ANTHONY RAPP (writer/performer) has been acting and singing professionally since he was nine years old.  He is best known for originating the role of Mark Cohen in Jonathan Larson’s Tony Award- and Pulitzer Prize-winning musical, Rent, for which he shared an OBIE Award with the rest of the cast.  He reprised his role in Chris Columbus’s film version opposite other members of the original cast.  Rapp recently visited the role once more with original cast member Adam Pascal in a national tour of the show.  His Broadway credits include the revival of You’re a Good Man, Charlie Brown and John Guare’s Six Degrees of Separation.  His Broadway debut was in Precious Sons with Judith Ivey and Ed Harris, for which he received an Outer Critics Circle Award and a Drama Desk nomination.  His most recent stage appearance was in Second Stage Theatre’s Some Americans Abroad.  Film credits include Adventures in Babysitting, School Ties, Dazed and Confused, Six Degrees of Separation, Rent, Man of the Century, Road Trip, Winter Passing, A Beautiful Mind. TV: The X-Files, Law & Order: SVU, and Psych. He currently plays the role of Lieutenant Commander Paul Stamets on the television series Star Trek: Discovery. In 2000, he released his debut album, Look Around.  He has performed his music in clubs and at colleges throughout the country.  

 

Steven Maler (Director) is the Founding Artistic Director of Commonwealth Shakespeare Company (CSC), where he has directed over 20 productions of Free Shakespeare on the Boston Common since 1996.  Other CSC works include Naomi Wallace’s Birdy, Ariel Dorfman’s Death and the Maiden, and the world premieres of Jake Broder’s Our American Hamlet and Robert Brustein’s The Last Will. For CSC he has directed readings of plays featuring Ruben Santiago-Hudson, Paul Rudd, Blair Brown, Anthony Mackie, Tony Shalhoub, Leslie Uggams, David Morse, and Jeffrey Donovan among many others.  He conceived and directed an evening of Shakespeare scenes, songs, and soliloquies performed at Boston’s iconic Fenway Park, featuring Mike O’Malley, Neal McDonough, Maryann Plunkett, Jay O. Sanders, Seth Gilliam, Zuzanna Szadkowski, and Jason Butler Harner. In collaboration with Google, he adapted and directed a virtual reality film of Shakespeare’s Hamlet, entitled Hamlet 360: Thy Father’s Spirit, starring Jack Cutmore-Scott, Jay O. Sanders, Brooke Adams, and Faran Tahir (currently available at  www.wgbh.org/hamlet360).  In collaboration with Boston Landmarks Orchestra, he directed A Midsummer Night’s Dream (featuring the music of Felix Mendelssohn), as well as concert stagings of The Boys from Syracuse and Kiss Me Kate.  For Odyssey Opera, he directed Maria, regina d’Inghilterra; other opera credits include the U.S. Premiere of Péter Eötvös operatic treatment of Tony Kushner’s Angels in America and Thomas Adès' Powder Her Face (Opera Boston). He directed The Turn of the Screw for the New Repertory Theatre, Santaland Diaries and Chay Yew’s Porcelain for SpeakEasy Stage Company, Top Girls and Weldon Rising for Coyote Theatre, and The L.A. Plays by Han Ong for the American Repertory Theater.  He has been involved with Anthony Rapp’s Without You since its inception at the New York Musical Theatre Festival; it has been seen in Pittsburgh, Boston, Edinburgh, Toronto, London, and Seoul. Awards include Elliot Norton Award for Sustained Excellence; Best Production, Twelfth Night and All’s Well That Ends Well; Outstanding Director, A Midsummer Night’s Dream; Best Production, Suburbia; and Best Solo Performance, John Kuntz’s Starf***ers (also Best Solo Performance Award at NY International Fringe Festival). His feature film “The Autumn Heart,” starring Tyne Daly and Ally Sheedy was featured at the Sundance Film Festival.

