Jacqueline Antaramian (Leah) is pleased to return to the role of Leah in The Immigrant. Her New York credits include: Prides Crossing (Lincoln Center, dir. Jack O'Brien), Wild Duck (Gina), and The Immigrant (Leah). She has worked extensively at the Denver Center Theatre Co., performing in the following: Blithe Spirit (Elvira), The Three Sisters (Masha), Arcadia (Hanna). The Rose Tattoo (Serafina), Skin of our Teeth (Sabina), Desire Under the Elms (Abbie), Twelfth Night (Olivia), Julius Caesar (Portia), Tartuffe (Elmire), Dancing at Lughnasa (Rose), and the title roles in Candida, Miss Julie, and Hedda Gabler. Other credits: Homebody/Kabul (Mahalla) at both Berkeley Repertory and The Intiman with Bartlett Sher). Her TV and Film credits include: Law and Order, Diagnosis Murder, The Shining, and The Siege.
Walter Charles (Milton) made his Broadway debut on Christmas Eve, 1973 in Grease. Subsequent appearances include Leonard Bernstein's 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, Sweeney Todd, Cats, Me & My Girl and Aspects of Love. His most recent New York appearances have been as Scrooge in Alan Menken's A Christmas Carol at the Paramount Theatre at Madison Square Garden, in Kiss Me Kate, and co-starring with Tyne Daly in the City Center Encores production Call Me Madam. He co-starred with Angela Lansbury in Sweeney Todd, and won the Bay Area Drama Critics Circle Award for Best Actor in a Musical for his stunning performance as Albin/Zaza in the original San Francisco and Los Angeles productions of La Cage Aux Follies, a success he repeated at the Palace Theatre on Broadway for 18 months. Most recently he co-starred with Diahann Carroll in the Canadian production of Sunset Boulevard, garnering a Best Supporting Actor nomination in Vancouver. He was featured in the 1998 Pulitzer Prize winning play Wit at the Union Square Theatre. Television audiences have seen him guest star in Cagney & Lacey, Kate & Allie, the 1981 Tony Awards, the 1983 Grammy Awards, the RKO-Nederlander production of Sweeney Todd for Great Performances on PBS, and most recently, he was busy raising the dead on All My Children as Dr. Silbert.
Adam Heller (Haskell). Mr. Heller's Broadway credits include Ed Kleban in A Class Act, Labisse in Victor/Victoria and Thenardier in Les Miserables. Off-Broadway he appeared as Charley Kringas in the York Theatre revival of Sondheim and Furth's Merrily We Roll Along. His recent regional credits include Gabe in Dinner With Friends at the Coconut Grove Playhouse, Yvan in Art at Hartford Theatreworks and Morris Brummel in No Way to Treat a Lady at the Barrington Stage Company. Mr. Heller played Mendel in Graciela Daniele’s groundbreaking production of Falsettos at Hartford Stage, and later toured in James Lapine's Tony Award-winning version. He played Al Jolson in Anne Bogart's American Vaudeville at Houston's Alley Theatre and at the Denver Center Theatre Company as the relentless ship owner J. Bruce Ismay in the National Tour of Titanic at the Buell Theatre. Mr. Heller has appeared on several episodes of Law & Order, and on HBO's Oz, directed by Kathy Bates. He is a graduate of NYU's Tisch School of the Arts.
Cass Morgan (Ima) was most recently featured in the world premier of My Antonia, directed and adapted by Scott Schwartz. On Broadway this past year she was seen as Mrs. Potts in Disney's Beauty and the Beast. Also on Broadway, Cass has been featured in Paul Simon's controversial musical Capeman, The Human Comedy, Hair, and Pump Boys and Dinettes which she also co-wrote, and which was nominated for a Tony award in 1982. Her Off-Broadway credits include the musical version of The Immigrant (Ima) at CAP21, the award winning Playwrights Horizon's productions of Violet and Floyd Collins (Miss Jane), as well as Inside Out (cast album), the York Theatre Company revival of Merrily We Roll Along (cast album), The Knife and La Boheme (Musetta), both for Joe Papp's Public Theatre. Regionally, Cass reprised her role in The Immigrant at both the Denver Center Theatre Company, and The Coconut Grove Playhouse in Miami. At the North Carolina State Theatre, Cass was seen in Best Little Whorehouse In Texas (Miss Mona) and 1776 (Abigail), which she also played at the Williamstown Theatre Festival. Cass starred as Frauline Schneider in the national tour of Cabaret. She portrayed Eve and Mama Noah in the premier of Stephen Schwartz's Children of Eden at the Mill Mountain Playhouse. Cass has been a board member of the New Harmony Project for ten years.
