A New Brain
DEVLIN SHAND (Gordon Michael Schwinn, Events Coordinator) is in his first season with The Melodramatics. Other credits include Godspell (Jesus) and The Fantasticks (El Gallo) with the Admit One Players, Pippin (Player) and Company (Peter) with Ithaca College Triple Threat Theatre, and Me and My Girl (Bill) and Rumors (Glen Cooper) at Cornwall Central High School. He is currently a Sophomore Drama major at Ithaca College.
ERIC CARSIA (Roger) is in his first season with The Melodramatics. Other credits include Bat Boy: The Musical (Bat Boy), Scapino (Ottavio), Arsenic and Old Lace ( Jonathan), Kiss Me, Kate (Paul), A Midsummer Night’s Dream (Oberon) and Grease (Danny) at Notre Dame High School, and Much Ado About Nothing (Borachio) at McCarter’s Theatre’s Summer Shakespeare. He trained for six years with Princeton Ballet School and performed professionally with American Repertory Ballet’s three years. He is currently a Sophomore Drama major at Ithaca College.
JILL McCOY (Mimi Schwinn) is in her first season with The Melodramatics. Recent credits include Guys and Dolls (Sarah Brown) at NJPAC/ Algonquin Arts, Jekyll & Hyde (Lucy) at Cranford High School (Paper Mill Playhouse Rising Star Nomination for Best Actress), and The Fantasticks (Luisa) at Plays-in-the-Park. She is currently a Sophomore at Cornell University.
JASON MARTINEZ (Mr. Bungee) is in his first season with The Melodramatics. Other credits include Once Upon a Mattress (Dauntless), A Chorus Line (Richie), and You’re a Good Man, Charlie Brown (Linus) at Ithaca College Triple Threat Theatre, Far Away (Prisoner) at Ithaca No Bucks Theatre, Sweeney Todd (Tobias) at Sussex Playhouse, and Camelot (Mordred) and Damn Yankees (Applegate) at the Hopatcong Players Theatre. He is currently a Senior Drama major at Ithaca College.
MICHELLE STRUCKE (The Homeless Woman) is in her second season with the Melodramatics. Company Credits include Into the Woods (Witch). She is currently a Senior Politics major at Ithaca College.
OMAR NAJMI (The Doctor) is in his first season with The Melodramatics. Other credits include The Complete Works of William Shakespeare… Abridged at the Theatre Company of Saugus and Violet at Ithaca College. He is currently a Freshman at Ithaca College.
DANIEL KERR (Richard) is in his second season with The Melodramatics. Company credits include Into the Woods (Cinderella’s Father). Other credits include Romeo and Juliet (Lord Capulet) and I Love You, You’re Perfect, Now Change (Man #2). He is currently a Psychology and Classics major in the College of Arts and Science at Cornell University.
MELISSA SHAPIRO (Nancy D.) is in her second season with The Melodramatics. Company credits include Bat Boy: The Musical (Assistant Stage Manager). Other credits include Les Miserables (Cosette), Once on This Island (Andrea), Songs for a New World (Woman 1), Footloose (Vi Moore), and Once Upon a Mattress (Lady Rowena). This summer Melissa interned for Opera of the Hamptons. She is currently a Junior soprano vocal performance major studying in the studio of Carol McAmis at Ithaca College.
MICHAEL TEDESCO (The Minister, Associate Producer) is in his third season with the Melodramatics Theatre Company. Company credits include Bat Boy: The Musical (Pan, Ned). Other credits include Grease (Danny Zuko) and The Long Voyage Home (Nick). In his first year at college, Michael was a member of Anything Goes, a musical theatre troupe on campus. He is currently a Junior in the College of Arts and Sciences at Cornell University.
JACLYN ABRAMS (The Waitress) is in her first season with the Melodramatics. Recent credits include directing The Rocky Horror Picture Show, Lucy, and You’re a Good Man Charlie Brown. She is currently a Junior Communications major at Cornell University.
JUSTIN LEADER (Executive Producer, Graphic Designer) In the Spring of his Sophomore year, Mr. Leader founded Cornell’s largest independent theater group, the Melodramatics Theatre Company. In the Fall of 2004, he produced, directed, and appeared in Stephen Sondheim’s Assassins, the Melodramatic’s premiere production. He then produced and appeared in the Melodramatics productions of Into the Woods and Bat Boy: The Musical. In the Spring of 2006, he organized An Evening with Jeff Marx, in which he brought the Tony Award-winning composer of Avenue Q to Ithaca for a series of events. Upon graduation this Fall, Justin will be seeking an M.F.A. in Theatre Arts Management.
