Artist Bios

Danny Ashkenasi is a composer and actor who works in both the US and Germany. His musical "Witches" has been running in a series of German theatres for 10 years. Other musicals include "Gurkenkoenig", When Thou, My Music, Music Play'st", "Once Upon a Frog", the upcoming "Book of Job" and "Chaplin's Dream", which although written originally in German, will be premiered next year in Mexico City in Spanish. Go figure. Danny has written many concert chamber works and some short film scores and greatly enjoyed the Composer/Librettist Workshop this year at New Dramatists. Through Nov. 17, he can be seen playing a halfwit in "Salem" at the Metropolitan Playhouse of New York. Danny avows that that is a stretch.

Ian August is very pleased to be a part of this fantastic endeavor. Heís supposed to keep this short and sweet. Ian wants to thank his loving wife and 12-1/2 year old daughter. Thanks to all.

Neena Beber is a member Playwright of New Dramatists.

Christine Ciccone is thrilled to be participating in RIMT. National Tour: First Nat'l Victor/Victoria starring Toni Tennille (Norma Cassidy, Chambermaid). Regional: Victor/Victoria starring Michael Nouri (TUTS) and Tony Roberts (Fifth Avenue Theatre), (Norma u/s, Chambermaid), I Love You, You're Perfect, Now Change (Barter Theatre, Mill Mountain Theatre), Godspell (Mill Mountain Theatre). NYC Theatre: [sic] directed by Melissa Kievman (Soho Rep), park profile (Miranda Theatre), The Adventures of Peter Rabbit for TheatreworksUSA (Promenade Theatre). She will be performing in Star Messengers at La MaMa in December. Christine is a proud graduate of Northwestern University.

Deborah S. Craig is pleased to be performing with RIMT's first event. She has appeared in numerous workshops and staged readings all over New York's theater scene.

Jeremy Desmon holds a B.A. from Stanford University and an M.F.A. from NYU's Tisch School of the Arts. He was recently named a 2001 Jonathan Larson Memorial Musical Theatre Fellow by the Dramatists Guild of America. Recent Productions (as composer/lyricist) include The Girl in the Frame at London's Bridewell Theatre and It's Not YouÖ It's Me at the 2001 Seattle Fringe Festival (Winner, Audience Favorite Award). With bookwriter/co-lyricist David Guerrerio, Jeremy is completing work on I See London, I See France: The Underwear Musical and the musical comedy St. Lou. Jeremy is an active member of the BMI Workshop, works for Arielle Tepper Productions and lives above a Starbucks in Manhattan.

Katie Down (glassmusic@erols.com) is a composer and sound artist who has created and performed numerous sound scores for theatre, dance, and multi-media productions. Original music and sound for theatre includes: NYC: THE SECRET OF STEEP RAVINES with Ripe Time (Lincoln Center); DUSK (HERE); SHEVA BíRAHOT (University Settlement); THE THREE SISTERS (Equity Library Theatre), ìOutsiderî (Danspace at St. Markís) CNTRL. ALT. DEL. (Joyce SoHo) A GIRL JOAN (HERE, DTW, NY Theatre Workshop, Present Company Theatre, Miranda Theatre, NYC); REGIONAL: THE HOUSE NOT TOUCHED, THE TIBETAN BOOK OF THE DEAD, LETTERS FROM SARAJEVO (Boston Center for the Arts); LYSISTRATA (Mt. Holyoke College); THE MIRACLE WORKER (Chappaqua Playhouse); HEDDA GABLER (King's Head Theatre, London).

Judy Elkan (playwright). Playstation, Levels 1-4, Excellent Art Manufacturing,1998; A Phaidra Play, Soho Rep Summer Camp 5, 1999; Sundays Out of Country, Ontological-Hysteric Theater,1999; Standard, Dixon Place, 2001; BAKAR, 2001 Soho Rep Writer/Director Lab. Elkan co-produces LITTLE THEATER with playwright Kristen Kosmas at Tonic in Lower Manhattan. Standard will be presented at Phat Tuesday in December. Thank you Melissa, Ben, Renee, Deborah and David.

Richard B. Evans composes for musical theatre. He s currently creating, with lyricist Frank Evans (his very distant cousin), It's About Time, a new musical about coping with one's 50s; and with librettist Charles Leipart a cheeky new musical The Theory of the Leisure Class. Evans musical The Golden Touch, written with RIMT librettist Maryrose Wood, was produced in New York last February. Evans' other projects include an Irish opera titled The Rising and a new musical based on Stevenson's Treasure Island. Evans is a member of ASCAP, the Dramatists Guild and the BMI-Lehman Engel Musical Theatre Workshop.

