Over his eclectic career, John Stothers has worked as an actor, writer, director and composer in television commercials, musical theatre, opera, and recordings. John has devoted much of the last ten years to the creation and mounting of Pilgrim. As a concert work, Pilgrim has previously been presented locally and in New York. His recent projects have been as composer and arranger for various recordings and theatrical events, including music for Busch Entertainment’s SeaWorld shows. In addition, John has written, performed and recorded solo offerings, including songs from daddy, a father’s reflections on babyhood. Pilgrim is John’s eleventh musical; the twelfth will be Thunderbabe the Musical, book by Bobbi Fagone, soon to come to a theater near you. A Los Angeles native, John currently lives in Pasadena with his wife Sandy and their two sons, Caleb and Rawlin.

NICK DEGRUCCIO DIRECTION (SSDC) is the recipient of the LA Ovation Award as best director of both a play and musical, including Performance Riverside’s 1776 (5 LA Ovation Awards including Best Musical) and the Laguna Playhouse’s and Colony Theatre Company’s LA premiere of The Laramie Project (Best Play, Best Direction, Best Ensemble). He recently directed the Rubicon Theatre Company/ Pasadena Playhouse productions of Side By Side By Sondheim (2004 nominations for best Production and Ensemble). Nick’s LA premiere of Side Show received 8 Ovation Nominations including direction and was voted One Of The Top 10 Plays of 2002 by the LA Times. He recently directed the LA Premieres of A Man of No Importance and Lippa’s The Wild Party for MTG. Other award-winning productions include Guys and Dolls for Musical Theatre West (4 2005 LA Ovation Award nominations), The Spitfire Grill at Laguna Playhouse (OC Award for Best Musical), My Way for McCoy-Rigby Entertainment, The Fantasticks, for Performance Riverside, Basic Training (NAACP Nomination for Direction of a Play) at 2nd Stage and La Cage Aux Folles for Musical Theatre West which also received LA Ovation Nominations. Additional work includes Wilde’s An Ideal Husband, City of Angels, the West Coast Premiere of Sondheim’s Putting It Together, and Williams’ Suddenly Last Summer for the Colony Theatre. For Musical Theatre Guild: Two By Two, How Now Dow Jones, The History of The Musical Theatre in 44 Minutes and 28 Seconds, a production that toured Los Angeles schools.  

Jason Nyberg is a television and film composer whose diverse creativity can be seen in the score for the 2005 feature film, Breaking Dawn, and the documentary, Houdini. His theme-driven works have also been heard in trailers and TV spots for many films, including Mona Lisa Smile, Old School, Sky High, Kicking and Screaming, and many more. He has written original music for the World Series, ESPN, The Miss America Pageant, and numerous commercials. He currently lives in Minnesota with his wife Jenny, and their three children, Grace, Ryan, and Sean. www.nybergmusic.com

Josie Walsh, former professional dancer with the Joffrey Ballet, Zurich Ballet, Oregon Ballet Theatre and Los Angeles Chamber Ballet, is the director / choreographer of MYO, a cuttingedge contemporary dance and circus arts theatre company. Choreographic credits include: Walt Disney’s feature of Tinker Bell, MGM movie premiere Bullet Proof Monk, CBS sitcom That’s Life, LA Music Awards, 2004 Grammy Music Industrial, Paul Mitchell / Robert Cromeans Industrial, Project Angel Food, Aeolian Ballet Theatre, Zurich Opera, MYO productions: Garden of Reason, Image-Nation, Gone with the Whim, Avalon and Carnivinyl. For more on Walsh’s MYO Dance Company, visit www.myodance.com

