Creative Team
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| CONI KOEPFINGER (Playwright) |
Artist and educator, Coni Koepfinger has taught theatre, literature, and composition at Carnegie Mellon and other major universities. As play-wright-in-residence at Manhattan Rep and Cosmic Orchid Theatre and host of Airplay and Determined Women, Coni is known for connecting artists all over the world. She is the executive producer for DionysusFest.com; a staff writer for the International Center for Women Playwrights; on the Media Board of The Lifeboat Foundation; a member of The Dramatists Guild and the League of Professional Theatre Women. Her plays have been published/ produced worldwide. Recent works were included the "MeToo" Festival in Harlem; the "Untold Stories of Jew-ish Women" in Manhattan; and The New American Play contest in LA. Her play Eve of Beltane was recently selected to be read at the infamous Julia’s Reading Room this coming Spring 2019 in NYC and Playing Fate chosen for New Blood Series at Theatre for the New City, Off-Broadway. A new work commissioned for the Voire Dire 4.0, Josie Divine The Remake, will make its premiere at the acclaimed Medicine Show Theatre May 2019
Singer, Songwriter, Guitarist Joe Izen knows his way around a song. Shortly after arriving in New York, he became a regular performer at many Greenwich Village clubs, including the “Bitter End”, “Metro Café,” “Folk City,” and the “Village Gate.” It was here that Joe met and was asked by Richie Havens to share the bill with him for the return of the “Café Wha.” Joe also appeared as the opening act for Joe Cock-er, on the Northeastern leg of the Mad Dogs and Englishmen tour, and was a guest performer at the Philadelphia Folk Festival. While performing in New York, he also had the honor to have the great Blues songwriter and Bassist, Willie Dixon perform with him at “Kenny’s Castaways,” and appeared as a headlining act at Lincoln Centers Avery Fischer Hall for a concert to benefit the ACWU. His long and fruitful friendship with Arranger/Producer Larry Fallon (of Van Morrison Astral Weeks fame) yielded several recordings, including being co-writer and solo vocalist on “Finalmente” by Renzo Fraiese, (released on A.V.I. Records) and co-writing credits as well as solo vocalist on the album “Breeze” released on the Bar-clay International label. As a result of his work with various Producers, Joe was signed to a Warner Brothers Publishing agreement which brought his song “Follow Your Heart” to the attention of Carlos Santana in 1986. In the world of Television and Radio, Joe can be heard as the solo vocalist on many popular National and International Commercials, including “Coke,” “Coors Light,” “Chrysler,” “Dole Fruit,” “Folgers Coffee,” “Long John Silvers,” “Israel tourism” and “Budweiser.” His group, the Joe Izen Trio, featuring Bill Moring on Bass and Larry Marc-Aurele on percussion and Joe on Acoustic guitar and vocals, played throughout the Metropolitan area, and his current recording work can be found on Soundcloud, Spotify, and YouTube. His songs are available for download on iTunes, CD Baby, and Amazon.com
Cailin is Associate Artistic Director of Boomerang Theatre Company; Resident Director, National Schoolhouse; Creative Artist with DionysusFest, Athens Greece; and Artistic Advisor, New Light Theatre Company.
She most recently directed the highly regarded solo show, Places, written by and starring Romy Nordlinger at Dixon Place, The Player’s Club produced by White Horse Theatre Company, HERE Arts in 2019 produced by Pat Addiss with Laura Fay Lewis, and the Kennedy Center's Page to Stage Festival in Washington, D.C. at the Kennedy Center Family Theatre presented by Tonic Theatre in conjunction with Pat Addiss.
She directed multi-Obie and Drama Desk winner Kathleen Chalfant in Emmy and WGA Award winner Rose Leiman Goldemberg’s Letters Home for the Lincoln Center Archives. Other recent works were the hugely successful developmental production of Loveless Texas at the Sheen Center written/directed/ choreographed by Heffernan with music/lyrics by Broadway veteran, Henry Aronson - produced by Boomerang Theatre Company; Monte Cristo by Jared Reinmuth at Urban Stages presented by New Light Theatre Project where she assembled an international cast in an experimental production including the disciplines of Delsarte, Dalcroze, Mime, Live Foley, Music, and Dance.
Cailin is currently finishing up runs of the immersive musical in a tavern, Impossible But True, at Franklin 820 in Brooklyn and at Uncle Charlie’s in Manhattan. For Holocaust Remembrance Week in April, she will be directing a concert production of poet Barbara Schwartz’s What Survives Is The Fire.
Her theatrical work encompasses directing and/or choreographing Off-Broadway, LORT Regional Theatres and New York theatre including Sheen Center, Urban Stages, Bay Street, Capital Repertory, Folksbiene, Jewish Repertory, Lucille Lortel, Miller Outdoor Theatre, Naked Angels, New Amsterdam, HERE Arts, Dixon Place, The Player’s Club, New Jersey Repertory, Penguin Repertory, St. Luke’s, Walnut Street, Kennedy Center Family Theatre and the Piccolo Spoleto Festival in Charleston as well as at Universities including NYU and Pace.
