Faculty Biographies

Amy White Graves - Co-Founder - Executive Director - is a music theatre educator and director, a voice and piano teacher, a Pilates instructor, and has performed across the country, in Boston and Off-Broadway in the hit I LOVE YOU, YOU'RE PERFECT, NOW CHANGE. Amy has served in some capacity (as a Music Director, Director/Choreographer, Production Manager, Publicity and Marketing Manager, Jingle-Writer, set and props designer, or all of the above) on every BCT production. She is also the Costume Designer for all of BCT's shows. She has been teaching music and theatre to children for 12 years. She holds a B.F.A. in Music Theatre from NYU Tisch-CAP 21 and is a member of Actors Equity Association and Screen Actors Guild.

Nicole Kempskie - Co-Founder - Artistic Advisor - started BCT with Amy White Graves in 2003 and served as Artistic Director for five years. She is a Media Educator and Associate at the Paley Center for Media, and a freelance director, choreographer and Arts Education consultant. She has taught for Broadway Classroom, ProMusica, Arts Connection, TADA and BAM. Her directing and choreography has been seen at North Shore Music Theatre, East Side Middle School, The Brearley School, Poly Prep, The New Players, Merkin Concert Hall/Kaufman Center, the Bank Street Theatre (The Moonlight Room), and for Disney, TheatreworksUSA (Max and Ruby 2008 & 2009 Spring Tours ) and New York University, among others. She has worked as a facilitator for Music Theatre International's Broadway Junior division, and has served as an advisor to Tams-Witmark, the Department of Education/Shubert Organization Broadway Jr. Pilot Program, and the Deptartment of Education Media Blueprint for the Arts. For BCT, Nicole has written: The Princely Frog; Where's Miss Buttercup; The Elephant Prince; School House Rock, Rocks; and this spring's The Lorax and Bugtown. She has a M.A. in Theatre and Sociology from the Gallatin School at NYU. She is a former and occasional actor and a member of Actors Equity Association and Screen Actors Guild.

Chris Heller - Artistic Director - is a veteran of the New York City public school system where she taught high school Drama, Dance, and Spanish for nine years at the Brooklyn School for Global Studies and the School for the Physical City. During that time she developed self-sustaining performing arts programs, directed 15 shows with middle school and high school students and collaborated with teaching artists and outside arts organizations to bring artists into the classroom. Chris is also the co-artistic director and founder of (re)ACTion Youth Theatre, a youth theatre program for teens ages 14-20. She also works as a freelance teaching artist at various New York City schools including residencies with Brooklyn Arts Exchange, CREATE! and Arts Connection. Chris is also on the faculty at Dance New Amsterdam where she teaches the Simonson Jazz Technique.She has a M.A. in Educational Theatre from New York University.

Jen Clarke - Music Director - has been an educator of children of all ages and adults for 15 years. Trained in classical piano, as a child she hid Broadway show sheet music inside her Mozart books. Since then, she has been an accompanist at the Studio Theatre (Washington D.C.), summer camps, ballet classes, as well as her own living room in Windsor Terrace, where she hosts regular "Don't Worry if You Think You're Tone Deaf" sing-a-longs. While not at BCT, Jen designs multimedia curricula and professional development workshops for an inquiry and project-based program that helps students develop teamwork, communication, problem-solving, and critical thinking skills. She also regularly trains for local triathalons, and always sings BCT songs in her head to give her the confidence and inspiration to complete the endurance events. Jen has music directed for BCT for the past three years. She has a Master's of Education and Media from Harvard Graduate School of Education.

Nellie Vishnevsky - Director/Choreographer is a Philadelphia native, and graduate of Pennsylvania State University's School of Theatre. While at Penn State, Nellie was part of Drama Duo, a traveling children's theatre troupe that performed at underprivileged schools in the region. Since graduation, she has studied advanced acting at the Walnut Street Theatre and taught acting workshops for kids outside of New York City. Nellie has training in hip hop, African, and ballroom dance, and has acted on stage and film. She holds Bachelor's degrees in Theatre and Broadcast Journalism, with a concentration in French.

