The
Immigrant
Bios
Cast
Jacqueline Antaramian
(Leah)
New York Theatre credits include: Wrong Mountain,
Pride's Crossing (Lincoln Center), and The Wild Duck
(Bulldog Theatre Co.). She spent eight seasons with The Denver
Center Theatre Company, and has worked at several other regional
theatres including San Diego's The Old Globe. In Los Angeles,
she performed in the critically acclaimed Tamara. Among
her other theatrical credits: The Rose Tatoo, Arcadia, Desire
under the Elms, Twelfth Night, Julius Caesar, Tartuffe, Dancing
at Lughnasa, The Scarlet Letter, Life is a Dream, Company, Blood
Wedding, Man of the Moment, and the title roles in Miss
Julie, Candida, and Hedda Gabler. Lsst summer she performed
in the sequel to The Immigrant, The Legacy. Film and TV:
The Siege, Law and Order.
Walter Charles
(Milton)
made his Broadway debut on Christmas Eve,
1973 in Grease. Subsequent appearances include Leonard
Bernstein's 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, Sweeney Todd,
Cats, Me & My Girl and Aspects of Love.
His most recent New York appearances have been as Scrooge
in Alan Menken's A Christmas Carol at the Paramount Theatre
at Madison Garden and co-starring with Tyne Daly in the City Center
Encores production Call Me Madam. He co-starred
with Angela Lansbury In Sweeney Todd, and won the Bay Area
Drama Critics Circle Award for Best Actor in a Musical for his
stunning performance as Albin/Zaza in the original San Francisco
and Los Angeles productions of La Cage Aux Follies, a success
he repeated at the Palace Theatre on Broadway for 18 months. Most
recently he co-starred with Diahann Carroll in the Canadian production
of Sunset Boulevard, garnering a Best Supporting
Actor nomination in Vancouver. This past year he was featured
in the 1998 Pulitzer Prize Winning play Wit at the Union
Square Theatre. Television audiences have seen him guest star
in Cagney & Lacey, Kate & Allie, the 1981
Tony Awards, the 1983 Grammy Awards, the RKO-Nederlander production
of Sweeney Todd for Great Performances on PBS, and most
recently, he was busy raising the dead on All My Children as
Dr. Silbert.
Cass Morgan (Ima)
is an actress and writer. Pump Boys and
Dinettes, which she co-wrote and starred in on Broadway,
was nominated for a Tony Award in 1982. Over the last few years
she has acted in Playwrights Horizons award winning productions
of Violet (cast album) and Floyd Collins (cast album).
Among her other many New York Acting credits are Beauty and
the Beast, The Human Comedy, Hair, Merrily We Roll Along, (cast
album), Inside Out (cast album), La Boheme, The Knife,
Another Paradise and countless workshops and staged readings
of developing projects. This past season she was featured on
Broadway in Paul Simon's highly controversial Capeman (cast
album). Her regional favorites include Children of Eden
(American premier), Das Barbeque, 1776, Snapshots
and Diamond Studs. True Home, her autobiographical
three-person musical is being produced by Dodger Productions this
coming season. She wrote the book and has collaborated on the
score with Steven M. Alper, David Buchman, Randy Courts and Mark
St. Germain, Jack Herrick, Jeannie Tesori and Stephen Schwartz.
Cass is on the Board of Directors of The New Harmony Project,
an annual writers conference that searches out and celebrates
writers and their films, plays and musicals that explore the triumph
of the human spirit.
Evan Pappas (Haskell)
Broadway: Britt Craig in the Hal Prince production
of Parade, Benjy in My Favorite Year, Paul in A
Chorus Line. Off-Broadway: Harry Bogen in the revival of I
Can Get It for You Wholesale (Outer Critics Best Actor
nomination), Brian/Cavid in Pera Palas (Lark Theatre Co.),
Mason in The Wound of Love, One-Act Festivals in the Working
Theatre and Dramaleague Directors Lab at EST, Manhattan Theatre
Club's New Musicals Cabaret. London's West End: Young Buddy
in Follies, Charley in Merrily We Roll Along, a
role he later reprised at the Leicester Haymarket Theatre, Sunday
with Sondheim. Regionally: Harry in Lucky Stiff (Helen
Hayes Award for Best Actor), Marvin in the acclaimed Hartford
Stage production of Falsettos, directed by Graciela Danielle,
The Heidi Chronicles, False Admissions, Cheap Sentiment, Lend
Me a Tenor, Boy Meets Girl, Promises, Promises. Tours:
Durante (LA Dramalogue Award), Dreamgirls, Jesus Christ
Superstar. Television: Ghost of A Chance, Another World,
One Life To Live, numerous commercials.