Mary Feinsinger has been a composer/lyricist in BMI's Lehman Engel Musical Theatre Workshop since 2000. Up until then, she primarily composed liturgical music for Transcontinental Music Publications, where she collaborated exclusively with God, as her lyricist. She has just finished producing, composing, arranging and editing both the 2-CD recording and the score version of Kol Dodi, which will be the definitive collection of Jewish music for weddings. She has been music director/pianist/vocal coach for many productions--most recently, for the Folksbiene production of SONGS OF PARADISE, which opens on November 8. She co-founded the West End Klezmorim--in residence at the famed West End CafÈ--and has sung and played klezmer jazz at Carnegie Hall and The White House. She co-wrote, sang, and played keyboard in The American Jewish Theatres production HOT KLEZMER. She has a Masters degree in opera from The Juilliard School, where she was also on the piano accompanying staff.

Andrew Frank is a founder and the artistic director of Manhattan Theatre Source. He is very touched and excited to be involved with this first production of RIMT.

Mark Gaylord's one-act musical Chatham Songs was produced by MCC, who also developed the full-length work Birdwatchers which he wrote with playwright Anna Theresa Cascio. As a performer, Mark has appeared at The Public in Love's Labours Lost and in the Hal Prince revival of Show Boat, as well as in many Shakespeare festivals across the country. He is currently writing a rather epic musical inspired by a Victorian novel in collaboration with his wife, Kia Christina Heath. Mark lives on the Upper West Side with Kia and their three-legged cat, Louise.

Andrew Gerle has collaborated with Maryrose Wood, please see her bio for details. Andrew's other works for the theatre include book, music and lyrics for Brighter Things, based on the stories of John Cheever, Kepler, which was also a finalist for the Rodgers Award, cabaret songs and incidental scores for several plays. An accomplished classical pianist, Andrew has appeared as soloist with the Baltimore Symphony, the National Symphony, and on programs for National Public Radio and Television. His arrangements and orchestrations have been performed by the Boston Pops and orchestras around the country.

John Halmi originated the lead role of Donald in the West End premiere of Casper, the Musical. His other British credits include The Golden Land at London's Fortune Theatre and the UK tour of Spider-Man. In New York, John has performed in several productions of City Center's acclaimed Encores! Series, Ira Gershwin at 100 at Carnegie Hall and AmFAR's tribute to Angela Lansbury at the Majestic Theatre. He has also performed at many regional theatres including Goodspeed Opera House and Pittsburgh Civic Light Opera. John is a graduate of The University of Michigan's musical theatre program.

Sander Hicks is a member playwright of New Dramatists, and frontman for the political punk band White Collar Crime.

RenÈe Hoffman is so thrilled to be a part of this project. She has a Bachelor of Music from UC Santa Barbara, and Masters of Music from the New England Conservatory of Music. She is currently pursuing a full time career on the concert, opera, recital and any kind of stage they'll allow her on!

Anne Jacoby is thrilled to be a part of this wonderful production. Everyone is very nice, but what does this naÔve mid-westerner really know? Maybe theyíre really horrible people who have duped her into loving the theatre.

Lisa Jolley is thrilled to be performing songs that are already written. Though she has been seen in many musical theater productions, including Sweeney Todd at Papermill Playhouse, and many readings at the York Theater Co. and New Dramatists, she can generally be found performing her completely improvised one-woman show, Jolley On The Spot, here in NYC and recently, at the 2001 Chicago Improv Festival. Lisa can also be seen this month on CBS' As The World Turns playing yet another neurotic woman. She is a graduate of the University of Cincinnati, College-Conservatory of Music.

Jim Knable is a playwright and singer/songwriter from Sacramento, CA. He holds a graduate degree in Dramatic Writing from NYU, a B.A. in Theater Studies from Yale University and a high school diploma from C.K. McClatchy Public High School. His plays have been performed and read at a variety of important-sounding places. His play Spain will be produced this December by the Woolly Mammoth Theatre. His touring adult illiteracy play the Best Mistake continues for the third year to tour California schools, rehabilitation centers and libraries, touring nationally in the fall of 2002. To learn more about Jim the singer/songwriter go to www.jimknable.com. This play is dedicated to you.

Melissa Kievman is the Associate Artistic Director of New Dramatists. She is a graduate of NYU's Playwrights Horizons Theater School and of Northwestern's MFA Directing Program. She is a member of the Lincoln Center Theater's Directors Lab and is a Drama League Directing Fellow.

Ruth Magraff wrote the text for Fred Ho's opera ONCE UPON A TIME IN CHINESE AMERICA which will be at BAM's Next Wave Festival next week.