JUSTIN NISLY (Executive Artistic Director) is in his fifth season with the Melodramatics Theatre Company. Justin directed the Melodramatics’ production of Into the Woods and served as Musical Director for the Melodramatics’ production of Assassins. At Cornell, he studied directing with David Feldshuh, with whom he was Assistant Director for the Schwartz Center Mainstage production of All My Sons. He was also the music director for the Schwartz Center sponsored workshop of Egg, The Musical, and he spent the summer music directing and accompanying the Hangar Theatre production of Go, Dog. Go! He is a double major in English and Music at Cornell University, and is writing an honors thesis on the music of Bob Dylan.
JOSH BURLINGHAM (Executive Director) This is in his fifth season with the Melodramatics Theatre Company. Having graduated from the Pingree School in his home state of Massachusetts, Josh is now a Junior Theatre Arts Major in the College of Arts and Sciences at Cornell University. In the past six years alone, Josh has been involved in over thirty productions, including directing the Melodramatics’ Fall 2005 production of Bat Boy: The Musical.
CHARLOTTE EVANS (Executive Musical Director) is in her third season with The Melodramatics. Company credits include Bat Boy: The Musical (Mrs. Taylor, Musical Director). Other credits include Company (Marta) at Ithaca College Triple Threat Theatre, Wonderful Town (Ruth Sherwood), and Into the Woods (Cinderella). Classically trained in piano for 15 years, Charlotte graduated from the Peabody Preparatory in Baltimore, MD. She is currently a Sophomore music major at Ithaca College.
ROBERT BERG (Associate Producer) is in his fifth season with The Melodramatics. Company credits include Assassins (Lead Creative Consultant), Into the Woods (Assistant to the Executive Producer, Creative Consultant), Bat Boy (Associate Producer, Copy Editor), and An Evening with Jeff Marx (Associate Producer). Other credits include How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying (Davis), Romeo and Juliet (Lord Capulet), Barnum (Amos Scudder), Fiddler on the Roof (Yussel), and Alice in Wonderland (King of Hearts). Robert recently graduated from SUNY Purchase, majoring in Liberal Arts, with a focus on Film Studies.
MICHAEL GARRETT (Technical Director, Set Designer) is in his third season with the Melodramatics Theatre Company. Company credits include Bat Boy: The Musical (Technical Director). Other credits include Festival of One Acts (Director), Robber Bridegroom (Technical Director), and The Cradle Will Rock (Sound Crew). Michael has been trained in Technical Theater at The Hill School. He is currently a Sophomore in the Agriculture and Life Science College at Cornell University.
SARAH FOSTER (Choreographer) is in her first season with The Melodramatics. Other credits include performing in the Family Fare productions at the Kitchen Theatre, Wide-Eyed Dance Theatre (Choreographer), and the biannual Ithaca Choreographers Showcase at CSMA (Co- Director).
AMY COHEN (Makeup Designer) is in her second season with The Melodramatics. Company credits include Bat Boy: The Musical (Make-Up Artist). Other credits include Publicity Associate, Programs, and Displays for the Ithaca College Theatre Department. Amy is also the founder and artistic director of ICircus, Ithaca College’s Circus Arts club. She is currently a Theatre Arts Administration major at Ithaca College.
ERIC MARTIN (Lighting Designer) is in his first season with The Melodramatics. Other credits include The Skin of Our Teeth (Assistant Stage Manager), Metamorphoses (Automated Lighting Programmer), Othello (Ensemble), and The Cradle Will Rock (Light Board Operator), all at the Schwartz Center. He is currently a Sophomore at Cornell University.
WIN WHARTON (Assistant Lighting Designer) is in his first season with The Melodramatics. He is a Freshman at Cornell University.
STEPHEN DEMMINGS (Sound Designer) is in his second season with The Melodramatics. Company credits include Bat Boy: The Musical (Light and Sound Operator). Other credits include Same Time, Next Year (Stage Manager), Frankie and Johnny (Sound Operator), Little Shop of Horrors (Properties and Assistant Stage Manager), Stepping Out (Stage Manager), The Freedom of the City (Properties and Assistant Stage Manager), and The Real Thing (Light Design and Operation) in Kingston, Canada.
TOM REINSTEIN (Stage Manager) is in his fifth season with The Melodramatics. Company credits include Assassins (Sam Byck), Into the Woods (Stage Manager), and Bat Boy: The Musical (Stage Manager). He is currently a Junior History major at Cornell University.
BECKY WADDLE (Assistant Stage Manager) is in her third season with The Melodramatics. Company credits include Assassins (Artistic Director) and Into the Woods (Assistant Stage Manager). She is currently a Senior Animal Science major in the College of Agriculture and Life Science at Cornell University.
