Dave

THOMAS MEEHAN

Book Writer

a three-time Tony Award winning book-writer for the Broadway musicals Annie, The Producers (co-written with Mel Brooks) and Hairspray (co-written with Mark O’Donnell), wrote over a dozen Broadway musicals including I Remember Mama; Cry Baby (co-written with Mark O’Donnell); Young Frankenstein (co-written with Mel Brooks); Elf (co-written with Bob Martin);  Rocky, The Musical; the up-coming Dave (co-written with Nell Benjamin); and off-Broadway Death Takes a Holiday. Mr. Meehan was a long-time contributor of humor pieces to The New Yorker, most notably Yma, Ava, Yma, Abba, Yma, Oona, Yma, Aga …and Others. He was the co-librettist, with J. D. McClatchy, of the Lorin Maazel opera, 1984, and an Emmy Award-winning writer of television comedy. His screenplays include One Magic Christmas, Annie and a collaboration with Mel Brooks on Spaceballs and To Be or Not To Be. He was a member of the Council of the Dramatists Guild. He was working on several new musicals when he passed away at the age of 89 on August 22, 2017.

NELL BENJAMIN

Book Writer/Lyricist

co-wrote the score to the musical Legally Blonde with her husband, Laurence O’Keefe. Nell and Larry have also written Huzzah! and Life of the Party. Nell has written book and/or lyrics for Mean Girls; Halftime; Because of Winn Dixie; Pirates! (or Gilbert and Sullivan plunder’d); Sarah, Plain and Tall; Cam Jansen; I Want My Hat Back; How I Became a Pirate; and The Mice. She has written a play, The Explorers Club, as well as the New York Philharmonic New Year’s Eve and Young Peoples’ concerts. TV credits include Unhappily Ever After; Whoa! Sunday with Mo Rocca; the new Electric Company; Best Time Ever with Neil Patrick Harris; Ant & Dec’s Saturday Night Takeaway; and Julie’s Greenroom. She is the grateful recipient of a Kleban Foundation Award, a Jonathan Larson Foundation Grant and is a member of ASCAP and the Dramatists Guild of America. 

TOM KITT

Composer/Arranger/Ochestrator/ Music Supervisor

received the 2010 Pulitzer Prize for Drama, as well as two Tony Awards for Best Score and Best Orchestrations for Next to Normal. Next to Normal also received the Outer Critics Circle Award for Outstanding New Score. He is also the composer of If/Then (Tony nomination, Outer Critics nomination, Broadway); High Fidelity (Broadway); Bring it On, The Musical (co-composer with Lin-Manuel Miranda, Broadway); Disney’s Freaky Friday; The Winter’s Tale, All’s Well That Ends Well and Cymbeline (The Public’s NYSF); From Up Here and The Madrid (MTC); Orphans (Broadway); The Retributionists (Playwrights Horizons); and As You Like It (Toho Co., Japan). Tom is the music supervisor, arranger, orchestrator and composer of additional music for SpongeBob Squarepants: The Broadway Musical. In addition, he is the music supervisor for the new NBC drama, Rise, and was responsible for the music supervision, arrangements and orchestrations for Grease Live! and Green Day’s American Idiot on Broadway. His work with Green Day also includes additional arrangements for their Grammy Award-winning album 21st Century Breakdown and their album trilogy, ¡Uno! ¡Dos! ¡Tré! Tom received an Emmy Award as co-writer (with Lin-Manuel Miranda) for the 2013 Tony Award opening number, Bigger. Other TV songwriting credits include a musical episode of Royal Pains and songs for Penny Dreadful, Sesame Street and Julie’s Greenroom. As a musical director, conductor, arranger and orchestrator, credits include the Pitch Perfect films, 2Cellos featuring Lang Lang (Live and Let Die), The Kennedy Center Honors, 13, Debbie Does Dallas, Everyday Rapture, Hair, Laugh Whore, Pippin (Deaf West) and These Paper Bullets.

TINA LANDAU

Director

is a writer and director whose work has been produced on Broadway and Off-Broadway, internationally and regionally, and most frequently at Steppenwolf Theatre where she is an ensemble member. Broadway credits include SpongeBob Squarepants: The Broadway Musical (also conceiver), Tracy Lett’s Superior Donuts and the revival of Bells Are Ringing. Off-Broadway credits include Old Hats, Big Love and Iphigenia 2.0 (Signature Theatre); A Civil War Christmas (NYTW); Wig Out! (Vineyard Theatre); and the musicals Floyd Collins (Playwrights Horizons) and Dream True (Vineyard Theatre), both of which she co-wrote. Steppenwolf productions include Head of Passes (also The Public, Mark Taper Forum, Berkeley Repertory), The Brother/Sister Plays, The Wheel, The Tempest, Time of Your Life (also ACT Seattle), The Cherry Orchard, The Diary of Anne Frank, Ballad of Little Jo, Berlin Circle, and her own play, Space (also The Public, Mark Taper Forum). Regionally, Tina’s productions include Sycamore Trees (Signature Theatre VA), Antony and Cleopatra (Hartford Stage) and A Midsummer Night’s Dream (McCarter, Paper Mill). Tina teaches regularly and co-authored The Viewpoints Book with Anne Bogart.

