043. Actor: Michael Benjamin Washington

Tom Kiradhy is a Tony and Olivier Award-winning producer whose projects have spanned Broadway, off-Broadway, the West End, and national and international tours. He most recently produced the Broadway production of the epic two-part play THE INHERITANCE (4 Tony Awards including Best Play), the smash-hit HADESTOWN (8 Tony Awards including Best Musical), the off-Broadway revival of LITTLE SHOP OF HORRORS starring Tammy Blanchard, Jonathan Groff, and Christian Borle (Drama Desk, Drama League and Outer Critics Circle Awards, Best Revival of a Musical), Terrence McNally’s FRANKIE & JOHNNY IN THE CLAIR DE LUNE starring Audra McDonald and Michael Shannon (2 Tony nominations including Best Revival of a Play), and the ANASTASIA national and international tours. Select Broadway credits: ANASTASIA, the box office record breaking IT'S ONLY A PLAY starring Nathan Lane and Matthew Broderick, THE VISIT starring Chita Rivera (5 Tony nominations). Select West End credits: THE INHERITANCE (4 Olivier Awards including Best New Play), THE JUNGLE, Edward Albee's THE GOAT, OR WHO IS SYLVIA? Select off-Broadway credits: THE WHITE CHIP (N.Y. Times Critic’s Pick), THE JUNGLE (N.Y. Times Critic’s Pick), WHITE RABBIT RED RABBIT (N.Y. Times Critic’s Pick). Additional Tony nominations: MOTHERS AND SONS, AFTER MIDNIGHT, RAGTIME, MASTER CLASS. Kirdahy serves on the Broadway League Board of Governors, the Board of Trustees of Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS, the Advisory Council for the Harry Ransom Center at the University of Texas at Austin, and is a founding director of the nonprofit Berwin Lee London New York Playwrights, Inc., which supports emerging playwrights. He is the 2019 recipient of the Robert Whitehead Award for Outstanding Achievement in Commercial Theater Producing. As an attorney, he spent nearly two decades providing free legal services to people living with HIV/AIDS and served for many years on the Executive Committee of the NYC LGBT Center.

Steven won Tony Awards for Best Book and Best Score, the Grammy Award for Best Musical Show Album, as well as the Olivier Award for Best New Musical for Spring Awakening. His other musicals include Alice by Heart produced at the National Theatre of London, MCC in New York and is also a novel from Penguin Random House, The Nightingale produced at La Jolla Playhouse; Prometheus Bound at A.R.T; and Some Lovers with music by Burt Bacharach at the Old Globe and the Adirondack Theatre Festival. His plays include Arms on Fire, New York Animals, and a reconceived musical version of Shakespeare’s Tempest. Additionally, Sater works as a poet, screenwriter, and a pop lyricist. He has created television projects for HBO, Showtime, FX, NBC, and is currently creating a musical TV series for Amazon.

Michael Benjamin Washington is currently filming the new NBC comedy, American Auto. Broadway: The Boys in the Band (also the Netflix adaptation); La Cage Aux Folles; Mamma Mia! (original company). Off Broadway: 2019 revival of Anna Deavere Smith’s Fires In the Mirror at Signature Theatre (NY Outer Critics Circle Award; NY Drama League Award; Inaugural Antonyo Award for Best Solo Performance); and, Stephen Sondheim’s Saturday Night at Second Stage. Television: Ratched and Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt (Netflix); 30 Rock; Glee; Law and Order; 100 Questions to name a few. He is an alumnus of New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts and the National Young Arts Foundation. He is also a Presidential Scholars in the Arts. Mr. Washington currently serves on the 2020-2023 Tony Awards and Screen Actors Guild Nominating Committees.

Jack has won three Tony Awards and been nominated for seven more, and won five Drama Desk Awards. Select Broadway credits include All My Sons, Carousel, Charlie and the Chocolate factory, The Front Page, Its Only a Play, The Nance, Catch Me If You Can, A Catered Affair, How The Grinch Stole Christmas, The Coast of Utopia (TONY), Dirty Rotten Scoundrels (Tony nom), Henry IV (TONY), Hairspray (TONY), the Invention of Love (Tony Nom), The Full Monty (Tony Nom), Damn Yankees, Porgy and Bess (Tony nom), Two Shakespeare Actors (Tony Nom) The Piano Lesson, The Most Happy Fella, The Little Foxes among many, many more. According to the Internet Broadway Data Base, Jack O’Brien has 52 Broadway credits to his name. Jack served as the Artistic Director of the Old Globe Theatre in San Diego, California from 1981 to 2007Additional select credits include Il Trittico at the Metropolitan Opera; Guys and Dolls at Carnage Hall; and Much Ado About Nothing at the Delacorte Theater in Central Park. London credits include: Love Never Dies, Hairspray (Olivier Award nomination) and His Girl Friday at the National Theater. He has directed six movies for PBS's "American Playhouse." O’Brien has aslo directed the critically acclaimed national tour of The Sound of Music and the world premiere of the Jake Heggie/Terrence McNally opera Great Scott for The Dallas Opera. Jack was nominated for an Emmy Award for his documentary "Becoming Mike Nichols" (HBO). And if you have not read his book, Jack Be Nimble, please do yourself a favor and grab a copy.

