LARRY CARPENTER (Director) returns to PTC, where he’s directed Ragtime, Kiss Me Kate, Edwin Drood and Pirates of Penzance. He’s a Tony Award nominee for Starmites! and a Drama Critics’ Circle Award winner for the Roundabout Theatre Company’s Privates on Parade. He directed the Encores! Lady in the Dark and works extensively in LORT. Recently in Los Angeles, he’s directed Preston Sturges’ A Cup of Coffee at Pasadena Playhouse; Cabaret for McCoy-Rigby; Big Fish and Evita for Musical Theatre West; and Macbeth at A Noise Within. For television, Mr. Carpenter directs ABC’s “General Hospital.” He’s also directed Sony/Nickelodeon’s “Hollywood Heights,” “One Life to Live” and “As the World Turns,” receiving multiple Daytime Emmy and DGA Awards. He served 14 years on the Stage Directors and Choreographers Executive Board and is a member of the DGA PAC initiative.

G.W. MERCIER (Scenic & Costume Design) is delighted to return to PTC, where he designed the sets and costumes for In the Heights. In NY, he designed the sets and costumes for Juan Darien: A Carnival Mass, which received a Tony nomination and two Drama Desk nominations. At Vineyard Theatre, Dream True and Bed and Sofa procured him two additional Drama Desk nominations. He received the AUDELCO award for outstanding set design for Tyrell McCraney’s Head of Passes at The Public Theater. Regionally, he was honored with the Bay Area Theatre Critics Award for Outstanding Scenic Design for The Time of Your Life at ACT Theatre and Head of Passes at Berkeley Rep. He proudly received the Daryl Roth Creative Spirit Award for Outstanding Talent and Vision in Design.

KIRK BOOKMAN (Lighting Designer) designed PTC’s recent productions of Newsies, Oliver! and The Glass Menagerie. Broadway (National Actors Theatre): The Sunshine Boys (Jack Klugman and Tony Randall), The Gin Game (Julie Harris and Charles Durning), Gentlemen Prefer Blondes. Off-Broadway credits include Charles Busch’s The Tribute Artist, The Divine Sister, What Then at the Ohio Theatre, The Cook at Intar Theatre 53, Recent Tragic Events at Playwrights Horizons (starring Heather Graham), Right You Are (Tony Randall’s last stage appearance), Mondo Drama, Havana is Waiting, Force Continuum at Atlantic Theater Company, My One Good Nerve (starring Ruby Dee), The Green Heart at Manhattan Theatre Club, The Shawl, Rude Entertainment, The Book of Liz (David and Amy Sedaris), Les MIZrahi (Isaac Mizrahi), Hope is the Thing with Feathers, As Thousands Cheer and June Moon. For the Irish Repertory Company: Playboy of the Western World, Eclipsed, The Importance of Being Earnest and Major Barbara. Ballet: English National Ballet, Santiago Ballet, Cincinnati Ballet, Kansas City Ballet and Hungarian National Ballet. 

KATE WECKER (Sound Designer) This is Wecker’s debut season as the resident sound designer for PTC. She is excited to be returning to the Utah theatre community after several years as the audio supervisor on the national tour of Menopause: the Musical. Wecker has previously designed for Fox Valley Repertory, Shenandoah Summer Music Theatre and the Neil Simon Festival.

AMANDA FRENCH (Hair and Makeup Design) has been a makeup and hair designer for over 25 years. She has worked for Montana Shakespeare in the Parks, the Utah Shakespeare Festival, Utah Opera, Egyptian Theatre Company and the University of Texas at Austin. She is a contributing writer in the tenth edition of Stage Makeup by Corson, Glavan and Norcross, and her work can also be seen in The Costume Technician’s Handbook by Ingham and Covey, and Wig Making and Styling: A Complete Guide for Theatre and Film by Ruskai and Lowery. She attended the College-Conservatory of Music at the University of Cincinnati where she studied with Hair and Makeup Designer Lenna Kaleva. She is a member of the United States Institute for Theatre Technology (USITT) and a current University of Utah adjunct professor of wigs and makeup.

CHRISTOPHER DUVAL (Resident Fight Choreographer) returns to Pioneer Theatre Company as resident fight choreographer. He has also worked throughout the country acting, directing or fight directing at such theatres as Colorado Shakespeare Festival, Syracuse Stage, Dallas Theatre Center, Utah Shakespeare Festival, Shakespeare Orange County, Idaho Repertory Theatre, South Coast Repertory, Salt Lake Acting Company, Sacramento Theatre Company, Montana Shakespeare in the Parks and many others. He worked at the Oregon Shakespeare Festival for 18 years as a guest teacher, fight director and actor. He holds an MFA in acting from the University of California Irvine, is a certified teacher of stage combat with the Society of American Fight Directors and is a master teacher with Dueling Arts International, holds a 2nd degree black belt in Aikido and is recognized as an associate teacher of Fitzmaurice Voicework. DuVal is the Head of the Actor Training Program at the University of Utah.