SAM PINKLETON

Choreographer

is a New York City-based director and choreographer. As a choreographer his work on Broadway includes Natasha, Pierre, and the Great Comet of 1812 (Tony Nomination); Significant Other; Amélie; Machinal; and Heisenberg. Other work includes Soft Power (Ahmanson / Curran), Runaways (Director – Public Theater / Shakespeare in the Park/City Center Encores), Trouble in Tahiti (Dutch National Opera), Mr. Burns: A Post-Electric Play (Playwrights Horizons), Burn All Night (ART / Oberon), Kansas City Choir Boy (with Courtney Love – ART / CTG / Art Basel), and new work at BAM, Soho Rep, MTC, Theatre For A New Audience, Berkeley Rep, Actors Theatre of Louisville, McCarter Theatre, and Kansas City Rep. He is a collaborating artist with Pig Iron Theatre Company, The Civilians, and The Dance Cartel.

MICHAEL STAROBIN

Orchestrator

is a well-known orchestrator and arranger working on Broadway and in Hollywood. He has been the orchestrator for some of Broadway's most innovative musicals such as Falsettos, Sunday in the Park with George, Assassins (2004 Tony Award for Best Orchestrations) and Next to Normal (2009 Tony Award for Best Orchestrations). He was the conductor and orchestrator for Disney's animated film The Hunchback of Notre Dame, orchestrated the songs for Tangled and contributed orchestrations to the film versions of Chicago, Nine and Beauty and the Beast (2017).

ROB BERMAN

Music Director

is music director of the acclaimed Encores! series at New York City Center where he has conducted over 30 productions, including Grand Hotel, The Most Happy Fella and Anyone Can Whistle. On Broadway, he has conducted many shows including Steve Martin and Edie Brickell’s Bright Star, Finian’s Rainbow and The Pajama Game. Rob won an Emmy Award for outstanding music direction for The Kennedy Center Honors, which he music directed for nine years, and a Helen Hayes Award for music direction of Sunday in the Park with George at the Kennedy Center Sondheim Celebration. He has conducted numerous cast recordings, including Brigadoon with Kelli O’Hara and Patrick Wilson. Rob music directed A Broadway Celebration: In Performance at the White House for President Obama on PBS.

DANE LAFFREY

Set Designer

Dane’s work on Broadway includes the set for the current revival of Once on This Island, set/costumes for Deaf West’s Spring Awakening and set for Fool For Love. Recent D.C. credits include Romeo and Juliet (Shakespeare Theatre), Collective Rage (Woolly Mammoth) and The Wolfe Twins (Studio Theatre). Off-Broadway work at Manhattan Theatre Club, Roundabout, Second Stage, B.A.M.’s Harvey Theater, Playwrights Horizons, Atlantic Theater Company, Vineyard Theatre, Transport Group, Classic Stage Company and others. Dane has worked regionally at theaters including Center Theatre Group/Mark Taper Forum, Huntington, Geffen Playhouse, Williamstown Theatre Festival, Old Globe, Denver Center, Dallas Theater Center and others. Dane received a 2017 Obie Award for Sustained Excellence in Set and Costume Design, and has been nominated for a Drama Desk Award and five Hewes Design Awards. www.danelaffrey.com

Toni-Leslie James

Costume Designer

Toni-Leslie’s Broadway credits include Come From Away; Amazing Grace; Lucky Guy; The Scottsboro Boys; Finian's Rainbow; Chita Rivera: The Dancer's Life; Ma Rainey's Black Bottom; King Hedley II; One Mo’ Time; The Wild Party; Marie Christine; Footloose; The Tempest; Twilight: Los Angeles, 1992; Angels in America: Millennium Approaches & Perestroika; Chronicle of a Death Foretold; and Jelly’s Last Jam. She received a Tony Award nomination, three Drama Desk Award nominations, six Lucille Lortel Award nominations, a Henry Hewes Design Award and four additional nominations, Connecticut Critics Circle Award, Irene Sharaff Young Master Award and the 2009 Obie Award for Sustained Excellence in Costume Design. Toni-Leslie is head of design at Virginia Commonwealth University. For Cosima & Jett with love.

