THE FANTASTICKS Creative

Director

Michele Grace

Born into a musical family who owned the well-known Fraioli Music stores, Michele Grace is a professional performer with venues including NYC-The Carlyle, Yale Club, le Cirque and Madison Square Garden. Theater credits include Shirley in “5th of July” with Tim Daly at the Trinity Rep Theater in Rhode Island. Peter in “Peter Pan” at the Arvada Center in Colorado. Locally she has directed for Curtain Call in Stamford and enjoyed portraying M’Lynn in their production of Steel Magnolias. She also performed for the Connecticut Critics Circle awards at the Westport Country Playhouse. This is Michele’s 10th production directing for The Connecticut Playmakers alongside Chris Coogan Michele regularly sings with Chris Coogan and with The Fairfield Counts a 17 piece Big Band. Michele trained with legendary actress Uta Hagen at the HB studios in New York City where she also became a faculty member teaching musical theater at HB for 8 years. Michele teaches privately and conducts classes accompanied by Chris Coogan. Favorite quote- “The secret in singing is found between the vibrations of the singer’s voice and the throb of the hearer’s heart” -Kahlil Gibran

Music Director

Chris Coogan

Chris Coogan has played pop with Phoebe Snow, Donna Summers, Bette Middler and Darlene Love, broadway with Paul Newman, Jim Naughton and Kelli O’Hara and jazz with Randy Brecker, Sal Salvador, and with his own Chris Coogan Quartet. He music directs at churches, synagogues and with local theaters as well as leading the Good News Gospel Choir. He teaches the art of jazz improvisation to many students locally and at the University of Bridgeport. The New York Times has called him a “masterful performer.” He is quoted as saying, “I like to bring people together with music.”

Producer

Maryann Ramos

At Fordham University I sang Christmas carols in Grand Central Terminal; had great fun in "Guys and Dolls" dancing in the Hot Box and portraying General Cartwright in the Save a Soul Mission and playing percussion in the pit for "Carousel". In the passion play, "O My People", I had roles of Mary Magdalene, Mary for voice-over, and worked as company manager. The 11-year highlight at CT Playmakers was singing Bibbity, Bobbity, Boo! I look forward to making friends smile at the Powerhouse.

Co-Producer

Peggi de la Cruz

Stage Manager

Terri Le Bel

Terry Le Bel (Stage Manager) loves being back with The Fantasticks ! With Town Players of New Canaan, she performed in The Fantasticks and Forbidden Broadway, among others; and has been Stage Manager for On Golden Pond, Moonlight And Magnolias, and now The Fantasticks again! She has appeared in several CT Playmakers productions, most recently, Nunsense. She has previously appeared as a nun in The Sound of Music and, most recently as Sister Mary Theresa in Sister Act, both at Curtain Call. For ten years, Terry performed and sang in two musical revues a year with the Connecticut Choraliers Show Chorus, serving as props director, co-producer, and vice president. She has performed with Troupers Light Opera, Park Street Singers, and St. Lawrence Church choir. She lives with her husband, Leo, and son, Rob, in Shelton.

Set Designer

Norris Wakefield

Lighting Designer

Arnold Feintuck

Set Builder

Joel Reynolds

Original Creative Team

TOM JONES and HARVEY SCHMIDT

Composer Harvey Schmidt and lyricist Tom Jones are the legendary writing team best known for shaping the American musical landscape with their 1960 hit, The Fantasticks. After its Off-Broadway opening in May 1960, it went on to become the longest-running production in the history of the American stage and one of the most frequently produced musicals in the world.

Their first Broadway show, 110 in the Shade, was revived on Broadway in a new production starring Audra MacDonald. I Do! I Do!, their two-character musical starring Mary Martin and Robert Preston, was a success on Broadway and is frequently done around the country. For several years Jones and Schmidt worked privately at their theatre workshop, concentrating on small-scale musicals in new and often untried forms. The most notable of these efforts were Celebration, which moved to Broadway, and Philemon, which won an Outer Critics Circle Award. They contributed incidental music and lyrics to the Off-Broadway play Colette starring Zoe Caldwell, then later did a full-scale musical version under the title Colette Collage. The Show Goes On, a musical revue featuring their theatre songs and starring Jones and Schmidt, was presented at the York Theatre, and Mirette, their musical based on the award-winning children's book, was premiered at the Goodspeed Opera House in Connecticut. In addition to an Obie Award and the 1992 Special Tony Award for The Fantasticks, Jones and Schmidt were inducted into the Broadway Hall of Fame at the Gershwin Theatre, and on May 3, 1999 their 'stars' were added to the Off-Broadway Walk of Fame outside the Lucille Lortel Theatre. Then in 2012, Jones & Schmidt were honored by being inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame.