playbill vip

Anthony Bifaro (Executive Producer) is a veteran actor and director of over 100 productions.  He currently serves on the Boards of Proctors Theatre (Education committee Chair) and Capital Repertory Theatre.  He also is an Advisory Board Member of the Not So Common Players in Clifton Park. He also is a member of the American Labor Studies Board of Directors. He was proud to serve as assistant to the NYSUT president for 25 years.  An educator and unionist, he continues to consult on leadership development and organizational planning.

Ruth E. Henry (Writer/Director) After 12 years of Directing and writing for DRAMAcademics Educational Youth Theater program, Ruth’s Kate Mullany script caught the eye of The American Labor Studies Center Executive Director, Paul Cole. The ALSC supported the one-act premiere/pilot at The Arts Center of The Capital Region last November and encouraged an expanded script for this current Production. This is Mrs. Henry’s 6th educational musical play. Her others are: The Amazing Erie Canal; Sail, Henry Hudson!; Apples, Arrows & Alps- The musical story of William Tell; The Crazy Adventures of Nellie Bly and Steps To Suffrage. She began DRAMAcademics as a 3-dimensional teaching tool to engage her own 3 daughters in history and its characters, and taught hundreds of students.

Cookie Sears (Accompanist) is a proud union member (American Federation of Musicians, Local 14).  Recently retired as Director of Data Services for the NYS Assembly, she stays busy as a music director and pit musician.  She has worked at NYSTI, Proctors, Capital Rep (STAR Program), Park Playhouse, Cohoes Music Hall, Troy Music Hall, SLOC, NSCP, Curtain Call Theatre, Albany Civic Theater, Voices in Harmony plus several colleges, high schools and middle schools.

Rick Hambright (Woodwinds - Arranger)  American Federation of Musicians, Local #14 is the retired chair of  Music Education, East Greenbush, N.Y.  He performs as a free-lance woodwind player (Cohoes Music Hall, Mac-Hayden Theater, Park Playhouse, Surflight Theater, Papermill Playhouse, Albany Symphony, Schenectady Symphony, Monmouth Symphony).  Toured with "Avenue Q", "Smokey Joe's Cafe" and played locally with tours of "Grease", "The Full Monty", " The Drowsey Chaperone", etc.    Rick has worked with pop groups including:  Manhattan Transfer, Ringling Brothers-Barnum and Baily Circus, Martha Reeves and the Vandellas, the Sherills, Engelbert Humperdink, Jerry Vale, Kenny Rodgers, Olivia Newton-John, Aretha Franklin, the Four Tops, the Temptations, and many others.  

Alyson Slack (strings) has worked as a freelance violinist in Charleston, South Carolina; Washington, D.C.; Seoul, Korea; and now New York’s Capital Region. She is a member of the classical chamber ensemble Lark Strings and fiddles in the Battenkill String Band. She also frequently plays with the Glens Falls Symphony, Catskill Symphony, Schenectady Symphony, and Hubbard Hall Opera Theater.  Alyson is also a union member of the American Federation of Musicians.  

Terri Hughes (Choreographer):  Director of The Wild Irish Acres Dancers, (named after a farm in Montgomery County) and Instructor at National Museum of Dance in Saratoga, teaching traditional Irish dance classes for children and adults and entertaining audiences since 1994.  Terri and her 2 daughters spent many years competing in local, regional, and national dance competitions, then started their own dance group with the specific purpose of continuing the legend, culture, and beauty of the dance in a non-competitive, family-oriented environment.  Terri became an Irish dancer at age nine under the direction of Joey Flynn in Brooklyn, NY.  She moved to Saratoga Springs in 2000 where she teaches and choreograph traditional jig, reel, hornpipe and Ceili to all levels of dancers, ages 5 to 60 plus. 

Leslie Chotkowski (Costumer) Leslie Chotkowski is a resident of Schoharie, NY.  She has had a life-long love of sewing and history, and has worked for the Farmer's Museum in Cooperstown, as well as Thistle Hill Weavers in Sharon Springs, a historical textile reproduction company.  She has contributed her skills in costuming to local school productions of Titanic, The Wizard of Oz, Les Miserables, and Hairspray.  Leslie also worked on the Drums Along the Mohawk Outdoor Drama and the Princess Project prom dress charity drive..

Ashley Ventura (Stage Manager) grew up with a stage in her basement. She has appeared on stage in You Can't Take it with You with Consortium Actors in Latham and worked as Assistant Director for DRAMAcademics production of “We’ll Meet Again” in 2013. Ashley is the founder and owner of Delirium Entertainment; a concert promotion company booking musical talent from all over the world in the northeast region.

Zoe Deno (Set Art) is a sophomore in high school. In addition to helping with sets, she acted in several DRAMAcademics productions; her favorite roles were Nellie Bly (Crazy Adventures of Nellie Bly), a Russian Revolutionary (Ellis Island) and a European Fashion Designer (Sail, Henry Hudson!).  In her spare time Zoe enjoys rowing, reading, writing, and learning.

Christa Herting-Desrosiers (children's supervisor).  Christa costumed, “hushed and mushed” for numerous DRAMAcademics Educational Youth Theater productions involving her children, and is filled with joy watching her children and now her husband bringing Kate's story to life. In her 'real' life she is also a 'children's supervisor', AKA mother of 4 who is blessed with the vocation of homeschooling her family.  Joshua 24:15!