was born in Augsburg, Germany on February 10, 1898, and died in Berlin on August 14, 1956. He grew to maturity as a playwright in the frenetic years of the twenties and early thirties, with the plays Man Equals Man, The Threepenny Opera, Mahagonny and The Mother. He left Germany when Hitler came to power in 1933, eventually reaching the United States in 1941, where he remained until 1947. It was during this period of exile that the masterpieces Life of Galileo, Mother Courage, The Caucasian Chalk Circle and Puntila were written. Shortly after his return to Europe in 1947 with his wife, Helene Weigel, he founded the Berliner Ensemble, becoming its executive director, and from then until his death Brecht was mainly occupied in producing and directing his own plays there.
was born on March 2, 1900 in Germany. By 1925, a series of performances in Berlin and at international music festivals established Weill as a leading composer, and by 1926 he gained success with his first opera, Der Protagonist. Weill’s use of dance idioms associated with American jazz and his pursuit of collaborations with the finest contemporary playwrights had the express intention of reforming the musical stage. Weill’s collaboration with Bertolt Brecht included Die Dreigroschenoper (The Threepenny Opera) and Happy End. Their collaboration on Aufsteig Und Fall Der Stadt Mahagonny and Der Silbersee outraged the Nazis, riots broke out at performances and productions were discouraged; in 1933, Weill fled Germany to Paris, completing his Second Symphony and with Brecht wrote Die Siebentod & Uumminden, a “ballet with singing” for George Balanchine’s company “Les Ballets 1933.” In 1935, Weill went to America to oversee Max Reinhardt’s production of the biblical epic Der Weg der Verheissung, for which he had written an extensive oratorio-like score. Encouraged by his reception, he turned to Broadway and soon established himself as a new and original voice in the mainstream of American musical theater (Knickerbocker Holiday, Lady in the Dark, One Touch of Venus, Street Scene, Love Life and Lost in the Stars). His collaborators included Maxwell Anderson, Ira Gershwin, Moss Hart, Ogden Nash, S.J. Perelman, Langston Hughes, Elmer Rice and Alan Jay Lerner. Weill also wrote scores in Hollywood, an American school-opera with Arnold Sundgaard, Down In The Valley and numerous other works.
was born in Philadelphia and appeared as a pianist with the Philadelphia Orchestra at the age of 15. He later studied with the influential French teacher Nadia Boulanger and the Austrian-born composer Arnold Schoenberg. His works include the opera Regina (1949) based on Lillian Hellman’s The Little Foxes, The Cradle Will Rock (1937) and No For An Answer (1941) and an English adaptation of the German poet Bertolt Brecht’s book and lyrics for The Threepenny Opera, by the German-American composer Kurt Weill.
is the winner of many Los Angeles critics awards, and will be represented this fall with Peter Pan starring Cathy Rigby. A native New Yorker, Glenn transplanted himself to Los Angeles where Wrestlers, starring George Clooney and Mark Harmon, his first L.A. production, won critical acclaim. He went on to stage the world premiere of Lainie Robertson’s Stringbean at Theater Three in Dallas. For producer Barry Brown, Mr. Casale mounted two important revivals: Tyne Daly and Charles Durning in The Queen of the Stardust Ballroom; and Patrick Cassidy and Carol Burnett in Company. He had the pleasure to helm From the Top!; a musical written for and starring Ms. Burnett. For the past eight years, while serving as a resident director at The Sacramento Light Opera Association and working for the La Mirada Theater in Los Angeles, he has staged some fifty productions including the West Coast premieres of Lend Me a Tenor, The Foreigner and Sondheim’s Anyone Can Whistle. Mr. Casale directed The Wayans’ Brothers Show for Warner Brothers TV and The Faculty starring Meredith Baxter for ABC-TV. Mr. Casale has a graduate degree from the University of Nevada, Las Vegas. He dedicates this show to his professor, Frederick L. Olsen.
was orchestrator/conductor on Broadway for Noel Coward’s Sail Away and Richard Rodgers’ No Strings; he created orchestrations for Jule Styne’s Halellujah, Baby and more recently Tommy Tune’s Grand Hotel; on records Matz has arranged, conducted and produced albums for Rosemary Clooney, Tony Bennett, Dionne Warwick, Melissa Manchester, Kiri te Kanawa, Nancy LaMott, Barbra Streisand and most recently he arranged Barbara Cook’s recording of songs with lyrics by Oscar Hammerstein. On TV, Peter was arranger/conductor for Carol Burnett’s long-running series, and composed scores for more than 50 TV movies, as well as many feature films (Sidney Lumet’s Bye Bye Braverman is still his favorite). Peter and his wife, actress/singer/psychotherapist, Marilynn Lovell are active fundraisers for APLA, Shanti Foundation, Aid for AIDS and other local AIDS organizations, as well as the GMHC in New York.
has choreographed Is It Me Or Is It Hot In Here (Century City Playhouse), Cabaret (Dramalogue Award) (East/West Players) and the L.A. Premiere of Assassins (Ovation Award Nominee). Other L.A. productions include A Lovely Way (Pasadena Playhouse), Pirates of Penzance (La Mirada), Funny Business (Mark Taper Forum), Triplets in Uniform (Skylight Theatre), Lullabye of Broadway (Tiffany Theatre) and Dancing at Lughnasa (McCoy/Rigby). Last year she choreographed The Fantasticks for the Singapore Repertory Theatre. Her New York credits include Hang On To The Good Times (Manhattan Theatre Club) and One Man Band (South Street Playhouse). On London’s West End, she choreographed Snoopy (Duchess Theatre) and Blockheads (Mermaid Theater, an original musical she staged and co-wrote). Kay’s work has been seen in L.A.’s annual S.T.A.G.E. and PAWS events and she has directed the annual Alzheimer Gala, Sony Pictures B’Way and Howard Hersh Felder’s Sing at the Freud Playhouse. Her TV credits include Brooklyn Bridge and a Kid/Vid series Guidepost Junction. Kay will be directing Lauri Johnson’s one woman show She’s a Handfull! this fall and a new musical by Pete Wilkey, Country, slated for October. Most recently, she co-directed her first feature film, The Human Quality.