Cody Renard Richard is an advocate, educator and professional Stage Manager with a career that spans many genres including Broadway, Television, Cirque Du Soleil and Opera. On Broadway, he has worked as a full time and substitute Stage Manager on 12 productions, most recently serving as the Production Stage Manager for Freestyle Love Supreme. Other Broadway: Hamilton, Dear Evan Hansen, The Lion King, Cirque du Soleil’s Paramour, Kinky Boots, If/Then, After Midnight, Motown the Musical, Ghost the Musical, Cyrano de Bergerac and Lysistrata Jones. TV: 2019 Tony Awards, 2020 & 2019 MTV VMAs, Jesus Christ Superstar Live!, Hairspray Live!, The Wiz Live!. Cirque du Soleil: OVO, Wintuk. Off Broadway/NY: Porgy and Bess (Metropolitan Opera – Assistant Stage Director), Candide at Carnegie Hall, 5 productions with NY City Center Encores!, The Public Theatre, Atlantic Theatre Company, 2nd Stage, Transport Group, Pearl Theatre Company. Selected Regional: Lempicka at Williamstown Theatre Festival, The Kennedy Center, The Muny, TUTS, Stages STL, Kansas City Rep, Alley Theatre, Repertory Theatre of STL. In addition to his production credits, he has served as adjunct faculty at New York University, Columbia University and Fordham University. As an advocate for change and equity, Cody has appeared live on CNN and has been interviewed on WNBC. Cody has been featured by Variety Magazine as one of their 2020 Broadway Players to Watch, Out Magazine as a 2020 OUT100 honoree and in Forbes. He launched The Cody Renard Richard Scholarship Program in partnership with Broadway Advocacy Coalition in Sept of 2020 and holds a BFA in Stage Management from Webster Conservatory. He is a proud member of Actors’ Equity Association and the Directors Guild of America. www.codyrenard.com @codyrenard

Gavin Creel received a Tony Award for his performance as “Cornelius Hackl” in Hello, Dolly! starring Bette Midler and David Hyde Pierce. Gavin made his Broadway debut originating the role of “Jimmy Smith” in Thoroughly Modern Millie, for which he received his first Tony Award nomination. He has since created such memorable performances on Broadway as “Claude” in Hair, which earned him a second Tony Award nomination, “Jean-Michel” in La Cage Aux Folles, and “Stephen Kodaly" in the Roundabout Theater Company’s production of She Loves Me, which was filmed live and is available on BroadwayHD. No stranger to London audiences, Gavin most notably originated the role of “Elder Price” in the West End production of The Book of Mormon, for which he received the Olivier Award for Best Actor in a Musical. He also starred as “Bert” in Disney’s Mary Poppins and reprised his performance as “Claude” in Hair. Other stage credits include starring opposite Sara Bareilles in the Broadway and West End productions of Waitress, The Book of Mormon (on Broadway and originating the First National Tour), as well as the world premieres of Stephen Sondheim’s Bounce (at The Goodman Theatre and The Kennedy Center) and Prometheus Bound at A.R.T. On television, Gavin co-starred alongside Julie Andrews in ABC’s Eloise at the Plaza and Eloise at Christmastime. He has released three original albums GoodTimeNation, Quiet (which landed on “Billboard’s Top Heat Seekers”) and Get Out, and his single “Noise” raised money and awareness for marriage equality. Creel was a co-founder of Broadway Impact, the first and only grassroots organization to mobilize the nationwide theater community in support of marriage equality. A native of Findlay, Ohio, he is a proud graduate of University of Michigan School of Music, Theatre and Dance. 

