Creative

MATTHEW LOMBARDO (Playwright) Broadway credits: HIGH with Kathleen Turner at The Booth Theatre; and Looped with Valerie Harper in a Tony nominated performance at The Lyceum Theatre. Other New York credits include Tea at Five with Kate Mulgrew at The Promenade Theatre and subsequent National Tour IRNE Award Winner for Best Solo Play), Mother and Child with Ann Wedgeworth at Second Stage; Guilty Innocence at The Actors’ Playhouse; and directing Chuck Ranberg’s End of the World Party at the 47th Street Theatre. His work has been produced at several theatres across the country including Arena Stage, Seattle Rep, Hartford Stage, Pasadena Playhouse, The Orpheum Theatre in Phoenix, American Repertory Theatre, Cincinnati Playhouse, The Hippodrome Theatre in Baltimore, The Repertory Theatre of Saint Louis and others. He dedicates his work on HIGH to his sponsor Tony Ferchak, whom without there would be no Miracle.

 

ROB RUGGIERO (Director) directed the world premiere and Broadway productions of HIGH. This is his second collaboration with playwright Matthew Lombardo, having made his Broadway debut with Looped starring Valerie Harper in a Tony nominated performance. Other New York credits include All Under Heaven, as well as conceiving and directing the original musical revue Make Me a Song: The Music of William Finn (Drama Desk and Outer Critics Circle Nominations). His work on plays and musicals has received national recognition. Productions Ruggiero has directed have been seen at major regional theaters around the country, including: Arena Stage, Barrington Stage Company, Cincinnati Playhouse in the Park, The Guthrie Theater, Hartford Stage, Long Wharf Theater, Pittsburgh Public Theater, and The Repertory Theatre of St. Louis (where he has directed award winning productions of Take Me Out, Urinetown, the Musical and The Little Dog Laughed). For Goodspeed Musicals, he has directed productions of 1776, Big River, Camelot, Annie Get Your Gun, and most recently the highly successful revival of Show Boat last summer. He conceived and directed Ella (Kevin Kline and Joseph Jefferson Awards), which has played over twenty regional stages since 2005. He has been a partner in the artistic leadership of TheaterWorks in Hartford, Connecticut since 1992.

 

DAVID GALLO (Set and Projection Design) Selected Broadway: The Mountaintop; Colin Quinn: Long Story Short; High; Memphis; reasons to be pretty, Xanadu; Radio Golf (Tony nom.); Company; The Drowsy Chaperone (Tony, Drama Desk and Outer Critics Circle Awards); Gem of the Ocean (Tony nom.); Ma Rainey’ s Black Bottom; Thoroughly Modern Millie (also London); King Hedley II; You’re a Good Man, Charlie Brown; A View from the Bridge; Jackie: An American Life (also London); and Hughie. Selected off-Broadway: Evil Dead; The Wild Party; Jitney (also London); Wonder of the World; A New Brain; Bunny Bunny; and Blue Man Group. August Wilson’s Twentieth Century at The Kennedy Center. Select Int’l: Tears of Heaven (Seoul); Ich War Noch Niemals in New York (Vienna, Hamburg, Stuttgart); Cinderella (Manila); Beauty and the Beast (Rome, Milan, Amsterdam, Madrid). Drama Desk, American Theatre Wing, Lucille Lortel, Hewes, Outer Critics Circle, Ovation, AUDELCO, Barrymore, Acclaim, Obie and Eddy Awards. Represented American Set Design at The Cooper-Hewitt Design Triennial. The Smithsonian National Archive.

 

JESS GOLDSTEIN (Costume Designer) Career highlights include HIGH with Kathleen Turner, The Merchant of Venice with Al Pacino (Tony Nomination), Jersey Boys, Lincoln Center Theater’s The Rivals (Tony Award), Henry IV (Tony nomination) and The Most Happy Fella, Next Fall, The Apple Tree with Kristin Chenoweth, Enchanted April, Proof, Julius Caesar with Denzel Washington, The Homecoming, Stuff Happens, Sight Unseen, How I Learned to Drive, Take Me Out, Love! Valour! Compassion!, Tea at Five, Far East, The Mineola Twins (Lortel and Hewes Awards), When She Danced, Buried Child, Jack O’Brien’s II Trittico for The Metropolitan Opera, and the feature films A Walk on the Moon, The Substance of Fire and Love! Valour! Compassion! He is a graduate of The Yale School of Drama and has taught design there since 1990.