Credits include the past two seasons of The Fabulous Palm Springs Follies, both L.A. and N.Y’s Forbidden Hollywood, along with Off Broadway’s current smash hit, Forbidden Broadway Strikes Back. Elsewhere includes national tours of Bye Bye Birdie, Zorba, The Goodbye Girl, Camelot and La Cage Aux Folles, along with the 1996 and 1997 seasons at Sacramento Music Circus. Other recently critically-acclaimed productions include International City Theatre’s Talley’s Folly and All My Sons, plus The Root and Into the Woods, both at the award-winning Interact Theatre, where, as an Associate Artist he has been the proud recipient of two L.A. Drama Critics Circle awards, for both Juno and the Paycock and Counsellor-At-Law. His work has been seen throughout Los Angeles including the LBCLO, Colony, Victory, Celebration, Odyssey, Laguna Playhouse and the West Coast Ensemble. His design work has also garnered nine Dramalogue Awards, two Ovation nominations, along with various other nominations. He has contributed his time and efforts to numerous benefits supporting numerous AIDS foundations and the Music Center. Other projects include assisting on the new Tokyo-Disney Sea, various architectural interiors, plus design work on a variety of Television specials and industrials.
is pleased to be a part this REPRISE! season. He designed last season’s Wonderful Town starring Lucie Arnaz and Stephanie Zimbalist. Current stage credits include the Sacramento Light Opera productions of Cabaret and Brigadoon, the Chicago, Baltimore and current New York productions of Clue—the Musical starring Denny Dillon, The Powerhouse Theatre’s Ondine and the Broadwy Encores! production of Fiorello! starring Adam Arkin, Faith Prince and Jerry Zaks. Film credits include Nice Guys Sleep Alone starring Morgan Fairchild, Jason Wulfshon’s Luck Is No Lady, The War’s Over starring Timothy Bottoms and the PBS miniseries: They Came For Good. Prior to his career in theatre and film, Mr. Zyla’s name was on an international fashion label, carried at leading stores and featured in all national press. In addition to designing for numerous celebrities, Mr. Zyla was selected to design the wardrobe of First Lady Hillary Rodham Clinton for her trip to the Far East.
has enjoyed creating lighting for many varied productions and architectural spaces. Tom has designed Finian’s Rainbow, The Pajama Game for REPRISE! last season. He has created lighting designs for over 70 productions at South Coast Repertory Theatre and at the Mark Taper Forum, including Children of a Lesser God, Julius Caesar and A Christmas Carol. Other noted productions include The Fabulous Palm Springs Follies and Forbidden Hollywood. At Universal Studios his designs include Backdraft, Earthquake and Back To the Future. His lighting can also be seen at Silverton Hotel & Casino Las Vegas, MGM Grand Hotel, Sam’s Town Casino Resort and theme parks in Japan, Korea, Australia and Germany. His architectural lighting can be seen at Santa Monica Place, South Coast Plaza Mall, Orange County Performing Arts Center, The Los Angeles Music Center and many shopping malls, restaurants, churches and residences. Other professional associations include the Buenos Aires Metropolitan Theatre, International City Theatre, Berkeley Repertory Theatre and Sacramento Music Theatre. Mr. Ruzika is a member of the Design Faculty at UC Irvine.
currently the Mark Taper Forum’s resident sound designer, has been heard on and Off Broadway, most recently with Terence McNally’s Tony award winning Master Class on Broadway and Bermuda Avenue Triangle off Broadway with Renee Taylor and Joe Bologna. He designed the sound for all three REPRISE! productions last season and intends to do the same this season. Other recent designs include The Cider House Rules and Gross Indecency, at the Taper; The Heiress and Candide at The Ahmanson Theatre; The Old Settler and Moon Over Buffalo at The Pasadena Playhouse; and Light Up The Sky at the La Jolla Playhouse. Jon has received 7 LADCC Awards, over 50 Dramalogue and L.A. Weekly Awards, Career Achievement Awards from the Los Angeles Theatre Alliance, the L.A. Weekly and the Los Angeles Theatre Center, and was recently presented with the Distinguished Artist Award from the Los Angeles Music Center Club 100. He currently heads the sound design program at California Institute of the Arts and has been a member of the teaching faculty at both USC and the UCLA Schools of Theater, and for Disney Imagineering, he created original sound effects and design for two attractions at Walt Disney World in Florida.
has designed over 70 theatrical shows, including the entire introductory season of REPRISE! Other design work includes Forbidden Hollywood (Coronet Theatre), Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat and Picnic (Denver’s Arvada Center for the Arts), Forever Plaid, Blues in the Night and Sweet & Hot (Coconut Grove Playhouse, Miami), The King and I, South Pacific, Company and Into the Woods (Long Beach Civic Light Opera). He just finished two national touring productions, Man of La Mancha with Robert Goulet and Ain’t Misbehavin starring the Pointer Sisters, and the gala production Saturday Night at the Summit attended by Bill Clinton and the leaders of the G-7 countries, which featured performances by Michael Bolton, Amy Grant, Crystal Gayle, Chuck Berry, Kool and the Gang, and Ronnie Spector. His theatrical work has earned him five LA Dramalogue awards for Outstanding Achievement in Sound Design, and an Ovation Award nomination for Best Sound Design in a Large Musical.