Katy Click
(Stage Manager) Katy is grateful for her first CSA collaboration. She is a freelance Stage Manager, working with several different companies around town. Some stage management credits include Bright Star, Grey Gardens, A New Brain (Front Porch Theatricals), Midnight Radio's The Wonderful Wizard of Oz and Die Hard N'at (Bricolage), The Next Fairy Tale (part of the CLO New Musicals Weekend), Hedwig and the Angry Inch, Evil Dead the Musical (Pittsburgh Musical Theater), and Rhinegold (Pittsburgh Festival Opera). She also works on musicals with Pine-Richland High School, [hopefully] inspiring the youth of tomorrow. Other various production credits include City Theatre Company, Quantum Theatre, and 12 Peers Theater. She fills in any remaining time assisting with load ins, strikes, and walking other people’s dogs. Katy holds a BA in nothing-she-is-currently-using from Allegheny College in Meadville, PA. Up next: summer season with PFO. Tucker Topel
(Scenic Designer) is now a Pittsburgh based scenic designer after growing up in the southern Wisconsin area. He is a recent alumni of Point Park University in Pittsburgh, PA with a BFA in scenic design. Tucker’s most recent local design credits include: The Gun Show (Quantum Theatre Company), Junie B. Jones: The Musical (Stage 62), A Devil Inside (The REP) , Robin Hood (Point Park University), and You On the Moors Now (PPU). Other credits include: The Good Doctor (SUNY Oswego University), The Musical Comedy of 1940 (Mercyhurst University), Footlight Players 2017/2018 Festival (Indiana University of Pennsylvania), Gypsy (Timber Lake Playhouse), Having Our Say: The Delany Sister’s First 100 Years (TLP), and A Funny Thing Happened on the way to the Forum (TLP). |
Shana Simmons
(Stage Director & Choreographer) Shana Simmons graduated from Point Park University with a BA in Dance in 2003. Simmons lived in New York City for four and a half years and performed with choreographers such as Noemie Lafrance "Agora", Alexandra Beller, Tomé Cousin, bigGRITS dance co, Debra Wanner/Amy Larimer, Amanda Drozer, and was a company member of white road dance media. Simmons holds an MA in Choreography from LABAN in London, England. She performed and choreographed with companies and choreographers such as Flat Feet Dance Company, Stacy Abalogun and Nadine Doran-Holder and has performed her own works in New York City, Belgium, London, Chicago, and Pittsburgh.Since her return to Pittsburgh, Simmons has performed with companies such as Attack Theater, Staycee Pearl Dance Project, the Pittsburgh Opera, The Murphy/Smith Dance Collective, Jamie Erin Murphy, The Atlanta Opera, Brady Sanders, and was a founding company member of Continuum Dance Theater. She has choreographed for festivals such as the Next Stage Residency and New Moves Festival through the Kelly-Strayhorn Theater, The Three Rivers Arts Festival, and Evolve Productions. SHANA SIMMONS DANCE, founded in 2009, has a long standing collaborative relationship with The Eclectic Laboratory Chamber Orchestra, producing four separate works to date. Simmons has produced a variety of works in Pittsburgh since 2012: Relative Positions (2012), PASSENGER (2014) and Objective I (2015). SSD has received support from the Heinz Small Arts Initiative, the Kelly-Strayhorn Theater and the National Aviary for such projects. Shana Simmons Dance was commissioned by the VALEES Conference in March 2016 to perform works from Objective I and dancer, Brady Sanders and the company performed excerpts from The Missing Peace at the Leadership Illinois Conference, Chicago (2017). She was a nominee for the Carol R Brown Award (2016) and currently adjunct dance faculty at Point Park University. |
Madeleine Steineck
(Lighting Designer) Madeleine Steineck has been working as a Lighting Designer and Master Electrician in western Pennsylvania since 2011. Companies she has designed for include: Pittsburgh Festival Opera, off the WALL Productions, Carnegie Stage, Mercyhurst University Theatre Program, the New Hazlett's CSA Program, MCG Jazz, Texture Contemporary Ballet, fireWALL dance theatre, Morgantown Dance Studio, and Pittsburgh Playwrights Theatre Company. She also designs for local high school and middle school productions. Master Electrician credits include: Lake Erie Ballet, Erie Contemporary Ballet Theatre, PICT, Erie Festival of Dance, 2016's Regional Dance America: Northeast in Erie, PA, and Mon Valley Sizzles at the Carrie Furnace. Her design for PPTC's production of Miss Julie, Clarissa, and John was seen at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival in 2017. She has also travelled as the lighting director for Raphael Xavier's productions: The Unofficial Guide to Audience Watching Performance (Chicago, IL and Burlington, VT in 2014) and Point of Interest (Lake Placid, NY in 2018). Joanna Becker
(Costume Designer) Joanna Becker is from Santa Fe, NM. Since the age of 6, Joanna helped her mom with costuming shows that she also performed in. During high school, under the guidance of her Mentor Debra Belz, she designed and constructed costumes for her friend’s ballet performances. Attending Lake Forest College (Chicago) kept up her momentum as she continued her studies in performance, voice and costuming, eventually heading the Costume Shop after graduation and coordinating costumes Little Women the Musical. She moved to Pittsburgh in 2015 in search of a new adventure. After 9 months, she attained an internship with the Wardrobe Department at Pittsburgh’s CLO and then landed the position of Assistant Costumer at the Pittsburgh Ballet Theatre where she has assisted in over 20 company and school productions. In March 2018, she designed Lightworks, a contemporary ballet choreographed by PBT soloist JoAnna Schmidt. In December 2018, she took on her first large-scale circus costume design project with Iron City Circus Arts Presents: The Nutcracker. Costuming The Winter Dog has been an exciting challenge and hopes you enjoy what you see. Credit goes to Kristin McLain for helping her make the lovely costumes look gross and Janet Campbell for her support and letting her use the dye vat. :) And of course the endless encouragement she receives from her lovie Ken, her mom and papa, friends and family. Joanna also wishes to thank the wonderful people who run New Hazlett Theatre’s CSA Performance Series--an amazing opportunity for Pittsburgh Artists. She performed in last season’s Büer’s Kiss--written and directed by Carl Antonowicz. joannabecker.com |