 

JOHN LASITER (Lighting Designer) made his Broadway design debut with Matthew Lombardo’s HIGH. Off-Broadway: Make Me a Song: The Music of William Finn, Alarm Dog Repertory Company, Blue Light Theater Company and Music Theatre Group. Regional: Actors Theatre of Louisville, Arena Stage, Arizona Repertory Theatre, Asolo Repertory Theatre, Centerstage Baltimore, Cleveland Play House, Dallas Theater Center, Florida Stage, George Street Playhouse, Geva Theatre, Goodspeed Musicals, Milwaukee Repertory Theater, New Mexico Repertory Theatre, Northlight Theatre, Pittsburgh Public Theater, South Coast Repertory, Syracuse Stage, Virginia Stage Company and Cincinnati Playhouse in the Park. OPERA: Eos Orchestra, The Curtis Institute of Music, Glimmerglass Opera, Gotham Opera, Manhattan School of Music, Opera Delaware, Opera Carolina and Skylight Opera Theatre. DANCE: Ballet Memphis, Danzantes LA, Danzantes New Mexico, Randy James Dance Works. www.johnlasiter.com.

 

VINCENT OLIVIERI (Sound Designer and Composer) Broadway: HIGH. Off- Broadway: The Water’s Edge, Omnium- Gatherum, and Fatal Attraction: A Greek Tragedy. Other New York credits include: The Public, The Juilliard School, and 59E59. Regional: Actors Theatre of Louisville, Barrington Stage Company, Berkshire Theatre Festival, Center Stage (Baltimore), Cincinnati Playhouse in the Park, Ensemble Theatre of Cincinnati, Pittsburgh Public Theatre, Portland Center Stage, South Coast Repertory, Syracuse Stage, Theatre Novi Most (Minneapolis), TheatreWorks (Hartford), Woolly Mammoth, Virginia Stage Company, and Yale Repertory Theatre. He has created designs for world-premiere productions by Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa, Kirsten Greenidge, Lauren Gunderson, Howard Korder, Matthew Lombardo, Charles L. Mee, Adam Rapp, Theresa Rebeck, and August Wilson. International work includes productions in Italy, China, and South Korea. Mr. Olivieri is a graduate of the Yale School of Drama and serves on the faculty at University of California-Irvine.

 

JOE ROSSI (Special Hair and Makeup Designer) is Department Head of Effects Makeup on ABC’s Body of Proof. He was Makeup Department Head on the Disney feature Underdog, Brotherhood, Outside Providence, and was Key Makeup Artist on David Mamet’s State and Main. Film work includes The Fighter, Shutter Island, War of the Worlds, Meet Joe Black, The Human Stain, and Moonlight Mile. He was makeup artist for Michael Douglas in Ghosts of Girlfriends Past. He has provided makeup for political leaders including President Clinton and Vice President Albert Gore. He has designed makeup for the world premiere productions of the Philip Glass opera Fall of the House of Usher, and The Balcony, performed at the Bolshoi. He has designed makeup for many opera companies including Opera Company of Boston, New York City Opera and the Washington Opera.

 

McCORKLE CASTING, LTD. (Casting Director) Pat McCorkle, (C.S.A.) and Associates are currently casting for the Broadway productions The Toxic Avenger and Three Tall Women by Edward Albee. They have cast Broadway productions of; HIGH with Kathleen Turner, The Lieutenant Of Inishmore, The Glass Menagerie, Cat On A Hot Tin Roof, One Flew Over The cuckoo’s Nest, The Ride Down Mt. Morgan, Amadeus, She Loves Me, Blood Brothers, A Few Good Men among many others. A sampling of Off-Broadway projects include; Our Town, Almost Maine, Ears On A Beatle, Down The Garden Paths, Killer Joe, Mrs. Klein, Driving Miss Daisy. Feature films; Ghost Town, Secret Window, Basic, The Thomas Crown Affair, The 13th Warrior, Madeline, Die Hard with a Vengeance, School Ties, etc. Some television highlights include; Electric Company, Californication (Emmy nomination), 3Lbs., Barbershop, Chapell’s Show among others. Premium Rush, a feature for Sony Pictures is scheduled for summer 2012 release.

