The Team

Steve Dorff - Music

A 3-time Grammy nominee and 5-time Emmy nominee, Steve Dorff has written nine #1 songs and 15 Top Ten hits including Kenny Rogers’s classic Through the Years and Anne Murray’s I Just Fall in Love Again. His songs have been sung by some of the greatest recording artists of our time, including Celine Dion (Miracle), Barbra Streisand (Higher Ground), George Strait (I Cross My Heart), Clay Walker (Hypnotize the Moon), Whitney Houston (Take Good Care of My Heart), and Eddie Rabbit (Every Which Way But Loose).

John Bettis - Lyrics

Nominated for Emmys (twice), Grammys (thrice), a Golden Globe and an Oscar, John Bettis has written songs that have sold more than 250 million records for artists as diverse as George Strait (Heartland), Celine Dion (If You Could See Me Now), Madonna (Crazy For You), Michael Jackson (Human Nature), Whitney Houston (One Moment in Time), and Conway Twitty (Slow Hand). In 1969, he and friends Richard and Karen started the band The Carpenters, for which John wrote Top of the World, Yesterday Once More, Goodbye to Love, and many others. His first stage musical with Steve Dorff was Lunch in 1994, and they are now collaborating on a musical about Josephine Baker.

Rex McGee - Book

Mr. McGee wrote the Warner Brothers film Pure Country on which this new musical is based. A protege of Oscar-winning filmmaker Billy Wilder, his screenplays include Tiny Revolution and Whistling Dixie and the Hallmark Mother’s Day television movie, Where There’s a Will starring Marion Ross and Keith Carradine. He is currently working on a new original screenplay about Texas debutantes, Nose to the Toes. As a journalist, McGee has written for Playboy and TV Guide.

Peter Masterson - Director and Book Co-Writer

Mr. Masterson created the worldwide musical hit The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas and directed the film of Horton Foote’s The Trip to Bountiful for which the actress Geraldine Page won the Academy Award. Mr. Masterson started out as a New York and Broadway stage actor in the early ‘60s, but switched to feature films by mid-decade, making his debut in Ambush Bay. His notable films from this period include Norman Jewison’s In the Heat of the Night and a starring role in The Stepford Wives. He’s on the Board of the Actors Studio in New York and a creative advisor to Robert Redford’s Sundance Institute.

Warren Carlyle (Musical Staging & Choreography)

Warren most recently directed and choreographed the highly acclaimed Broadway production of Finian’s Rainbow after its Encores! revival in March 2009. Selected additional New York credits: directed and choreographed A Tale of Two Cities (Broadway), choreographed On the Town, Juno, and Stairway to Paradise (all Encores! at City Center); You Again (NY Fringe), Working (Zipper), Slut! (ATA), Roundabout 40th Gala 2006, and The 24 Hour Musicals at the Public Theater. Regionally, he has choreographed Lucky Guy (Goodspeed), Mame (Kennedy Center), The Pirates of Penzance (Papermill; Goodspeed; Best Choreography, CT Critics Circle Award), The Baker’s Wife (Goodspeed), and Pageant (Second City Chicago). In his Native England, his work has included has included Me and My Girl (director and choreographer, UK Tour; Best Production 2007 Theater Goers Choice Award), The Goodbye Girl (1st UK National Tour), Pageant (Vaudeville Theater), Sondheim’s Moving On (Bridewell Theater), and Scrooge (European Tour). He is represented on film and television by “Deception” starring Hugh Jackman (20th Century Fox), “Hope and Faith” (ABC), “An Evening at the Boston Pops” (PBS), and Elton John’s “Made in England” video. As a resident director and choreographer, Mr. Carlyle’s productions have included Jolson (London, Toronto), Fosse (London), and Oklahoma (London). As associate choreographer he has contributed to The Producers (Broadway, Worldwide and film), Oklahoma! (Broadway),and “Center Stage” (film).

Derick McLane - Scenic Design

Mr. McLane's Broadway include: The Pajama Game (2006 Tony nomination), Grease, The Threepenny Opera, Little Women, I Am My Own Wife (Lortel and Obie awards), Barefoot in the Park, Lestat, The Women, Present Laughter, London Assurance, Holiday and others. Off-Broadway he designed: The Voysey Inheritance (Lortel Award, Outer Critics nomination), Two Trains Running, The Scene, Macbeth (Shakespeare in the Park), Hurlyburly, Abigail’s Party, Modern Orthodox, Aunt Dan and Lemon, East Is East, subUrbia, Saturday Night. He designed the entire Sondheim Celebration at The Kennedy Center and has designed productions at most of the major resident theatres and opera companies across the U.S. Additional awards: two Obie Awards for Sustained Excellence in Scenic Design, Drama-Logue Award, Michael Merritt Award (Chicago), seven Drama Desk nominations, three Lortel Awards.

Ann Roth - Costume Design

Ms. Roth's theatre credits include Hurlyburly, The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas, Singin' in the Rain, Purlie, The Odd Couple, Butley, Waiting for Godot, The House of Blue Leaves and the recent The Year of Magical Thinking and The Vertical Hour. She received Tony nominations for The Crucifer of Blood, The Royal Family and Present Laughter. Among her many films are Midnight Cowboy, Klute, The Day of the Locust (BAFTA Award), The Goodbye Girl, Coming Home, Hair, The World According to Garp, Sweet Dreams, Working Girl, Sabrina, Silkwood, The Unbearable Lightness of Being, The Mambo Kings, The Bird Cage, Primary Colors, The English Patient (Academy Award), The Talented Mr. Ripley, The Hours, Cold Mountain, Angels in America, The Stepford Wives, The Village and Closer. In 2000, she received the Irene Sharaff Lifetime Achievement Award

Kevin Adams - Lighting Design

Broadway: Spring Awakening (Tony Award, Hewes Award), The 39 Steps, Passing Strange, Take Me Out, The Good Body, Sexaholix, Hedda Gabler. Off-Broadway: Hedwig and the Angry Inch, Spring Awakening, Next to Normal, Betty Rules and new work by Edward Albee, Terrence McNally, Neil Simon, Paula Vogel, Christopher Durang, Anna Deavere Smith, Eric Bogosian and Charles Mee, Jr. Other: Steppenwolf, Donmar Warehouse, P.S. 122, Joe’s Pub, Encores!, Lincoln Center, Kennedy Center, New York City Opera, Glimmerglass Opera. Additional awards: 1999 and 2007 Lucille Lortel; 2002 Obie for Sustained Excellence.