Mark Harelik (book) Mr. Harelik is a writer and actor, a native Texan who grew up in the only Jewish family in the small town of Hamilton in central Texas, where his two biographical plays The Immigrant: A Hamilton County Album and The Legacy take place. In 1991, The Immigrant, a telling of his Jewish grandparent’s immigration to rural Texas and their first 30 years of life there, was the most widely produced play in the country. In the immediately preceding and following years, it was among the most widely produced. It has been seen at nearly every major theater in the country, among them: The Mark Taper Forum in Los Angeles, The Westwood Playhouse in Los Angeles, Theater Forty in Los Angeles, A.C.T. in San Francisco, The Denver Center Theater Co., The Alley Theater in Houston, and well over a hundred more theaters in cities and towns large and small. The Legacy, an autobiographical sequel to The Immigrant, has been produced in Seattle and San Diego and most recently by the Old Globe Theater in San Diego. Lost Highway, A biographical musical about the life of the country singer Hank Williams has been produced by the Mark Taper Forum, The Old Globe Theater, The Denver Center Theater Co., and the Grand 'Ole Opry in Nashville. Mr. Harelik's producing partners have been The Mark Taper Forum in Los Angeles, Gordon Davidson, Artistic Director; The Old Globe Theater in San Diego, Jack O'Brien, Artistic Director; and The Denver Center Theater Company, Donovan Marley, Artistic Director.
Sarah Knapp (lyrics) received a commissioning grant from Maine State Music Theater and the National Alliance of Musical Theater Producers for the writing of Chamberlain: A Civil War Romance, which premiered at Maine State in the summer of 1996. Her musical, The Library, was awarded a National Endowment for the Arts production grant in 1993 and was produced at NYU-Tisch School of the Arts and at Stamford Theatre Works (Connecticut). Both Chamberlain and The Library were selected for development at the prestigious New Harmony Project (Indiana). She is currently at work on a chamber opera, Rappaccini's Daughter, with music by Steven M. Alper. The Audition, a music theatre piece, was selected for performance in Manhattan Class Company's Festival of Short Works (NYC). She provided the lyrics for the highly successful Golden Books Read-In 1999. She has served on the Opera-Musical Theatre selection panel for the National Endowment for the Arts - New American Works. As a performer, Ms. Knapp has been seen on Broadway in The Scarlet Pimpernel; Off-Broadway: Amnesia in the original Nunsense, Smoke on the Mountain, No-Frills Revue, Godspell, Gifts of the Magi, Opal, The Wonderful O. Broadway workshop: Lily in Jekyll and Hyde. Regionally: Madame Vinard in Svengali at Asolo and Alley Theatres, Mrs. Ford in Merry Wives of Windsor, Texas at Cincinnati Playhouse and The Baker's Wife in Into the Woods and Eliza Doolittle in My Fair Lady at Maine State Music Theatre, Deborah in Mayo Simon's Greek Holiday at Playwrights Theater of NJ. Two Annie 2s: Kennedy Center, and then as Grace at Godspeed. European tour: Eleanor in Richard Foreman's Africanis Instructus. Recordings: Gifts of the Magi, Scarlet Pimpernel, and Harold Arlen/Vernon Duke Revisited, No. 2. She is a member of the Dramatist Guild.
Steven M. Alper (music) Mr. Alper has composed a number of musicals with Sarah Knapp as bookwriter/lyricist, including The Library, The Audition, C'est la vie, Rappaccini's Daughter, Chamberlain: A Civil War Romance, and Me Again, and (with Karen deMauro and the students of participating schools) dozens of children's musicals. He's written dozens of incidental scores for plays, short films and TV: Action Painting (American Theater of Actors), Vatzlaw (National Theater of Woodbee), The Disposal (Jan Hus Theater), Faces of God (Artpark), The Wake-up Call (Award winning short film), among others. Among the productions on which he's worked as musical director and/or conductor and/or vocal/musical arranger and/or orchestrator: Godspell (1988 Off-Broadway revival, Lambs Theater), The "No-Frills" Revue (Musical Theater Works and The Cherry Lane), Annie 2 and Arthur (Godspeed Opera House), Pageant (The Blue Angel), Johnny Pye (George St. Playhouse and Lambs Theater), Up Against It (The Public Theater), Gifts of the Magi (Lambs Theater), Possessed: The Dracula Musical (George St. Playhouse), Tales of Tinseltown (Musical Theater Works and George St. Playhouse), The Hits and the Ms.'s (Rainbow and Stars—also musical director), The Summer Winds (The Naked Angels). He's acted as computer music consultant on many shows and several feature films, copyist for Broadway and Off-Broadway, regional theater, and film. He's written manuals for software and about the joys of the Apple Macintosh computer, and Next!: Auditioning for the Musical Theater (published by Heinemann Books). He is a member of the Dramatist Guild.
