Artistic Staff Bios
JENN THOMPSON (Director) is delighted to return to Pioneer Theatre Company, having directed The Philadelphia Story in the 2012/13 season. She currently serves as Co-Artistic Director of TACT/The Actors Company Theatre, recently named “Company of the Year” by The Wall Street Journal. There she has directed the off-Broadway productions of William Inge’sNatural Affection, Neil Simon’s Lost in Yonkers (2012 Drama Desk Nomination for Best Revival of a Play), Vaclav Havel’s The Memorandum, Sidney Howard’s The Late Christopher Bean, Alan Ayckbourn’s Bedroom Farce and Tennessee Williams’ The Eccentricities of a Nightingale (cited as a New York Times “2008 Top Ten Theatre Pick”). Other NYC directing credits include the world premieres of Pratfalls (The Abingdon), Seeing Stars (NYMF), Badge (Rattlestick Playwrights Theatre), The Brilliance of Bernstein (American Musicals Project) and Big Doolie(FringeNYC). Regional credits include Vanya, Sonia, Masha and Spike (Denver Center),Grounded (City Theatre Pittsburgh), Abundance (Hartford Stage – Connecticut Critics Circle nomination for Outstanding Director), The Syringa Tree (Portland Stage Company), All in the Timing, Barefoot in the Park, Noises Off and Boeing Boeing (Dorset Theatre Festival – where she serves as Resident Director), as well as 19 seasons with Connecticut’s award-winning River Rep where she acted and directed in over 50 productions, including Damn Yankees, The Heiress, Dinner with Friends and The Foreigner. A 2012 finalist for the SDC’s Joe A. Callaway Award, for excellence in New York City directing, Jenn is married to actor Stephen Kunken. They live in Brooklyn with their daughter, Naomi.
PATRICIA WILCOX (Choreographer) Broadway: Motown the Musical (Astaire Award for Best Choreography on Broadway 2013) and A Night with Janis Joplin. Off-Broadway/National Tours:Children’s Letters to God, Bowfire (and PBS Television Special), Blues in the Night (NAACP Image Award nomination), Seussical, Motown the Musical. Selected Regional: The Kennedy Center, Seattle Repertory Theatre, The Old Globe, Pasadena Playhouse, Paper Mill Playhouse, Missouri Repertory Theatre, Arizona Theatre Company, Geva, North Shore Music Theatre, Sacramento Music. Co-Conceiver: A Marvelous Party (LA Drama Critics Circle Award, San Francisco Bay Area Theatre Critics Award, Elliott Norton Award, JEFF Award). Selected European credits: Thames Television (London), Canale 5 (Milan), Falco (Vienna), A Magic Night(Stockholm) and tours. Original works for the Houston Symphony, Minnesota Pops, Phoenix Symphony, Lyrics and Lyricists (92nd Street Y), and for ice skating gold medalists Viktor Petrenko, Ilia Kulik, Katya Gordeeva, and Miki Ando. Her work has been represented at the 2006, 2010 and 2014 Winter Olympics.
TOM GRIFFIN (Music Director/Conductor) is a nationally recognized musical director and conductor for professional musical theater. Recent productions: Elf—The Musical and A Christmas Carol: The Musical at Pioneer Theatre Company, 13, The Musical; the West Coast and Los Angeles premieres of The Last Five Years, Sweet Charity, Sweeney Todd and The Music Man; the West Coast premiere of Spitfire Grill; Annie, West Side Story, The Scarlet Pimpernel, Bye Bye Birdie; the national tour of My Fair Lady for Theatre Of The Stars; and the Alabama Shakespeare Festival’s productions of Disney’s Mary Poppins, A Christmas Carol: The Musical, Peter Pan and A Christmas Memory. Awards: Broadway revival of You’re a Good Man Charlie Brown (Los Angeles premiere), Garland Award Best Musical Direction; and Side Show(Los Angeles premiere), Los Angeles Drama Critics Award Best Musical Direction. Tom was the musical conductor of Disney’s Beauty and the Beast on two national tours.
