cast bios

SHAKESPEARE SINGS

RAY LESLEE (artistic director - composer/pianist)

"One of the leading composers of music for Shakespeare in the world", according to the NY Times and the Washington Post. Award-winning scores for the theatre: Avenue X (Playwrights Horizons, the acappella musical about racial tensions in New York); Standup Shakespeare (Off-Broadway, directed by Mike Nichols); A Good Man (The Vienna Chamber Opera); The Three Musketeers (national tour); Educating Rita (Steppenwolf Theatre); Twelfth Night (Theater For A New Audience); Palestine (New York Theatre Workshop); Cyranno de Bergerac (Barrington Stage); Night Of The Iguana (Alabama Shakespeare Festival); The Notebook Of Trigorin (ACT Seattle); and virtually all of Shakespeare’s plays. For the concert hall: MAYA SONGS, the poems of Maya Angelou; Romeo & Juliet For Orchestra & Actors with The Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra. A Christmas Chamber Carol (The Morgan Library & Museum), to name a few. Winner of the 2008 Fellowship in Music Composition from the New York Foundation for the Arts, The Richard Rodgers Award, Best Musical awards in Seattle, Dallas, Austin, and Philadelphia’s Barrymore Award. In 1997 he was honored at Lincoln Center for his lifetime contribution to the American theatre.

N'KENGEBroadway: Motown; Sondheim on Sondheim. West End: The Genius of Ray Charles. Regional: 3 Mo Divas (Helen Hayes Nomination for Outstanding Actress), Aida (Arizoni Theater Award for Best Lead Actress). Solo Concerts: Carnegie Hall, Kennedy Center, Alice Tully Hall w/Wynton Marsalis and Ornette Coleman. Opera Houses: New York City Opera, Vienna KammerOpera. Graduate of the Juilliard School. Hailed by Stephen Holden/ NY Times as “a classically trained diva who can stretch from Broadway pop-soul to opera.”

ANASTACIA McCLESKEY

Broadway: Priscilla Queen of the Desert; Hair; Tarzan. Tours: 1st national Hairspray (Dynamite), NYHS Asian Tour. Regional: Catch Me if You Can, Beehive (Tina/Aretha), Little Shop of Horrors (Chiffon), Ain't Misbehavin' (Charlene), etc. Film: Sex and the City 2. She co-wrote and sang the national theme song for the special olympics and has performed with some of the greats, such as Patti Labelle, Phil Collins, Morgan Freeman and Fred Hammond, to name a few. You can follow Anastacia on twitter at anastaciamcc and lookout for her upcoming website anastaciamccleskey.com

TREVON DAVISBroadway: The Gershwins’ Porgy and Bess; The Book Of Mormon (national tour); Credits include: The Gershwins’ Porgy and Bess (American Repertory Theater), Dreamgirls “C.C. White” (Apollo Theater/National Broadway Tour), Black Voices: The Struggle Continues (The Urban Theatre Company of Atlanta, Inc.), BET’s Sunday Best (Season One Finalist), MTV’s Making the Band 4 (Atlanta Finalist; New York City Contestant). He is a member of Phi Mu Alpha Sinfonia Fraternity of America, Inc. & Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity, Inc. Trevon thanks God for this wonderful opportunity to inspire youth through Shakespeare Sings.

ALICE RIPLEY

BROADWAY (original casts): Next To Normal (Tony Award for Best Actress 2009), Side Show (Tony nomination, Best Actress) The Who's Tommy, James Joyce’s The Dead, Sunset Boulevard, The Rocky Horror Show, King David.

OFF-BROADWAY/REGIONAL: Next To Normal, Five Flights, The Vagina Monologues, Company, Tell Me On A Sunday, Shakespeare In Hollywood, The Baker's Wife, Standup Shakespeare. AWARDS: The Tony, Drama Desk, Outer Critics Circle, and Helen Hayes Awards.

BOBBY DAYEBroadway credits include The Book of Mormon, Shrek the Musical, The Color Purple, The Lion King, Smokey Joe’s Café, Dreamgirls and The Wiz. Recipient of an Outstanding Individual Performance Award for his work in the 2010 NYMF production of The Great Unknown. Wrote the theme song to the ABC-TV soap Loving, performed by Johnny Mathis. Numerous television commercials and radio voiceovers.

JACK BASHKOW (woodwinds)

Broadway and Off-Broadway credits include: SHREK! the Musical; Grease/You’re The One That I Want; The Wedding Singer; Brooklyn The Musical; Jersey Boys; Jackie Mason's Laughing Room Only; Hairspray; Annie Get Your Gun; Footloose; Fosse; Grease; Bring in Da Noise, Bring in Da Funk; Smokey Joe's Cafe; Showboat; Standup Shakespeare (directed by Mike Nichols); Big River; Leader of the Pack; Richard III (with Kevin Kline); He received a nomination for the Helen Hayes award as Best Musical Director for Standup Shakespeare at the Folger Shakespeare Library in Washington, D.C. He has performed with: Bette Midler; Aretha Franklin; The Temptations; The Four Tops; Cyndi Lauper; Keely Smith; Natalie Cole; Manhattan Transfer; Michael Bolton; Martha Reeves; Darlene Love; Ronnie Spector; Gloria Gaynor; Peter Allen; Rita Moreno; Chita Rivera; Keely Smith; Karen Akers; and Blood, Sweat & Tears.