Alejandro Morales' plays sebast·n, sweaty palms, and the silent concerto. His work has been produced or workshopped at South Coast Repertoty, HERE, INTAR, and Mabou Mines. He is a member playwright of New Dramatists.

Dan O'Brien's plays have been developed at The OíNeill Playwrights Conference, Manhattan Theatre Club, Ensemble Studio Theatre, The New Harmony Project, Sundance Theatre Lab, Trinity Repertory Company, The Play Company, and produced at the Kennedy Center, California Repertory Company, HERE, Perishable Theatre and Brown University, among other theaters. His plays have won national awards, including the Osborn Award for an Emerging Playwright (American Theatre Critics Association) and most recently the Mark Twain Comedy Playwriting Award (Kennedy Center). He was a 1999-2000
playwright-in-residence at Manhattan Theatre Club. A graduate of Middlebury College and the Brown University MFA playwriting program, Dan lives in New York City.

David Rodwin is a composer with a price on his head. Don't sit too close to him. He's been performing his one man "hyper-opera" VIRTUAL MOTION around the country since it premiered in 1998. He's now writing another one-man evening called MONKS & SLUTS AND STATESMEN (OH, MY!). He's also composing a chamber opera called THE PRAYER CYCLE with librettist Donna DiNovelli. Finally he's the ringmaster behind the Disney/ASCAP backed extravaganza WARNING!: eXplicit Material.

Craig Rubano made his Broadway debut as the young lover Marius in Les MisÈrables, performing the role over 700 times. Craigs debut CD, Finishing the Act: Act One Finales from Broadway, won the 2001 MAC Award for Recording of the Year. Craig was an original cast member of Broadways The Scarlet Pimpernel. At the ONeill NMTC 2000 and again at the 2001 National Theater Alliance Convention, Craig played killer Winston Moseley in David Simpatico and Will Todds The Screams of Kitty Genovese. Craig is a graduate of Yale and Columbia universities. Visit him at www.craigrubano.com.

Sandy Rustin is happy to be a part of RIMT. A graduate of Northwestern University, her favorite NY Credits include "Neil Simon's Hotel Suite" with the Roundabout Theatre Company, "Bluebeard and Other Less Grisly Tales of Love" at SoHo Rep, "Park Profile" at the Miranda Theatre, and the staged reading of "Mask," directed by Gabrielle Barre. She has also flown high as Wendy in "Peter Pan" at Syracuse Stage and toured the country as Sandy in the National tour of "Grease." Her TV appearances include "All My Children" and "Guiding Light." Much love to her BRAND NEW husband, Evan.

Doug Silver is a piano player from Long Island. His most recent career was as a college professor, teaching English at the University of Arizona and Illinois State University. He recently wrote and recorded his first original CD, ìWelcome to Jupiter Village,î and spent the past year rocking the Southwest as the piano man in Anna Warrís blues / soul / funk combo. He is actively involved in ManhattanTheatreSource, especially on the development side, and is always looking for helping hands. Thanks to Patrick for the invitation to this ride.

Greg Steinbruner is an actor and artistic director of Fifthstreet Theater. The company recently finished a run of Greg's play TOO RUSTIC at the Chelsea Playhouse.

Benjamin Toth Ben has spent this past year accompanying Mandy Patinkin on a number of concert engagements throughout the United States. Before working with Mandy, he was the associate Musical Director on the Off-Broadway Kurt Weill revue "From Berlin to Broadway." Ben studied composition and piano at the Eastman School of Music and modern art and architecture at Brown University. He is currently collaborating with Mark Campbell on an opera based on Poe's "The Tell-tale Heart" and a musical with Emily O'Dell and Isaac Hurwitz about Robert Moses.

Noah Weisberg- Noah just finished the workshop of Dirty Dancing. He graduated from NYU Tisch, CAP21. He had the honor of doing Hair at the Actors Theatre of Louisville with Patrick Mellen. He likes theatre, and wants to work a lot. He's a nice Jewish boy who likes country music.

James Weiss is pleased to be making his Village debut with RIMT. Past work includes music direction for Sony's As Good as it Gets, DreamWorks' Prince of Egypt, Bucks County Playhouse, Surflight Theatre, McCarter Theatre, American Opera Projects, and the Aspen Music Festival. In his other life he heads research for teen media company Bolt, Inc., which gives him insight into compelling cultural phenomena like Britney Spears and the Backstreet Boys.

Maryrose Wood - Mary recently returned from the Eugene O'Neill Music Theatre Conference where she was writer-in-residence with composer Andrew Gerle, working on their new show, The Tutor. Their first show together, The Gift, was a finalist for the Richard Rodgers Award and will be presented in a couple weeks at The Catholic University of America in Washington, D.C.