Featured Guest Biographies:

Anthony Arkin  (Special Guest Presenter)  In film he directed the award winning short-subject Future Rob, another short Deadbeat, and the upcoming feature documentary State of Rock.   In theatre he has directed Jonathan Tolin’s Stewarts Line and Even Gore’s Look at Me, Look at Me.  As an actor he’s appeared on stage in War in Paramus (HB Studios) I’m Not Rappaport (Broadway/Papermill/ Coconut Grove) Waverly Gallery (Off-Broadway/Williamstown), Power Plays (Off Broadway; The Promenade & at Williamstown) The Wanderer (Eugene O’Neill Theater Center) A Map of Doubt and Rescue (New York Stage & Film). On film he can be seen in  the upcoming Neal Cassady, Woody Allens’ Anything Else & Hollywood Ending, Pipe Dream, Revolution #9, Two Family House, Samuel Beckett is Coming Soon (short subject); and on TV in 100 Centre Street (A&E), Deadline (NBC), Necessary Parties (PBS), A Matter of Principle (Hallmark Hall of Fame).

John Augustine (Special Guest Presenter)  plays have been presented in New York City at: The ZIPPER, 59 E 59, EST, HERE, MIRANDA, MTC, EST, The National Theatre Of the Deaf, All Season’s Theatre Group, and others. He’s worked with these directors: Bill Russell, Leah Gardiner, Maria Mileaf, Joey Tillinger, Dan Winerman, Sheryl Kaller and Jim Simpson.  As an actor – he originated roles in plays by Bill Russell, Heather McCutcheon, Susan Cinomon, Mac Wellman. And Christopher Durang.  He can be seen in the upcoming 2008 indie film, If We Shadows Have Offended playing a frustrated, naughty college professor.  He and Sherry Anderson are “Dawne” in the crackpot show Chris Durang and Dawne, seen at the Criterion Center, Williamstown Cabaret, Bay Street Theatre,  The Rainbow Room,  Caroline’s Comedy Club, and the Triad, winning the Back Stage Bistro Award.  In Television he worked on staff for NBC and FOX.  He has taught playwriting at Playwrights Horizons Theatre School, New York University, and Sarah Lawrence College. His plays are published by Playscripts.com.  He is a member of WGAE and The Dramatists Guild.

Paul Baker’s (Inge Festival Musical Director) music on Celtic harp, concert harp, piano, organ and harpsichord can be heard in concert and on recordings and movie soundtracks.  Voted “Best Musical Director of the Year” for his work with Stephen Sondheim’s musical ASSASSINS, Mr. Baker continues to play for many national tours and concerts in the Los Angeles area.  Recently he was conductor for Bark!  the musical, and played in the national tour of Camelot with Michael York and Lou Diamond Phillips. The group “Pastiche” premiered his GERSHWIN SAMPLER at Carnegie Hall and he was seen in motion capture in the new animated feature BEOWULF.  He has recorded three Celtic harp albums, “The Tranquil Harp," “The Ladder of the Soul” and "The Quiet Path." Mr. Baker returns to the Festival for his sixth year having served as musical and vocal director of the production of ALL THAT JAZZ, a concert of songs by John Kander and Fred Ebb, COMES ONCE IN A LIFETIME, a musical tribute to Betty Comden and Adolph Green, ARTHUR'S TURN, a collection of songs from the shows of Arthur Laurents, and BEAUTIFUL, BEAUTIFUL WORLD, the songs of Jerry Bock and Sheldon Harnick.

Katherine Billings

Gigi Bolt (Special Guest Preseenter) served in 2006-2007 as Interim Executive Director of Theatre Communications Group, the national organization for the not-for-profit theatre.  She is currently working with the National Alliance for Musical Theatre as a program consultant, is an adjunct professor at Columbia University and the Interim Board Chair of the SITI Company.  The Director of Theater and Musical Theater at the National Endowment for the Arts from 1995 till 2006, Ms. Bolt advised the agency on policy related to the fields and was responsible for the review of applications as well as field leadership initiatives. Prior to joining the Endowment, she served as Director of the Theater Program at the New York State Council on the Arts.  Her tenure at the Council was preceded by work as an actor including five seasons as a member of the company of the Cleveland Play House.  She has served on the Board of Directors of Theatre Communications Group and the American Arts Alliance, and is the recipient of a Distinguished Service Award from the NEA, the Lee Reynolds Award from the League of Professional Theatre Women, and an Alumni Honor Citation from the University of Kansas.

