May 23, 2018 | News | 0 comments
Find out all about our visit from ‘Pump Boys and Dinettes’ author, composer, and creator Jim Wann and more in Anna Chandlers gracious review for Connect Savannah of Savannah Rep’s latest production of ‘Pump Boys and Dinettes’.
Sandra Karas is an attorney, tax accountant and estate/retirement planner with background in the arts, theatre, music and education. She lectures regularly on tax, estate planning, debt management, budget and finances to myriad professional, labor and arts organizations. Her philosophy and approach to her practice is to empower each client with the tools needed to navigate the unpredictable seas of his/her own financial and professional life. With information comes understanding and the confidence to set attainable goals and manage the vagaries of life. Sandra treats each client with the utmost of respect and values a mutually beneficial relationship. She is proud of the many long-term associations she has cultivated and always welcomes a new member to the practice. An avid volunteer, she also serves on the governing boards of 2 performing arts unions: Actors’ Equity Association as its Secretary-Treasurer and SAG-AFTRA as a New York Local Board Member. Among other duties, she is Director of VITA, an all-volunteer, pro bono tax assistance program. Sandra earned her BFA from Ithaca College, her MA from Schiller International University in Berlin, Germany, her MFA from University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and her JD from Syracuse University College of Law. She is admitted in all New York State Courts, Federal District Court, United States Tax Court and the United States Supreme Court. Sandra is married to Andrew Karas and they have two children: Christina, an Environmental Scientist who lives in Maine and Alexander, a Mechanical Engineer who lives in New York.
Sandra Karas was previously seen on stage with Savannah Rep as Lady Bracknell in The Importance of Being Earnest, Christina Drayton in Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner? and most recently as Marie in Lombardi. New York credits include The Dutchess of York in Richard III and Helen in To Each Their Own. Regional credits include To Kill A Mockingbird and Inherit The Wind, and leading roles in Hello Dolly!, The Music Man, Guys and Dolls, Little Women, Nunsense and Showboat, to name a few. Recent television appearances include Friends From College with Keegan-Michael Key, Difficult People with Andrea Martin, and Blue Bloods with Will Estes. Sandra has also worked on European stages, in film and cabaret.
Jenn Bishop is originally from Los Angeles, CA. She is a proud Equity Actor who has been performing since the tender age of 9. She started in children’s theatre where she was mentored by Alex H. Urban who inspired her to pursue a career in the theatre. She soon auditioned and graduated from LA Co. HS for the Arts with a focus in voice, then went on to get her BA in musical theatre from the University of Arizona. And if that wasn’t enough, she moved to London, UK and earned a graduate degree in performance from Mountview Academy of Theatre Arts. Some of her favorite roles played are Ruby (Dames at Sea), Sally (Me and My Girl), Esther (Meet Me in St. Louis) and Narrator (Joseph and the Amazing Colored Dreamcoat). Regional credits include: Musical Theatre West (All Shook Up & Silk Stockings), Glendale Center Theater (My Fair Lady), Moonlight Stage Productions (Les Miserables & West Side Story), Starlight San Diego (Ragtime, Crazy for You, & Hot Mikado), plus many more. Recently she has been pursuing her other passion as a makeup and hair artist after studying at Cinema Makeup School.
Visit her website at www.jenniferbishop.net
From the age of 7 Erik has been interested in ever aspect of theatre, onstage and backstage. He has studied technical theater at University of the Arts in Philadelphia, and Pacific Conservatory for the Performing Arts, and apprenticed with ZFX Las Vegas. He then became Production Stage Manager and Technical Director for MET2 Theater Company at the age of 22, before moving to NYC a few years later. Work Credits: SAS Productions LLC (Los Angeles), Redondo Beach Civic Light Opera, Musical Theater West, Starlight Bowl, Kentucky Stages. Credits include: Sound Design/engineering – The Sound of Music, Big River, Peter Pan. Stage Manager: Peter Pan, Music Man, A Christmas Carol. Set design: Ripper (off-broadway NYC).