GEORGE MAXWELL (Set Designer) has been the resident scenic designer at Pioneer Theatre Company for over 30 years and has had the distinct pleasure of designing over 90 productions for the company. Last season he designed Clybourne Park and A Christmas Carol: The Musical, and remounted his designs for Les Misérables. His favorite PTC designs include Next to Normal,Rent, Sunset Boulevard, White Christmas, A Christmas Story, Chicago, Metamorphoses,Enchanted April, The Importance of Being Earnest, West Side Story, Proof, Peter Pan, Noises Off, Man of La Mancha, Ain’t Misbehavin’, The Foreigner and Miss Saigon. He was tapped by the Utah Opera Company to design The Coronation of Poppea and The Ballad of Baby Doe. George has also designed for the Alabama Shakespeare Festival and 21 productions (over seven seasons) for the Utah Shakespeare Festival. George is a member of United Scenic Artists. To see more of his work visit http://user.xmission.com/~gmaxwell/.
CAROL WELLS-DAY (Costume Designer) is one of PTC’s resident costume designers and the costume shop supervisor. Her recent designs for PTC include A Few Good Men, Something’s Afoot, Clybourne Park, A Christmas Carol: The Musical, Man of La Mancha, Next to Normal,Sunset Boulevard, Black Comedy, Dracula, Twelve Angry Men, Is He Dead?, Dial ‘M’ for Murder, The Light in the Piazza, The Heiress, Doubt, Lost in Yonkers, Pride and Prejudice,James Joyce’s The Dead, The Importance of Being Earnest, Brighton Beach Memoirs, Cyrano de Bergerac, Peter Pan, The Three Musketeers, Joyful Noise, Big River, As You Like It, The Count of Monte Cristo, A Streetcar Named Desire, An Ideal Husband and Hay Fever. She was assistant designer for Inherit the Wind at the Ford Theatre in Washington D.C. She worked for the Utah Shakespeare Festival for 13 years as a costume shop supervisor and designer. This is Carol’s second tenure at PTC. During her earlier stint she designed over 15 productions, including My Fair Lady, Oliver and Romeo and Juliet. Carol has film and TV credits.
MICHAEL GILLIAM (Lighting Designer) Broadway credits include: Bonnie and Clyde, Brooklyn,Big River and Stand-Up Tragedy. West End credits: Gershwin Alone. Off-Broadway: Mr. Joy,Striking 12, Blue, End of the World Party, Zooman and the Sign and Menopause The Musical. National tours include Peter Pan, Brooklyn, Guys and Dolls and Big River. Regional: Arena Stage, The Globe Theatres, Mark Taper Forum, Seattle Repertory, The Goodman Theatre, The Guthrie Theater, The Pasadena Playhouse, The Geffen Playhouse, The Kennedy Center, Ford’s Theatre, Philadelphia Theatre Company, The Prince Music Theatre, Denver Center and Arizona Theatre Company. Awards: Los Angeles Ovation Award, Drama-Logue Award, Garland Award and the 1999 Career Achievement Award from the Los Angeles Drama Critics Circle.
JOSHUA C. HIGHT (Sound Designer) A Graduate With Distinction of London’s Alchemea College of Audio Engineering, Joshua comes to us with many years of experience in professional audio systems repair and design, and has established himself as an exceptional live sound engineer in both London and Salt Lake City. Joshua is looking forward to a successful second season working in theater design with Pioneer Theatre Company. His other projects of note include working with Sommerset House for the 2012 Olympic Games, and PTC’s Elf—The Musical, A Few Good Men, Much Ado About Nothing, Deathtrap, Sweet Charity, The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee, The Rocky Horror Show and One Man, Two Guvnors.
AMANDA FRENCH (Hair and Makeup Designer) has been a Makeup and Hair Designer for over 25 years. She has worked for Montana Shakespeare in the Parks, the Utah Shakespeare Festival, the 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 be seen in The Costume Technician’s Handbook by Ingham and Covey, andWig 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.
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