Wayne Bryan (Special Guest Performer) has performed extensively on Broadway (Good News!, Rodgers and Hart, Tintypes) and on television (M*A*S*H, Keystone, American History), and has directed productions all across the country. Wayne began his professional career as both actor and director with San Diego's Old Globe Theatre. In 1988 Wayne become the Producing Director for Music Theatre of Wichita, where he has now produced 90 Broadway-scale musical productions, acclaimed internationally for their high quality. Numerous awards include the Kansas Governor’s Arts Award and the NCCJ Brotherhood / Sisterhood Award, recognizing those who fight discrimination and encourage diversity. He is co-author of the rewritten collegiate musical Good News!, which has received more than 250 productions in the U.S., Canada, and Great Britain, plus a well-received cast album. He also produced the American cast album for the Olivier Award-winning musical Honk! Wayne has been an enthusiastic Inge Festival participant since 1990, especially grateful for his involvement the memorable tributes to musical theatre greats Stephen Sondheim, Kander and Ebb, Arthur Laurents, and Comden and Green. 

Jackson R. Bryer (Scholars' Conference Chair) first came to Independence, Kansas, in 1980 as a consultant to the National Endowment for the Humanities to advise the college on a grant proposal to catalogue its William Inge Collection. He returned to Independence on May 3, 1981 to participate in a panel discussion on "William Inge: A Perspective in 1982," with Tom Rea, a drama instructor at KU, Eugene DeGruson, special collections librarian at Pittsburg State, Arthur McClure, an instructor at Central Missouri State University, and Gary Mitchell, English and Theatre instructor at ICC. The panel followed a showing of "William Inge: Penn Avenue to Broadway" and was, in effect, the first William Inge Festival. He has attended every William Inge Theatre Festival since, except for the 1982 event (he does not remember what prevented him from coming). He has directed the Conference segment of the Festival for 20 years. Bryer received his B.A. from Amherst College, his M.A. from Columbia University, and his Ph.D. from the University of Wisconsin. He taught in the Department of English of the University of Maryland for 41 years, before retiring in June 2005. His principal areas of specialization as a teacher and a scholar are American fiction of the twentieth century, especially the work of F. Scott Fitzgerald; modern drama; and American drama.  He is the recipient of the Jerome Lawrence Award presented at the 2007 Inge Festival.

Marcia Cebulska was thrilled to have had her play TOUCHED premiered at the last William Inge Theatre Festival for which it was commissioned. Her play, NOW LET ME FLY, commissioned for the 50th anniversary of the Brown v. Board  decision and written while she was an Inge playwright-in-resident, has been performed at  80 venues around the world.  Marcia’s other plays have been produced at The Georgia Repertory Theatre, HERE, the Phoenix Theatre, Frontera at Hyde Park,  Fremont Centre Theatre,  The Theatre Building  and elsewhere.  Marcia has received the Dorothy Silver Award, the Jane Chambers International Award, Kansas Arts Commission and Indiana Arts Commission Master Artist Fellowships. Her plays have been chosen for development by the Eugene O’Neill National Playwrights Conference, Sundance Playwrights Lab and Shenandoah Playwrights Retreat. She has been playwright-in-residence at The University of Georgia, Mary Anderson Center for the Arts and The William Inge Center for the Arts.   Marcia also has two produced screenplays to her credit. She is a member of The Dramatists Guild and Chicago Dramatists.