Acme Sound Partners - Sound Design

Since 2000, Acme has provided sound design services for over 20 Broadway shows including In the Heights, Legally Blonde, A Chorus Line (2006), Monty Python's Spamalot and Avenue Q. They received a Drama Desk Award for their work on Baz Luhrmann's La Bohéme. The partners are: Tom Clark, Mark Menard and Nevin Steinberg.

Randall Wreghitt - Producer

Broadway: Grey Gardens, The Lieutenant of Inishmore, Little Women, Golda’s Balcony, Metamorphoses, Hedda Gabler, One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, Electra, The Lonesome West, Band in Berlin, The Beauty Queen of Leenane and The Real Thing (associate producer). His productions have been nominated for 41 Tony Awards with 12 wins. Off-Broadway: The Waverly Gallery, As Bees in Honey Drown, The Springhill Singing Disaster, The Boys in the Band, The Food Chain, Camping with Henry and Tom, Zombie Prom and Three Tall Women (associate producer). London: The Boys in the Band, Lobby Hero. Tour: Little Women. Edinburgh: Velocity. Regionally: Crush... Film: A Tale of Two Pizzas. Television: the upcoming Broadway Bullpen. Robert Whitehead Award for “outstanding achievement in commercial theatrical producing.” Randall established Pro-Marketing, a marketing and promotions company and serves on the board of Early Stages. Upcoming Theater: The Miracle Worker, The Great Game, Talley’s Folly, Execution of Justice, Camille, the 30th Anniversary production of The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas and the new musical Pepita: Senorita .)

Chris Presley – Producer

Chris Presley began his career in Texas as the Producing Artistic Director of Deep Ellum Opera Theatre and Executive Director of The Classics—Theatre & Art for Children. Upon moving to New York, he was the SSDC Observer to Michael Mayer on the Tony-Winning revival of A View from the Bridge, later traveling to London to work on Miss Saigon and returning to assist Carlin Glynn, then Ed Sherrin on Broadway. As a producer, he helped capitalize All Shook Up on Broadway and is currently working on the first Broadway revival of The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas and the new rock musical, Caligula — which he is directing. Also in New York, Chris has worked on the teams of such shows as the long-running off-Broadway hit I Love You, You’re Perfect, Now Change and six editions of the Tony-honored Forbidden Broadway, among many others. As a teacher, Chris has served on the faculty of The American Academy of Dramatic Arts and taught workshops and seminars at Baruch College, NYU, Pratt Institute, The New School and The University of Texas School of Law. Through his company, Basis Stages, he consults for corporate clients such as State Farm, Bank of America and AT&T. He holds a BS in Radio, Television and Film from The University of Texas at Austin and an MFA in Directing from The Actors Studio Drama School where he currently serves as Director of Professional Development. Chris is a member of The Stage Directors and Choreographers Society and a lifetime member of The Actors Studio.

Ellen Rusconi – Producer

Ellen Rusconi started her career as a C.P.A. for Price Waterhouse in New York, where she was assigned to clients ranging from the New York Stock Exchange to Con Edison. Since 1992, she has worked in commercial and not-for-profit theatre on Broadway, Off-Broadway, sit-down productions around the country, European tours and corporate industrials. She general managed New York’s Forbidden Broadway, which received the Tony Honor for Excellence in Theatre. Other management projects include Irma Vep, Toxic Avenger (a new musical) and Forbidden Broadway in Miami. She is the Business Manager of the Stage Director and Choreographer’s Foundation and recently served as the Honorary Co-Chair of the City Lights Youth Theatre Benefit in 2008. She is a graduate of The University of Virginia.

Lary Brandt – Producer

After an extended hiatus in which he concentrated on strategic marketing for AT&T and clients such as Nabisco and Cold-Eeze, Lary turned his focus back to the theater. Currently he is on the producing team of Alfred Hitchcock’s The 39 Steps at New World Stages. As a founding member of Roy Brocksmith’s California Cottage Theater in Los Angeles, Lary produced and directed plays by new and emerging playwrights. In addition to theater, he has produced fashion shows and live events featuring Tony and Grammy Award-winning talent, including An Evening With Christine Ebersole and Sheena Easton in Concert.

Meredith Lucio – Producer

Meredith Lucio is President of Wild Bird Productions, Inc, a production and management company, which focuses on creating new work with an emphasis on compelling storytelling. Meredith is currently on the producing team of Alfred Hitchcock’s The 39 Steps at New World Stages and was previously on the producing team of Rooms, a Rock Romance which premiered Off-Broadway in the spring of 2009 (Original Cast Album released in February 2010.) Other productions include Take Me America, Opa!, and High Cotton. Meredith also writes a column online at www.TheatreExaminer.com, which focuses on the business and development of New York Theatre. Originally from Wichita Falls, Texas, Meredith is a graduate of Texas Wesleyan University. Her heroes have always been cowboys.  www.CaptureTheWildBird.com