Recent designs: Private Lives for the Pasadena Playhouse, Pera Palas (Ovation Award, LADCC Award) for the Theatre @ Boston Court and the Antaeus Company, Mozart In the House for the L.A. Philharmonic / Disney Concert Hall, Sleuth for the Falcon Theatre, The Turn Of the Screw and Tuesdays with Morrie for the Rubicon Theatre, The Ladies of the Camellias and Toys In the Attic for the Colony Theatre, Mirror-Mirror for the 24th Street Theatre, Jesus’ Kid Brother, Four Guys Named Jose, Dinah Was and Agnes of God for I.C.T. in Long Beach, The Bungler and Sunday In The Park with George for the West Coast Ensemble, Light, Romeo & Juliet - Antebellum New Orleans and Summertime for the Theatre @ Boston Court, and Proof for South Coast Repertory. Tom has Designed Sets for 16 Productions at A Noise Within including Measure for Measure, Hayfever, Bus Stop and Much Ado About Nothing. Notable Designs Include: Titanic for Civic Light Opera of South Bay Cities, A Delicate Balance for South Coast Repertory, Death of a Salesman for the Interact Theatre Company, Under the Blue Sky for the Geffen Playhouse, Against the Glass (Ovation Award) at the Court Theatre and A Midsummer Night’s Dream for P.C.P.A./Westwood Playhouse. Tom received the 2004 Los Angeles Drama Critics Circle Career Achievement Award for Scenic Design. Regional Credits Include Designs for: P.C.P.A. Theatrefest, San Diego Repertory, Portland Repertory, Denver Center Theatre Company, Acting Company of Riverside, Arizona Theatre Company, Music Theatre of Santa Barbara, The La Mirada Theatre, The Apollo Theatre in Chicago, The Queens Playhouse and the Helen Hayes Center in New York. Television Designs Include: The current AMC channel hit “Sunday Morning Shootout,” “Mr.Show,” “Def Comedy Jam,” “HBO Comedy Hour” and “Sketch Pad” for HBO, “Battlebots” and “the Hollow Men” for Comedy Central, and Specials and Series for ABC, CBS, NBC, PBS, MTV, ESPN, Fox, Disney, USA, UPN, VH1, PAX, A&E, Discovery and National Geographic.

Steven has designed theatrical lighting throughout Southern California, including Songs For A New World (Ovation Award winner) at the Rubicon Theatre in Ventura, JOB: The Hip-Hopera at the Stella Adler in Hollywood, Side Show (Garland Award, Robby Award) and The Laramie Project (Ovation Award nomination) for the Colony Theatre in Burbank, She Loves Me for Reprise! Broadway’s Best; Cabaret for Moonlight Amphitheatre in Vista; Jekyll & Hyde for Civic Light Opera of South Bay Cities, Hot Mikado (Garland Award) and Ragtime for Musical Theatre West, My Way for McCoy-Rigby Entertainment in La Mirada, Summertime (Ovation Award nomination) for Theatre@Boston Court in Pasadena, Letting Go of God with Julia Sweeney at the Hudson Backstage, Basic Training and Les Liaisons Dangereuses, and The Wild Party at the Blank Theatre in Hollywood; Side By Side By Sondheim and Showtune at the Pasadena Playhouse, plus five years as resident designer for Performance Riverside. Steven has also designed for Coconut Grove Playhouse, South Coast Repertory, Long Beach Symphony Orchestra, Laguna Playhouse, Gay Men’s Chorus of Los Angeles, and Cincinnati Playhouse in the Park. Steven has designed extensively for the theme park industry, including lead design for the Ruzika Company on Universal Studios Islands of Adventure Cat in the Hat attraction, Warner Bros Movie World Maverick, Magic of the West stage show in both Australia and Germany and Knott’s Berry Farm Wave Runner pre-show areas. Under the guidance of Patrick Gallegos, Steven designed lighting systems and concepts for the LEGOLAND LEGO Racers 4D in California, Billund, and Windsor, plus architectural spaces in Pasadena, Cerritos and Kansas City. Steven was recently honored with the Angstrom Lifetime Achievement Award in Lighting Design by the Los Angeles Drama Critics Circle. For more information and a complete listing of projects, please see www.syoungld.com

