The Count of Monte Cristo

Artistic Staff Bios

MARCIA MILGROM DODGE (Director/Choreographer) For Pioneer Theatre Company: Sherlock Holmes & The West End Horror (2005, Co-Author & Director.) She received a Tony Award Nomination for her direction of the 2010 Broadway revival of Ragtime. Her new production of Ragtime is currently on a National Tour. Dodge has directed and choreographed in such acclaimed theatres as the NYC Opera, The Public, Ford’s Theatre, Center Stage, Arena Stage, The Muny, Goodman Theatre, Denver Center, Glimmerglass, La Jolla Playhouse, Pittsburgh Public, St. Louis Rep, Cincinnati Playhouse, Huntington Theatre, Bay Street, Maltz Jupiter, Goodspeed, Music Circus, The Alley and abroad at the Nanta Theatre (Seoul); Fredericia Teater (Denmark); Royal Opera House (Oman) and the Wintergardens Theatre (England.) Dodge is also a playwright, a teacher, a wife, a mother and a proud executive board member of the Stage Directors & Choreographers Society. Upcoming projects include Young Frankenstein (The Muny), Smokey Joe’s Café (Drury Lane Theatre) and Empire The Musical (targeted for Broadway.) As always, for Tony and Natasha.

MICHAEL BAXTER (Associate Choreographer) has had a varied career as a performer and choreographer in theaters all across the country. Just recently, Michael was the Associate Choreographer and Dance Captain of the Broadway-aimed production of Empire The Musical at the La Mirada Theatre for the Performing Arts, directed and choreographed by Marcia Milgrom Dodge. Michael is the Resident Choreographer of the Municipal Theatre Association of St. Louis (The MUNY). Along with his choreographic responsibilities, Michael performed in the 2015 season’s production of Oklahoma! Other recent choreographic credits include – The Kennedy Center’s Theatre for Young Audiences and 2016 National Tour production of Mo Willem’s Elephant and Piggie’s We Are In A Play (Assistant Choreographer), USAF 2015 Holiday Flash (Back) Mob (Assistant Choreographer), Off-Broadway’s Clinton The Musical (Assistant Choreographer) and Empire (Staged Reading – Assistant Choreographer). Other performance credits include: Tour – 50th Anniversary National Tour of Hello, Dolly! starring Sally Struthers. Staged Reading – Empire; Off-Off Broadway – The Cradle Will Rock; Regional – La Mirada Theatre, Arrow Rock Lyceum Theatre, Maltz Jupiter Theatre, Riverside Theatre, North Carolina Theatre, Stages St. Louis, The Repertory Theatre of St. Louis and The MUNY. Upcoming – The 2016 MUNY Season. Michael is a proud graduate of The Conservatory of Theatre Arts at Webster University. Love and gratitude to Marcia Milgrom Dodge.

MICHAEL SEBASTIAN (Musical Director/Conductor) – Originally from Lancaster, PA, he became, at the age of 12, the youngest person ever to join the Lancaster Symphony Orchestra. Following was a successful career as a professional cellist, taking him to perform in some of the world’s most prestigious concert halls and performances with artists such as Bernadette Peters, George Benson, Red Skelton, Johnny Mathis, Paige O’Hara and Smokey Robinson. After stints performing with a rock band and cruise ships, Michael returned to his true passion: Musical Theatre. He was Resident Music Director of The Golden Apple Dinner Theatre for 8 years followed by 8 years at Florida Studio Theatre and Artistic Director at East Village Cabaret. He is a regular at the two-time Tony Award winning Cincinnati Playhouse, Peterborough Players, and Flat Rock Playhouse. Michael has worked extensively on new show development with the pre-Broadway runs of A Tale of Two Cities at the Asolo Theater in Sarasota and Wonderland: Alice’s New Musical Adventures by the creative team of Frank Wildhorn & Jack Murphy. He returned to the Wildhorn team by Music Directing Zelda: An American Love Story, produced in development at Flat Rock Playhouse and Freedom’s Song at Ford’s Theatre in our nation’s capital as part of the 150th Anniversary of Lincoln’s assassination. His work has been recognized by many regional theatre awards across the country. Visit Michael at MichaelSebastian.info

