She's Got You

Blue Moon

MELISSA SWIFT-SAWYER* (Patsy Cline) 
Melissa is thrilled to be returning to the stage as Patsy.  She finished an almost four year run (1499 performances) of Always…Patsy Cline at the Denver Center for the Performing Arts in March 1999.  It is estimated that nearly 250,000 people saw her during that time.  She had the opportunity to do the show opposite her mother, Karen, in Laramie, Wyoming last summer.  What an incredible kick in the head that was!!!  An accomplished actress, she lists among her favorites: Maria in The Sound of Music, Molly in The Unsinkable Molly Brown, Sister Robert Anne in Nunsense, Maria in West Side Story, Hodel in Fiddler on the Roof and Amy in Company.  She is a native of Colorado and lives in Westminster with husband, Patrick, and son, Ian.  “Thanks guys for your love and support.”  She wishes to thank the Hippodrome for giving her another opportunity to play the Queen of Country Music, “a role that will always have a special place in my heart.”

Adam Cohen* (Stage Manager)
Adam is in his third season at the Hippodrome.  In a career that has taken him across the high seas, into huge arenas, in front of the camera, up in the control booth, and onto the stage, the experiences he has accumulated only serve to make him more aware of the value of the “jewel” the citizens of Gainesville have in their midst.  The caliber of artists that the Hippodrome attracts is surpassed nowhere, and he thanks the management for the chance to be counted in that group.  His greatest thanks must go, however, to his family, who supported his choices from the beginning and continue to be a source of inspiration and joy.

LAUREN CALDWELL (Director)
Lauren is the Hippodrome’s Artistic Director. She has directed over 40 shows on the Hippodrome mainstage, including this season's Master Class, Hedda Gabler and Frankenstein.   Directing credits include:  A Streetcar Named Desire, The Rocky Horror Show, To Kill A Mockingbird,The Glass Menagerie, Dracula, Beehive (twice),How I Learned to Drive, Lost in Yonkers, Like Totally Weird, All in the Timing and The Lion in Winter.  She has frequently appeared as an actress on the Hippodrome since 1988 in such role as Sylvia in Sylvia, Madame de Volanges in Les Liaisons Dangereuses, Marge in Absent Friends, Faye in The Sugar Bean Sisters, Truvy in Steel Magnolias, Louise in Always ... Patsy Cline (twice) and recently, for the second time, multiple wacky characters in A Tuna Christmas.  Lauren has written To Be or Not To Be...That is Two Questions, which has toured twice throughout the state. She conceptualized a comprehensive curriculum guide for Hippodrome productions, Perspectives, which which is available to all on the Hippodrome website, hipp.gator.net. A native of Texas, Lauren holds a BFA in directing from Baylor University and a MFA in acting from the University of Florida. She is a member of Actors’ Equity Association, the Drama League, and the Stage Directors and Choreographers Foundation. She owns and operates Legal Acts, a consulting company for attorneys and is actively involved in the Prosecution/Public Defenders’ Program at UF. 

JAMES MORGAN (Scenic Designer)
Jim is the Artistic Director of Manhattan’s acclaimed York Theatre Company, where he has spent  25 years creating more than 90 designs, including the recent No Way to Treat a Lady, for which he received a Drama Desk Award nomination, and The Show Goes On, starring Tom Jones and Harvey Schmidt.  Broadway credits include Sweeney Todd (York’s revival, Drama Desk nomination) the musical Anna Karenina (American Theatre Wing Design nomination) The Miser, Taking Steps, and Getting Married, to name a few.  He has created designs for national companies including On the 20th Century and The Sunshine Boys.  Off-Broadway designs include Pacific Overtures, After the Fair, Broadway Jukebox and The Night Larry Kramer Kissed Me (also San Francisco, Los Angeles, Boston and the new movie).  Regional theater designs include Manhattan Theatre Club, Goodspeed Opera House, Chicago Lyric Opera, Asolo Theatre, Cleveland Play House, Cincinnati Playhouse, Coconut Grove Playhouse, McCarter Theatre, and Portland Opera.  Directing credits include the Hippodrome's recent As Bees in Honey Drown, Oh Coward!, Falsettoland (Carbonell Award, Best Director and Best Musical), the premiere of Clark Gesner’s The Jello is Always Red and the Hippodrome’s 1996 production of Sylvia.   Recent/current design projects: Cy Coleman’s new musical Exactly Like You (Goodspeed), Rags (Coconut Grove and Papermill Playhouse) and directing and designing Taking a Chance on Love, a new revue based on the lyrics and life of John Latouche.  A Florida native, UF Graduate and recipient of the H.P. Constans Award, he lives in Manhattan.  This is his 33rd design for the Hippodrome.