KENITA R. MILLERBroadway/Off Broadway: The Color Purple (Celie), Xanadu (Erato/Kira), Dessa Rose (Dessa), Langston In Harlem (Zora Neale Hurston, Drama Desk Nom./ Audelco Award). National Tours/Regional: The Color Purple,The Civil War, Woody Guthrie American Songbook, Ragtime (Sarah), Once On This Island (Timoune), Ragtime in Concert (in Cardiff, Wales). Film/TV: Liberty City Is Like Paris To Me (Sundance), Sesame Street.

JOHN-MARTIN GREEN

Besides appearing Off-Broadway and at Regional theatres all over the America, John-Martin has performed with some of the most gifted performers of his generation: Chaka Khan, Billy Joel, Jimmy Buffet, Donna Summer and Jennifer Holiday, to name a few. He has recorded for Capitol, GRP, and RCA Records. Co-artistic director of Blackberry Productions, a Harlem based theatre company, and former faculty at Brooklyn College, the New School, and Nassau Community College.

MARSHALL COID (violin)Marshall Coid has appeared on Broadway for three decades. Currently onstage violin soloist in Chicago. The NY Times described him as "astonishingly versatile" for his multi-discipline career as countertenor, violinist, actor, composer, arranger, librettist, conductor, stage director/designer, painter and educator. His solo credits include Live Broadcasts from Lincoln Center & The Kennedy Center and appearances throughout the US, Canada, Asia, Europe and South America including The United Nations, Spoleto Festival, Belgium international Festival and Oxford University.

MEGAN McGETTIGAN

Favorite roles include Barbara in the Off-Broadway revival of Avenue X, the a cappella musical; Chava in Fiddler On The Roof at Sacramento Music Circus; and Sally in Me And My Girl at the Walnut Street Theatre in Philadelphia. Often seen in staged readings of new musicals in New York, including Ariel in Footloose, and Laura in The 60's Project; as well as commercials for television and radio.

J.D. MOLLISON

Broadway: Les Misérables (Montparnasse) Off:Broadway: Two Gentlemen of Verona (Valentine) with the Acting Company; Iphegenia 2.0 at the Signature Theatre; Avenue X; The Irrationals (Miguel) at ATA. Regional: Jelly’s Last Jam (Jelly) at the Alliance; Once on This Island (Daniel) at Baltimore Center Stage; Hair (Hud) at Barrington Stage; The Servant Of Two Masters at the Pittsburgh Public Theatrre; Workshops at The Public Theatre in NY and The Long Wharf. Graduate of Carnegie-Mellon School of Drama.

STACEY SARGEANT was last seen in the Yale Rep debut of Eclipsed in the role of Helena, which she performed in the McCarter Theatre workshop. Other theater credits include Legally Blonde: The Musical (1^st National Tour); Passing Strange, Two Gentlemen of Verona (The Public Theater); The Exonerated (Off-Broadway); Damn Yankees, Purlie (City Center Encores!); George C. Wolfe’s Harlem Song (Harlem’s Apollo Theater); Little Ham (AUDELCO Award nomination); A Midsummer Night’s Dream (McCarter Theatre, Paper Mill Playhouse); Kiss Me, Kate (Paper Mill Playhouse); The Color Purple (Alliance Theater); Rent (Weston Playhouse). Her television appearances include Law & Order: SVU and Guiding Light.

LISA McCORMICK

Off Broadway: Two Gentlemen of Verona (Silvia); Love, Shakespeare (Juliet and Rosalind) with Julliard's The Acting Company; Mimesophobia (Jessica) 2005 SPF, and War In Paramus (Jennifer) directed by Austin Pendelton at The Abingdon Theatre; Her Majesty the King (Queen Margaret) at HERE. Regional: The Guthrie: A Little Lunch (Debbie); ACT: A Christmas Carol (Mary); ACT Zeum: A Midsummer Night's Dream (Puck); Williamstown: Far East (Takeo); Portland Stage: Noises Off (Brooke); Playhouse on the Square: Grease! (Sandy); The Secret Garden (Rose). Lisa holds an MFA from ACT and is a proud member of Actor's Equity.

DAVID HUGHEY Opera: San Francisco Opera, Lyric Opera of Chicago, Sächsische Staatsoper Dresden, Festspielhaus Baden Baden, Cleveland Opera, Virginia Opera, Opera Theater of Pittsburgh, Utah Festival Opera, and New York City Opera. Roles include Figaro (Il Barbiere di Siviglia), Schaunard (La Boheme), Amida (L’Ormindo), Falke (Die Fledermaus), Peter (Hansel and Gretel), Jake (Porgy And Bess), Belcore (L’Elisir d’amore), Il Mandarino (Turandot) and Morales (Carmen). Musical Theatre: Sporting Life (The Gerswhins’ Porgy And Bess), Harry Easter (Street Scene), Bernardo (West Side Story), Rapunzel’s Prince (Into The Woods), Tin Man (The Wiz), The Arbiter (Chess), Father (Children of Eden), and Al (Most Happy Fella).