TONY CURRY (Writing Mentor) is now in his 8th year as the Play Writing mentor for KidStage’s New Works program. As a writer, he has more than 25 plays and screenplays to his credit. Seattle has seen the premieres of several of his plays including Café Ooh Longue, BlackJack, Unidentified Flying Object, Red, White & Turning Blue, Rumpelstiltskin and That Millennium Thing. He was commissioned by the Seattle Opera to help create a children’s adaptation of Mozart’s The Magic Flute for both a Northwest tour and recording. He was a recipient of the Artist Trust Fellowship for Playwrights. His screenplay, The Sand Sea, is in now pre-production and scheduled for filming in England and Morocco in Spring of 2022. But most of all, he loves working with these incredible young people as they create a new musical.
RICO LASTRAPES (Music & Composing Mentor) is an actor, composer, choreographer, teaching artist, and a 2021-2022 Tacoma Artists Initiative Program funding recipient. He began to write music after performing in orchestra pits for multiple productions, including Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street and Parade, while attending Douglas Anderson School of the Arts. As his love for musical storytelling grew, he began to pursue theatre and dance, receiving his BFA in Acting from The University of Central Florida. He has performed in several regional productions in Washington and Florida (West Side Story, Newsies, In the Heights, RENT, Godspell). He has created a 15 Minute Story for The 5th Avenue Theatre and founded Break the Table, an online streaming channel for BIPOC creatives.
NICOLE BEERMAN (Director) is an actor, singer, dancer, choreographer, teacher, wife to Josh and mother to Max and Huxley. Nicole has lived and worked on both coasts, loves to paint, garden, and do construction projects at home! As an actor, Nicole has been seen at Village Theatre in Cabaret (Gregory Award Nominee), Mary Poppins, Annie, Bye Bye Birdie, How to Succeed, Once Upon A Time in New Jersey and many Village Originals, The Constant Wife (Seattle Rep), Cabaret (5th Ave, AMTSJ, Ordway Center), Wonderful Town (5th Ave), Ming the Rude (Empty Space), Elephant and Piggie, Fire Station 7, Sleeping Beauty (SCT), Tapestry (Oregon Cabaret Theatre), and many more. As a choreographer Nicole’s work has been seen at KIDSTAGE, Cornish, Oregon Cabaret Theatre, The Triple Door, Café Nordo, Seattle Children’s Theatre, Fantastic Z, and Art Institute of Seattle, and in NYC, at the HERE Center, Ensemble Studio Theatre, Sam French Festival, Clubbed Thumb, Astoria Performing Arts, The Management and Acting Manitou. Nicole has taught at Cornish College of the Arts, UW, Art Institute of Seattle, Hunter College High School, VAM Studios, 5th Avenue, Century Ballroom, McCarter Theatre Company, Jersey City Dance Academy, The Studios, and All That Dance. Nicole holds a BFA from Cornish College of the Arts, is a Simonson Technique certified teacher and is a member of Actors’ Equity. www.nicolebeerman.com
CHRISTIAN DUHAMEL (Music Director) is an internationally regarded multi-hyphenate artist and voice and expression expert. For his work as the librettist of My 80-Year-Old Boyfriend, he received the the prestigious Kleban Award in Musical Theatre and he and his collaborators received an IRNE nomination for Best New Play. He is also a recipient of the BMI Jerry Harrington Award for Outstanding Creative Achievement in Songwriting and the Pearl Animation Studio Songwriting Artist Residency. His original works include My 80-Year-Old Boyfriend, X-MAS: A Merry Mutant Musical, Worlds Apart, The Girl Who Turned into a Feather, Reeling, Miss Mayor, and The Uncivil Ones. He has presented concert works at The Duplex, 54 Below, The Metropolitan Room, The Neon, Martin’s Off Madison, New Voices, and The Battersea Barge and has received commissions from theaters across the country, such as Coeur d’Alene Summer Theatre, Seattle Shakespeare Company/Wooden-O, and The Human Race Theatre Company. As an actor, he has been seen onstage at the 5th Avenue Theatre, Village Theatre, and the Ordway Center for the Performing Arts, among others. Over his career he’s been honored to collaborate with such luminary artists as Martin Charnin, Kathie Lee Gifford, Jerry Dixon, Caitlin Kinnunen, Shelly Burch, and Carolee Carmello. A native of Kellogg, Idaho, Christian is an alumnus of DePaul University and Wright State University. He currently resides in Seattle where he is an active member of the Dramatists Guild of America, the Off-Broadway Alliance, and Actors’ Equity Association.
COLLEEN NEILSEN (Stage Manager) A proud member of the KIDSTAGE family and so grateful to be back doing live events. Previous credits with KIDSTAGE include: The Wiz, Ragtime, Tarzan, and a number of Sing It Forwards. This one’s for SR and JB.