Faculty Biographies
BCT was founded in 2004 by Amy White Graves and Nicole Kempskie
Amy White Graves - Executive Director
Amy White Graves is a music theatre educator and director, a voice and piano teacher, and has performed across the country and Off-Broadway in the hit "I LOVE YOU, YOU'RE PERFECT, NOW CHANGE" from 2000 to the present. Amy has served in some capacity (as a Music Director, Director/Choreographer, Production Manager, Publicity and Marketing Manager, Jingle-Writer, set, props, and costume designer, or all of the above) on every BCT production. She has been teaching music and theatre to children for 15 years. She holds a B.F.A. in Acting from NYU Tisch-CAP 21 and is a member of Actors Equity Association and Screen Actors Guild.
Chris Heller - Artistic Director
Chris Heller 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.
Scott Davis - Music Director/Composer
After attending Emerson College in Boston as well as AMDA in New York City, SCOTT set his sights on becoming a composer/lyricst. Since then, he has presented concerts of his work at Club Cafe, Boston, Don’t Tell Mama’s NYC, Alabama and BIRDLAND, NYC. Scott has his debut album coming out in December called “Cautiously Optimistic” featuring performances by Faith Prince, Liz Callaway, Jason Graae, Lisa Howard, Nikki Renee Daniels and others. Scott has been privelaged to also have Rebecca Luker, Alison Fraser, and Kristen Chenoweth either perform or acknowledge his work. Scott has been a vocal coach/musical director for the past 12 years. He has taught for TADA!, Arts Connection, and written musicals and instructed at Brooklyn Children’s Theatre now for almost three years. He is dedicated to teaching young performers and has an approach that is fun and exciting while enabling children to see performing in a new light. More at www.scottevandavis.com. Read The Huffington Post's review of Mr. Davis' CD: listed as a "Top 5 Must Have"
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/david-finkle/easy-listener-todays-must_b_1237202.html
Jocelyn Greene - Director/Choreographer
Jocelyn Greene is the Founder and Executive Director of Child’s Play NY (for more information visit www.childsplayny.com <http://www.childsplayny.com> ) where she runs programming for children ages 3-10 in Dramatic Play, Musicals, Shakespeare and more. Child’s Play NY is currently at Packer Collegiete Institute, Berkeley Carroll School, Greene Hill School, and Moomah in Tribeca as well as offering private classes in Brooklyn. Jocelyn has worked with children in theaters across the country, including Oddfellows Playhouse (CT), Will Power to Youth (CA) and Interplay (CA). She is a teaching artist with Epic Theater Ensemble in New York, bringing Shakespeare into the city’s public high schools. Jocelyn is a member of Actors Equity Association and has performed at The Public Theatre, Ensemble Studio Theatre and New York Theatre Workshop among others. She holds an MFA in Acting from NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts and a BA in English and Spanish Literature from Wesleyan University.
Eric Mark Olson - Director/Choreographer
Eric Mark Olson is a classically trained actor, singer and dancer. He received his education in the BA Program of Theatre Arts & Dance at The University of Minnesota, in Minneapolis. After college he went on to begin a professional performance career in such theatre venues as The Minnesota Opera, Chanhassen Dinner Theatres, Minneapolis Musical Theatre, New Breath Productions, Joe Chvala & The Flying Foot Forum, The MN Fringe Festival, and others. EMO now lives in New York City continuing his performance career & ongoing professional education. He has had the opportunity to study with Master Teaching Artists in NYC, including an intensive training program with the esteemed Atlantic Acting School. He was most recently seen in NYC productions of Sondheim’s “Into the Woods”, Shakespeare’s "Hamlet", several cabaret appearances at Don’t Tell Mama’s & The Duplex, and in a world premiere performance on the new opera “The Secret Agent.” In addition to his performance career, he is happily employed as a freelance teaching artist by various organizations including Brooklyn Children’s Theatre & ArtsConnection (one of the largest Arts in Education nonprofit organizations in NYC.) He has work shopped, directed & choreographed numerous children’s productions including and a recent run of “Willy Wonka Jr.” with students in the Bronx, NY. He is delighted to be on faculty at BCT and welcomes every opportunity to work with the dynamically talented children in this community.