Production
CAP21 [website]
Albert Ahronheim
(musical director/pianist)
arranged and/or conducted the Off-Broadway productions
of The Big Bang, Eating Raoul, Pets!, The Fertilization Opera,
Kiss Me Quick Before the Lava Reaches the Village, Love In Two
Countries, and Doctor! Doctor!; and regionally: Young
Rube at the Repertory Theatre of St. Louis, Eleanor: An
American Love Story at Ford's Theatre, Doctors & Diseases
at The Barter Theatre, The Molly Maguires at the Media
Center for the Arts, and Peter Pan at Actors Theatre of
Louisville. He has orchestrated and produced music for Martha
Stewart: Living and for several productions of Shakespeare
and Charles Ludlam at Actors Theatre of Louisville. He wrote the
music for Voices In the Dark at Seattle's A Contemporary
Theatre and at The George Street Playhouse in New Brunswick, NJ,
and, while performing as the Drum Major of the University of Michigan
Marching Band in the early-to-mid '70s, co-wrote "Let's Go
Blue!," a musical cheer used in the films The Big
Chill and Primary Colors and now played in arenas and stadiums
nationwide. His arrangements are published by Warner Brothers,
United Artists, Hal Leonard, Chappell Music, Samuel French and
Theodore Presser.
Beowulf Borrit (scenic designer)
Cromarty &
Co. (press agent) [website]
An entertainment public relations firm which currently
represents the Broadway show Swing, the North American
Tour of Fame - The Musical and the International Festival
of Puppet Theater. Last season, clients included the
award-winning Broadway production of The Sound of Music, An
Evening With Jerry Herman, More to Love, Jolson and Continental
Airlines presents "My Favorite Broadway --- the Leading Ladies"
at Carnegie Hall. Recent productions include the record-breaking
Broadway production of Victor/Victoria starring Julie Andrews,
Liza Minnelli and Raquel Welch; the Broadway/National Tour production
of Damn Yankees starring Jerry Lewis; the 20th Anniversary
production of Annie starring Nell Carter; the National
Tour of Steve Martin's hit play Picasso at the Lapin Agile;
and Joseph and the Technicolor Dreamcoat starring
the 2nd Generation of the Osmonds. Other recent clients include
the productions of Busker Alley starring Tommy Tune,
On the Waterfront starring Penelope Anne Miller, The
Only Thing Worse... starring Dan Butler and Greg Louganis
and the London production of Jerry Herman's Mack and Mabel.
Former music clients include Kenny Loggins on Broadway
and Linda Ronstadt on Broadway, in addition
to numerous artists who have appeared at such venues as Rainbow
and Stars, The Oak Room, Eighty Eights, The Ballroom and Don't
Tell Mama, as well as on the Polygram, Philips Classics and Mercury
record labels.
Jane Cox (lighting
designer)
Favourite recent projects include lighting design
for In the Blood at the the Public Theatre / N.Y.S.F; for
Enter the Night at the Signature Theatre; Hypatia
at Soho Rep; The Beard at LaMama Etc; for 13 new plays
at the Eugene O'Neill Playwrights Conference this summer; and
production design for House and Cowboys and Indians
for Richard Maxwell in New York and Europe. Dance lighting includes
Agora for Doug Varone and Dancers; Subverse for
David Dorfman and Grey Study and A Thin Frost for
Gus Solomons Jr. Upcoming exciting projects include A Lesson
Before Dying, Romulus Linney's new play at the Signature Theatre;
Eliot Ness in Cleveland at Cleveland Playhouse, directed
by David Esbjornson; and David Dorfman's To Lie Tenderly
at B.A.M.'s Harvey Theatre.
Mitch Ely (hair
& make-up designer)
Broadway: Present Laughter. Off-Broadway/
tour: Ashes to Ashes (Roundabout), The Waiting Room
(Vineyard), Forbidden Broadway Strikes Back, Dreamgirls
('98 revival). Film: Razor's Edge, Pollock (soon-to-be-released).