Barbara Dana (Special Guest Presenter) made her New York stage debut at the age of 17 in the off-Broadway production of Arthur Laurents’ A CLEARING IN THE WOODS. She appeared on Broadway in WHO’S AFRAID OF VIRGINIA WOOLF?, ENTER LAUGHING, ROOM SERVICE and William Inge’s WHERE’S DADDY? She was also a member of the improvisational group, Second City, appearing in Chicago and New York. Off-Broadway Barbara played Joan in Maxwell Anderson’s JOAN OF LORRAINE and appeared in EH?, GHOSTS and Ira Levin’s BREAK A LEG. Her films include The In-Laws, Popi, Chu-Chu and the Philly Flash (for which she wrote the screenplay), Samuel Beckett is Coming Soon…(short), and the upcoming Raising Flagg. Television appearances include Law&Order, Law&Order: SVU, Necessary Parties (her screenplay), A Matter of Principle, The Effect of Gamma Rays on Man-in-the-Moon Marigolds, June Moon and As the World Turns. Ms. Dana is an award-winning author of books for children and young adults. Her first play, WAR IN PARAMUS, was staged at HB Playwrights and premiered at Abingdon Theatre Company in New York in 2005, directed by Austin Pendelton. It has recently been published in the anthology, New Playwrights: The Best Plays of 2006 (Smith & Kraus). Barbara is currently writing a novel for HarperCollins, based on the young life of Emily Dickinson.

Brad Heberlee – most recently appeared with the Civilians in the world premiere of This Beautiful City at the Humana Festival of New American Plays. His Off-Broadway/New York credits include Adam Bock’s The Thugs (SoHo Rep), (I am) Nobody’s Lunch (The Civilians), and Man Is Man (Prospect Theatre Company).  Regionally he has been seen in The Sweetest Swing In Baseball (Denver Center Theatre Company), I Am My Own Wife (Weston Playhouse), 36 Views (Huntington Theatre), Hay Fever (Centerstage Baltimore), Serious Money (Yale Rep), Amadeus (Syracuse Stage/Virginia Stage), The Foreigner (Milwaukee Rep), A Christmas Carol (McCarter Theatre), Candida and Measure for Measure (Sacramento Theatre Company), and The Taming of the Shrew and The Merchant of Venice (Idaho Shakespeare Festival).  Brad is a graduate of UC Santa Barbara and Yale School of Drama.

Don Hill (Special Guest Presenter) In a 33 year career that spans both coasts Don Hill has worked in the professional theatre as an actor, stage manager, production manager, director, producer and union negotiator. He received his MFA from USC under the mentorship of John Houseman. During his five years as production manager for the Los Angeles Theatre center he supervised 66 main stage production 54 of which were new works. As Associate Producer for the Long Beach Civic Light Opera Hill produced over 20 large scale star studded musicals. For seven years he served as chief business representative for Actor's Equity Association, Western Region. Prior to his current appointment at UC Irvine as Head of Stage Management, Hill taught Entertainment Law at Columbia College (Hollywood). 

Kaitlin Hopkins As an actress Kaitlin has worked extensively in theater, film, television and radio for 25 years. Credits include: Broadway; The Grinch, Noises off, Anything Goes. Off Broadway: Bat Boy- The Musical ( Drama Desk/ Ovation Award nominations), Bare-a pop opera, The Great American Trailer Park Musical, Nicky Silver’s Beautiful Child. Other: Disney’s On The Record (National tour), She Loves Me (Reprise Series/Ovation nom), The Philanderer (South Coast Repertory/Ovation nom). Television/Film includes: “The Nanny Diaries”, “Confessions of a Shopaholic” (upcoming), “Rescue Me”,  “The Practice”, “Spin City, “JAG”, Star Trek-Voyager”, "Law and Order”. Kaitlin is proud to serve on the board for the William Inge Festival Foundation. She also serves as a panel member for The National Foundation for the Advancement in the Arts and as a judge/respondent for the Kennedy Center American College Theatre Festival and the Irene Ryan Awards. For more info visit www.kaitlinhopkins.com.