For Boomerang, she has directed twelve full productions including the aforementioned Loveless Texas, Shakespeare’s Cymbeline and Love's Labour's Lost, Jeffrey Hatcher’s To Fool the Eye, The Real Thing by Tom Stoppard (nominated for NYITAwards in 2012 including Most Outstanding Remount), Christopher Fry’s Venus Observed, Larry Kirwan’s The Heart Has a Mind of Its Own, Tennessee William’s Summer and Smoke, her own adaptation of John Dryden’s All for Love, two of O’Neill’s Pulitzer prize-winning plays Anna Christie and Beyond the Horizon, as well as Francis Kuzler's The Substance of John. For Texas Family Musicals, she’s directed: CATS (choreographed as well), America,
the Beautiful (which she co-wrote), Annie Get Your Gun, Barnum and South Pacific with Rob Gallagher, two productions of Hello, Dolly! with Judy Norton ("The Waltons") and Don Most ("Happy Day’s), and Brigadoon. Member of SDC, Dramatists Guild, AEA, and SAG-AFTRA.
Henry Aronson is among the most in-demand music directors in the Broadway theatre. He was the music director/conductor/keyboardist for the Broadway run of “Rock of Ages”. Also on Broadway, he was music director for “Grease”, “The Times They Are A-Changin’”, “In My Life”, “Little Shop of Horrors”, “Rent”, “Rocky Horror Show” and “Starmites”; associate conductor of “Cry Baby”, “Good Vibrations”, “Parade”, “Saturday Night Fever”, “Mail” and “Prince of Central Park”; and con-ducted “The Who’s Tommy” and “On Your Feet”; he conducted and played many seasons of the Radio City Christmas Spectacular. Off-Broadway, he conducts at “Cagney”, was music director of “Once Around the Sun” (Zipper), “King Lear” (Public Theater, starring Kevin Kline), “The Wind in the Willows” (New Victory), “3 Guys Naked From the Waist Down” (Minetta Lane), and numerous productions at Playwrights Horizons and Naked Angels. His regional theatre work includes La Jolla Playhouse, the Old Globe, Long Wharf, Hartford Stage, Goodspeed, Cleveland Playhouse, the Denver Center and Pasadena Playhouse.
He studied piano at Mannes College of Music and received his Music degree from Columbia University. He was a member of the BMI Musical Theatre Workshop under Lehman Engel. His adaptation and new orchestration of Gilbert and Sullivan’s “Pirates of Penzance” for Daryl Gray’s dance theatre piece “Pirates!” has been performed successfully around the world and has been optioned for Broadway. He is a music supervisor and arranger for “The Rock Tenor”, being developed by BASE entertainment for a Las Vegas run this fall.
He wrote songs (music and lyrics) for Boomerang’s “Love’s Labours Lost” in Bryant Park and “Cymbeline” in Central Park, and incidental music for New Light Theater Project’s “Monte Cristo” earlier this year. He is also the composer of “The Happy Hooker: The Musical” (prod. InJoy Entertainment), currently working towards a production in London’s West End. His musical “Loveless Texas”, which he wrote with his wife Cailín Heffer-nan, is being produced this year in New York by Boomerang Theatre Company.
Arts Management Consultant / Actor / Director / Producer / Historian - Most recently, Byron was the Stage Manager for the Eve of Beltane for the NYC Broadway Bound Theater Festival on Theater Row many credits currently include working as an independent Arts Management Consultant helping artists and arts organizations with grants administration, fund development, marketing, public relations, event planning, and capacity growth and development.
Other recent credits include…Director of the Best Play of the 2016 One Festival – Marlene Goes to Hollywood, Mohandas K. Gandhi in the production of Peace Speaks; Dr. A.C. Jackson in the production of Black Wall Street: The Story of the 1921 Tulsa, OK Race Riots.
In New York City, he was the Executive Director of the Frank Silvera Writer’s Workshop and won an Obie Award for Playwriting Development. For eight years, he was the Executive Director for the Queens Historical Society, preserving the history of 2.5 million people living in the Borough of Queens, New York City. Byron was the first General Manager for Black Spectrum Theater in Jamaica, Queens for three years.
Upon return to Atlanta (2001), he worked as the Production Manager for Theater of the Stars Broadway Summer Series at the Fox Theater; Development Director for 7 Stages Theater and was the Executive Director/Artistic Director for Jomandi Productions.
Byron is no stranger to the Atlanta arts scene. He was the Executive Director for the DeKalb Council for the Arts, Inc. He ran Just Us Theater Company for ten years and was a member of the Georgia Film Commission for seven.
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| JOE IZEN (Lyricist / Playwright) |
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| Cailin Heffernan (Director, Dramaturge) |
She most recently directed the highly regarded solo show, Places, written by and starring Romy Nordlinger at Dixon Place, The Player’s Club produced by White Horse Theatre Company, HERE Arts in 2019 produced by Pat Addiss with Laura Fay Lewis, and the Kennedy Center's Page to Stage Festival in Washington, D.C. at the Kennedy Center Family Theatre presented by Tonic Theatre in conjunction with Pat Addiss.