Vienna Hagen (production stage manager)
Randy Hansen (sound
designer)
For the past fifteen years, Randy Hansen has designing
sound for performing artists in prominent New York City and international
venues. He is married to the actress and teacher Alix Korey and
has a Bichon Frise named Zoe who rules. Oops! (The Big AppleCircus
Stage Show), Yuletide with the Indianapolis Symphony
Orchestra, Holiday Magic with the Alabama Symphony Orchestra,
Broadway on Broadway in Times Square, Macy*s Thanksgiving
Day Parade, Golden Books National Read-In at US Tennis Center,
and fashion shows in New York for Ralph Lauren, Calvin Klein,
Donna Karan, Vera Wang, Victoria's Secret, et. al. Design and
Consultation Clients include: Missing Footage (Helen Hayes
Performing Arts Center), Macy*s Fourth of July Fireworks with
UPN, Jesus Christ Superstar (Helen Hayes Performing Arts
Center), The Paul Winter Consort, Kurt Masur and the New York
Philharmonic, The Brooklyn Philharmonic (Lukas Foss), Jim Henson
Productions. Record albums produced and engineered for the following
artists: Nancy LaMott, Laurie Beechman, Jon Bocchino, David Friedman,
Alix Korey, Judy Collins, Michael Feinstein, Hudson Shad, Brian
Lane Green, Eric Michael Gillette, Lilius White, Cathedral Saint
John the Divine Choirs, The Paul Winter Consort. Many thanks to
all my associates whose commitment makes my life as a sound designer
very enjoyable.
Bradford Olson (technical director)
C. David Russell (costume designer)
Abbie M. Strassler
(general manager)
Her Broadway and national tours include Side
Show, Neil Simon's Proposals, 2 Pianos, 4 Hands, Sunset
Boulevard, Crazy for You, Zorba with Anthony Quinn, Cats,
Smile, The King and I with Yul Brynner, Dreamgirls, Sleuth,
and Chu Chem. She began her career as the treasurer of
the Warner Theatre in Washington, D.C. working with Sam L'Hommedieu.
Randal Myler
(director)
was nominated for the 1999 Tony Award
for co-writing It Ain't Nothing But the Blues, which
received 4 Tony nominations and 3 Drama Desk nominations including
Best Musical following its Broadway opening directed by Mr. Myler
at Lincoln Center's Vivian Beaumont Theatre and subsequently
at The Ambassador. His newest musical Love, Janis (which
he both wrote and directed) is based on the letters of Janis Joplin
and is now playing to standing ovations at the Royale George Theatre
in Chicago. Upcoming projects include Touch The Names: Letters
to the Vietnam Memorial (which he co-created with songwriter
Chic Street Man), set to receive its world premiere this spring
at the Cleveland Playhouse (also directed by Mr. Myler). He has
guest directed throughout the country, including The Mark Taper
Forum in Los Angeles, The Actor's Theatre of Louisville,
the Arena Stage in Washington D.C., the Old Globe Theatre in San
Diego, the Cincinnati Playhouse, the Virginia Stage Company, the
Missouri Repertory and many others. A 16-season veteran of the
Denver Center Theatre Company, Mr. Myler has also served as
an advisor to the Grand Ol' Opry's production of Lost Highway
(which he co-authored with Mark Harelik) and originally co-conceived
(also with Mr. Harelik) the play, The Immigrant.
Creative
Steven M. Alper
(music) [website]
Has been a musical director and/or conductor for: Annie
2 and Arthur (Goodspeed Opera House), Pageant
(The Blue Angel), Johnny Pye (George St. Playhouse and
Lambs Theater), Up Against It (The Public Theater), Gifts
of the Magi (Lambs Theater), Possessed - The Dracula Musical
(George St. Playhouse), Tales of Tinseltown (Musical Theater
Works and George St. Playhouse), Starting Here, Starting Now
(Main St. Theater), among many others. Vocal arranger for many
of the above. Arranger/orchestrator for many of the above as well
as: Godspell (1988 off-Broadway revival, Lambs Theater
-- also musical director/conductor), The "No-Frills"
Revue (Musical Theater Works and The Cherry Lane), The
Hits and the Ms.'s (Rainbow and Stars -- also musical director),
The Summer Winds (The Naked Angels -- in which I also played
the on-stage pianist), Guilt Without Sex (Marilyn Sokol's
one-woman show), among many others. He has done big band arrangements,
vocal group arrangements, choral arrangements, orchestral arrangements.
