Dreading The Boards

Bret Shuford and Stephen Hanna are the Broadway Husbands--openly LGBTQ married working actors, performers, and BroadwayLife coaches. Bret has performed, produced, choreographed and directed dozens of Broadway, Regional, National tours, viral videos, television and film productions from Wicked to the Wolf of Wall Street. His industry insights have been featured in leading outlets like The Huffington Post, Backstage, Today Show, Good Morning America, and America’s Got Talent. Stephen was a soloist and principal dancer with the New York City ballet, going on to perform on Broadway in Billy Elliott, On the Town, An American in Paris, and Hello, Dolly! He has also appeared on television in All My Children, Boardwalk Empire, Forever, and Pose. Broadway Husbands IG | YouTube | From Imposter To Influencer Map

Born in Puerto Rico to a Cuban mom and Mexican dad, Paco was inspired to be an actor after an episode of The Wonder Years where Winnie Cooper plays the lead in “Our Town”, and he hasn’t really looked back since. With a resume that includes costars like Meryl Streep, Kevin Kline, Morgan Freeman, Hamish Linklater, Julianna Margulies, Ice-T, Pedro Pascal, Tea Leoni, Dave Bautista, and Ed Burns, Paco is a familiar face in New York film and television--but his favorite production thus far is his son. Paco's IG | Paco's Twitter

Hailed by LA Weekly as a “force of nature”, soprano and Fat Politics artist-activist Tracy Cox is a performer whose talent has been recognized across the industry, garnering her a Sullivan Foundation Award, the Birgit Nilsson Prize at Operalia, the Kirsten Flagstad Award from the George London Foundation, a Sarah Tucker Study Grant, and the top prize from the Marilyn Horne Song Competition. She has sung with orchestras around the world, including the MÁV Symphony of Budapest, the Philadelphia Orchestra, the Cincinnati Symphony, Los Angeles Opera, and at the Galina Vishnevskaya Opera Center in Moscow.  Tracy has been interviewed by the New York Times on Fat Politics and restaurant accessibility, and currently has over 20,000 followers on her Instagram @sparklejams where she centers fat liberation, fat vanity, and fat talent in the performing arts. Tracy is a highly sought-after speaker and consultant on the topic of body justice in the performing arts and has been presented by numerous opera companies and arts organizations including Long Beach Opera, Wolf Trap Opera, Opera NexGen, Sigma Alpha Iota, River City Opera, and the M Institute for the Arts in Washington D.C.

Doug Plaut is a New York-based Actor and Writer, most known for playing Terry on UNBREAKABLE KIMMY SCHMIDT. Other Credits include DAREDEVIL, VICE PRINCIPALS, HURRICANE BIANCA: FROM RUSSIA WITH HATE, NAOMI AND ELY'S NO KISS LIST, THE PREPPIE CONNECTION and THE MIMIC. He will next be seen in Charles Busch and Carl Andress' THE SIXTH REEL. Doug's IG | Doug's Twitter | Doug's IMDb

Dahlia De Fé is a burlesque performer cheekily known as the 'Witchy Wet Dream.' A darkly sardonic provocateur by night, they are a crew member by day! Dahlia's resume behind the camera includes shows like THE BLACKLIST and several murdery reenactment shows on Discovery ID, as well as behind the scenes at The Public Theatre and Heartbeat Opera. In a particularly poignant moment for labor and union policy, Dahlia tells us all about the sometimes exciting, but mostly deeply exploitative life of a crew person--and why we need our unions to stand up and fight for fair hours, reasonable rest, and balanced lives. Dahlia's IG

Melissa Center is an actor, filmmaker & crowdfunding coach. As an actor she was most recently seen opposite Susan Kelechi Watson on This is Us. Additional credits include Grey’s Anatomy, True Detective, and Masters of Sex. She wrote, produced, and starred in solo show Marrying Jake Gyllenhaal, which was hatched in partnership with Mark Duplass for Seed&Spark's Creative Sustainability Summit & debuted at Edinburgh Fringe as part of their 2021 digital program.  Her feature film All I Want is currently streaming across platforms & her award-winning short R.V., about the threat to women’s reproductive rights, has screened around the world in addition to reaching half a million people online (and counting). www.melissacenter.com | Melissa's IG

Kay Koch is a musical theater actress/singer, puppeteer, classic rock maniac, and general maker-of-geeky-joy! Kay has been collaborating with Jen for (a highly memorable) 5 seasons on original puppet-based webseries THE WEIRDOS NEXT DOOR. She has produced a long-running all-female production of 1776, where she plays Thomas Jefferson. She has similarly gender-bent the role of The Baker in INTO THE WOODS, and just closed a run of THE SOUND OF MUSIC starring as Maria. KayKoch.com | The Weirdos Next Door

Kathy Deitch made her Broadway debut in the original cast of FOOTLOOSE and later created the role of Shen Shen in the smash Broadway hit WICKED. She made her LA acting debut at the Hollywood Bowl in RENT directed by Neil Patrick Harris. Other credits include: SILENCE! THE MUSICAL (LA Weekly Award), AMERICAN HORROR STORY: FREAK SHOW, and the thriller LOFT, opposite Modern Family's Eric Stonestreet and MAGIC MIKE XXL.  In looking to combat body bias, she co-created PLUS THIS! SHOW, a weekly vodcast on UBN GO that highlights fat women & non-binary folx and their allies, spotlighting creatives (Chrissy Metz, Retta, Our Lady J), academic powerhouses (Dr. Lindo Bacon, Christy Harrison, Dr. Sabrina Strings) and fat activist icons (Marilyn Wann, Da'Shaun Harrison, Ragen Chastain). Now fully saturated in anti-body bias work, she has produced many fat friendly events in LA, programmed panels to discuss body bias (most recently at BroadwayCon in NYC) and is a founding member of Fatch Comedy, a fat femme sketch comedy group which was at the SF Sketchfest right before lockdown. She's had monthly articles for Better Books for Living and has been featured in SLiNK & FabUPlus magazines, SoulPancake, and Home & Family on the Hallmark Channel. Plus This IG

Gianluca Russo is a fashion and culture writer who specializes on the topic of body diversity. His NYLON column “Plus Us” explores the many ways in which larger-bodied individuals are discriminated against in society today. Gianluca’s work has also appeared in GQ, Glamour, InStyle, Teen Vogue, and more. Gianluca is the CEO and co-founder of The Power of Plus, a size-inclusive digital community aimed at promoting love, respect, and style for every BODY. He is currently writing his debut nonfiction book under the same name, which is set for publication in 2022 from Chicago Review Press. For more, visit www.RussoG.com. Gianluca's IG | Gianluca's Twitter

Cara Connors is an LA-based comedian and multifaceted homosexual with an ass that won’t quit. Cara stars on Dating #NoFilter on E! and her feminist investigative comedy series, Cara Takes Up Space, is now streaming on OUTtv. In 2018, she performed at the prestigious Just For Laughs Festival in Montreal and recently debuted her first hour long stand up show at the New York Comedy Festival as a part of the Upright Citizens Brigade Headliner series. A regular headliner at indie comedy shows across Los Angeles, Cara also hosts a monthly queer showcase, Straight for Pay (on tour in 2022). Cara's IG