Kimberly Grigsby (musical director/piano) served as Music Director for the Broadway productions of You’re A Good Man, Charlie Brown and Twelfth Night (music by Jeanine Tesori). She was the conductor for the Broadway production of The Full Monty (music by David Yazbek). In regional theater her credits include Floyd Collins (music by Adam Guettel), at the Signature Theatre, and The First Picture Show (music by Jeanine Tesori) at the Mark Taper Forum. Other credits include O Pioneers! (music by Kim Sherman), Love's Fire (music by Adam Guettel), Honk! (music by George Stiles), Telaio: Desdemona (by Susan Botti), Boxcar Children (music by Kim Sherman), Black Beauty (music by Dan Messe), Fools Rush In (music by Steve Marzullo). Ms. Grigsby's recordings include You're A Good Man, Charlie Brown for RCA Victor and Twelfth Night for Resmiranda. She holds degrees from Southern Methodist University and Manhattan School of Music.
Randal Myler (director) Mr. Myler most recently received a New York Outer Critic’s Circle Outstanding Director of a Musical nomination for his acclaimed production of Hank Williams Lost Highway at the new Little Shubert Theater on 42nd Street. He was nominated for a Tony Award (Best New Book of a Musical) for the hit Broadway show It Ain't Nothin' But the Blues (Tony Award nominee for Best Musical/Drama Desk Award nominee for Best Musical Revue), which he co-authored and directed at both the Vivian Beaumont Theatre at Lincoln Center and Broadway's Ambassador Theatre. His hit musical Love, Janis, which he wrote and directed, ran for more than 700 performances Off-Broadway. He has guest directed throughout the country, including both The Kennedy Center and Arena Stage in Washington, DC; The New Victory Theatre, B.B. Kings and The Village Theatre in New York City; The Mark Taper Forum and The Geffen Theatre in Los Angeles; The Actors Theatre of Louisville; The Denver Center Theatre Company; The Cleveland Play House; The Royal George Theatre in Chicago; The Alabama Shakespeare Festival; The Old Globe Theatre in San Diego; The Virginia Stage Company; The Meadowbrook Theatre in Detroit; The Cincinnati Playhouse in the Park; The Arizona Theatre Company; The Bay Street Theatre in Sag Harbor and many others. A 17-season veteran of The Denver Center Theatre Company, his most recent writing and directing projects include: Fire on the Mountain (the music of the coal mines), Nat King Cole and Me and Touch the Names: Letters to the Vietnam Veterans Memorial (World Premiere at The Cleveland Play House). He co-conceived and directed The Denver Center World Premier of The Immigrant: A Hamilton County Album, the play on which the new musical is based. Mr. Myler also worked closely with the Grand Ole Opry's production of Lost Highway, his musical based on the life of Hank Williams Sr. (which played for two years at Nashville's famed Ryman Auditorium). His plays have been published by Broadway Play Publishing, Dramatic Publishing and Samuel French.
HELLO Entertainment (off-Broadway producer) is a multifaceted entertainment company whose primary focus is producing live theater. Its principals are Tony Adams and David Garfinkle who have a long history in all facets of the entertainment industry. The Immigrant is one of a line of shows, which are expected to roll out over the next three years.
Jan Folkson (album producer) grew up in New York City. With a passion for music, he taught himself to play the keyboard and program synthesizers. As a teenager he played with a local band for several years at many of New York's most notorious clubs. After a brief stint in music retail, Jan gained the connections needed to advance his career to the next level. Jan has had the opportunity to work with some of music's greatest artists, musicians and engineers, as well as notable producers such as Phil Ramone, Nile Rodgers and Peter Asher. Always pushing forward, Jan recently attended New York's Juilliard School where he studied composition and music theory with Kendall Briggs. As an experienced recording engineer and digital audio editor, he currently lends his expertise to many of New York's largest recording studios and is part of the active beta test group for Pro Tools® as well as several plug-in manufacturers. Jan currently lives in Long Island, NY with his wife, little girl, dog, several Volkswagens and a love of great music.