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JOHN MCGREW

MUSIC & LYRICS

John McGrew is a composer, singer, storyteller, and music supervisor based in Los Angeles, CA. Born in Ohio, McGrew was raised in a family of musicians, surrounded by madrigals, operas, and hand-built harpsichords. The New York Times called McGrew’s music for Jack Ferver’s dance performance piece Death Is Certain both “ominous” and “delicate.” In 2009, McGrew was invited to create and perform a piece for DanSpace Project’s Food For Thought, a night honoring the year’s most influential dance artists. In 2013, McGrew composed the theme music for the TED Talk conference, TED Talk: The Young. The Wise. The Undiscovered. (with Graham Fisk, Oliver Jeffers, and Mac Premo). As a teacher, McGrew pioneered an interactive, multimedia course entitled “Igniting the Creative Process.” In 2014, McGrew was nominated as a Fellow in the Academy for Teachers for his work at schools in the New York Metro area. McGrew performs across the country with his indie trio Apollo Run, whose “talent for quickly jelling melodies” was recognized by NPR, HuffingtonPost, Time Out NY, The LAist, and Future Sounds. He is currently a Creative Music Manger for Animated Series at Netflix. www.johnmcgrewmusic.com

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JONATHAN KARPINOS

BOOK & LYRICS

Jonathan Karpinos is a playwright based in New York. In addition to The Village of Vale, current projects include Lost Letters (with composer Creighton Irons), which recently premiered at Bloomington Playwrights Project. Other plays have been featured at Freeplay (NYU), Studio Tisch (NYU), the Louis Armstrong House Museum, and Pew-ish. Jonathan holds a MFA from Queens College, where he also taught writing, was a fellow in the Louis Armstrong Archives, and published an essay on the challenge of translating 2200-year-old Latin puns. He is the co-author of two musicals for young actors: Cupid & Psyche (with John McGrew) and The Average Achievers (with Benji Goldsmith and Meg Sturiano), which received its New York premiere at Hunter College High School. He is a native of North Carolina and a graduate of UNC-Chapel Hill.

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JOSEPH VARCA

BOOK & LYRICS

Joseph Varca is a filmmaker, writer, and performer. He produced and performed in the feature film Lapsis which premiered in Narrative Competition at SXSW 2020 and secured theatrical distribution with Film Movement in 2021. It has gone on to win Jury Prizes at BIFAN (South Korea) and the Dublin Film Festival and Best Feature Film at Neuchatel and Future Gate (Prague).

As an actor he made his Broadway debut in Ivo van Hove’s production of Network and has performed at the Metropolitan Opera in Lucia Di Lammermoor as well as Off-Broadway in theaters such as Atlantic Stage II and 59E59th. He is a graduate of Middlebury College.

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JANE DUBIN

PRODUCER

Jane Dubin is a TONY Award-winning producer and the President of Double Play Connections, a theatrical production and management company committed to supporting emerging artists and playwrights in the creation and development of new works. Jane is a graduate of the Commercial Theatre Institute’s 14-week (NYC) and O’Neill Center Intensive (CT) Producing Workshops and Director of Theater Resources Unlimited’s Producer Development Program Master Class. 

Ms. Dubin is Chair of the Board of Directors of Houses on the Moon Theater Company and a recent Board member of the League of Professional Theatre Women.  She is a member of the Broadway Women’s Alliance, the Off-Broadawy Alliance, and the Off-Broadway League.  For two years she was co-curator of the Hudson Valley Writers’ Center New Play Reading Series. She co-produced Hudson River Rising, presenting events in Westchester for One Billion Rising (V-Day) 2013 and 2014.  She was a strategic consultant to SPACE on Ryder Farm, an artists’ residency in Brewster, NY and a member of the Grand Jury for New York Musical Festival’s 2015 – 2019 seasons.  She served as an evaluator for a NAMT innovation grant panel and for Bethany Arts Community’s residency program.  She is a frequent panelist and guest lecturer on theater-related matters.  Jane serves on the advisory boards of Elizabeth Mascia Child Care Center (Westchester), Axial Theatre and Dirty Laundry Theatre.

