Fulton Theatre Home Page

Charles Strouse (Composer) A long-standing member of the Songwriters Hall of Fame, and in January 2002, an inductee into The Theater Hall of Fame, Charles Strouse's first Broadway musical, Bye Bye Birdie (1960), won him a Tony® Award and the London Critics Best Foreign Musical Award. In 1970, Applause, starring Lauren Bacall, achieved the same honors and his smash hit, Annie (1977), also won a Tony® for Best Score as well as two Grammy Awards®. Some of his other musicals include All American, Golden Boy (starring Sammy Davis Jr.), It's a Bird, It's a Plane, It's Superman, I and Albert, directed in London by John Schlesinger, and Dance a Little Closer, written with Alan Jay Lerner. Charlie & Algernon won a 1981 Tony® nomination for Best Score, as did Rags in 1987 and Nick and Nora in 1992. He wrote both the music and lyrics for off-Broadway's Mayor, and teamed again with Martin Charnin to create Annie Warbucks, the sequel to Annie. His film scores include Bonnie & Clyde, The Night They Raided Minsky's, and All Dogs Go to Heaven. "Those Were The Days," the theme song for TV's All in the Family is a Strouse song, with lyrics by his most frequent collaborator, Lee Adams. "Born Too Late", a 1958 pop song written with Fred Tobias, was a top-10 Billboard chart hit and is still heard on many oldies stations. The quadruple platinum album title song by Jay-Z, "Hard Knock Life (Ghetto Anthem)", won the 1999 Grammy for the best Rap album, charted for more than a year and won the Billboard 1998 R&B Album of the Year Award. Strouse's far-ranging talents include chamber and orchestral works, a piano concerto, a two-piano sonata, and operas. His latest choral work, "The Child In Us All", premiered in Spring, 2000. Charles Strouse created the ASCAP Musical Theatre Workshop in New York, where he encouraged the talents of countless young composers, writers and performers. In 1999, Strouse received the ASCAP Foundation Richard Rodgers Award for Career Lifetime Achievement in Musical Theatre. In December, 1995, a TV reinterpretation of the classic Bye Bye Birdie (starring Jason Alexander and pop-star Vanessa Williams) aired on ABC-TV. The 1995/96 Emmy for Outstanding Individual Achievement in Music and Lyrics was given to the new song written for and performed by Vanessa Williams: "Let's Settle Down". Another TV interpretation in 1999, Annie, aired on ABC's Wonderful World of Disney, swept the ratings by winning over 40 million viewers, won the 1999 Peabody Award and 2 Emmy Awards. The show starred Kathy Bates, Audra McDonald, Alan Cumming, Kristin Chenoweth, Victor Garber, Andrea McArdle and Alicia Morton as Annie and ranked #1 as movie of the year.

Martin Charnin (Lyricist) Mr. Charnin originated the role of "Big Deal" in the Broadway production of West Side Story in 1957-it was the only acting job he ever had. He began writing during West Side and his first collaborator was Mary Rodgers. His Tony® award-winning Broadway production of Annie (the eleventh longest running American musical in Broadway history) celebrated its twentieth anniversary in 1997 with a return to Broadway, and its national company has spent three years touring the United States. Another production closed in 2000 in the United Kingdom, having been nominated for the 1999 Olivier Award for Best Musical. A third production ended a two-year run in Amsterdam in 2001, and his 15th overall production closed after a triumphant run in Australia in 2002. Mr. Charnin has been the director, lyricist, composer, librettist, producer or combination of the aforementioned for over 75 theatrical productions including Annie, Annie Warbucks, the rock opera version of Joan of Arc, Mata Hari, Loose Lips, Star-Crossed, Sid Ceasar & Company, Carnal Knowledge, In Persons with Eli Wallach and Anne Jackson, The Flowering Peach, Winchell, the revised Goodspeed production of Cole Porter's Can-Can (for which he wrote the book), Café Crown, Mike, Laughing Matters, The No Frills Revue, Upstairs at O'Neals, The First, On the Swing Shift, A Little Family Business, The National Lampoon Show, Lena Horne: The Lady and Her Music, I Remember Mama, Hot Spot, Zenda, Put It in Writing, Fallout, Kaleidoscope, Ballad for a Firing Squad, La Strada, Nash at Nine, Two by Two and, in London, Bar Mitzvah Boy. His collaborators include Peter Allen, Harold Arlen, Vernon Duke, Keith Levinson, Marvin Hamlisch, Peter Sipos, Mary Rodgers, Richard Rodgers and Charles Strouse. He has directed Fred Astaire, Anne Bancroft, Lena Horne, Danny Kaye, Angela Lansbury, Johnny Mathis, Bill Murray, Bebe Neuwirth, Bernadette Peters, Sarah Jessica Parker, Gilda Radner, Molly Ringwald, Chita Rivera, Liv Ullman, Eli Wallach, Anne Jackson, Lou Reed, Susan Sarandon, Tim Robbins, Joan Rivers, Harvey Keitel, Chuck D, Jon Stuart, Phoebe Snow, Shirley Maclaine, Marlo Thomas, Sally Jesse Raphael, Julianne Moore, Kate Clinton and Martha Plimpton, among others. Charnin has received four Tony® nominations, two Tony® awards, six Grammy® Awards, three Emmy® Awards, three Gold Records, two Platinum Records, six Drama Desk Awards, a Peabody Award for Broadcasting, and most recently another Grammy® Award for Jay-Z's rap album Hard Knock Life which went triple platinum in 1999.