Drew’s recent sound designs include Man From Nebraska, Christmas Carol, The Hoboken Chicken Emergency, Intimate Exchanges, and Sideways Stories from the Wayside School at South Coast Repertory; Tick, Tick…BOOM!, and Songs for a New World (Ovation Award) at The Rubicon Theatre; The Grand Tour, Sherlock’s Last Case, Indoor/Outdoor, Accomplice, Grand Hotel, Around the World in 80 Days, The Drawer Boy, Side Show (Ovation Nomination), The Laramie Project, You’re A Good Man Charlie Brown, Fuddy Meers, Gunmetal Blues and Donna McKechnie: Inside The Music at The Colony Theatre; Speaking in Tongues, The Cosmonaut’s Last Message to a Woman He Once Loved in the Former Soviet Union, Fen (Garland Award), The Mound Builders, and As I Lay Dying (Ovation Nomination) at The Open Fist Theatre; Letting Go of God with Julia Sweeney; and The Laramie Project at The Laguna Playhouse. He has also designed with The Alliance Theatre, The Strasberg Theatre, The Eclectic Company Theatre, The Sacred Fools Theatre, and The Echo Theatre Company where he is the associate Artistic Director. Drew has lectured at Yale, The University of Missouri Kansas City, North Carolina School for the Arts, and Pomona College. Recent theme park work includes Space Mountain at Disneyland, as well as attractions at Universal Studios, Sea World, and Paramount Parks. Drew won the 1998 USITT Clear Com Sound Achievement award, and holds an MFA in Sound Design from CCM at The University of Cincinnati.

Sharell has had the good fortune to be affiliated with such production companies as Performance Riverside with Mr. Steve Glaudini, The Welk Group, Signature Productions, Musical Theater West, Limon/Carr, Crazy Pup, ABC, AFI, Mad Dog, Turning Leaf, FCLO, South Bay, Moonlight Stage productions, Visualliner, Brooklyn Reptyle Films, The Melody Lingers On at the El Portal with Katherine Crosby and Bark! -Chicago. Sharell also just finished designing Aida for The Lyric Theatre, Music Theater of Wichita and FCLO. For these fine companies she has designed critically acclaimed-award winning shows like Jekyll & Hyde (West Coast Premiere) My Fair Lady (National Tour) Grease, Company, Jesus Christ Super Star, Sweeney Todd, Sweet Charity, The Music Man, Carousel, Cabaret, Children Of Eden, The King And I, Aida, Showboat, Camelot, Into The Woods, The Sound Of Music, Swing Time Canteen, The Melody Lingers On, Annie Get Your Gun, The Rocky Horror Picture Show, Singing In The Rain, Tin Pan Alley Rag, Oliver, Joseph And The Amazing... (far too many times to mention). Sharell has also just wrapped her 4th film in addition to building a rental package of “Beauty & the Beast” for the Mid West. She recently opened Bark! in Chicago to rave reviews. Sharell is scheduled to work on the feature film “Francis Hamper” later this spring. She would like to thank John Stothers for intrusting her with his musical, Nick for making that call and Steve Glaudini for answering. PILGRIM has been an unbelievable time of extraordinary creative minds and talents coming together… to remind us all that the journey is worth the taking and we all should dare to dream!

David specializes in the marketing and publicity of Los Angeles theatre. DEMAND PR currently represents The Antaeus Theatre Company, Apartment A; Celebration Theatre; Circle X Theatre Company; Colony Theatre Company; Gay Men’s Chorus of Los Angeles; Laguna Playhouse, REPRISE! Broadway’s Best; Rubicon Theatre Company; Theatre Tribe; Third Stage Company; West Coast Ensemble and West Coast Jewish Theatre. David also oversaw the publicity for the Los Angeles production of Disney’s “The Lion King”. As a producer, Mr. Elzer has produced The Laramie Project at the Laguna Playhouse; Catalpa and Shyness is Nice for the Alliance Repertory Company and is an associate producer on Haywire! and the New York and Florida productions of Jewtopia. He is also serving as a publicity consultant on Sony Pictures upcoming release of Jonathan Larson’s RENT.

Prior to “The Lion King”, he was Vice President of Publicity for Paramount Classics and Vice President of Marketing and Publicity for Trimark Pictures. He also served as Director of National Publicity at 20th CENTURY FOX. Some of the film publicity campaigns he has worked on include: “Mrs. Doubtfire,” “True Lies” “Eve’s Bayou,” “Billy’s Hollywood Screen Kiss,” “ALIEN3,” “The Virgin Suicides,” “Toys,” “Robin Hood: Men In Tights,” “Slam,” “Another Day in Paradise,” among many others.