Mandy Stallings - Director/Choreographer
Mandy Stallings has been directing and choreographing for BCT since 2009. As a professional dancer, she is currently performing with the Cleo Mack Dance Project, who has been presented by Mulberry Street Theater, Dance Theater Workshop, Judson Church Movement Research, Mason Gross School of the Arts, PS1, Kennedy Center, Joyce Soho, George Street Playhouse and was selected by Dance Magazine as “25 to watch in 2002”. She has also had the pleasure of performing the works of Larry Keigwin, Nicole Wolcott, Pascal Rekoert, Gerri Houlihan, Neta Pulvermacher, Paul Taylor, Jose Limon, Scott Rink, and FARMdance. Mandy's own choreography has been shown in professional venues such as Dance Forum, Peridance Center, HATCH Performance Series, Cunningham Studio, SWEAT Series, Studio A.I.R, Agnes DeMille Theater and Galapagos Art Space. Mandy is a Teaching Artist in private, public, and performing arts schools all over NYC and New Jersey. She is a certified yoga instructor and a graduate of the North Carolina School of the Arts. Photo by Sarah Haimes.
Resident Composers/Lyricists/Playwrights
Daniel Acquisto - Composer
Daniel Acquisto 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 musicalLike 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.
Craig Baldwin - Composer
Craig Baldwin has been involved with the Broadway productions of Martin Short’s Fame Becomes Me (Associate Conductor), 13, The Woman in White, La Cage Aux Folles, 42nd Street (Oscar cover), Jesus Christ Superstar, The Wild Party, and Swan Lake, as well as the Christmas Spectacular at Radio City Music Hall. He is currently on staff at the School of American Ballet/New York City Ballet. He served as musical director for Duncan Sheik/Steve Sater’s Nightingale with director James Lapine at New York Theatre Workshop and Duncan Sheik’s Whisper House at New York Stage and Film. Recently, he composed the music for the York Theatre’s production of Let’s Face It in January, and provided additional material for an Oct 2010 production of the opera Esperanza. He holds a Master’s Degree from the Manhattan School of Music in Piano Performance and a Bachelor’s Degree from the UW-Madison in music and mathematics.
Steven Bergman – Composer
(with BCT): “Melampus,” “Reigning Cats and Dogs,” “Lost Princess of Oz.” Other scores: “Animal Farm,” “The Curse is Reversed!” “Jack The Ripper: The Whitechapel Musical,” “Four Kisses” and “Perfect Sync.” Musical Director: over 100 regional and national productions including “Spring Awakening” (FUDGE Theater), “Rent” (Theater at the Mount), “Les Miserables,” “13” (ACTS), “The Add1ng Mach1ne” (Speakeasy Stage), “Annie,” “Disney’s Beauty and the Beast” (Wheelock Family Theatre), “The Who’s Tommy,” (Brandeis Theatre Company), “Das Barbecü” (w/ Amy Graves! at New Repertory Theatre), “The Gig” and "When Pigs Fly" (Lyric Stage Company), "Berlin to Broadway with Kurt Weill", "The Fantasticks", "Pirates of Penzance" (Worcester Foothills Theatre), and the world premiere of “Monsters the Musical” (Centastage). Keyboardist: credits include "Nunsense Jamboree" (national tour with Georgia Engel, CD/DVD with Vicki Lawrence), national tours of "Sunday in the Park with George", "Dreamgirls", and "Guys and Dolls".
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, Things Could Always Get Worse, Ferdinand, The Little Velvet Bunny, Rock #3, The Gods, Recess, Next to Abnormal, and Dancing With the Czars. 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.
Steve was on staff at the American Girl Place live theatre in New York City, which featured young girls and adults, and he has served as a musical director and arranger with Camp Broadway. Steve is currently working internationally as a vocal director for Royal Caribbean Cruise lines. www.stevesaari.com <http://www.stevesaari.com>
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 musicalPicture 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.
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.