'A Midsummer Night's Dream: The Rewired Musical' CREATIVES

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DIRECTOR
Lara Morton
Lara Morton has been working professionally in educational and community outreach theatre for over twenty years. Lara currently directs and instructs FOCUS Teen Improv of Madison, The Awkward Stage Players (adult improv), and teaches across the state and online in a freelance capacity through her company Handful Productions. She co-founded FUSE Theatre of CT with Susan Larkin in 2019. Previous engagements include Artistic Director/Playwright-in-Residence for the Yale-based Open End Theatre, Program and Education Director for Young Audiences of CT (Arts for Learning), and Assistant Director of the Mental Health Association Players (Binghamton, NY), where her lifelong relationship with Improvisational Theatre began. She has directed numerous educational theatre projects through Lyme-Old Lyme High School, Madison Arts Barn, WiSP, Alliance Children’s Theatre, Milford Public Schools, New Haven Public Schools, the West Haven Council on the Arts and the West Haven Child Development Center.
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Production Designer/Editor
Noah Golden
Noah Golden has been involved with theater for most of his life. Favorite onstage roles include Barfee (“25th Annual...Spelling Bee”), Sancho Panza (“Man of La Mancha”) and Chas (“Trestle at Pope Lick Creek”). He has also worked as a director (The Orange Players), assistant director (A Shared Stage Productions), writer (Vintage Soul Productions, Long Wharf's upcoming New Haven Play Project) and played drums in the pit for several musicals around CT. Noah also covers New Haven theater for Onstage Blog and, during the day, is a video producer for Yale School of Medicine.
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Composer / Music Director
Lydia Arachne
Lydia Arachne (FUSE Composer/Music Director) is a composer, producer, writer and multi-instrumentalist, a transplant to CT from frosty Buffalo, New York. Lydia is the creative force behind Semaphora (semaph.org), a folk-funk fusion project featuring songs that tell stories about the ways people navigate technology and the natural world. Semaphora's albums, 'Zoonotic' and 'Sister Administrator' are available wherever you might typically find music on the internet. Lydias's previous Music Direction credits include 'Jesus Christ Superstar' with Madison Lyric Stage, 'Legends of the Forgotten Borough' with New Haven's Bregamos Community Theater, Handful Productions' S.A.T.B. Cabaret, and FUSE/Handful's 2020 production of Disney 'The Lion King Jr.' Lydia would like to remind you to support local artists and love the earth. Lydia looks forward to composing an original score for FUSE's filmed Covid-safe production of Shakespeare's 'A Midsummer Night's Dream.'
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Executive Producer
Elizabeth Santaus
Elizabeth Dressler Santaus graduated from Wellesley College with a major in studio art and a minor in mathematics. Elizabeth has over thirty years of experience in the financial accounting software and bookkeeping industry. With previous experience consulting and as CFO for three sister companies in Branford, Elizabeth knows how to help businesses prosper and grow. She has consulted, trained, and provided bookkeeping services for more than 300 small businesses in Connecticut and New York since launching Dressler Santaus LLC in 2006. She has been a QuickBooks© trainer for the Community Economic Development Fund's Bridgeport location and currently presents seminars in conjunction with SCORE. Elizabeth has been Treasurer of The Network of Executive Women of Milford, Inc. for seven years. The arts, particularly fine art, musical theater, and dance, have been her unpaid passion, and she is thrilled to be able to combine this love with her financial management skills working with FUSE.
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Choreographer
Lyndsey Chance Simmons
Lyndsey is a New-York based, professional actress, singer, dancer, playwright, and member of Actors’ Equity Association. She has appeared at famous New York theatre venue 54 Below and in numerous local, regional, and Off-Broadway productions: including the World Premiere of 100 Famous Views of Otzi, Chess, Single Ladies, The Favor, Making Some Noise (Critic’s and Audience Choice Awards), and her one woman show Once in a Lifetime: The Songs of Judy Garland. She is currently developing her first original, full length musical, Will Wilson Saves the World, loosely based on the oral history of her maternal grandfather. Lyndsey earned two Bachelor’s (Texas Christian University) and a Master’s (Southern Methodist University) degree and, subsequently, she gave back four years to teaching musical theatre at Summit High School in Mansfield, Texas. Here, with the help of her colleagues, she produced, designed, directed, and choreographed 15+ plays and musicals.
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Costume Designer
Jake Egan O'Hara
Jake Egan O'Hara holds a Bachelors (Hons) in Drama, Applied Theatre,and Education from the Royal Central School of Speech of Drama, and has completed Masters coursework through Harvard University and the Harvard University Extension School with a concentration in the Dramatic Arts. In 2019, Jake joined the FUSE Board of Directors and contributed his incredible mask and custom costume pieces to our production of Disney's 'The Lion King Jr.' Jake's unique design sensibility, combined with his incredibly strong dedication to story and sensitivity around working with actors of all shapes and sizes, makes him the perfect costumer for FUSE.
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Costume Designer
Nightwing Whitehead
Nightwing Whitehead was born in 1958. The Barbie was born in 1959...so for a year Nightwing had nothing to do. She has been trying to make up for lost time ever since. Nightwing has been around theatrical wardrobe departments all her life, her first paying job at an opera house in Colorado. After many years of self-training, Nightwing went back to school and earned a BS in Fashion Design at Philadelphia University. ​ Her creations have been seen in plays at every level from Community to Equity, as well as several independent films. Nightwing has also done work for world-class magicians, faire-workers, and many others in mysterious professions. She is a professional full-time enigma who, in what spare time she has, enjoys reading and howling at the moon.
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Scenic Designer/Artist
April Chateauneuf
April has designed and painted just over 100 sets for local community Theaters and school productions. She has many Regional Theater credits and an independent film credit under her belt. April's favorite projects, to date, are the Boston Ballet's Nutcracker designed by Robert Perdziola and Broadway's A Gentleman's Guide to Love and Murder designed by Alexander Dodge. April holds a certificate in Technical Design and Production: Scenic Art from Yale School of Drama and is currently employed as a Scenic Artist at the historic Goodspeed Opera House.