Casting Director Benton Whitley joins the WANATACHI Family!
Meet our awesome new CD who is putting together a fantastic cast for the up-coming concert!
Benton is the Associate Casting Director for Southgate Productions and also serves as the Associate Casting Director for National Artists Management Company, where along side Duncan Stewart he casts the current Broadway revival of La Cage Aux Folles (starring Kelsey Grammer) and the Broadway, West End, and International Tours of Chicago The Musical. Previously he helped cast Terrence McNally’s world premiere of Golden Age at The John F. Kennedy Center, and the 2009 Broadway revival of Ragtime. Benton is a proud graduate of North Carolina School of the Arts and the University of Michigan Musical Theatre department.
Matt Cowart on board to direct CAMP WANATACHI
The CAMP WANATACHI team is very excited to have Matt Cowart joining us as director of the upcoming production. So many hot new developments for CAMP!
A little more about Matt:
Matt Cowart is currently producing Sondheim: the birthday concert, a celebration of the works of Stephen Sondheim at Avery Fisher Hall with the New York Philharmonic. Recently, he co-directed All Fall Down at the 45th Street Theater, an official selection of the New York Musical Theater Festival. Credits include: Two Gentlemen of Verona: The Rock Musical [UNCSA], Broadway: Three Generations [Kennedy Center, Co-directed with Lonny Price], Camelot with the New York Philharmonic starring Gabriel Byrne, Christopher Lloyd and Fran Drescher, which was broadcast on PBS, Live from Lincoln Center [Associate Director]; My Favorite Things, a Rodgers and Hammerstein revue starring Shirley Jones [Associate Director]; Beautiful Girls, starring Zoe Caldwell, Patti LuPone, Marin Mazzie, Donna McKechnie, and Jenn Colella [Associate Director]; the Broadway revival of 110 in the Shade starring Audra McDonald [Assistant Director]; Kiki Baby [Eugene O’Neill Music Theater Conference].
This summer, he co-wrote and co-directed the original children’s musical, Dream Machines, with collaborator Isaac Klein and composers Joshua Morgan and James Stewart. The show is currently on tour with the Open Dream Ensemble. Matt is the Co-Artistic Director of MUDasMAN productions, which he founded with Mr. Klein. Matt has served as Associate Artistic Director of the 78th Street Theatre Lab, and as an Associate Producer for PREMIERES. He was a 2004/2005 Kenan Directing Fellow at the Lincoln Center Institute, is an alumnus of the 2005 Lincoln Center Theater Directors Lab, and a member of the Society for Stage Directors and Choreographers. Matt graduated from the University of North Carolina School of the Arts with his degree in directing. He is currently working on a new hip-hop musical with Isaac Klein and James Stewart.
Bekah Brunstetter joins CAMP WANATACHI
The incredible playwright Bekah Brunstetter has joined the CAMP WANATACHI family! She has come on board to collaborate on the book with Natalie Weiss. Check out her amazing blog at www.bekahbrunstetter.com.
Bekah Brunstetter is proud to be the 2009 playwright in residence at Ars Nova. She received her BA (Theater/Fiction Writing) from UNC Chapel Hill in 2004. As of May 2007, she is a proud recipient of an MFA in Dramatic Writing from the New School for Drama. Her plays include: OORAH! (Ars Nova outloud reading series, dir, Leigh Silverman; to premiere in London, the Finborough Theater, May 2009), TO NINEVEH (NY Innovative Theater Award for Best new full length play, 2006) SICK (winner, Sam French short play festival 2006), GREEN (finalist, Alliance Theater’s Kendeda Competition; national finalist, Kennedy Center American College Theater Festival; Semi-finalst, O’Neill 2007), SPACE (semi-finalist, Princess Grace Award 2007) I USED TO WRITE ON WALLS (published and licensed by Samuel French) FAT KIDS ON FIRE (licensed by Playscripts, Inc), YOU MAY GO NOW: A MARRIAGE PLAY (nominee, Cherry Lane Mentorship, 2008l semi-finalist, O’Neill 2008, wiiner, 2008 NYIT award for best new Full Length Play (Babel Theater Project), ARMS (Finalist, Heidemann Award, 2007; published by Smith and Krauss), LE FOU (The Atlantic Acting school), HAPPY BIRTHDAY/ I’M DEAD (Samuel French Short Play festival Finalist, 2007), MISS LILLY GETS BONED (nominee, 2008 L. Arnold Weissberger Award), CELEBRITY , and TORCH NUMBER 2 (SOHO Think Tank.), and FUCKING ART (winner, Sam French Short play Festival 2008.) . Her plays have been read and produced by the Babel Theatre Project, The Rattlestick Playwright’s Theater, the Ohio Theater (Think tank), NYU, Centenary Stage, NC New Voices, The New School for Drama, Working Man’s Clothes, Flux Theatre Ensemble, Phare Play Productions, Old Vic/ New Voices, Boston Theatre Works, Manhattan Theatre Source, SPF, The Alliance Theater, and The Atlantic (Acting School.) Her plays are published by Sam French, Playscripts, Original Works, and Smith and Krauss. In New York, she serves as the director of New Play Development for Working Man’s Clothes Productions. She is a member of the Ars Nova play group, the Playwright’s Center, At Play Productions, and the Dramatist’s Guild. She is also a proud new member of the Women’s Project writer’s Lab. Bekah lives in Williamsburg with her bikes, Roberta and Tony, and her cat, the Baby Kitty.
