Michele Brourman (Composer) is a Johnny Mercer Songwriter Award winner whose songs have been recorded by Michael Feinstein, Olivia Newton-John, Donny Osmond, Cleo Laine, Sheena Easton, Sally Mayes, Heather Macrae, Rita Coolidge, and more.  Michele is the composer of the new musical Dangerous Beauty (lyrics by Amanda McBroom, book by Jeannine Dominy, directed by Sheryl Kaller) opening at the Pasadena Playhouse in February of 2011.  She co-wrote and produced the songs for sixteen animated features for Universal Studios, as well as all the songs for the Land Before Time television series.   This coming March, Universal Studios will release The Little Engine that Could, featuring Michele’s song “Joy of the Ride”, recorded by Corbin Bleu.  Brourman and Rae are currently at work on Table Turns, an evening of five short musicals for four actors,  Three of those “musical shorts”, presented initially in the  League of Professional Theatre Women’s New Play Festivals, have been finalists for the Heideman Award, given by the Actors’ Theatre of Louisville. Michele composed the dance and incidental music for the original Broadway production of Working.  Her songs have been featured in movies ( Shiloh and Shiloh Season) and television (Designing Women, Cagney and Lacey.) As a pianist and  musical director, Michele has worked with artists  Dixie Carter, Amanda McBroom, Tovah Feldshuh,  Bernadette Peters,  and others - and played piano in Bob Dylan’s band.  Her “personal” CD, Fools and Little Children, is available online.

Sheilah Rae (Co-bookwriter, Lyrics) Co-wrote Funny, You Don’t Look Like A Grandmother (Wyse-Waldman) published by Samuel French, and produced the show in Los Angeles.  3-time Finalist for the Heideman Award (with Michele Brourman): Lovelines, What Goes Around, and The Waiter. On the Page (Brourman) in Snapshots, Prospect Theater Company.  Upcoming: Table Turns (Brourman). Songwriter: Time, People, Doritos, Beechnut Baby Food, Ben Gay, New York/Nashville recording artists, TV.  Performer, Broadway/Tours: Fiddler On the Roof, Applause, The Rothschilds, and Company (Playwrights Horizons), Artist RCA, backup Barry Manilow.  Awards:  Billboard, Music City Song Festival, Variety, Rising Star Galaxy Award/NY Women’s Agenda. Past-council Songwriters Guild of America, Past-President League of Professional Theatre Women, now Advisory Board.  Board President of New York Theatre Barn. U of Michigan BMus., Royal Academy of Music, Guildhall School of Music and Drama. Member Dramatists Guild. www.sheilahrae.com

Thomas Edward West (Co-bookwriter) Over 25 years in the theatre as a playwright, librettist, director, artistic administrator and educator. As bookwriter: The Enchanted Cottage; Tom Sawyer, Class Clown, and The Play’s the Thing (also co-lyricist). Many plays, adaptations and translations produced Off-Broadway and in regional theatre; with Vincent Sardi wrote the coffee table book Off The Wall At Sardi's. As director: over fifty professional productions, Cheek By Jowl’s Vanity Fair, The Changeling and The Little Foxes Off-Broadway, Scapino, The School For Wives, A History of the American Film, and lots of Shakespeare (various regional theaters), and the Richard Rodgers Award presentation of Little Women at the York Theater. Graduate of Ashland University (BA) and Florida State University (MFA) and shares a collective Pulitzer Prize in Journalism with his colleagues at The Wall Street Journal.

Joe Barros (Choreographer) In addition to being the Producing Artistic Director of the New York Theatre Barn since its inception, Joe is a director, choreographer and a producer.  He is currently developing the new musical Speargrove Presents (which he also conceived), based on true events about a conservative Texas high school's planned production of the musical Rent.  Other directing, choreographing and producing credits - NY: Reefer Madness and Side Show (Gallery Players), Wood with Cady Huffman (NYMF, Emily Miller), Underwear: A Space Musical (FringeNYC), Cait Doyle's Hot Mess in Manhattan; regional: John & Jen, Evita, Anything Goes and Suds (New London Barn), John & Jen (San Francisco premiere), Winesburg, Ohio (Hartt School), The Last Five Years, Falsettos, Smile, Once on this Island; international: Fall in Love (Seoul, Korea); film: Mangus (writer/dir. Ash Christian) with Jennifer Coolidge, Leslie Jordan and John Waters; assisting: Josh Prince and Graciela Daniele.  Joe is originally from the San Francisco Bay Area where he attended the School of the Arts High School, received a BFA in Music Theatre from the The Hartt School, and is a member of the Stage Directors and Choreographers Society.
 

Cara Reichel (Director) is a writer and director, and serves as the Producing Artistic Director of the NYC-based non-profit Prospect Theater Company.  Over the past decade, she has co-created 11 new musicals with writer Peter Mills.  As a director, recent Prospect productions include: Once Upon a Time in New Jersey, Golden Boy of the Blue Ridge, Illyria, and Honor.  She also directed Iron Curtain at the 2009 NAMT Festival of New Musicals and the O’Neill Theatre Center (2008), and Othello for Oberon Theatre Ensemble (2010).  Education: Princeton University, and the M.F.A. Program at Brooklyn College.  Cara is a member of the Stage Directors and Choreographers Society, and the League of Professional Theatre Women. www.carareichel.com