Resident Composers/Lyricists/Playwrights

Daniel Acquisto - Composer - and Sammy Buck are the 2004 winners of The National Music Theater Network and The Theater for the American Musicals’ inaugural New Voices Prize for the musical Like You Like It. Dan has been commissioned to write pieces for theatre (Dancing in the Dark, Antigone: The Rock Musical - Studio Arena Theatre, TADA!, eight children's musicals for Merkin Hall, Indiana State Fair), incidental theatre music for the Subjective Theatre Company and All Out Arts Festival, as well as non-theatrical commissions. He also participated writing ten-minute musicals for the ATrain Musicals, Raw Impressions, and FUSE concert theatre group. He has scored three film shorts and participated in the NYU/ASCAP Film Scoring Workshop. Daniel is also a music director, percussionist, arranger and orchestrator. In addition to that, he works as a music copyist and music educator. Daniel thanks his friends and family for their support and God for everything else. Member of ASCAP and The Dramatist Guild, Inc. He holds a MM in Composition from the Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music.

Robby Stamper - Composer

Robby has been a musical director, composer and performer with Walt Disney Entertainment since 1991. He is currently the musical director for Disney Theatrical's Cub School. Cub School works with children preparing them for young roles in The Lion King, Mary Poppins and The Little Mermaid on Broadway. He recently composed the song, Sea of Imagination for Tokyo Disney Seas 5th Anniversary.

For BCT, Robby has composed the music for Where's Miss Buttercup?, The Princely Frog, and this fall's The Elephant Prince. Besides his writing for BCT, Robby has written the mini musical Picture Perfect (York Theatre), So Unexpected (City Center), Aimee Semple and Tiara Girl (York Theatre's 4@15) and contributed the song Change is Strange to TADA's production of Everything About a Family (Almost). He is a member of the BMI Musical Theatre Composers Workshop and most recently received a Dramatist Guild Fellowship for his musical Aimee Semple.

Steve Saari - Composer

Steve is a piantist/musical director who has worked extensively in New York City and across the country. He has music directed and performed on Broadway, Off-Broadway, regionally and internationally. His solo piano recording Variations on a Theme was released in 2001 in association with Waddell Production and Soapbox Records.

For BCT, Steve has composed Little Golden Hood, The Lupine Lady and is currently composing a third production for this fall. He was the arranger and musical director for the opening number of the 2007 Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade which featured 600 young performers from around the United States.

He is on staff at the American Girl Place live theatre in New York City, which features young girls and adults, and has served as a musical director and arranger with Camp Broadway. www.stevesaari.com

Wendy Gross Baker - Contributing Playwright

Wendy is a stage director, educator and playwright. In NY, she has directed for Michael Howard Studio, Prism Production, Stepforward Productions, Groundworks Productions, The American Musical and Dramatic Academy, The Roundabout Theatre Conservatory, The Mannes School and the Lucy Moses School for Music and Dance.

Wendy was the Artistic Director of a Youth Theatre Company in Seattle, Washington from 1997 - 2001 where she founded Seattle's only ongoing Young Playwrights Festival. She currently works as an Artist-in-Residence at Manhattan School for Children on the Upper West Side, in the White Plains school district and in the Pelham school district.

As a performer, Wendy has appeared in over thirty productions. She was a member of The Poppy Seed Players, the resident theatre company at the Elaine Kaufman Cultural Center in Manhattan. Wendy's cabaret group "Paranoise," were named the 1993 - 1994 "Entertainers of the Year" by CaB Magazine.

Wendy holds a B.S. in Acting and Directing with a minor in Voice from Syracuse University. In 1985, she studied abroad at the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Arts. In the early 90's, graduate studies included Theatre in Education coursework at Hunter College.