 

JEFFRY GEORGE (Production Stage Manager) is pleased to join the production team of Matthew Lombardo's  HIGH. He has held numerous PSM positions across the country including the Paper Mill playhouse, Kansas City Starlight, North Shore Music Theatre, Wellfeet Harbor Actors Theater and the Caldwell Theater Company. National tours include:  The Wizard of OZ, Two into One, Side by Side by Sondheim and The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas. World Premiers: Beyond a Reasonable Doubt, Iago, Gizmo Love, Cockooland, Zombie Prom, Sayonara, and The Prince and the Pauper. He has had the pleasure of working with George Abbott, Susan Stroman, Tommy Tune, Rob Marshall, Phillip Wm. McKinley, Tony Randall, Millicent Martin, Cyd Charisse, Alexis Smith and Sydney Poitier. Currently Jeffry is the Executive Director of the Cantata Singers in Boston, a 44-voice professional chorus and orchestra celebrating its 50th anniversary in 2014. He is married to Hunter O'Hanian and lives in Boston.  

 

DEREK MICHAEL DiGREGORIO (Stage Manager) Broadway: The Book of Mormon. New York credits also include Applause (Encores). Regional: Pippin, 1776, Happy Days, Half a Sixpence, Big River, Jim Henson’s Emmet Otter, 42nd Street, Camelot, A Funny Thing…Forum, Annie Get Your Gun, Carnival, How To Succeed…, My One and Only, Showboat, City of Angels (Goodspeed); Black Snow, Safe In Hell, Comedy on the Bridge/Brundibar (Yale Rep). BA Salem State College; MFA Yale School of Drama. Proud member of AEA.

 

LOST IN BOSTON MANAGEMENT (General Management) Joseph Guglielmo and Christopher Ostrom Previous Credits include: 1st national tour of I Love a Piano, And Now Ladies and Gentleman, Miss Judy Garland (World Premier), Beehive the 60’s Musical (Consultant), Jacques Brel is Alive and Well and Living in Paris (Boston Production). Associate Producer Elaine Stritch at Liberty (Boston) Executive Producer Joan Rivers Broke and Alone in Boston.

ANN CADY SCOTT (Producer) proudly sponsored the world premiere of HIGH at The Repertory Theatre of Saint Louis and was a producer for the subsequent Broadway production at The Booth Theatre. She has been involved with The Rep for over 25 years, having served as its President oftheBoardofDirectorstwiceforthreeyear terms. She also serves on the Regional Arts Commission of St Louis. Having BFA and MA degrees in theatre, she has taught theatre history at the university level. Ann and is thrilled to have the opportunity once again to support this talented group of artists.

 

TIMOTHY J. HAMPTON (Producer) produced the Broadway production of HIGH starring Kathleen Turner. Mr. Hampton is a Certified Financial Planner® who oversees the financial affairs for a select group of families and non-profits, working out of the Merrill Lynch office in Saint Louis. He is a passionate supporter of the Arts and serves on the Repertory Theatre of Saint Louis’ Board of Directors’ Executive Committee. He is a proud recipient of the Boy Scouts distinguished Silver Beaver Award that is presented for ongoing leadership in scouting.

 

THE REPERTORY THEATRE OF SAINT LOUIS (Producer) produced the Broadway production of HIGH at The Booth Theatre. Since 1966, the Rep has been the premier live, professional theatre is Saint Louis. As the largest non-profit theatre in Missouri, The Rep produces 12 to 15 shows each season in three theaters, with an annual attendance exceeding 175,000. Artistic Director Steve Woolf and Managing Director Mark Bernstein have led The Rep for more than 25 years. During their tenure, The Rep has produced 15 World Premieres and has been honored with 47 Kevin Kline Awards for theatrical excellence.