hello Dolly, Les Miserables and the most recent Tony nominated revival of Follies. Her professional career in musical theater around the world spans four decades and many thousands of performances and she has shared the stage with such Broadway legends as Carol Channing, Joel Grey and Bernadette Peters. She is also a well known star of many regional theatres across the country, having performed dozens of lead roles including Norma Desmond in Sunset Boulevard, Sally Durant Plumer in Follies and Madame Armfeldt in A Little Night Music at the Tony Award winning Signature Theatre and appearing in Sunday In The Park with George at The Kennedy Center.

Pomme Koch played the role of Itzik in the ten-time Tony Award winning musical The Band’s Visit, both on Broadway and on the 1st national tour. He has appeared Off-Broadway and at many regional theatres across the country including La Jolla Playhouse, A.C.T. in San Francisco, Shakespeare Theatre Company, Baltimore Symphony Orchestra, Theatre Calgary, and others. You may have also seen him on TV in “House of Cards” and “Blue Bloods”. He's spent the pandemic serving as a delegate in Actors' Equity Association and working on arts-labor policies for the upcoming New York City mayoral election. Originally hailing from the San Francisco Bay Area, he studied theatre and political science at the University of Michigan and lived in D.C. before settling in New York.

Thom Sesma has numerous Broadway, Off-Broadway, TV and film appearances to his credit, including The Times They Are a Changin, Man of La Mancha and La Cage Aux Folles. Some recent highlights include the title role in the off-Broadway revival of Sweeney Todd and a Lucille Lortel nominated performance in Pacific Overtures at Classic Stage Company, as well as the world premiere of Tom Kitt and John Logan's Superhero at Second Stage and Ibsen's Ghosts with Uma Thurman at Williamstown Theatre Festival. His most recent live theatre performance was in Michael Friedman’s Unknown Soldier which opened on March 9, 2020 off-Broadway at Playwrights Horizons. Three days later live theatre was suspended due to the COVID19 pandemic and since then he’s accumulated many remote live-stream virtual credits in plays, musicals, concerts and works in development.  He has also kept busy appearing in many roles in television and film and teaching a popular course called “Acting on Zoom”.  He is currently starring in an online production of A Gentleman’s Guide to Love and Murder, with an all Asian cast, produced by CollaborAzian and with proceeds going to #StopAAPIHate that will stream starting July 15th.

Brandon J. Ellis most recently appeared on Broadway as World War II vet Davy Zlatic in Bandstand. His other Broadway credits include the original companies of the 2006 revival of Company and Once, which he also reprised in the West End.  He also starred in the 1st National tour of The Play That Goes Wrong. His Off-Broadway credits include August Rush, Missed Connections, and Balls…The Musical which he also wrote and he is in the process of writing a new musical called The Drum Bridge with Drew Gasparini.   His TV/Film work includes 30 Rock, Vinyl and Shake Rattle and Roll.  He holds a BFA in Acting from University of North Carolina Greensboro. He is currently appearing in Seven Deadly Sins, an Off-Broadway production set in the meatpacking district, directed by Moises Kaufman, playing in a limited engagement until July 18. 

Bligh Voth is an actor, singer and writer originally from Washington, D.C. now living in New York City. She was last seen on the first national tour of the 10-time Tony Award winning musical, The Band’s Visit. She has appeared off-Broadway in the new musical Loveless, Texas and in The Time Machine at New York Musical Theatre Festival and her other New York credits include the Atlantic Theater Company, Primary Stages and Boomerang Theatre Company. Bligh has performed at many regional theatres across the country including the Paper Mill Playhouse, Ogunquit Playhouse, Cincinnati Playhouse in the Park, Ford's Theatre, The Studio Theater, Lyric Theatre of Oklahoma and Signature Theatre. She wrote the book for a new Cole Porter revue called, Let’s Misbehave: Cole Porter After Dark and she served as the editorial director of Nasty Women of New York, a photography project melding the world of portrait photography with storytelling, giving a voice to the uniquely diverse women of New York City. Her solo show No Really, I’m Not Crazy debuted at The Green Room 42 in New York City. Currently she is working on a country/bluegrass EP.

Multiple Award-winning Broadway actor Natascia Diaz has performed professionally since the age of nine. Growing up in New York City, she began her training at The School of American Ballet where she was hand-picked by Jerome Robbins and librettist Arthur Laurents to perform the role of Anita in both the National and International tours of West Side Story garnering Chicago’s Joseph Jefferson Award and St. Louis's Kevin Klein Award. Her Broadway credits include Paul Simon’s The Capeman, and leading roles in Seussical, and the 2004 revival of Man of La Mancha, in which she also understudied the role of Aldonza, performing the role opposite Brian Stokes Mitchell. She is well known to DC theatre audiences, having won two Helen Hayes awards, and appearing often at the Tony Award winning Signature Theatre, MetroStage and other notable venues. She is also featured in the Broadway Documentary Film, Every Little Step, about the auditions for the 2006 revival of A Chorus Line.

Matt Conner and Stephen Gregory Smith describe themselves as modern musical theatre writers who explore the darker side of human nature, while searching for the light. The Washington Post called them “the most prolific writers of musicals in the Washington area who consistently get their work produced.” Their collaboration has resulted in nine full length musicals including, Night of the Living Dead the musical, The Legend of Sleepy Hollow, The Turn of the Screw, Monsters of the Villa Diodati, Kaleidoscope, Witch, and On Air. Several of their works were commissioned by Creative Cauldron as part of their Bold New Works Initiative. Their latest project is a new musical based on the story of the five women that Jack the Ripper killed, called Whitechapel. Both Matt and Stephen were nominated together for the Helen Hayes Award for Directing their musical, The Turn of the Screw and each has also received the award individually. They are currently delighting theatre afficionados with their podcast The Conner & Smith Show interviewing DC creatives and exploring their past and future works.

Derek McLane is a Tony Award winning set designer who has designed over 350 productions on Broadway, off-Broadway, internationally, regionally, and for television. A few of his award-winning designs for Broadway include: Moulin Rouge!, American Son, Parisian Woman, Beautiful, Follies, Anything Goes, How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying, Bengal Tiger at the Baghdad Zoo, Million Dollar Quartet, Ragtime, 33 Variations, Little Women, The Pajama Game, I Am My Own Wife and The Women. He designed the 2013-2018 Academy Awards ceremonies and 4 live musicals for television and he is the winner of multiple Obie, Lucille Lortel, Art Director’s Guild, Emmy and Drama Desk Awards.