DEMAND PR’s current and recent theatre projects include: The Grand Tour, Indoor/ Outdoor, Sherlock’s Last Case, Accomplice, Grand Hotel: The Musical, The Ladies of the Camellias, Toys in the Attic, The Laramie Project and Side Show at the Colony Theatre; Four, Buddies, Hedwig and the Angry Inch, Pinafore! and Naked Will at the Celebration Theatre; tick…tick…BOOM!, Shirley Valentine, Songs for a New World, Waiting for Godot and Night of the Iguana at Rubicon Theatre Company; On the Town, Applause, Pippin, Brigadoon and Company for REPRISE! Broadway’s Best at the Freud Playhouse. Have I Reached the Party with Lily Tomlin, Swing, Santa Swing, Spotlight on Los Angeles and Holiday Inn & Out for Gay Men’s Chorus of Los Angeles; Two Gentlemen of Corona; Floyd Collins, Catch- 22, Wonder of the World, Sunday in the Park with George, The Grapes of Wrath and Epic Proportions at West Coast Ensemble; Oklahomo at Third Stage; The Intern at Theatre Tribe; Ascension, Three, An Evening on The Brink for Apartment A; Bad Dates, The Musical of Musicals; The Musical! at Laguna Playhouse; Honour at the Matrix; Lessons for West Coast Jewish Theatre; Atalanta at the Powerhouse; Lucid Sound for Sight Unseen Theatre Group, Waving Goodbye for Syzygy; When it Comes To Women and The Good Soldier at the Odyssey, Hollywood Hell House at the Steve Allen, Matt & Ben at the Acme, Sam. and Menopause the Musical at the Coronet, Turnaround, Bark!, Jewtopia at the Coast Playhouse and Julia Sweeney: Letting Go of God at the Hudson, among many others.

Mr. Elzer is also a producer of theatre, serving as an associate producer on the New York, Chicago and South Florida productions of Jewtopia. Additionally, he served as a producer on the Los Angeles production of The Laramie Project at the Laguna Playhouse; Basic Training at the 2nd Stage and Shyness Is Nice and Catalpa at Alliance Repertory Company. 

Vernon Willet just closed Jonathan Larson’s Tick Tick Boom! at the Rubicon Theatre in Ventura with Scott Schwartz, the original director. Other shows at Rubicon include Jacques Brel... and Lady Macbeth Sings The Blues. At the Laguna Playhouse: Steve Martin’s Underpants and Theresa Rebeck’s Bad Dates. Prior to that, he helmed the critically acclaimed Sherlock’s Last Case, Grand Hotel The Musical and Ladies Of The Camellias at the Colony Theatre in Burbank. He has worked on several incarnations of The Kathy & Mo Show, starring Kathy Najimy and Mo Gaffney.

Mr. Willet has worked with the Oregon Ballet Theatre and the Marla Bingham Contemporary Ballet and was the Production Manager for the Musical Theatre Guild in Los Angeles and has worked in many of the local theaters including the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion, the Henry Fonda Theatre, Cerritos Center for the Performing Arts, the Alex Theatre, La Mirada Center for the Performing Arts, the Pasadena Playhouse, the Canon Theatre, the Thousand Oaks Civic Arts Performing Complex, the Carpenter Performing Arts Center and the Los Angeles Theatre Center. His production company, Night & Day Entertainment, is shared with creative partner Cate Caplin and specializes in custom designed entertainment for private parties, trade shows and corporate events. Mr. Willet has been a proud member of Actors Equity Association since 1983.

