CREW LIST
George M. Bauerschmidt (Vocal Director) is an alumni of both Wayne and The Music Man having performed it here in this school, as well as with WTG as a member of the quartet. He has taken on various roles in NAC as well as Pittsford Musicals, RAPA, Everyone's Theater Company, Greece Performng Arts Society and YOUTHEATER in Pultneyville. From one show to the next, he is currenty in the cast of Hair with Irondequoit Theatre Guild. Besides playing piano, he also plays trumpet with the West Webster Marching Band and creates his own music using MIDI. To relax, he spends his time with the dogs at Lollypop Farm, where the students there sit on command or riding his bike along the entire length of the Erie Canal. "It's been a wild ride. Thanks for a great opportunity. You all are stars to me!"
Cori Colombo (Choreographer) has returned to Rochester since being in Florida, where she did a study program at the Walt Disney World, and was selected to perform in the Tapestry of Nations parade at EPCOT. Cori has a long history of dancing, training and competing at Dance 22 and Spins Dance studios. She has taken workshops from Frank Hatchett and Savion Glover in New York City. She participated in the Show Choir Camps of America program and danced on the stage in front of the castle at Walt Disney World. Cori has also danced and performed in the Brighton, Webster and Penfield Theater Guild's shows, and has done choreography for a local community show. Besides owning and operating the studio she also is presently teaching performing arts at RAPA and doing tech work at GEVA.
Marla Houston (Artistic Director) was born and raised in a very small town in Indiana. (There's only 1 state between Iowa and Indiana for those who are checking.) Although Indiana is most well known for basketball, Marla was fortunate enough to grow-up in a town that had an exceptional children's theater group. After high school she attended Purdue University where she received her degree(s) in secondary education (speech & theater majors, English and computer minors). After teaching high school for 4 years, she returned to Purdue to work toward a MFA in theater. When funds were gone, she left graduate school and eventually moved to Rochester. Directing credits include Grease, Cinderella, and Arsenic and Old Lace. Acting credits include Oliver!, The King and I, Guys & Dolls, Philadelphia Story, and Marian in The Music Man
Michael J. Lester (Orchestra Director) has been a music educator, conductor, clinician composer and performer for 29 years. He received his Bachelor of Music degree from Ithaca College in 1975 and his Masters of Science from Nazareth College. After that he taught at Honeoye Fall Lima from 1975-1985, Alfred State College from 1985-1996 and has been at Wayne Central from 1996 to the present. He has been a guest conductor at many local and state festivals. He is director of the concert band, marching band and jazz ensemble and is also an instructor of music history. In his spare time he likes to work out, compose and arrange (the marching band plays his arrangements every year), and play his guitar, piano or trumpet.
MEREDITH WILLSON (Book, Music, Lyrics) was born in 1902 in Mason City, Iowa. He learned to play the flute as a child, and left Iowa to study at Damrosch Institute (later Juilliard School). He was hired as principle flutist and piccolo player with John Philip Sousa’s Band. He later joined the New York Philharmonic Orchestra as 1st flutist. As NBC’s west coast musical director, his various radio programs included "The Big Show," starring Tallulah Bankhead, for which he wrote the hit song, "May The Lord Bless and Keep You." He composed the movie scores for "The Great Dictator" and "The Little Foxes", as well as symphonic, band, and choral works. Willson wrote three Broadway musicals: The Music Man, his first and most successful; The Unsinkable Molly Brown (music and lyrics), and Here's Love (book, music and lyrics). As an author, his published works include And There I Stood with My Piccolo, Eggs I Have Laid, Who Did What to Fedalia and a memoir about the making of The Music Man, But He Doesn't Know the Territory.
FRANKLIN LACEY (Book) [1917-1988] During the 1940s and early 1950s, Franklin worked in various production positions on Broadway, including work as a stage manager for Ziegfield. He produced and hosted the first talk show, "Meet Unusual People," on the West Coast, where he persuaded such stars as Bea Lillie to come from London and provide an hour of amusing and intelligent conversation on Paramount's KTLA-TV. In the late 1950s, Franklin shifted his talents to Las Vegas, producing a nite club show for the Flamingo Hilton. He also wrote several popular pageants and penned the long-running London stage play, Pagan in the Parlor.