MARILYN WALL-ASSE (Costume Designer) 
Marilyn is a Hippodrome co-founder, Artistic Associate and the Costume Designer-in-Residence. She has designed and built costumes for more than 150 Hippodrome productions.  She is a four time recipient of the Outstanding Young Women in America Award and received the Margaret Sanger Certificate of Appreciation in 1987.  She has twice  received a Governor’s Award as one of Florida’s Outstanding Artists and was the only theatrical artist to be granted that award this year.  Her Hippodrome acting credits include The Madwoman of Chaillot, Cabrona, Bedroom Farce, Robber Bridegroom,  Crimes of the Heart and Season’s Greetings.  Directing credits include Macbeth, Same Time Next Year and Tangled Tales which she also co-authored.  In the film world, Marilyn has designed costumes and makeup for A Flash of Green, Shimmer, Ruby in Paradise, Gathering Evidence, Miami Hustle and the recently released Ulee's Gold with Peter Fonda and Patricia Richardson.  She has served as makeup artist to the famous faces of Phil Donahue, Al Gore and Bill Clinton at their local appearances.  Marilyn recently won an Emmy Award  for her costume designs for the children’s television show, Salsa.

ROBERT P. ROBINS (Lighting Designer) 
Bob has been Lighting Designer-in-Residenc at the Hippodrome for the past 15  years.   During this time, he has designed the lighting for more than 175 productions.  He has also stage managed numerous productions including Hippodrome Mainstage, state and Theatre for Young Audiences tours.  In addition to designing and stage managing, Bob also engineers the soundtracks and sound reinforcement for all Hippodrome productions. He is an Actors’ Equity Association stage manager and a member of IATSE Local 115.   Bob has designed more than 300 productions regionally in the United States, including theater, dance, and industrials.   For the past  eight years, he has taught at the Tennessee Governor’s School for the Arts.  He spends what time he has away from the theater with his very supportive wife, Jodi, and their two children, Kayla and Evan.

LORELEI ESSER (Properties Design) 
Lorelei has been designing properties for the Hippodrome since the 1994 production of Earthly Possessions.  She has long been recognized in our community for her accomplishments and contributions as an independent artist.  Her medium, the collection and assemblage of “the stuff of life” can now be experienced in the sets of the Hippodrome’s productions.  Lorelei’s understanding of time periods, cultures, the writer’s intentions, the director’s vision along with her tenacity for detail bring artistry to the craft of properties design.

ANDY FITCH (Scenic Artist)
Andy is head of the M.F.A. program in Set Design at the University of Alabama.  Recent designs include One Flea Spare directed by Adrian Hall for the Kitchen Dog Theater of Dallas, Forever Plaid for the Alabama Shakespeare Festival, and Henry IV, Part One for Theatre SMU.  In Alabama, he has designed productions of The Tempest, Sweeney Todd, Angels in America, Godspell, Arcadia, Cabaret, and Anything Goes.  Andy is a founding member of Kitchen Dog Theater where he received a 1994 Dallas Critics’ Award for American Buffalo and the Dallas Theatre League’s 1995 Leon Rabin Award for his Set Design for Kitchen Dog’s Fool for Love.  Recent KDT designs include Isaac and Waiting for Godot.  Andy’s training includes a M.F.A. degree from Southern Methodist University in Dallas.

TANÉ DEKREY (Musical Director)
Tané is excited to return to the Hippodrome stage after working on Forever Plaid and the 1999 production of Beehive.  Tané received her Bachelor’s degree in Piano Performance from the University of North Carolina at Greensboro.  While in Greensboro, she frequently appeared as soloist and served the Greensboro Opera Company as coach and accompanist for their opera workshop and as Musical Director for the Summer Repertory Theatre.  She holds a Master of Music degree in Piano Performance from Northwestern University where she again regularly appeared as a soloist and served as accompanist and opera coach.  Tané has performed at the Oxford Music Festival in Canada and at the Brevard Summer Festival.  In Gainesville, she has been very active as a piano soloist, appearing with the Gainesville Chamber Symphony, The University Symphony and DANCE ALIVE! and is currently Music Director for the University of Florida’s Department of  Theatre and Dance.

TAMERIN DYGERT (Dramaturg) 
Holds a B.A. in Theatre and English Education from the University of Maryland, Baltimore County.  As Dramaturg and Literary Manager, Ms. Dygert compiles research materials for the artistic team; contributes to production concepts; serves as features writer/editor of the curriculum guide, Perspectives; and writes articles for Ovation newsletters.  She also assists in Mainstage season selection; negotiates Mainstage production rights; and directs the New Play Reading Series which she founded in 1998.  A native of Maryland, Ms. Dygert has worked at Baltimore’s Center Stage; toured with Shakespeare on Wheels; served as a freelance dramaturg with Baltimore’s Performance Workshop, Inc.; and taught English and Drama at Bais Yaakov School for Girls.  She has taught Hippodrome theatre arts classes and directed Florida Teen Playwright Festival productions and appeared on the Mainstage in The Sisters Rosensweig, A Christmas Carol and Just So Stories.  Ms. Dygert is a member of Literary Managers and Dramaturgs of the Americas (LMDA), a professional association serving literary managers, dramaturgs and theatre professionals throughout North and South America.