Susan Hyon Off-Broadway: Romeo & Juliet, (NYSF/The Public), Tartuffe (CSC), Scapin (CSC); NYC: Smoke and Mirrors (The Flea), Janyl (La MaMa E.T.C.), Regional: Bring Love (Guthrie), Henry VI (Shakespeare & Co.); International: Janyl (Bishkek, Kyrgyz Republic), Metamorphoses (Teatro Nacional, Lisbon), The Comedy of Errors (Schauspiel Essen, Germany), Scapin (Arezzo, Italy), Snow (Dublin Fringe). Training: Columbia University Graduate Acting 2006. Awards: Bob Hope Fellowship, Fulbright, S. Korea.

Adam Kraar (Inge House Resident Playwright)s plays include New World Rhapsody (commissioned by Manhattan Theatre Club); The Spirit House; The Abandoned El (workshopped at William Inge Center, premiered at Illinois Theatre Center); The Lost Cities of Asher (Finalist, 2005 O’Neill Playwrights Conference); and Freedom High (winner of the Handel Playwright Fellowship). Adam was a Playwriting Fellow in Residence at Manhattan Theatre Club.  His plays have been produced and developed by Ensemble Studio, Primary Stages, N.Y. Stage and Film, N.Y. Shakespeare Festival, Cherry Lane Theatre, LaMama ETC, The Lark, Abingdon, H.B. Playwrights Foundation, Rude Mechanicals, Urban Stages, Queens Theatre in the Park, Theatreworks U.S.A.; New Jersey Rep, Montana Rep, N.Y. State Theatre Institute, Bloomington Playwrights Project, Key West Theatre Festival, and others.  Adam Kraar’s plays have won awards from the Sewanee Writers' Conference, Virtual Theatre Project and the Southeastern Theatre Conference; and are published by Dramatic Publishing, Smith & Kraus, Sundance Publishers and Applause Books’ Best American Short Plays.  Adam grew up in India, Thailand, Singapore and the U.S., earned an M.F.A. from Columbia University, and lives in Brooklyn with his wife Karen.

Daniel Damon Joyce was last seen on Broadway in Manhattan Theatre Club's "Come Back, Little Sheba."  Regional: Urban Cowboy, 8-Track: The Sounds of the 70s, Anne of Green Gables, Forever Plaid, King Lear, Boys' Life.  BFA from NYU, where he studied at the Stella Adler Conservatory, CAP21, and the Royal Academy of Dramatic Arts in London.  Thanks to an incredibly merciful God and the love of my life: Anna.

E. Katherine Kerr (Special Guest Performer) is an actress, writer, teacher, director and workshop leader.  She won an Obie and a Drama Desk nomination for her roles in Cloud 9 and for another Drama Desk award for her roles in Laughing Wild.  At Playwrights’ Horizons she played Jayne/Kay in David Greenspan’s She Stoops to Comedy. Kerr performed 14 roles in The Search for Signs of Intelligent Life at the Hanger Theater. As a writer, her play, Juno’s Swans, was produced at Second Stage.  She has performed her own one woman show, On the Zip Line in various places including Queen’s University in Canada.  Recently she directed her play, Intelejunt Dezyne: A Divine Comedy, at the Fairfield Theatre Company and at the National Arts Club in New York City.  Her book entitled The Four Principles is based on twenty years work teaching acting and conducting a two-day self-empowerment workshop called The Creative Explosion. She teaches her four principles of creative expression to actors, singers, and writers in NY and CT. To email or read an introduction to the book and other writings log onto her website at www.EKatherineKerr.com.   

Dawson Moore (Special Guest Presenter) works for Prince William Sound Community College as the Coordinator of the Last Frontier Theatre Conference and the head of their  Drama Department. His own plays have been produced Off-Broadway and in California, Alaska, Washington, Texas, Illinois, Virginia, and Bologna, Italy. He has won national awards for his short comedies Bile in the Afterlife, In a Red Sea, The Bus, Burning, The Fears of Harold Shivvers, and Domestic Companion. He is one of three members of Three Wise Moose Theatre Company in Anchorage, Alaska, where they produce the Alaska Overnighters and the Don’t Blink One-Page Play Festival with TBA Theatre Company, and other new plays by Alaskans. He is a member of the Dramatists Guild of America, and is online at www.dawsonmoore.com.