Robert Andrew Kovach (Scenic Designer) Robert is thrilled to join the creative team of the Fulton Theatre for Annie. Regional Favorites: The Drowsy Chaperone, Peter Pan, Hairspray, Millie, South Pacific, Cats, The Sound of Music, and Crazy for You. Other: Corporate designs for GM, Cadillac, LaSalle Bank ABN AMRO, Morgan Stanley, MTV's Real World, & ConAgra Foods. Special thanks to Marc & the entire Fulton creative team. www.KovachDesigns.com

Beth Dunkelberger (Costume Designer) Beth is a Lancaster native who has been designing for Actors Company/Fulton Theatre since 1975. She has also designed for area theatres such as Ephrata Performing Arts Center, The Independent Eye, Lancaster Opera Company, Theatre of the Seventh Sister and Dutch Apple Dinner Theatre. Regional credits include designs for Christy, The Musical (based on the book by Catherine Marshall) at The Grand Ole Opry. Film credits include Witness and The Silence at Bethany. Her artistry has been seen in industrial shows for Armstrong World Industries and mascots for Weaver Chicken, Servomation, Gibble Potato Chips and most recently, the Milanof-Schock Library Bookworm.

Paul Black (Lighting Designer) Paul is excited to be back at the Fulton which he has come to call his second home. Some of his previous designs include the most recent Les Misérables, The Spitfire Grill, Oklahoma!, Brigadoon, Treasure Island, Fiddler on the Roof, West Side Story, Oliver!, Dracula: Lord of the Undead, Crazy for You, The Irish...and How They Got That Way, Into the Woods, The Secret Garden, Seussical, Hot Mikado, and Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat. Regionally he just designed Hairspray at the Walnut theater in Philadelphia. When not in Pennsylvania, Paul works as a freelance designer living in Phoenix, Arizona. There, he has designed for the Arizona Theatre Co., Actors Theatre of Phoenix, Phoenix Theatre and Childsplay Inc. Other theatres Paul has designed for are the Music Theatre of Santa Barbara, American Stage in Florida, Carousel Dinner Theatre and the national tour of Tea at Five with Kate Mulgrew. As a guest artist Paul has lectured at Arizona State University, University of Arizona, Cornell College, Viterbo University, and Wichita State University. When not designing lights, Paul is co-executive of P2Design, a production company. Much thanks to Ellen and Bob for all of their hospitality and support over the years.

David C. Temby (Sound Designer) has created sound systems and designs for many productions, a talent he developed after discovering that there wasn't much demand for a color-blind lighting designer. David has designed productions and systems for Phoenix Theatre, Childsplay Theater, Actors Theatre of Phoenix, Arizona State University, the City of Phoenix, the White House Communications Agency, Coca-Cola, IBM, CNN, and the United States Air Force. He is also the General Manager for Clearwing Productions Arizona, a company that provides sound & lighting systems, designs, and production management for concerts, corporate shows, theatrical shows, and special events. David makes his home in Phoenix, Arizona with his loving wife, Jenifer.

Anthony Lascoskie, Jr. (Make-up and Wig Designer) Before joining the Fulton, Anthony managed the Millersville Costume Shop. Anthony has designed costumes and wigs for local theatres as well as private clients. His favorites include La Cage aux Folles, The Rocky Horror Show and working on the hair for Taffetas, Joyful Noise, Seussical and Enchanted April. Besides being the resident make-up and wig designer, Anthony also manages the costume shop for the Fulton. He is excited to have the Fulton's extensive costume collection open to the public.

Anne M. Jude (Assistant Stage Manager) Anne is thrilled to now officially call Lancaster "home" after spending the last few years exploring the country, working at the Phoenix Opera, Goodspeed Opera House, Walnut Street Theatre, Maine State Music Theatre, Commonweal Theatre and the Theater at Monmouth. Originally from Minnesota, she received her BFA in Arts Administration from Viterbo University. Proud member of Actors' Equity. Many thanks to Marc & Nykol. Love to Joe and the Fam! For Mom, always.

Nykol Dedreu (Stage Manager) Nykol is happy to be returning to the Fulton! Past shows here are The Spitfire Grill, 42nd Street, Treasure Island, and Seussical. For five seasons Nykol was the resident Production Stage Manager at Phoenix Theatre in Arizona where she managed over 25 musical productions. For the past 4 seasons she had the pleasure of working on staff at the Utah Shakespearean Festival where had the honor of being the lead stage manager on the world premiere of Lend Me a Tenor: The Musical. Other companies: Music Theatre of Wichita, Jacobs Pillow Dance Festival, Childsplay AZ, Pheonix Metropolitan Opera, Oklahoma Shakespearean, Forth Worth Shakespeare-in-the-Park, Rennie Harris Puremovement, Urban Tap. Nykol spent too much time in school, but when she was done she received a BS from Texas Woman's University and an MFA from Tulane University.