Sophisticated Ladies - Broadway Creative Team

John Guare is an American playwright and screenwriter. He is best known as the author of The House of Blue Leaves and Six Degrees of Separation. Mr. Russell is a professional actor, director, and educator. Mr. Russell is currently the Director for the Fairmount Performing Arts Conservatory's Professional Training Acting Program and has taught with the conservatory for the past three years. In the fall, Mr. Russell will begin teaching with Ashland University and Kent State University as an adjunct faculty member. Mr. Russell is a proud member of Actor's Equity Association. Selected Regional Theatre acting credits include: My Fair Lady (Henry Higgins), Sweeney Todd (The Beadle), Twelfth Night (Malvolio), Peter Pan (Mr. Darling/Captain Hook), Oliver! (Bill Sykes), and A Midsummer Night’s Dream (Nick ... read more Bernstein produced or managed over 40 Broadway shows and tours, including Pippin and Chicago, two of his favorites. His other Broadway credits include Jackie Mason's The World According to Me!, Come Back to the 5 & Dime Jimmy Dean Jimmy Dean, Sophisticated Ladies, On the Twentieth Century, The Act, The Norman Conquests, 1776, Golden Rainbow, The Apple Tree, Wait Until Dark, Wildcat, The Tenth Man, Silk Stockings, The Boy Friend, Can-Can, and three original Frank Loesser productions: How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying, Where's Charley?, and Guys and Dolls. From 1984 until 1991, Ira managed the Shubert Theater in ... read more Mercedes Ellington is a tap dancer, choreographer, director, and producer. She is the granddaughter of Duke Ellington. Additional credits include: WRITING: Musical version of H.G. Wells' THE TIME MACHINE - Concert version produced at St. Francis College, Downtown Brooklyun, June 2006 ROSA'S CENTURY - Drama, produced at St. Francis College, Downtown Brooklyn, September 2009 THE LANDLORD/TENANT WARS - Farce, produced at The HB Playwrights Foundation, 120 Bank Street, NYC THE LOOKOUT IN THE GOLDEN TOWER, Drama, produced at the Polaris Theatre, West 26th Street, NYC COMPUTERELLA - Musical Fantasy, produced at the Pennsylvania Playhouse, Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, June 2008 Broadway: Clybourne Park, Having Our Say; Mule Bone; and Once on this Island, (Tony nomination); K2 (Tony nomination, Outer Critics Circle Award, Maharam Award); Strange Interlude (Tony nomination); Accidental Death of an Anarchist; Quilters. NY and Off-Broadway: NYSF/Public, Roundabout, Playwright’s Horizons, others. Regional: Kennedy Center, Steppenwolf, Arena Stage, Guthrie, McCarter, Seattle Rep, Long Wharf, Goodman, Center Stage, Intiman, others. Dance: Eliot Feld’s Ballet Tech, NYCB, ABT, others. Associate Professor: NYU Tisch Valarie Pettiford is an American stage and television actress, dancer, and jazz singer. She received a Tony Award nomination for her role in the broadway production Fosse. She is also known for her role as "Big Dee Dee" Thorne on the UPN television sitcom Half & Half. Recent work includes A Doll's House, Part 2; David Cale's We're Only Alive for a Short Amount of Time (Goodman Theatre); Romeo et Juliette (Metropolitan Opera); Alexei Ratmansky's Romeo and Juliet (The Bolshoi Theatre); Shen Wei's Neither (BAM); and Richard Nelson's Uncle Vanya (Hunter College). Tipton teaches lighting at the Yale School of Drama. She has received the Dorothy and Lillian Gish Prize, the Jerome Robbins Prize, and the Mayor's Award for Arts and Culture in New York City. In 2008 she was made a United States Artists Gracie Fellow and a MacArthur Fellow. She is a two-time Tony Award ... read more Tony Walton is a director and designer, honored with 16 Tony Award nominations for his Broadway sets and/or costumes. Pippin, House of Blue Leaves and Guys and Dolls won him Tonys. Among his 20 films, Mary Poppins, The Boy Friend, The Wiz and Murder on the Orient Express earned him five Academy Award nominations. All That Jazz won him the Oscar and "Death of a Salesman" the Emmy. Previous designs for the world of Dickens include those for ten years of annual presentations of A Christmas Carol at Madison Square Garden. In 1991 he was elected to the Theatre Hall ... read more