ROGERIO YOON (Business Manager) is in his first season with The Melodramatics. He is currently a Junior Economics major at Cornell University.
SUSAN CARDINALI (House Manager) is in her first season with The Melodramatics. Her previous credits include Propsmaster for the Bishop Kearney High School productions Little Shop of Horrors, No No Nanette, and Les Miserables. She was both Propsmaster and Assistant Director for Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat and Assistant Director for the Webster Shakespeare Festival’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream this past summer. She is currently attending Cornell University as a Freshman in the College of Engineering.
BRIAN MAYER (Director of Marketing for Cornell University, Property Master) is in his first season with The Melodramatics. Other credits include No Sex Please, We’re British (Brian Runnicles) and Romeo and Juliet (Lord Montague). Brian is also the Props and Sets Co-Manager for Risley Theater. He is currently a Senior Psychology major in the at Cornell University.
ERIN LEMIRE (Director of Marketing for Ithaca College) in her second season with the Melodramatics Theatre Company. Company credits include Bat Boy: The Musical (Ruthie). From North Hampton, N.H. her credits include Neil Simon’s Fools (Sophia), You Can’t Take it With You (Alice), Grease (Sandy), Into the Woods (Lucinda), Nissa (Nissa, Katrina), and Bye Bye Birdie (Margie). Ms. Lemire has been trained in theater at Prescott Park Arts Festival’s Academy. She is currently a Freshman in the Roy H. Park School of Communications at Ithaca College.
JENNIFER WILLIAMS (Dramaturg)
CHRIS WHITE (Webmaster) joined the Melodramatics Theatre Company in the fall of 2005 as Sheriff Reynolds in Bat Boy: The Musical. Other credits include Potiphar in Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat. He graduated from the Roy H. Park School of Communications at Ithaca College with a B.A. in Journalism in May 2006 and is currently a producer and reporter for ABC 7, WVII-TV in Bangor, Maine.
JEFFREY LIPTON (Master Carpenter) is in his first season with The Melodramatics. Other credits include One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest (Master Carpenter/Assistant Technical Director), and Blood Brothers (Master Carpenter) and The Crucible (Master Carpenter) at Hamden Mainstage. He is currently an AEP major in the College of Engineering at Cornell University.
JULIE REFKIN (Construction Crew, Run Crew) is in her first season with The Melodramatics. She is currently a Senior Human Development major at Cornell University.
LAURA JOSEPHS (Piano) is in her premiere season with The Melodramatics. Other credits include piano for Oklahoma!, West Side Story, and Sweeney Todd. She is currently a Freshman at Ithaca College majoring in Environmental Science.
MICHAEL JOY (Synthesizer) is in his first season with the Melodramatics. He has played both the piano and cello for 11 years, taking lessons through the Eastman School of Music and Nazareth College. He has performed in the Genesee Symphony Orchestra and the Essential Elegance String Quartet. Michael is currently a Sophomore Sound Recording major at Ithaca College, studying piano in the studio of Dr. Jennifer Hayghe.
DAVE MORGAN (Drums) is in his first season with The Melodramatics. Other credits include drums for Bye Bye Birdie and Little Shop of Horrors, and Three Ring Theatre. He is currently a Freshman Psychology major at Ithaca College.
ELLA NACE (Horn) is in first season with the Melodramatics. She has played in pits for musicals including The Sound of Music, West Side Story, and Titanic. Her on-stage credits include Li’l Abner, Once Upon A Mattress, and Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat. In May 2005 she won the Saratoga Springs Youth Orchestra Concerto Compitition and performed Richard Strauss’ Concerto No. 1 in E flat at the Troy Savings Bank Music Hall. Ella is a Sophomore music education/performance major at Ithaca College.
LAUREN BAKER (Cello) is in her first season with the Melodramatics. Recent credits include the pit orchestra for Oklahoma!, Anything Goes, and The Pajama Game. She has also played the cello in her Area All- State Orchestra, String Ensemble, Orchestra, and String Quartet. She is currently a Freshman biology major at Cornell University.
ELIAS C. LAUERMANN (Orchestra) is in his first season with Melodramatics. Other credits include orchestra for Oklahoma!, Brigadoon, and Little Shop of Horrors. He has also accompanied various vocal and instrumental groups at his high school in Exeter, N.H. Elias has previously studied piano with Barbara Flocco and has also studied with Arlene Kies at the University of New Hampshire. He is currently a Sophomore in the studio of Phiroze Mehta at the Ithaca College School of Music.