Ryan McCurdy is an award-winning Actor-Musician, Music Director, & Composer based in New York City.
His acting credits include appearances on Broadway stages with Broadway Cares, Off-Broadway, and with theater companies around the US. Recently, he received the 2018 Innovative Theatre Award for Outstanding Actor in a Lead Role for his work on Greencard Wedding. His long relationship with the musical ONCE includes serving as Music Director and Actor-Musician on the show at Actors’ Playhouse in Miami, FL, and Saint Michael’s Playhouse in Burlington, VT, with two more productions planned for the 2019/2020 season. This love for the show blossomed from his work as a Production Assistant on the original Broadway production.
Ryan’s Music Director and Supervisor credits include work Off-Broadway at Manhattan Theatre Club (Important Hats of the Twentieth Century), Second Stage (Friend Art), and Rattlestick Playwrights ({my lingerie play}). His regional credits include Baltimore Center Stage and Hudson Valley Shakespeare Festival. He has worked on multiple occasions with Savannah Rep (Pump Boys and Dinettes, Little Women), in Savannah, GA, where he is also a board member.
As a composer, he has worked in film, television, and theater, most recently scoring Gulfshore Playhouse’s An Iliad and Seanie Sugrue’s film Misty Button. Ryan is a founding member of rock band Bonfire Falls and performs solo as Ryan McCurdy + Arboretum. His previous work has been nominated twice for Innovative Theatre Awards for Outstanding Original Music. He is also a private music teacher in Manhattan and an adjunct Early Childhood faculty member and former curriculum developer for Brooklyn Conservatory of Music.
In addition, Ryan is a theatrical consultant and show control designer for museums and attractions across the United States – most recently the American Prohibition Museum in Savannah, GA. He founded and co-produces Front Porch NY, which produces industry readings, free of charge, for playwrights.
Ryan is a twelve-instrument musician and specializes in working with directors and producers to create Actor-Musician opportunities in both new and existing texts, from all creative and administrative angles, and across all types of media.
He is currently under commission by FunikiJam Music, Shakespeare on the Sound, Saint Michael’s Playhouse, and Actors’ Playhouse in Miami, and his acting work can be seen onstage in Pip’s Island in New York.
Nick Corley made his directorial debut with Woody Sez. In NYC, he directed the original productions of Tea In The Afternoon, Tall Grass, Flight (Callaway Award Nomination), Mother Russia (Carnegie Hall), About Face (NYMF best direction nomination), Fables In Slang, Tim and Scrooge (NYMF, Westchester Broadway, Queens Theatre in the Park), The Overcoat (Fringe Festival), and Tallboy Walkin’. Regional premieres include The Civil War (co-directed with Gregory Boyd at Houston’s Alley Theatre), A Young Lady of Fashion (Fulton Opera House also co-author) and Eliot Ness…in Cleveland (Denver Theatre Centre also a co-author). As former artistic director of Lyric Theatre of Oklahoma he directed Sweeney Todd (starring Jeff McCarthy and Emily Skinner) The Music Man, The Who’s Tommy, and Steel Magnolias. Other directing credits include The Bomb-itty of Errors (Adirondack Theater Festival and St. Louis Rep. – 4 Kevin Kline nominations), The Little Foxes (Fulton Opera House), and The Robber Bridegroom, Drood, Man of La Mancha, Violet, Pete ’n’ Keely, Bat Boy, A Little Night Music, and Lucky Stiffall for The Commons Group in Vermont. Workshop presentations include The Ghost Brothers of Darkland Country by Stephen King and John Mellencamp. He has directed over 100 workshops and readings, many of them for NYU’s Graduate Musical Theater Writing Program. His appearances as a performer include Broadway (You Can’t Take It With You, On The 20th Century, The Mystery of Edwin Drood, Mary Poppins, A Christmas Carol, She Loves Me), off-Broadway, regional theatre, film (Kissing Jessica Stein), recordings, and television.
Recent Comments