MICHAEL SCHWEIKARDT (Set Designer) Recent PTC credits include Elf and The Odd Couple. Selected Off-Broadway productions include: The Bus and the American Premiere of Frank McGuinness’ Gates Of Gold (59 E 59); Bloodsong of Love (Ars Nova); The Black Suits (The Public Theater); Things to Ruin (Second Stage, The Zipper Factory). Regional Credits include productions at Ford’s Theatre, The Old Globe; Cleveland Playhouse; Cincinnati Playhouse in the Park; Asolo Repertory Theatre; Maltz Jupiter Theatre; Saint Louis Rep, Sarasota Opera, The MUNY, Papermill Playhouse and multiple productions for Goodspeed Musicals including Fiddler On The Roof, The Most Happy Fella, Carousel, Showboat, Annie Get Your Gun, 1776, Big River and Camelot. Tours: James Taylor’s One Man Band; ELLA; Motherhood the Musical. Other productions: Oklahoma! Starring Kelli O’Hara and Will Chase celebrating The Oklahoma State centennial. Michael recently designed productions of Marie Antoinette The Musical and Phantom for EMK International in Seoul, South Korea. msportfolio.com

ANGELA WENDT (Costume Designer) Recent theater credits: Tennesee Williams 1982, the world premiere of The Recluse and The Remarkable Rooming House of Mme, LeMonde, directed by Cosmin Chivu at Soho Rep, Cabaret, directed by Marcia Milgrim Dodge, St. Louis Repertory Theater, nominated for a St. Louis Theater Circle Design Award, If Colorado had an Ocean world premiere at LA Mama. Big Love, directed by Jorge Cacheiro, Schimmel Arts Center. Singing in the Rain, directed by Ray Roderick, Goodspell Opera (nominated for a Connecticut Critics Circle Award) and The Mutilated by Tennessee Williams, directed by Cosmin Chivu, Ohio Theater. Recent feature film credits (excerpt): Me and Kaminsky, directed by Wolfgang Becker, Hannah Arendt and The Misplaced World, both directed by Margarethe von Trotta, Audition by Matt Herron. Upcoming: Return to Montauk, directed by Volker Schlöndorf, featuring Stellan Skaarsgard. Angela is the original costume designer of the groundbreaking Broadway musical RENT, for which she received the Hewes Design Award, Drama Logue Award, Drama Desk and a Dora Maver Moore Award Nomination. Most recently, 2015, she had the honor of bringing RENT to Cuba, where it was the first American musical performed in 57 years.

PAUL MILLER (Lighting Designer) Previously at Pioneer: In The Heights, Much Ado About Nothing, A Few Good Men, I Hate Hamlet. Broadway: Amazing Grace, The Illusionists, Legally Blonde, Freshly Squeezed, Laughing Room Only; Off-Broadway: Clinton – The Musical, Pageant, Vanities – the Musical, Waiting for Godot, Addicted, Nunsense, Balancing Act as well as productions for New York City Center Encores! and Avery Fisher Hall. Regional: Chicago Shakespeare, Idaho Shakespeare, Asolo Repertory, American Conservatory Theatre, Cleveland Playhouse, Pasadena Playhouse, The Goodspeed Opera House, Westport Playhouse. U.S. Tours: The Illusionists, Elf, Shrek, Story Time Live, Wizard of Oz, Legally Blonde, Sweeney Todd, Hairspray, The Producers, The Sound of Music. Television: Camelot (Live from Lincoln Center), numerous specials for Netflix, Showtime and Comedy Central, the internationally renowned fundraiser for Broadway Cares/Equity Fights Aids Broadway Bares, as well as every live performance from the internationally televised New Year’s Eve Celebration from New York’s Time’s Square for the last 16 years. Internationally: The Stratford Festival, London’s West End, Vienna, Milan (Teatro alla Scala), The Phillippines, South Africa, and China.

JOSHUA C. HIGHT (Sound Designer) A Graduate
With Distinction of London’s Alchemea College of Audio Engineering, Hight comes to PTC 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. Hight is looking forward to a successful third 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, One Man, Two Guvnors, Alabama Story, The Crucible, I Hate Hamlet and Music Man.