Michele Pawk (Special Guest Performer & Director of "Picnic") has appeared on Broadway in HAIRSPRAY, LOSING LOUIE, MAMMA MIA, HOLLYWOOD ARMS (Tony Award), CHICAGO, SEUSSICAL, CABARET(Drama Desk & Outer Critics' Circle nominations), TRIUMPH OF LOVE, CRAZY FOR YOU(Drama Desk nomination), and MAIL.  Some of her favorite Off- Broadway experiences are most recently William Inge's THE DARK AT THE TOP OF THE STAIRS, THE PARIS LETTER (Drama Desk nomination), REEFER MADNESS, AFTER THE FAIR, HELLO AGAIN, MERRILY WE ROLL ALONG, john & jen, A LITTLE NIGHT MUSIC (NYC & LA Operas), and Stephen Sondheim's BOUNCE (Kennedy Center/ Helen Hayes nomination). She's been in a few films you might have seen, has played a dominatrix, a Russian Madame, and two white trash mothers on the three various Law & Orders, and was in a bunch of 1980's sitcoms.  She has recorded seven original cast albums, a few compilations, and several audiobooks.  Michele is absolutely thrilled to be a part of the William Inge Festival.

Michael Pressman (Special Guest Presenter) directed the current Manhattan Theatre Club production of Come Back Little Sheba starring S. Epatha Merkerson on Broadway as well as last summer’s Los Angeles production of the play starring Ms. Merkerson for the Center Theatre Group. Mr. Pressman directed the L.A. productions of To Gillian on Her 37^th Birthday (6 LA Drama Critics Award nominations), Days and Nights Within and Frankie and Johnny in the Clair de Lune.  His film credits include  To Gillian on Her 37^th Birthday starring Michelle Pfeiffer, Claire Danes, Peter Gallagher,  Some Kind of Hero starring Richard Pryor, Those Lips, Those Eyes starring Frank Langella, Thomas Hulce, Herbert Berghoff and Frankie and Johnny Are Married, which he also wrote.  His many television  film and episodic credits include “Shootdown” with Angela Lansbury, “Anne Tyler’s Saint Maybe” with Blythe Danner and Mary Louise Parker,   “Law  & Order” (where he first worked with Ms. Merkerson) and, as an Emmy Award winning Executive Producer and director, “Picket Fences” and “Chicago Hope”.

Jim Price (Special Guest Performer)Broadway: Ring of Fire, The Civil War. Tours: Les Misérables (1st National tour, International tour) Other favorite credits: Bat Boy(original cast, cast album), bare: a pop opera (original cast, cast album), Fire on the Mountain(Florida Studio Theater), Stand by Your Man(Goodspeed). Jim is a 2007-2008 Lark Playwright’s Workshop Fellow, a past member of the Actors Studio Playwrights and Directors Workshop, and a proud member of the Dramatists Guild, Actor’s Equity, and the Screen Actors Guild. His plays include, Collision Course (semi-finalist, O’Neill), Colony Collapse, and a work in progress currently titled Cellular Connections. He has also written music and lyrics for a new musical in collaboration with book writer James Hindman titled Cold FeeT (finalist, O’Neill). He has a degree in economics from the University of Michigan and trained at The American Conservatory Theatre in San Francisco. He is currently living in New York and is writing a science-based television show for kids that will start airing in 2009.

Alan Safier is currently starring as Albert Einstein in the world premiere musical THE SMARTEST MAN IN THE WORLD in Los Angeles, after just completing a six-month run as Herb Schwartz in THE LAST SCHWARTZ. Other recent stage credits include Buddy in CITY OF ANGELS, Lou in THE SPEED OF DARKNESS and Versati in Steve Martin’s THE UNDERPANTS at the Laguna Playhouse. He was Jess Sr. in William Inge’s “lost play” THE DISPOSAL, Guiteau in ASSASSINS and Michael in the L.A. premiere of THE MEN FROM THE BOYS, Mart Crowley’s sequel to his seminal THE BOYS IN THE BAND. He debuted off-Broadway in SAY GOODNIGHT, GRACIE; followed by SCRAMBLED FEET; VERY NORMAL PEOPLE and the hit revival of NEW FACES OF 1952. Festival attendees will remember him from the Festival’s 25^th Anniversary, and from past tributes to Jerry Bock & Sheldon Harnick, Adolph Green, Romulus Linney, and Arthur Laurents. Alan has done hundreds of radio & tv voiceovers, (he’s the Kibbles ‘n Bits dog!), and has guest starred on dozens of primetime and daytime series. Safier is the author of several published short stories and a play, MY FATHER’S VOICE. 