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Daniel A Weiss (Music Director/Keyboard and Orchestration) Broadway/West End MD/Conductor -Skates, The Musical, Rent, Taboo, Brooklyn, Hair, Whisper House London Duncan Sheik(MD).  Let It Be (MD),  Songs For A New World-Jason Robert Brown, London(MD)  Compose/Arranger - Rock 'N' Roll Refugee (Genya Ravan) Film-The Photography of Bev Grant, Ageless Love.  Tours/Recording-GooGoo Dolls, Joan Osborne, Valerie Carter, Disney On Broadway, Anthony Rapp, Adam Pascal, Jeffrey Gaines, Alexis P Suter, Disney On Broadway.

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Paul Gil (bass) began his musical career in the basement of his parents' home in NYC studying the vocal harmonies of The Beatles. After High School, Paul co-founded the seminal NYC SKA band The New York Citizens and released 2 records on the MOON Records label and appeared on many international SKA compilations, and shared bills with The Ramones, Big Audio Dynamite, Sister Carol, Ziggy Marley and They Might Be Giants among others. From 1994 through 2000, Gil played in the Alternative rock band Itchy Trigger Finger performing at venues across the U.S., including Lollapalooza in 1995.  Paul was the house bassist at the legendary SQUEEZEBOX club at Don Hills for 3 years where he backed up such underground club/rock personalities as Lady Bunny, Wayne/Jayne County, Cherrie Curry, Bebe Buell, Deborah Harry, and Dean Johnson, who introduced Paul to Anthony Rapp in 2001. In the fall of 2010, Paul realized a career-long goal by playing the bass in, “Without You”, the musical adaptation of Anthony Rapp’s autobiography of the same name for the 2010 New York Musical theater Festival. As of late, Paul spends his time recording and gigging with his original band, The Bastards of Melody, playing local venues with his Live Band Karaoke band, Bunnie England and the New Originals, and performing with Anthony Rapp in concert engagements.

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Peter Sachon (cello) performs and records with an array of musical groups in New York City, from classical and jazz, to rock and country bands. He is very active in promoting new music of all kinds. Peter has been the cellist for the Broadway productions of Fiddler on the Roof, The Light in the Piazza, High Fidelity, Legally Blonde, South Pacific, Pippin, The King & I, and My Fair Lady. Peter is also a regular sideman with many artists such as Audra McDonald, Victoria Clark, Kelli O’Hara, Chris Potter, Dee Snider, Phillip Phillips, Judy Kuhn, Adam Guettel, and Alan Cumming. He has also played electric cello for the Cirque du Soleil shows Banana Schpeel and Quidam. Additionally, he also plays American folk music on the mandocello.

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Jerry Marotta (Drums) has toured and recorded with Peter Gabriel, Paul McCartney, Elvis Costello, Cher, Tears For Fears, Stevie Nicks, Sarah Maclachlan, The Indigo Girls, Suzanne Vega, Hall & Oates, John Mayer, Joan Armatrading, Mary Black, T Bone Burnett, Natalie Merchant, Marc Cohn, Sheryl Crow, Ani Defranco, Pino Danielle, Claudio Baglioni, Linda Eder, Michael Franks, Nancy Griffith, Orleans.

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David Malachowski (guitar) is a multi-genre guitarist, cancer survivor, and dad who lives in NYC. He’s currently near the end of a lengthy tour of RENT, as well as playing in Anthony Rapp’s Band for 12 years. Also a member of 70’s prog-rock act Pavlov’s Dog, touring Europe frequently, he plays with the iconic Daphne Rubin-Vega and was part of a joyous Adam Pascal/Anthony Rapp tour for years. He’s served as guitarist/musical director for superstar Shania Twain, toured with Garth Hudson (The Band) country star Janie Fricke, been a member of blues rock stalwarts Savoy Brown and roots warriors Commander Cody & His Lost Planet Airmen and many others. (Google that shit). Feeling very blessed to return to my introduction into the Rent world (thanks Dan and Anthony).

 

Brian Ronan (Sound Designer) Over 40 Broadway designs including The Prom, Tootsie, Mean Girls, Margaritaville, Springsteen on Broadway, War Paint, The Last Ship, Beautiful, If/Then, Anything Goes, American Idiot, Next to Normal, Spring Awakening, Grey Gardens. On the West End: Spring Awakening, Book of Mormon and Beautiful. Off Broadway designs include Bowie’s Lazarus, Giant, Rent, Everyday Rapture, Saved, 10 Million Miles, and Bug. He is the recipient of Obie, Lucille Lortel, Drama Desk, Olivier and Tony awards.