She directed multi-Obie and Drama Desk winner Kathleen Chalfant in Emmy and WGA Award winner Rose Leiman Goldemberg’s Letters Home for the Lincoln Center Archives. Other recent works were the hugely successful developmental production of Loveless Texas at the Sheen Center written/directed/ choreographed by Heffernan with music/lyrics by Broadway veteran, Henry Aronson - produced by Boomerang Theatre Company; Monte Cristo by Jared Reinmuth at Urban Stages presented by New Light Theatre Project where she assembled an international cast in an experimental production including the disciplines of Delsarte, Dalcroze, Mime, Live Foley, Music, and Dance.
Cailin is currently finishing up runs of the immersive musical in a tavern, Impossible But True, at Franklin 820 in Brooklyn and at Uncle Charlie’s in Manhattan. For Holocaust Remembrance Week in April, she will be directing a concert production of poet Barbara Schwartz’s What Survives Is The Fire.
Her theatrical work encompasses directing and/or choreographing Off-Broadway, LORT Regional Theatres and New York theatre including Sheen Center, Urban Stages, Bay Street, Capital Repertory, Folksbiene, Jewish Repertory, Lucille Lortel, Miller Outdoor Theatre, Naked Angels, New Amsterdam, HERE Arts, Dixon Place, The Player’s Club, New Jersey Repertory, Penguin Repertory, St. Luke’s, Walnut Street, Kennedy Center Family Theatre and the Piccolo Spoleto Festival in Charleston as well as at Universities including NYU and Pace.
For Boomerang, she has directed twelve full productions including the aforementioned Loveless Texas, Shakespeare’s Cymbeline and Love's Labour's Lost, Jeffrey Hatcher’s To Fool the Eye, The Real Thing by Tom Stoppard (nominated for NYITAwards in 2012 including Most Outstanding Remount), Christopher Fry’s Venus Observed, Larry Kirwan’s The Heart Has a Mind of Its Own, Tennessee William’s Summer and Smoke, her own adaptation of John Dryden’s All for Love, two of O’Neill’s Pulitzer prize-winning plays Anna Christie and Beyond the Horizon, as well as Francis Kuzler's The Substance of John. For Texas Family Musicals, she’s directed: CATS (choreographed as well), America,
the Beautiful (which she co-wrote), Annie Get Your Gun, Barnum and South Pacific with Rob Gallagher, two productions of Hello, Dolly! with Judy Norton ("The Waltons") and Don Most ("Happy Day’s), and Brigadoon. Member of SDC, Dramatists Guild, AEA, and SAG-AFTRA.
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| HENRY ARONSON (Musical Director) |
He studied piano at Mannes College of Music and received his Music degree from Columbia University. He was a member of the BMI Musical Theatre Workshop under Lehman Engel. His adaptation and new orchestration of Gilbert and Sullivan’s “Pirates of Penzance” for Daryl Gray’s dance theatre piece “Pirates!” has been performed successfully around the world and has been optioned for Broadway. He is a music supervisor and arranger for “The Rock Tenor”, being developed by BASE entertainment for a Las Vegas run this fall.
He wrote songs (music and lyrics) for Boomerang’s “Love’s Labours Lost” in Bryant Park and “Cymbeline” in Central Park, and incidental music for New Light Theater Project’s “Monte Cristo” earlier this year. He is also the composer of “The Happy Hooker: The Musical” (prod. InJoy Entertainment), currently working towards a production in London’s West End. His musical “Loveless Texas”, which he wrote with his wife Cailín Heffer-nan, is being produced this year in New York by Boomerang Theatre Company.
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| Byron C. Saunders (Stage Manager / Associate Producer) |
Other recent credits include…Director of the Best Play of the 2016 One Festival – Marlene Goes to Hollywood, Mohandas K. Gandhi in the production of Peace Speaks; Dr. A.C. Jackson in the production of Black Wall Street: The Story of the 1921 Tulsa, OK Race Riots.
In New York City, he was the Executive Director of the Frank Silvera Writer’s Workshop and won an Obie Award for Playwriting Development. For eight years, he was the Executive Director for the Queens Historical Society, preserving the history of 2.5 million people living in the Borough of Queens, New York City. Byron was the first General Manager for Black Spectrum Theater in Jamaica, Queens for three years.
Upon return to Atlanta (2001), he worked as the Production Manager for Theater of the Stars Broadway Summer Series at the Fox Theater; Development Director for 7 Stages Theater and was the Executive Director/Artistic Director for Jomandi Productions.
Byron is no stranger to the Atlanta arts scene. He was the Executive Director for the DeKalb Council for the Arts, Inc. He ran Just Us Theater Company for ten years and was a member of the Georgia Film Commission for seven.