Doug Spesert,  a native of Northern California, has designed many shows for the Los Angeles theatre scene over the years, most recently Lost In Hollywoodland, which was performed during the New York Fringe Festival. Other shows include the original musical Poet’s Garden at the Matrix Theater, The Seagull at the Hollywood Court Theatre, Back To Methuselah and ASSASSINS for LA Repertory Company, Death Takes A Holiday at the Knightsbridge Theatre, and Swing Voter at the Court Theatre. He was the designer of the original production of Orphans at the Matrix (for which he received a Drama-Logue award), and was nominated for an Ovation award for his work on LA Rep’s Misalliance. His film credits include Killer Looks, Missing Parents, and The Elf Who Saved Christmas. Doug was also formerly the president and chief designer for Make Believe, Inc., a Santa Monica-based costume design and rental company with numerous film, theatrical and promotional credits.

Kate McGregor-Stewart a Yale School of Drama graduate, is a veteran

of 4 Broadway shows including Christopher Durang’s Beyond Therapy and A History of American Film, Jules Fieffer’s Grownups and Tom Stoppard’s Travesties with the Royal Shakespeare Company.  She has been in dozens of feature films, (including Failure to Launch, School of Rock, Father of the Bride I & II, In and Out, Safe and the soon to be released Street Dreams.). Her many television credits include “Nip/Tuck,” “Young and the Restless, ” “Six Feet Under,” “Jack and Bobby” and “Tracey Takes On.” She performed in the premiere of Eden Lane by Tom Donagy at The LaJolla Playhouse and most recently in the LA Theaterworks production of Ruby Sunrise. Kate has been teaching actors for over 30 years in New York, New Haven, Los Angeles, Denver and Vancouver. Her private coaching clientele include Nicole Kidman, Marisa Tomei, James Gandolfini, Woody Harrelson, and Oprah Winfrey.  Her studio clientele include Dreamworks, Fox, Sony, Disney and Paramount Pictures. She has a daughter Chloe, who is also an actress. You may view a more extensive list of Kate’s credits on www.imdb.com  and at her website katemcgregorstewart.com.

Alice Tuan (Inge House Resident Playwright) Alice is the author of Ajax (por nobody) (Flea Theater, Melbourne Fringe), Last of the Suns (Berkeley Rep, Ma-Yi Theatre), Ikebana (East West Players/Taper, Too), Some Asians (Perishable Theatre, UMASS, Amherst), New Culture for a New Country (EnGarde Arts), Coastline (Serious Play!, Edinburgh Fringe) and an adaptation of Middleton/Dekker’s The Roaring Girle (Foundry).  Her collaboration with New Paradise Labortories, BATCH: An American Bachelor/ette Party Spectacle was commissioned by the Actor’s Theatre of Louisville and premiered at the 2007 Humana Festival of New American Plays.  Ms Tuan received emerging artist recognition from both Los Angeles’ Richard E. Sherwood Award and New York’s Colbert Award for Excellence in 2000.   She has taught English as a Second Language in Los Angeles and China as well as playwriting at Cal Arts and the Michener Center for Writers.  Ms. Tuan holds an MFA in Creative Writing from Brown University.

Ralph Voss (Special Guest Presenter) a Professor of English at the University of Alabama, is author of the William Inge biography, A Life of William Inge.  A native of Kansas, Voss holds B.A. and M.A. degrees from Ft. Hays State University and a Ph.D. from the University of Texas at Austin.  He has published biographical and critical articles about Inge and Tennessee Williams in The Dictionary of Literary Biography, Dictionary of American Biography, Kansas Quarterly, and Library Chronicle.  He also teaches and publishes in the field of rhetoric and composition. 