AMANDA FRENCH (Hair and Makeup) 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 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* (Fight Choreographer) returns to Pioneer Theatre Company as Fight Choreographer, having acted and fight directed in multiple productions at PTC, including the recent role of Francis Henshall in One Man, Two Guvners. He has also worked throughout the country acting or fight-directing at such theatre’s as Syracuse Stage, Dallas Theatre Center, Utah Shakespeare Festival, Shakespeare Orange County, Idaho Repertory Theatre, South Coast Repertory, Sacramento Theatre Company, Montana Shakespeare in the Parks, and the Laguna Playhouse. This season, he completed his 15th season at the Oregon Shakespeare Festival, as the fight director for Twelfth Night, Great Expectations, and River Bride. He holds an MFA in Acting from the University of California Irvine, is a Certified Teacher pf Stage Combat with the Society of American Fight Directors, and is recognized as an Associate Teacher of Fitzmaurice Voicework. He is the author of “Stage Combat Arts: An Integrated Approach to Acting, Voice, and Text Work”.

FRANK WILDHORN (Composer) Multi-Grammy, Tony, and Emmy Award nominated composer/producer. Wildhorn’s works span the worlds of popular, theatrical, and classical music. In 1999, Frank became the first American composer in 22 years to have three shows running simultaneously on Broadway: Jekyll & Hyde, The Scarlet Pimpernel, The Civil War (Tony Award nominated for Best Score). Also for Broadway: Dracula, Victor/Victoria, Wonderland, Bonnie & Clyde (Tony Award nominated for Best Score), and the 2013 revival of Jekyll & Hyde. Frank produced Harlem Song at the famed Apollo Theatre. International: Excalibur/Artus, Cyrano de Bergerac,The Count of Monte Cristo, Carmen, Rudolf, Mitsuko, Never Say Goodbye, Camille Claudel, Tears of Heaven, Death Note, and Mata Hari at the Moulin Rouge. Upcoming: The Man Who Laughs, Song of Bernadette, and Casanova. Frank served as music director for the Goodwill Games in New York City (1998). He wrote the song “Gold”, the opening number for the 2002 Winter Olympics. He received the prestigious Charles Dickens Award from USC, where there is a scholarship under his name. Among the artists who have recorded and performed Frank’s works: Whitney Houston (#1 international hit “Where Do Broken Hearts Go?”), Natalie Cole, Kenny Rogers, Sammy Davis, Jr., Liza Minnelli, Julie Andrews, Hootie & the Blowfish, The Moody Blues, Johnny Mathis, Linda Eder, Freddie Jackson, Trisha Yearwood, Stacy Lattisaw, Molly Hatchet, Blues Traveler, Trace Adkins, Patti LaBelle, Jeffrey Osborne, BeBe Winans, Amy Grant, Anthony Warlow, to name a few. Associate artist at the Alley Theatre in Houston. Awarded an honorary doctorate from Marymount Manhattan College in 2014. Father to Justin Samuel and Jake Ryan.

JACK MURPHY (Book and Lyrics) has collaborated with composer Frank Wildhorn on many projects, including the Book and Lyrics to a musical suggested by the lives of F. Scott and Zelda Fitzgerald, titled Scott & Zelda. Frank and Jack have had several successful European World Premieres: The musical, Rudolf, premiered in Budapest, Vienna, Tokyo and Korea. In October 2008 a modern take on Carmen, with Book by Norman Allen, opened in Prague, Czech Republic. On March 14, 2009, The Count of Monte Cristo had its World Premiere at the Theatre St. Gallen in Switzerland, with three Productions in Seoul, Korea and two productions in Tokyo, Japan. Wonderland — with music by Frank Wildhorn, Book by Jack Murphy and Gregory Boyd, Lyrics by Jack Murphy, and directed by Gregory Boyd enjoyed a short, but sweet, run on BROADWAY in the spring of 2011, after which it has enjoyed two productions in Tokyo. Most recently, Death Note, a musical adapted from the popular Japanese Manga of the same name with Book by Ivan Menchell, Lyrics by Jack Murphy and Music by Frank Wildhorn premiered in both Seoul and Tokyo. There are several more projects in various stages of undress, waiting to be fully appareled.

KIM SCHARNBERG (Orchestrations) Broadway: Jekyll & Hyde, Scarlet Pimpernel, The Civil War, Little Women (Drama Desk nomination), Wonderland, Jekyll & Hyde revival. International: Phantom of the Opera (Yeston), Doctor Dolittle, Rudolf, Carmen, In Nomine Patris, Handel’s Messiah Rocks. Ford’s Theatre: Associate Artist, Hello, Dolly!, 1776, The Civil War, Freedom’s Song; orchestration, music direction and music supervision for several Presidential Galas. Composer/arranger for the Pageant of the Masters, Laguna Beach, CA (2009 to present). Much more at KimScharnberg.com