JAPHY WEIDEMAN

Lighting Designer

Japhy’s Arena Stage credits include Dear Evan Hansen and The Mountaintop. He received Tony Award nominations for Best Lighting Design for Dear Evan Hansen, The Visit, The Nance, Of Mice and Men and Airline Highway. Other Broadway credits include Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, Lobby Hero, Bright Star, Sylvia, Old Times, The Heidi Chronicles, Macbeth (Drama Desk nomination), Cyrano de Bergerac and The Snow Geese. Off-Broadway credits include Lincoln Center, The Public, NYTW, Second Stage, Playwrights Horizons, MTC, MCC, LAByrinth and The Vineyard. West End credits include A Nice Fish (Harold Pinter Theatre) and Blackbird (Albery Theatre). Opera credits include Bluebeard’s Castle/Il Prigionero (La Scala, Nederlands Opera); The Revolution of Steve Jobs, Don Giovanni and Life is a Dream (Santa Fe Opera); Manchurian Candidate and Doubt (Minnesota Opera); and Don Giovanni (Opera Lyon).

WALTER TRARBACH

Sound Designer

Walter’s credits include SpongeBob Squarepants: The Broadway Musical (Tony Award nomination); The Farnsworth Invention; Cymbeline; I Am Anne Hutchinson/I Am Harvey Milk; Queen of the Mist; The Man in the Ceiling; Becky Shaw; Measure for Pleasure; and Love, Loss, and What I Wore. As a partner in SCK Sound Design, credits include Ain’t Too Proud, Radio City Christmas Spectacular and Doctor Zhivago. Regional credits include La Jolla, Huntington Theatre Company, 5th Avenue Theatre, Williamstown Theatre Festival, Shakespeare Theatre Company, Le Petite Theater, George Street Playhouse and Bay Street Theater. He is married to photographer Kimberly Witham. He would like to thank Steve Kennedy for his help and support on this project.

PETER NIGRINI

Projection Designer

Peter’s Broadway credits include SpongeBob Squarepants: The Broadway Musical; A Doll’s House: Part 2;  Amelie; Dear Evan Hansen; The Best Man; and Fela!. Additional credits include Wakey, Wakey (Signature); Real Enemies (BAM Next Wave); Grounded and Here Lies Love (The Public Theater); Far from Heaven (Playwrights Horizons); The Elaborate Entrance of Chad Deity (2nd Stage); Notes from Underground (Yale Repertory); The Grace Jones Hurricane Tour; Rent (New World Stages); Lucia di Lammermoor and Don Giovanni (SantaFe Opera); and Blind Date (Bill T. Jones). He also designed every aspect of the work of Nature Theater of Oklahoma including No Dice and Life & Times.

ROBERT-CHARLES VALLANCE

Wig Designer

Robert-Charles Vallance’s Broadway credits include Come from Away, Jitney, Amazing Grace, Lucky Guy, Little Shop of Horrors, Long Day's Journey, Play What I Wrote, Ma Rainey's Black Bottom, Our Town, Hollywood Arms, The Elephant Man, Dance of Death, Amy's View, The Blue Room, Master Class and Blood Brothers. Other credits include First Daughter Suite, Head of Passes, Comedy of Errors (The Public), Conflict, Woman Without Men (The Mint, 2016 Drama Desk nominee), Daphne’s Dive (Signature), Race for Love, Cinderella (Broadway Asia), A Civil War Christmas, Valhalla (NYTW), Marvelous Wonderettes, Dessa Rose (Lincoln Center), Lost in Yonkers (TACT), My One and Only, Amazing Grace (Goodspeed), Cotton Club Parade and Pipe Dream (Encores!). Resident designer at Irish Repertory Theatre and 42 Productions. Proprietor of The Broadway Wig Company www.broadwaywigs.com and Angels of New York www.angelsofny.com

KENNETH FERRONE

Associate Director

is thrilled to join this wonderful company at Arena Stage. His work on Broadway as Associate Director includes SpongeBob Squarepants: The Broadway Musical (Tina Landau, dir.), Love Letters and Wonderland. Directing credits include Sistas, now in its seventh year Off-Broadway, HiHitler (Cherry Lane Theatre), When Blood Ran Red (National Yiddish Theatre) and The Wanderer: The Life & Music of Dion DiMucci. Associate credits include Head of Passes (Taper) and Deathless (Goodspeed), both with Tina Landau, In Transit (Primary Stages), Waterfall (5th Avenue, Pasadena Playhouse) and Colin Quinn: The New York Story (Jerry Seinfeld, dir.) For TV, Kenneth co-produced Grease Live! on Fox (Emmy Award), as well as the NBC drama series’ Rise, Smash, Deception, and Ironside. He is a Northwestern University alum.

