Production Staff

Gary Slavin (director/choreographer) Gary has been active in the professional theatre for over 20 years and is very excited to be part of the Fringe this year. He has choreographed and/or directed for numerous stock (Starlight Indianapolis- 3 seasons; Starlight Kansas City - world premiere, The Prince and The Pauper; Struthers Library Theatre 4 seasons), educational (Theatre Arts Productions of NY; Hartt School of Music) and regional theatres (Commonwealth Musical Stage; Pasadena Playhouse; Florida Stage), as well as for television (Stop the World..., Loving) and in Europe (Little Shop of Horrors European tour.) Off Broadway, he choreographed the hit musical Inside Out and was director/choreographer for Area 51, a world premiere musical which ran at the Sanford Meisner Theater. He has been involved in the creation of over 17 world premiere musicals, including working closely with John Thomas Oaks on Chipper and Sunny, two new musicals currently in development.  He recently directed the world premiere reading of Abbey Victoria - A Musical Daydream by writers Don Loftus and Andrew Sussman, as well as the recent critically acclaimed Off-off Broadway production of Jolson: A Musical Vaudeville by Ted Kociolek and James Racheff.

Janet Bushor (assistant director / assistant choreographer) has assisted Gary most recently with Jolson: A Musical Vaudeville. Other shows together include Pollyanna, My Fair Lady, Carousel, My One And Only, Lady Be Good, and Fiddler on the Roof. Janet assisted Gary and performed in the world premiere of The Prince and The Pauper and Guys and Dolls as the Tango dancer. Other credits as a performer include Elsie in the Off-Broadway play Grandma Sylvia's Funeral, Bitelle in the National Tour of La Cage aux Folles, Sheila in A Chorus Line (three times), Gymnasia in A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum at the Repertory Theatre of St. Louis, Sally Rand in Sugar Babies, Cabaret, Pal Joey, Jesus Christ Superstar and Evita. Film and TV credits include Wild Things, Sopranos, Law & Order: SVU and Flowers, an independent film. Janet also did a stint last summer at a cattle ranch in Montana as a ranch hand. Janet is very thankful to Gary for continually being included in this wonderful collaborative process we call theater.

Michael Minn (book/music/lyrics) is making his writing debut with The Irreplaceable Commodity. As an actor he appeared Off-Broadway in the critically acclaimed musicals Making Tracks (2nd Generation Productions) and Shanghai Lil's (Pan Asian Rep). He stage managed the award winning play Last Call at the 2002 NY Int'l Fringe Festival. He has stage managed numerous shows for the Kaleidoscope Theatre Company and toured as a performer and stage manager with Theatreworks/USA. He appeared in regionally in productions of The King & I (The King - Struther's Library Theatre - with Gary Slavin), 42nd Street (Julian - Carousel Dinner Theatre), You Can't Take It With You, Funny Girl, Singin' In The Rain (Don u/s, Carousel Dinner Theatre), My One and Only, They're Playing Our Song (Allenberry P'house), and On The Town (Casa Manana). On TV he has appeared as a variety of civil servants (living and dead) on Law and Order, All My Children, The City and As The World Turns. Michael is a graduate of North Texas State and AMDA. www.michaelminn.com

Anthony Cantanzaro (costume design) is delighted to design his sixth production for Kaleidoscope. Anthony's previous works with Kaleidoscope are: As You Like It, Sinfully Rich, God & Mr. Smith (twice) and She Stoops to Conquer. Recently, Anthony costumed the music video "Mary" for the band Fourth Floor. Anthony wishes to thank the seqing machine salesman on 23rd street who was right... I do need a seqing machine that does 25 different kinds of stiches. Most of all, as Managing Director of Kaleidoscope Theatre Company, Anthony wishes to express his deep gratitude to our most treasured resources: our audiences and our donors.

Michael K. Berelson (lighting design) Michael's Off-Off-Broadway credits include Rubberville (Ovo Productions), Naked Angels (PS/NBC Space @ HERE), Andy Ohio Meets the World (Queer @ HERE), Tallahassee (Ant farm/78th St. Lab), Crazy for You (Scarsdale Summer Music Theatre), As You Like It (The Alabi Group), Dinner with Friends (What exit? Theatre Co.) Most Happy Fella (Gallery Players). Michael's designing credits for dance include Moscow Ballet US National Tour, and Passion Y Arte Flamenco Co. He also assists on Broadway, Off-Broadway and Regional Theatre productions. Michael is the resident Lighting Designer for The Kaleidoscope Theatre Company.