I have coached hundreds of performers: singers and musicians.
Taught piano, theory, history of music, vocal techniques, repertoire,
and audition techniques around the country. Appeared as computer
music consultant on many shows and several feature films. Copyist
for Broadway, off-Broadway, regional theater, and film. Co-wrote
manuals for music software, wrote about the joys of the Apple
Macintosh computer, and wrote Next!:
Auditioning for the Musical Theatre (published by Heinemann
Books). Wrote dozens of incidental scores for plays, short films
and TV: Action Painting (American Theater of Actors), Vatzlav
(National Theater of Woodbee), The Disposal (Jan Hus
Theater), Faces of God (Artpark), The Wake-up Call
(Award winning short film), among others. Has written (with Karen
deMauro and the students of participating schools) dozens of children's
musicals. Composed a number of musicals with Sarah
Knapp as bookwriter/lyricist, including The
Library, The Audition,
C'est la vie, Rappaccini's
Daughter, Chamberlain: A Civil
War Romance, and Me Again. He is a member of the
Dramatist Guild.
Mark Harelik
(book) [website]
Is a writer and actor, a native Texan who grew up
in the only Jewish family in the small town of Hamilton in central
Texas, where his two biographical plays The Immigrant and
The Legacy take place. In 1991, The Immigrant, a
telling of his Jewish grandparent's immigration to rural Texas
and their first 30 years of life there, was the most widely produced
play in the country. In the immediately preceding and following
years, it was among the most widely produced. It has been seen
at nearly every major theater in the country, among them: The
Mark Taper Forum in Los Angeles, The Westwood Playhouse in Los
Angeles, Theater Forty in Los Angeles, A.C.T. in San Francisco,
The Denver Center Theater Co., The Alley Theater in Houston, and
well over a hundred more theaters in cities and towns large and
small. The Legacy, an autobiographical sequel to
The Immigrant, has been produced in Seattle and
San Diego and most recently by the Old Globe Theater in San Diego.
Lost Highway, a biographical musical about the life
of the country singer Hank Williams has been produced by the Mark
Taper Forum, The Old Globe Theater , the Denver Center Theater
Co., and the Grand Ol' Opry in Nashville. Mr. Harelik's producing
partners have been The Mark Taper Forum in Los Angeles, Gordon
Davidson, Artistic Director; The Old Globe Theater in San Diego,
Jack O'Brien, Artistic Director; and The Denver Center Theater
Company, Donovan Marley, Artistic Director.
Sarah Knapp
(lyrics) [website]
Received a commissioning grant from Maine State Music
Theater and the National Alliance of Musical Theatre Producers
for the writing of Chamberlain, A Civil
War Romance, which premiered at Maine State in the summer
of 1996. Her musical, The Library,
was awarded a National Endowment for the Arts production grant
in 1993 and was produced at NYU-Tisch School of the Arts and at
Stamford Theatre Works (Connecticut). Both Chamberlain and
The Library were selected for development at the prestigious
New Harmony Project (Indiana). She is currently at work on a chamber
opera, Rappaccini's Daughter with
music by Steven M. Alper. The Audition,
a music theatre piece, was selected for performance in Manhattan
Class Company's Festival of Short Works (New York City). She recently
provided the lyrics for the highly successful Golden Books
Read-In 1999. She has served on the Opera-Musical Theatre
selection panel for the National Endowment for the Arts-New American
Works.
As a performer, Ms. Knapp has been seen on Broadway in The
Scarlet Pimpernel; off-Broadway: Amnesia in the original Nunsense,
Smoke on the Mountain, "No-Frills" Revue, Godspell,
Gifts of the Magi, Opal, The Wonderful "O". Broadway
workshop: Lily in Jekyll and Hyde. Regionally: Madame Vinard
in Svengali at Asolo and Alley Theatres. Mrs. Ford in Merry
Wives of Windsor, Texas at Cincinnati Playhouse and The Baker's
Wife in Into the Woods and Eliza Doolittle in My Fair
Lady at Maine State Music Theatre. Two Annie 2's: Kennedy
Center, and then as Grace at Goodspeed. European tour: Eleanor
in Richard Foreman's Africanis Instructus. Recordings:
Gifts of the Magi, Scarlet Pimpernel, and Harold Arlen/Vernon
Duke Revisited, No. 2. She is a member of the Dramatist Guild.