MAYTE NATALIO

Associate Choreographer

trained at LaGuardia H.S. and SUNY Purchase. She has performed with Parsons Dance, Darrell Grand Moultrie, Kyle Abraham, Camille A. Brown and Dancers, Chase Brock, Rich and Tone Talauega among others. She has toured with pop singer, Mylene Farmer as well as Kanye  West. Regional theater credits include the Ogunquit Playhouse, Dallas Theater Center and Pregones Theater. New York theater credits include NYCC Encores, original cast of the immersive production Queen of the Night and Third Rail Productions’, The  Grand Paradise. As a choreographer Mayte has been a part of Camille A. Brown’s choreography team on several productions most recently NBC’s Jesus Christ Superstar Live (assistant and performer) and Atlantic Theater Company’s This Aint No Disco. Mayte will be the 2018 PublicWorks choreographer for Dallas Theater Center’s A Winter’s Tale.

WILLIAM YANESH

Associate Music Director

returns to Arena Stage after serving as Music Director on Snow Child andAssociate Music Director on Carousel. His music and lyrics were performed Off-Broadway in Caps for Sale (New Victory Theater; National Tour). D.C.-area credits as music director include Me … Jane (Kennedy Center TYA), Floyd Collins (1st Stage), Ordinary Days (Round House), Jesus Christ Superstar and The Last Five Years (Signature Theatre, Helen Hayes nomination for music direction). His orchestrations include Man of La Mancha (Shakespeare Theatre Company) and Alexander and the Terrible…, and Miss Nelson is Missing! (Adventure Theatre MTC). William has served as associate conductor for Caroline, or Change (Round House) and A Little Night Music and West Side Story (Signature Theater). Education: Carnegie Mellon University.

TELSEY + COMPANY

Casting

Broadway / Tours: Pretty Woman, Straight White Men, My Fair Lady, Carousel, Mean Girls, Frozen, Escape to Margaritaville, SpongeBob SquarePants, Once on This Island, Anastasia, Hello, Dolly!, Come From Away, Waitress, Hamilton, Kinky Boots, Wicked, The Color Purple, On Your Feet!, The King and I, An American in Paris. Off-Broadway: Sweeney Todd, Atlantic Theater Company, Classic Stage Company, MCC Theater, Park Avenue Armory, St. Ann’s Warehouse, Second Stage Theater. Regional: Center Theatre Group, La Jolla Playhouse, McCarter Theatre, New York Stage and Film, Paper Mill Playhouse, Pasadena Playhouse, Wallis Annenberg Center, Williamstown Theatre Festival. Film: Mary Poppins Returns, The Greatest Showman, Miss Sloane, Into the Woods, Margin Call, Rachel Getting Married. TV: “Jesus Christ Superstar Live in Concert,” “This Is Us,” “House of Cards,” “Divorce,” “NCIS: New Orleans,” “Rise,” “One Day at a Time,” “Atypical,” commercials. www.telseyandco.com

MARK DOBROW

Production Stage Manager

is excited to make his debut at Arena Stage on Dave. He has been a member of Actors’ Equity Association since 1991 and has had many wonderful jobs on Broadway, Off-Broadway, national tours and regional theatres. In 2017, Mark had the great opportunity to PSM the Broadway production of Bandstand, directed and choreographed by three-time Tony Award winner Andy Blankenbuehler. His long-standing interest in magic brought him together with The Illusionists for two productions on Broadway and a third in Cancun. In the late fall of 2018, he will continue his ongoing relationship with Roundabout Theatre Company and Fiasco Theater in New York to PSM a new production of Stephen Sondheim’s Merrily We Roll Along.

MARNE ANDERSON

Assistant Stage Manager

Marne’s Arena Stage credits include Two Trains Running, The Great Society, Nina Simone: Four Women, A Raisin in the Sun, Roe, Moby Dick, All the Way, Erma Bombeck: At Wit’s End, King Hedley II, Five Guys Named Moe, The Mountaintop, Metamorphoses and Duke Ellington’s Sophisticated Ladies. Additional D.C. credits include A Midsummer Night’s Dream and Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead (Folger Theatre); Angels in America: Parts 1 and 2 (Round House); Wig Out!(Studio Theatre) and The Arsonists, You for Me for You and Mr. Burns, A Post-Electric Play (Woolly Mammoth). She is a graduate of the University of North Carolina School of the Arts and a proud member of Actors’ Equity Association.