The Kaleidoscope Theatre Company (Marshall Mays, Artistic Director; Anthony Catanzaro, Managing Director) was founded in 1999 and is dedicated to producing "serious" comedy. We produce comedies of all types: romantic comedies, black comedies and farces - plays that seriously explore the comic perspective in the theatre. While planning to include both classic comedies and more recent revivals, we primarily intend to build strong relationships with contemporary playwrights that write smart, comedic plays with insight and great humor. At Kaleidoscope, we believe that theatre exercises our humanity, it stretches our compassion, it feeds our wit, and it refines and marinates our wisdom. Theatre expands our personal experience, challenges our thinking, and reveals the true realities of our existence in small doses. Very small doses. It's really great if it can be funny too. We see ourselves as stealth educators in humanity, society and reality. Please humor us in this regard. Our audience is a treasured part of our ensemble and we feel we owe you the very best that we can offer. We truly believe that great comedic plays can have a transforming power and our mission is, with laughter, to fling our audiences "into a kaleidoscope of new possibilities."

SPRINGER/CHICOINE PUBLIC RELATIONS (press representative) is a full service entertainment PR firm founded by the late John Springer. The principals are Gary Springer and Susan Chicoine, our associates are Ann Guzzi, Joseph Trentacosta and Michelle Moretta. SPRINGER/CHICOINE manages a wide and diverse clientele ranging from theatre and film to personalities and events. Theatre companies and their productions include the upcoming Broadway musical Brooklyn, Warren Leight's Tony Award-winning Side Man, Broadway/Kennedy Center/London, dir. Michael Mayer); National Actors Theatre (The Persians/Len Cariou, The Resistible Rise of Arturo Ui/Al Pacino, Judgment at Nuremberg/ Maximilian Schell & George Grizzard, Night Must Fall/Matthew Broderick & Judy Parfitt, The Sunshine Boys/Tony Randall & Jack Klugman, The Gin Game/Julie Harris & Charles Durning; Nat'l Tour), Weissberger Theater Group (Enter the Guardsman); Off-Broadway's Salome: The Reading (with Al Pacino, Marisa Tomei and Dianne Wiest), The Travels of Babar, Reno: Rebel Without A Pause, The Godfadda Workout, Damien, La Comedie-Française’ The Last Letter (dir. Frederick Wiseman) and Elie Wiesel’s La Nuit, Cherry Lane Alternative, Havana Is Waiting, Summer of ‘42, Love Janis, Saint Lucy’s Eyes, The Exact Center of the Universe, The Winds of God, Tricycle, Boonah Come Down, Fame Takes A Holiday, P.S. 69; Theatre for a New Audience (Cymbeline, Andorra, Saved, Troilus and Cressida (dir. Sir Peter Hall), King John, Waste, The Two Gentlemen of Verona w Globe/London, The Green Bird (dir. Julie Taymor), Acting Shakespeare Co. (Measure For Measure), Women's Project & Productions (Carson McCullers/Historically Inaccurate, O Pioneers!, St. Lucy’s Eyes, Hard Feelings, Leaving Queens, Gum, Our Place in Time, Two-Headed, The Exact Center...) Aquila London/NY (Much Ado About Nothing, Julius Caesar, Cyrano de Bergerac, Comedy of Errors, The Iliad: Book One, King Lear), Broken Watch Theatre Company (Boy’s Life, Split). Transport Group (Requiem for William, Our Town) Cold Prods. (Once A Man, Twice A Boy; Joe Fearless: a fan dance; Beach Party Blow-Out, Perpetual Patient, Where Everything Is Everything, Wrong Way Up); Repertorio Espanol (Volvio Una Noche; Divorciadas, Pilar Rioja, Los Cabellos De Absolon, Vieques, Cronica, Le Pasion); Blue Light Theater Company (Princess Turandot, The Clearing, Adam Baum and the Jew Movie, The Hologram Theory, Pitchfork Disney, Oedipus/Frances McDormand & Billy Crudup, Amazing Grace/Marsha Mason, Filumena/Maria Tucci, dir. James Naughton The Two Gentlemen of Verona, Waiting for Lefty/Marisa Tomei, dir. Joanne Woodward), Transport Group Our Town, Boys’ Life, Pink Elephants, Tom Noonan's Dr. Bob, Wang Dang; Dr. Faustus, The Fox, 2001 Oppie winner My Mother’s A Baby Boy, Spine and Deer Season. Other small but reputable companies have included American Place Theatre, Miranda, Ma-Yi, Peccadillo, Gilgamesh, The Acting Company (Love’s Fire) and innumerable Off-Broadway productions.

Additional Staff

Irwin Kroot - casting director

Barbara Anselmi - audition pianist

Jenn Womack - venue director

Terry Jackson - festival technical director

Donna Heffernan (www.divalavoce.com) - graphic design

Melissa Regan - promotional photography

Bobby Church - technical assistant

Siobhan Nestor - costume assistant

4over4.com - postcards

New York Spaces - audition and rehearsal space

Very special thanks to James LaForce, Leslie Stevens, and the staff at LaForce + Stevens for their generous and irreplaceable support of this production