Linda Tross is thrilled to be assisting Mr. Willet on Pilgrim. Linda just completed stage managing The Glass Menagerie at the Colony Theatre. Prior to that, she staged managed Crystal Cathedral’s newest multimedia production, Creation. Nine productions for the Rubicon Theatre Company, having the privilege of taking The Night of the Iguana, starring Stephanie Zimbalist and Efrem Zimbalist Jr., to the Manitoba Theatre Centre in Winnipeg, Manitoba last year. Other credits include Fame, Evita, Six Women with Brain Death and The Sound of Music for Theatre League; Knightlife for Music Theatre of Santa Barbara; Milk and Honey for University of Judaism; six concert productions for Musical Theatre Guild at the Pasadena Playhouse and the Alex Theatre, to name a few. Ms. Tross hails from Lombard, IL and served as the Resident Stage Manager for the Candlelight / Forum Theatres for 14 years. In her spare time, Linda stage manages for the Terminator 2 3D attraction at Universal Studios. Proud member of Actors’ Equity. 

Michael Donovan casts for film, theatre, television and commercials. His credits include the upcoming features Comedy Hell and Hot Tamale, nine TV series, and over 1,000 commercials. Michael casts extensively for the theatre, and is the recent recipient of the Casting Society of America’s Artios award, given for Outstanding Achievement in Casting. Current and upcoming productions include Sherlock Holmes: The Final Adventure (both at Pasadena Playhouse and Arizona Theatre Company), Bark! (both at the Coast Playhouse in L.A., and at the Chicago Center for the Performing Arts), The Story (at I.C.T. in Long Beach) and Zorba (Reprise!). Recent credits include A Picture of Dorian Gray (at The Theatre @ Boston Court in Pasadena), and Jesus’ Kid Brother (at I.C.T.). Michael is the Artistic Director of the newly-formed Culver City Playhouse.

Mr. Curtis brings his experience in business and publishing to the production. As a manager with Skyquest, Inc., he has provided leadership to multiple entrepreneurial start-up ventures. Tom has worked in the Office of the President at USC where he was involved with advancement and database management. He graduated magna cum laude from the Marshall School of Business at the University of Southern California, and is currently completing his Master of Business Administration part-time at the Peter F. Drucker School of Management at The Claremont Graduate University.

Mr. Lant is a 25 year veteran in the entertainment industry, and has been involved in over 500 television, film, and theatrical productions as a creative entity and/or production manager. John professionally apprenticed at the Alliance Theatre in Atlanta, and in New York with the Lincoln Center, Julliard, Carnegie Hall, Circle Rep, Circle in the Square, WPA, Hudson Guild and Ensemble Studio Theatre. He participated on several national tours including Phantom of the Opera, Evita, Singin’ in the Rain, One Mo’ Time, Gypsy and Aeros. John is an award winning producer, director, writer, lighting and set designer in New York and Los Angeles with over 300 productions to his credit. He is the Artistic Director of JBTC Productions, Hollywood Civic Light Opera, and Producing Artistic Director of Write Act Repertory in Los Angeles. He served as the Executive Producer of XM Radio’s #1 Sonic Radio’s show, New Frequency - Theatre of the Mind from 2000-2005. In addition, he has produced over 75 world premieres at historic theatres around the Los Angeles area, directed 12 TV pilots, commercials, and music videos, produced seven independent films, and has several plays and screenplays produced or in production, since 1988.

Don Frantz is currently in development with Jill Santoriello’s Broadwaybound A Tale Of Two Cities, the Rupert Holmes’ dance fusion musical Swango and John Stothers’ Los Angeles production of Pilgrim. He has previously general managed the Broadway and off-Broadway productions of A Class Act, Summer of ‘42 and the National Tour of Spirit, The 7th Fire. For themed attractions, Don developed and produced the award winning Katonga for Busch Gardens, Tampa and is currently Producer/Creative Director for Believe - the new vision for SeaWorld’s killer whale show to be produced in Orlando, San Diego, and San Antonio in spring of ‘06. For the Walt Disney Company, Don served as the Associate Producer of Broadway’s Beauty And The Beast and The Lion King. At Walt Disney World, he produced and directed SpectroMagic. Don is a three-time winner of the Guinness Record for the World’s Largest Maze for his “Amazing Maize Maze” that has entertained over 2,500,000 players since 1993 and instigated a maze fad around the world. His newest venture is “Walkin’ Broadway,” a celebrity, musical audio tour of the Broadway theater district. For Hyperion Press he authored the book, “A Celebration of the Broadway Musical, Beauty and the Beast.”