Pre-pandemic, Alison was in back-to-back show bliss with David Staller’s adaptation of Heartbreak House (for which she received the Callaway Award for best actress in a classical play), Enter Laughing at the York, and a divine trifecta under the aegis of Marcia Milgrom Dodge: Steel Magnolias at the Jupiter Maltz, Cinderella at the MUNY, and Deathtrap at the Cape Playhouse. Just prior to theatre shut down she was, oddly enough, in a show (co-starring Robbie Simpson) called Paradise Lost which (actually happened a week after we closed-paradise was indeed lost... )She originated the role of Sharon in Aaron Mark’s “Squeamish” (Off Broadway, Outer Critic’s Circle Awards nominee). She was Nancy Reagan and Betty Ford in MichaelJohn LaChiusa’s First Daughter Suite (Lucille Lortel, Drama Desk nominee) at the Public Theater, Mommy in The Sandbox and The Landlady in Funnyhouse of a Negro at The Signature Theatre (director Lilia Neugebauer). She is a two- time Tony Award nominee for The Secret Garden (Drama Desk nominee also) and Romance/Romance. Other Broadway roles includes Dorine in Tartuffe; Born Again, Helena in The Mystery of Edwin Drood, and Tessie Tura in Arthur Laurents’ production of Gypsy starring Patti LuPone. Roles she has created Off-Broadway include Arsinoé in David Ives’ The School For Lies, Charles Busch’s The Divine Sister, Jessie in Terrence McNally’s Dedication, or the Stuff of Dreams (opposite Marion Seldes and Nathan Lane),Trina in March of the Falsettos and In Trousers ( vocal arrangement credits) Miss Drumgoole in Todd Rundgren’s Up Against It, Connie, Brenda and Petula in Beehive, and The Matron in the world premiere of Tennessee Williams’ In Masks Outrageous and Austere (opposite Shirley Knight). Film and TV credits include Gotham, Happy! High Maintenance, Law & Order: SVU,Happyish, Smash, It Could Be Worse, Blowtorch, Socks and Bonds,Understudies, Jack in A Box, The Thing About My Folks (opposite Peter Falk and Paul Reiser) and the upcoming The Sound of Silence (opposite Peter Saarsgard). She has be heard on thousands of radio and television commercials, Grand Theft Auto 3 and 5, innumerable audiobooks, and many albums, including three solo efforts A New York Romance, Men In My Life, and Tennessee Williams:Words and Music. She recently received the Earphones Award from Audiophile for her narration of “Fierce Poise” for Penguin Random House, and soon will be heard on the podcast “The Laundronauts” starring Ed Asner and John Cameron Mitchell.

MICHAEL GODDARD is one of the named partners of CGF TALENT, a ten year old boutique agency in New York. They handle all legit (theatre, television and film) projects being cast out of New York, and nation wide. Michael has been an agent for fifteen years representing actors who are series regulars, guest stars and co-stars on television shows, featured cast in movies and many principals on Broadway as well as tours and regional theatre. Prior to becoming an agent, Michael was an actor for 16 years, working on Broadway, off-Broadway, Tours, and regionally across the country.Click HERE to check out Robbie’s recent interview on Someone’s Thunder Podcast.Click HERE to check out Robbie’s recent interview on Backstage with B.

STEPHEN BRACKETT (Director). Broadway: The Lightning Thief (Longacre Theater), Be More Chill (Lyceum Theater). Off-Broadway: A Strange Loop (Playwrights Horizons/Page 73, Drama Desk and Obie awards), Be More Chill (Signature and Two River Theaters), The Lightning Thief (Theaterworks USA/National Tour), Jonathan Tolins’ Buyer & Cellar (Rattlestick and Barrow Street Theaters/National Tour), Kerrigan-Lowdermilk’s The Mad Ones (Prospect Theater), Caroline McGraw’s Ultimate Beauty Bible (Page 73), Jacob Yandura and Rebekah Greer Melocik’s Wringer (NYCCT), Lucas Kavner’s Carnival Kids (Lesser America), Ken Urban’s The Correspondent (Rattlestick), Chad Beckim’s After (Partial Comfort), Dan Fishback’s The Material World (Dixon Place), Bekah Brunstetter’s Be A Good Little Widow (Ars Nova), and The Tenant (Woodshed Collective). Regional: Fall Spings (Barrington Stage), Joshua Harmon’s Significant Other (Geffen Playhouse), Tasha Gordon-Solmon’s I Now Pronounce (Humana Festival), Philip Dawkins’ Le Switch (About Face), David West Read’s The Great Pretender (TheatreWorks Silicon Valley). London: Be More Chill (The Other Palace) and Buyer & Cellar (Menier Chocolate Factory)

Hannah Shankman: Broadway: Wicked, Les Miserables, Side Show (Original Broadway Revival), Hair. National Tours: The Band's Visit, Rent, 25th Anniversary Tour of Les Miserables. West End: Hair, Homemade Fusion In Concert. Hannah has worked regionally at La Jolla Playhouse, The Kennedy Center, Williamstown, Syracuse Stage, Casa Manana, Arrow Rock Lyceum in roles including Fanny Brice in Funny Girl, Rizzo in Grease, Maureen in Rent, Sally Simpson in Tommy, Rosaline in The Last Goodbye and so many more. TV/Film: "The Last Five Years" and singing with the "Les Miserables" movie at the 86th Annual Academy Awards. She has been featured on numerous recordings by Liz Swados. BFA University of Michigan.