DANIEL PELZIG (Choregrapher) For PTC, he choreographed The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee and Ragtime. Recent credits include directing Mary Poppins and My Fair Lady at Musical Theatre West, The Mikado at Kentucky Opera, Die Fledermaus at Houston Grand Opera; choreographing West Side Story at University of Southern California and Associate Director for The Barber of Seville at Seattle Opera. Broadway: 33 Variations, starring Jane Fonda and A Year with Frog and Toad. Off-Broadway: Roundabout Theatre Company, Manhattan Theatre Club. Regional theatre: The Guthrie, Ahmanson Theatre, Hollywood Bowl, Huntington Theatre Company, Goodman Theatre, McCarter Theatre, Shakespeare Theatre Company, Alliance Theatre, Arena Stage, The Shaw Festival, Oregon Shakespeare Festival. Opera: Metropolitan Opera, La Scala, Lyric Opera, Santa Fe Opera. Served as resident choreographer, Boston Ballet. Earned his degree in cellular biology from Columbia University. Gratitude to Larry Carpenter and Karen Azenberg.

SCOTT KILLIAN (Composer) Music/sound design for theatre: Sarah, Sarah; Five by Tenn; A Picasso (Lortel Award nom.); and The Other Side (all at Manhattan Theatre Club); The Duchess of Malfi, Edward II, Women Beware Women (Red Bull Theater); Side Effects (MCC Theater); and Steve and Idi and Miss Julie at Rattlestick Playwrights Theater. Regional credits include: Resident composer/sound designer—Berkshire Theatre Festival; George Street Playhouse; Cincinnati Playhouse in the Park, Cleveland Play House, Westport Country Playhouse; American Conservatory Theater; Seattle Repertory Theatre; Shakespeare Theatre, DC; Shakespeare & Company, Theatre Calgary and Vancouver Playhouse. Music for dance: Mr. Killian has composed works for many companies, including Alvin Ailey, José Limón, Nikolais-Louis, Hubbard Street Dance and RDT. His long-term choreographic collaborators include Zvi Gotheiner, Joanie Smith (Shapiro and Smith Dance) and Cherylyn Lavagnino.

SARAH SHIPPOBOTHAM (Text Coach) is a graduate of the Central School of Speech and Drama in London. She teaches in the Actor Training Program at the University of Utah. Her work as dialect coach for PTC includes The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time, The Last Ship and Oliver!. She was seen on stage in The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time and King Charles III. Shippobotham also works as resident voice and dialect coach for the Shaw Festival in Canada.

BECKY LYNN DAWSON* (Production Stage Manager) is thrilled to be at Pioneer Theatre Company. Dawson holds a MFA from Mason Gross School of the Arts and a BFA from Utah State University. Selected stage management credits include From Here to Eternity, Saturday Night Fever, Mary Poppins, On the Town, Legally Blonde, Cats (Merry-Go-Round Playhouse); The Spitfire Grill, Chicago, M. Butterfly, I Hate Hamlet (Northern Stage); Moon Over Buffalo, The Hound of the Baskervilles, The Christians (Gulfshore Playhouse); Divinamente New York 2009 & 2010 (EH Arts International). She would like to send many thanks to her family for their continuing support.

MARY P. COSTELLO* (Stage Manager) has worked on over 40 productions during seven seasons with PTC. Favorites include Sting’s The Last Ship, The Will Rogers Follies, Les Misèrables, In the Heights, Next to Normal and Rent. Other stage management teams: Indiana Repertory Theatre, Connecticut Repertory Theatre, Boston Theatre Works, Grand Valley Shakespeare Festival and the Utah Shakespeare Festival. Proud Equity member.

EMILY NACRISSA GRIFFITH (Assistant Stage Manager) graduated from UVU with a bachelor of science in theatre arts with emphases in performance and design/technology. Griffith earned the Kennedy Center’s Meritorious Achievement Award for Excellence in the stage management fellowship for her work as the production stage manager of UVU’s Next to Normal, which received their National Award for Outstanding Production of a Play.

LANEY MARSELLA (2nd Assistant Stage Manager) is a sophomore in the Stage Management Program at the University of Utah and is so excited to be a part of PTC for her first season! Recent stage management credits include Shrek The Musical and The Good Doctor.

JAMIE ROCHA ALLAN (Assistant Director) Originally from London, Allen is a freelance theatre director who has directed for various theatres and companies, including the Royal Shakespeare Company and The Globe Theatre, and worked as an associate director for Frantic Assembly.

BOB CLINE (Casting) is the founder of Bob Cline Casting in New York, and Broadway World recently named him one of New York’s ten best. He has cast film, TV, commercials, over 70 national tours and numerous regional theaters across the country. Independently, or in his association with Rich Cole since 1994, he has cast for Pioneer Theatre Company, the Fulton Theatre, Maltz-Jupiter Theatre, The Repertory Theatre of St. Louis and many, many others. Bob has also been a proud faculty member in Pace University’s Theatre program in charge of the senior BFA musical theatre majors for the last 10 years. Nights when he is not directing shows, he can be found directing students in one of the two audition classes he has taught weekly for the last 18 years through The Actor’s Loft.

ACTORS’ EQUITY ASSOCIATION (“Equity”), founded in 1913, is the U.S. labor union that represents more than 50,000 actors and stage managers. Equity seeks to foster the art of live theatre as an essential component of society and advances the careers of its members by negotiating wages, working conditions and providing a wide range of benefits, including health and pension plans. Actors’ Equity is a member of the AFL-CIO and is affiliated with FIA, an international organization of performing arts unions. #EquityWorks