Before embarking on her career in theater, Ms. Dubin spent over 20 years in the financial services industry.  Trained as an actuary, she was a Managing Director at Equitable Capital Management Corporation (a subsidiary of Equitable Life) and then principal of a private investment firm, as the Director of Marketing and Client Services.  Ms. Dubin has an MBA in Finance from NYU and is a Phi Beta Kappa graduate of the University of Rochester, with a BA in Mathematics and an MS in Public Policy Analysis. While at Rochester, she was awarded an internship at the White House.

Productions: Current Season Broadway: Is This A Room, Dana H.  Upcoming: The Village of Vale. Previously: The Prom (Drama Desk Award Best Musical), Farinelli and the King (starring Mark Rylance, nominated for 5 Tony Awards), An American in Paris (4 TONY Awards, plus London and National Tour), Absolute Brightness of Leonard Pelkey (Westside Theater and on Tour), Ann, starring Holland Taylor (Lincoln Center); Bandstand (Broadway), Beebo Brinker Chronicles (2008 GLAAD Media Award for Theatre); Groundswell (the New Group), Peter and the Starcatcher (Broadway, Off-Broadway, National Tour), winner of 5 TONY Awards; The Norman Conquests (TONY Award, Best Play Revival), The 39 Steps (OB, Tour); The Umbrellas of Cherbourg (London).  Film: Radium Girls. 

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LISA ROTHE

DIRECTOR

Lisa Rothe is a NY based freelance theater director, acting /vocal coach and educator. She was nominated for SDC’s Joe A. Callaway Award for Direction for Hold These Truths by Jeanne Sakata, produced by Epic Theatre Ensemble in NYC. The play was also nominated for a Drama Desk award for Best Solo Performance by actor Joel de la Fuente and the Tony Award winning TheatreWorks/Silicon Valley production recently won 3 Theatre Bay Area Awards for Outstanding Direction, Outstanding Performer and Outstanding Production.  Other productions at The Cultch Historic Theatre in Vancouver, Barrington Stages, The Guthrie Theater, ACT in Seattle, Playmakers Repertory Theatre, the Honolulu Theatre for Youth, the SoloNova Festival in NYC, and was produced by Hang A Tale at the Sheen Center in NYC.

Previously the Director of New Works at Kansas City Repertory Theatre, Lisa was thrilled to produce the 4th annual Origins KC New Works Festival and was in the process of producing the 5th Festival in March 2020, when it was canceled due to COVID-19 . Alongside Angel Desai and Grace Zandarski, Lisa was a co-Artistic Director of The Actor’s Center in NYC for the three years. She is also a recent co-President of the League of Professional Theatre Women, is on the Artistic Advisory Council of Epic Theatre Ensemble, on the Advisory Boards of Houses on the Moon and the Detroit Public Theatre, a Usual Suspect with New York Theatre Workshop, an Artistic Affiliate and Audrey Fellow with New Georges, a Drama League alum, a fox Fellow alum and a member of the National Theater Conference. Lisa received her MFA from NYU’s Graduate Acting Program and was subsequently invited by mentor and teacher Zelda Fichandler to be part of the inaugural year of NYU’s Directing program for alumni of the MFA Acting program. She also studied with the legendary Joseph Chaikin in his workshop for actors and directors.

Lisa has workshopped, developed, and directed hundreds of new works with multiple award winning writers. In New York, she has developed and presented work at HERE, NYTW, New Georges, The Lark, The Culture Project, The Foundry, Ensemble Studio Theater, The 52nd Street Project, Naked Angels, Epic Theater Ensemble, Summer Play Festival, among others. As the Director of Global Exchange at The Lark in NYC for over five years (2010-2015), she provided expanded opportunities for playwrights, aimed at advancing new work to production, both nationally and globally (facilitating reciprocal translation programs with China, Mexico, Romania & Russia).

Some favorite recent directing work: Steel Magnolias at The Guthrie Theatre; Fun Home and Cat on a Hot Tin Roof at Kansas City Repertory Theatre; Amber Waves by James Still at Indiana Repertory Theatre; In My Chair, written and performed by Eva DeVirgilis at Virginia Repertory Theatre/Cadence Theatre; WIld Abandon, written and performed by Leenya Rideout at the Irish Repertory Theatre; Sooner/Later by Allyson Currin at Cincinnati Playhouse; and Confederates by Suzanne Bradbeer at Theatreworks (nominated for 8 Bay Area Critics Circle Awards).