LINDA WOOLVERTON
(Book) Writing credits include the screenplay
for the Golden Globe-winning and Academy Award-nominated animated feature
film Beauty And The Beast and the book for the stage production
of Beauty and the Beast, which was nominated for a Tony and won
an Olivier Award. She has also shared screenwriting duties on Homeward Bound:
The Incredible Journey and The Lion King and shared writing
duties for the book of Elton John and Tim Rice’s Aida. Woolverton
has also written two young adult novels: Star-Wind and Running Before
The Wind, both published by Houghton-Mifflin.
Interview with the director here
ROBERT JESS
ROTH (Director) received a Tony Award nomination
for his Broadway debut, Beauty and the Beast, which is now in its
twelfth year on Broadway and the six-longest-running Broadway show in history.
He has also received numerous nominations and awards from
around the world for his direction, including the Jeff Award, the Ovation
Award, the Dora Award and the Dramalogue Award. He has directed productions
of Beauty the world over, including in London, where the
show won the Olivier Award for Best Musical. He recently co-wrote
the book, along with Douglas J. Cohen, and directed the world
premiere of The Opposite of Sex at the Magic Theatre in San Francisco.
The show will have its New York premiere next summer. Rob is also developing
Buzz!!, a Las Vegas spectacular based on the life of Busby
Berkeley with a book by Larry Gelbart and score by Alan Menken and
David Zippel, which is scheduled to debut in 2008. Rob directed Alice Cooper's
hugely successful Brutal Planet World Tour, as well as the
follow-up, Dragontown. Rob lives in New York City, where he collects
vintage rock and roll posters and dreams of owning a black lab puppy.
MATT WEST
(Musical Staging) received the L.A. Drama-Logue Award
for Beauty and the Beast. He also received London's Olivier, the Drama
Desk and Outer Critics' Circle award nominations for Beauty. He has
directed and choreographed productions that include The Wanderer at Tokyo's
Parko Theatre, The Little Mermaid, Peter Pan and Cinderella
for Disney Home Video, and "Mickey's Nutcracker" for the Disney
Channel. Matt created the role of Bobby in the film A Chorus Line
directed by Sir Richard Attenborough. Broadway and regional credits: A Chorus
Line; Hello, Dolly!; Peter Pan.
DEREK McLANE
(Scenic Design) Broadway credits include: the Tony-winning I Am My Own Wife,
Little Women, The Women, Present
Laughter, London Assurance, Holiday, Honour, Summer and Smoke,
The Three Sisters. Off Broadway: Hurlyburly, Aunt Dan and Lemon, The Creadeux
Canvas, What the Butler Saw, Servicemen, East is East,
subUrbia, The Waverly Gallery, Hello Again, Saturday Night, Captains Courageous,
Time and Again,Violet. Elsewhere in the United States: The entire Sondheim
Celebration at Kennedy Center in Washington, DC., productions at most major
resident theatres and operas. He received
a 1997 and 2004 OBIE Awards for Sustained Excellence in Scenic Design, Drama
Logue Award, Michael Merritt Award, five Drama Desk
Nominations and a Lucille Lortel Award.
SUSAN HILFERTY
(Costume Design) designed more than 200
productions. Her directorial collaborators include Athol Fugard (set, costumes,
co-director), James Lapine, Robert Falls, Joe Mantello, JoAnne Akalaitis,
Mark Lamos, Frank Galati, Des McAnuff, David Petrarca,
Richard Nelson, Chris Ashley, Marion McClinton, Laurie Anderson, Tony Kushner,
Carole Rothman, Garry Hynes and Emily Mann. Recent work: Wicked, Assassins,
Into the Woods (Hewes Award, Tony nomination), Lapine's Fran's Bed, Jitney,
Dirty Blonde, Alvin Ailey Love Stories,
Rodney’s Wife. Currently: Manon, L.A. Opera; August Wilson’s new
play Radio Golf. She designs opera, film, TV and dance and chairs the
Department of Design for Stage/Film at NYU Tisch. Her numerous
awards include 2004 Tony, Drama Desk and Outer Critics Circle
awards for Wicked.
KENNETH POSNER
(Lighting Design) Broadway: Wicked, Hairspray,
The Adventures Of Tom Sawyer (Tony, Drama Desk, and Outer
Critics Circle nominations), Dirty Rotten Scoundrels, Little Women, The
Frogs, The Goat, Imaginary Friends, Swing, The Man Who Had All The
Luck, Uncle Vanya, Side Man (Lortel Award), You’re A Good Man
Charlie Brown, The Lion In Winter, Little Me, A View From The Bridge (Drama
Desk Nomination), The Last Night Of Ballyhoo, Getting Away
With Murder, The Little Foxes, The Rose Tattoo, The Father,The
Rehearsal. Off-Broadway: Valhalla, The Wild Party (Lortel Award,
Drama Desk, and Outer Circle Critics nominations), The Play About The Baby,
Tick-Tick-Boom, The Waverly Gallery, That Championship
Season, Pride’s Crossing (Lortel Award), As Bee’s In Honey Drown,
Cowgirls, The Food Chain, SuBURBIA. OBIE for Sustained excellence in lighting
design.
JONATHAN DEANS (Sound Design) has been involved in more than 140 productions. His recent credits include Cirque du Soleil's Las Vegas productions Zumanity, "O" and Mystère and in Orlando La Nouba. Past Broadway credits include Fosse, Follies, Seussical, Parade, Candide, The Music Man, Ragtime, Disney's King David and Beauty and the Beast. For several years he taught theatre sound design to MFA students at UCLA.
DAVID McKEAN
(Visual Concept Design) has illustrated several award winning graphic novels
including Signal To Noise and Mr. Punch (written by Neil Gaiman), Cages
and Pictures That Tick (self-penned) and Arkham Asylum (by Grant Morrison),
which is still the most successful graphic
novel ever published. His best-selling children's books include The WolvesinThe
Walls and Coraline. He has illustrated and designed
hundreds of CD, book and comic covers, and created international ad campaigns
for Kodak, Nike, BMW Mini and the British Government
among others. David has worked as a conceptual designer/digital artist
for the Harry Potter films, and TV art films with Iain Sinclair. He has
directed a handful of short films and in 2004/5, his first feature
MirrorMask for Sony Pictures/The Jim Henson Company.
TOM WATSON
(Hair Design) is head of the wig department at the Metropolitan Opera. He
designs hair and wigs for many theatres including Santa Fe Opera, Opera
Theatre St. Louis, New York Theatre Workshop
and the Goodman in Chicago. He has also designed wigs for the Broadway productions
of Wicked, Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, The Violet Hour, Anna in the Tropics,
Dirty Blonde, Jane Eyre, Into the Woods and Amour.
GREGG MADAY (Producer)
Executive Vice President of Warner Bros. Theatre Ventures, has been at Warner Bros. Studios in Burbank, California since 1988. He has supervised over 500 hours of television series and movie productions. Before Warner, Gregg was head of Comedy and Drama Development at CBS Television where he began his broadcasting career. Prior to CBS, Gregg completed his MFA in Directing at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh. While there, he was Producer/Artistic Director of The Park Players, a repertory touring company. Gregg has directed over thirty regional and academic stage productions.