Amanda White currently lives in New York City, where she is a graduate student in Columbia University's Program in Arts Administration.  She is a proud member of Actors' Equity Association, and balances stage time with studying acting with Austin Pendleton at HB Studio and working in Play Development for Broadway producing organization The Araca Group.  Amanda lived in Chicago prior to her time in New York, where she served on the artistic boards of Stage Two Theatre and Bohemian Theatre Ensemble. She also played in Rosencrantz and Guildenstern... with Chicago's Great Beast Theatre and the Chicago premiere of Robert Simonson's Café Society with Reasonable Facsimile Theatre Company.  Some of her favorite roles have been in The Heidi Chronicles, Carousel, Medea, The Rainmaker, KITTY and A Little Night Music.  Amanda recently had the pleasure of playing "The Witch" in Into The Woods at Theatre Simpson in Iowa, the state she is proud to call home.

 Walter Willison (Special Guest Presenter)  is a Tony Award nominee, Theatre World Award winner, and received a Special William Inge Award in 1987. He has starred on Broadway [TWO BY TWO, PIPPIN, GRAND HOTEL, etc.], TV & films, and feels honored to have worked with such Legends as Richard Rodgers, Leonard Bernstein, Stephen Sondheim, George Abbott, Hal Prince, William Inge, Joshua Logan, Joe Layton, Bob Fosse, Tommy Tune, Susan Stroman, Mike Ockrent, Jerome Lawrence, Robert Wright, George Forrest, Maureen Stapleton, Vivian Vance, Irene Ryan, and to be chosen by Irving Berlin to sing “A Pretty Girl . . .” in NBC’s ZIEGFELD biopic. Performed on and/or produced 29 CDs; Associate Editor of Screen World Vols.38-40,Theatre World Vols.42-40; book & lyrics for eight produced musicals, including the revisal of Frank Loesser’s GREENWILLOW, co-authored with Douglas Holmes, which Variety wrote “is redeemed by its new book”; a film and four shows with music by Jeffrey Silverman, including BUS STOP: The Musical, [in development]; directed from San Diego’s Old Globe to Off-Broadway, and events including the 2006 THEATRE WORLD AWARDS, writing special material for Liza Minnelli. He looks forward to returning to the Broadway stage in 2009, and is thrilled to return to IngeFest as Margaret Goheen’s dream grows brighter into the 21^st Century.

Elizabeth Wilson (Special Guest Performer) studied with Sanford Meisner at the Neighborhood Playhouse. Her Broadway debut was in Picnic in 1952. Since then she has appeared on Broadway in Waiting in the Wings, A Delicate Balance, and Ah, Wilderness among others. She won a Joseph Jefferson Award for Best Actress in Mornings At Seven, and a Tony Award for her performance in the New York Shakespeare Festival’s production of Sticks and Bones. She won Obie Awards for Taken in Marriage and Antiroom and was given the Drama Desk Award for Solonika. She has various film and television credits as well including: The Graduate; The Adams Family; Grace Quigley with Katherine Hepburn; and Child is Waiting with Judy Garland. Elizabeth was recently inducted into the Theatre Hall of Fame. 

Luke Yankee (Special Guest Presenter) has directed, acted, produced and taught in theaters throughout the world. Directing highlights include: THE CHERRY ORCHARD; LOVE LETTERS; NIGHT CLUB CONFIDENTIAL; MAN OF LA MANCHA; PRIVATE LIVES; THE KING AND I and DRIVING MISS DAISY.  He served as Artistic Director of the Long Beach Civic Light Opera and the Struthers Library Theatre. He has taught and directed at the American Academy of Dramatic Arts, AMDA and Columbia College. He is the author of JUST OUTSIDE THE SPOTLIGHT: GROWING UP WITH EILEEN HECKART. His first play, A PLACE AT FOREST LAWN will be published next month by Dramatists Play Service.  He is currently on tour with his one-man show, DIVA DISH!  www.lukeyankee.com