Natalie Weiss – Creator/Composer/Lyricist
Musician/ Puppeteer / Playwright / Performing Artist Natalie Weiss has been creating music under the moniker Unicornicopia since 2001. Her eclectic Unicornicopia performances are as well received at world-renown art shows such as the Performa Biennial and the Museum of Modern Art’s Warm Up at P.S. 1 as they are at rock and cabaret venues such as The Knitting Factory, the Box and Joe’s Pub. She collaborates extensively with costume designer riderhood and prominent music producers such as Joe McGinty (Losers Lounge, Psychedelic Furs), Jeff Saltzman (producer of The Killers, The Black Keys), and duets with Ann Magnuson (of Bongwater) on the upcoming Fischerspooner album.
Her postmodern compositional style also extends into the realm of musical theatre: she has written, composed, directed, designed and produced three full-length musicals, two of which utilized her skills a puppeteer. Using a style developed while teaching AIDS education in Africa, Weiss is a deft designer, performer and director of multiple mask and puppetry types. Her third original musical, the smash Off-Off Broadway hit Jack and the Beanstalk, featured 6-foot two-wheeled human-integrated puppets as well as Vietnamese-influenced water puppets that were manipulated in a pool of water by non-actors in a converted mayonnaise factory. She is currently in the midst of developing her 4th original musical – CAMP WANATACHI – a collaboration with glitch pioneer Machinedrum that is executive produced by Ian Pai (co-founder of Blue Man Group).
Weiss’ smart and playful genre mashing isn’t restricted to original music - she also works as a music supervisor for fashion and theatre regularly. Music supervision highlights include Meryl Streep’s benefit for the Soho Repertory Theater, Steve Martin’s benefit for Elevator Repair Service and Monica Byrne’s Spring/Summer 2008 presentation at Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week.
CONTACT:
campwanatachi at gmail dot com
Bridget Regan - Producer
Bridget Regan is a film, television and stage actress originally from Carlsbad, California. Her film credits include the upcoming “The Best and the Brightest” staring Neal Patrick Harris and Amy Sedaris, “Sex and the City: The Movie,” “The Babysitters” and “Binders.” She played reccurring roles in “Six Degrees,” “The Black Donnelley’s,” “Law & Order: Criminal Intent,” and had guest appearances on “New Amsterdam” and “Love Monkey.” From December 2007 through March 2008, she originated the role of Cecile Leroux on Broadway in the comedy “Is He Dead?” written by Mark Twain, adapted by David Ives and directed by Michael Blakemore. She is a graduate of the North Carolina School of the Arts.
Bridget presently lives in Auckland, New Zealand where she is shooting the second season of “Legend of the Seeker,” the epic action adventure fantasy television series. “Legend of the Seeker” is produced by ABC Studios, Sam Raimi, Rob Tapert, Joshua Donen, Ned Nalle and Kenneth Biller.
This is her first venture in producing. Her other current projects include two independent feature films “This Must Be The Place” and “Rua Taniwha” both to be shot in New Zealand.