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Tom Kitt (Addition Orchestrations) Tom Kitt is an American composer, conductor, orchestrator, and musician. For his score for the musical Next to Normal, he shared the 2010 Pulitzer Prize for Drama with Brian Yorkey. He has also won two Tony Awards and an Outer Critics Circle Award for Next to Normal, as well as Tony and Outer Critics Circle nominations for If/Then and SpongeBob SquarePants. He has been nominated for eight Drama Desk Awards, winning one, and a Grammy Award for Best Musical Theater Album for Jagged Little Pill in 2021.

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Sarah Zwart (Lighting Designer) is a sophomore lighting designer attending Fordham University’s BA in Theatre for Production and Design. She recently designed Mama Rose at Royal Family. Her work at Fordham includes The Pillowman (Lighting Designer), An Accidental Murder Mystery (Associate LD), Neighborhood 3: Requisition of Doom (Lighting Designer), Even So (Asst. Production Manager). They would like to thank the entire RFP team for this wonderful opportunity. 

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Rebecca Whitney Klein (Stage Manager) (she/her) is a Brooklyn-based actor, creative, (and now stage manager!) originally from the Boston area. An alumna of JMU, the Stella Adler Studio, and the Heidi Marshall Studio, she is trained in acting for the stage and for film/tv. Rebecca is passionate about new works, collaborative and experimental processes, queer stories, and stories by and about women. Selected credits: COVID SUX, ANNE OF GREEN GABLES PART II, HOLY HANS!, GEN Z ON FIRE (Royal Family); BR’ER COTTON (Endstation Theatre Company, dir. Whitney White); REVOLT. SHE SAID. REVOLT AGAIN. (JMU); BRUNDIBAR (Central Square Theater, dir. Scott Edmiston); THE DIARY OF ANNE FRANK (dir. Nancy Curran Willis).  IG: @rebeccawhitneyklein 

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Lisa Dozier (Producer) founded LDK Productions, a New York based theatrical management and producing firm, in 2007. Select current/recent credits: Little Girl Blue (Off-Broadway), Katsura Sunshine’s Rakugo (Off-Broadway), Be More Chill (Broadway, Off-Broadway, West End), the immersive theatrical adaptation of the film Sideways (Off-Broadway), Skates: A New Musical (Chicago), A Lovely Sunday for Creve Coeur (Off-Broadway), A Letter to Harvey Milk (Off-Broadway, London). Executive Producing projects in development include Anthony Rapp’s Without You in collaboration with Royal Family and Edie Brickell’s 38 Minutes. She was the founding producing director of the regional theatre Miami New Drama and is currently a professor of practice of theatre management at the University of Florida. LDKProductions.com
 

ROYAL FAMILY PRODUCTIONS (Chris Henry, Artistic Director; Lorna Ventura, Creative Director) has the mission is to galvanize the Times Square community by cultivating raw talent, collaborating with seasoned artists, and inspiring audiences with a diversity of lion-hearted theatre. To us, everyone in the theatre community is not only royalty but family. Our programs and productions give artists space at all stages of their careers. We don’t want to tell just any story: we want to best serve artists in telling their own stories. In today’s political and social climate, it is also more important than ever to celebrate all voices—especially those underrepresented in the traditional theatre space. At Royal Family, we celebrate the work of female artists, playwrights of color, works with LGBTQIA themes, and artists of all ages and body types.

 

Royal Family has been a creative incubator of original, humanistic plays for over a decade. Bravery and fearlessness are imperative to our process. Artists and audiences alike are challenged in a creative safe space to explore the humor and the tangled truths of the human condition. As actor and first-time playwright Anthony Rapp (Rent, Dazed and Confused, Star Trek: Discovery) observes, “Royal Family is committed to truthful, heartfelt, alive, theatrical storytelling. It’s vital to the human experience and hard to come by.” Royal Family was established in 2007 by Katie Avebe, Mary Bernardi, Chris Henry and Andy Theodorou as a home for artists wishing to challenge and transform the traditional theatre canon.