LEANDRA ACOSTA, ASSOCIATE DIRECTOR OF PERFORMANCE MANAGEMENT (she/her), is a graduate of Rider University with degrees in dance performance and arts administration. During her time performing at Rider, she was awarded both the Dance Merit Scholarship and Mildred S. Hawkins Dance Scholarship and helped adopt the Dance Mentorship Program. She is grateful to have had the opportunity to work with so many fantastic choreographers during her time performing at Rider including: Kate Ladenheim, Randy James, Angela Cusumano, Merli Guerra, Jennifer Gladney, Robson Alves, Lynn Neuman, and Ryan Davis. She was recently featured as a choreographer for the 2023 Senior Dance Capstone performance, Acknowledgements. In her role as Associate Director, Leandra creates programs for and manages the social media pages for the Department of Performing Arts and Westminster Choir College.
RILEY BOCCHICCHIO, ASSISTANT DIRECTOR, is a Senior Musical Theatre and Marketing Double Major. Recent: “Teddy, Phoebe, and the Visionary” at The GreenRoom 42 (Elliot) and “Regicide” at The TANK. Rider credits: Mark in RENT, Radium Girls, Clean Slate. Riley is also a proudly produced playwright (Like Father, Like Son at The TANK). Regarding creative experiences, he worked as an Associate Director under T. Oliver Reid for Rider’s productions of “Kiss Me, Kate” and “Natasha, Pierre, & the Great Comet of 1812.” He is ecstatic for his new play “The First” premiering at the Passage Theatre of Trenton, in which he portrays a neurotic Queen Elizabeth I.
MIKE BOND, MUSIC DIRECTOR. One of the most striking qualities of Mike Bond’s superb debut recording, The Honorable Ones, is the understated, sophisticated way in which the 30-year-old pianist-composer subsumes his abundant technique for imperatives of beauty and self-expression. His sophisticated, restrained, nuanced jazz aesthetics — grounded in exhaustive study of antecedent master practitioners of his instrument and animated by his devotion to the freedom principle — spring directly from his personal history.
The son of a Caucasian physics professor and a first-generation Chinese-American stay-at-home-mom whose parents migrated to the U.S. after the Cultural Revolution, Bond started playing piano at age 4. Two years later, he won his first classical piano competition at Weill Recital Hall at Carnegie Hall, launching a long period during which he participated in contests at which he and his peers played repertoire by Beethoven, Bach, Mendelssohn, and Haydn. Burned out by the pressure of performing, he withdrew from that world at 11.
JAMEL BAKER, STAGE MANAGEMENT MENTOR. Jamel is excited to be a part of this production of RENT as the Stage Manager Mentor. Jamel has been stage managing for over 10 years for theatre, opera and dance locally and nationally. In addition to stage managing, Jamel has also led Stage Management workshops with Opera Philadelphia & Riot Inc. When not stage managing, Jamel works at Passage Theatre (Trenton, NJ) as the Lead Producer.
JULIANNA BELBOL, STAGE MANAGER (she/her) is a Sophomore Musical Theatre Major. Her Rider Student Theatre Company credits include Detox: The Art of Release (dir. Theo Yu), Our New World: A Green Cabaret for a Sustainable Future (dir. Juliette Maners and Bailey Poe), The Minor Feelings of a Minor Character (dir. Aileen Pujols, Person 2), Inside The Spitz Cabaret (dir. Sean McDonald), and PLEASE, I’m a Star! (dir. Bianca D’anton, Swing for #1, 5, 9, 12, and 13).
GABRIELLE BROWN, ASSISTANT STAGE MANAGEMENT, (she/her) is a senior Theatre Contemporary Practice major pursuing a career in stage management/production assistant. Select credits include: Kiss Me Kate (Stagehand), Ghetto Gods in Divineland (Assistant Stage Management, Passage Theatre Company), Into the Woods (Assistant Stage Management). Upcoming credits include: Project 206 (Assistant Stage Management).
PEYTON DIVIRGILIO, PRODUCTION DOCUMENTARIAN, (they/she), is a junior Musical Theatre major. Previous Rider credits include: Momentum: Freshman showcase, Entr’acte: Sophomore showcase.
CHARLIE DUBENDORFER, ASSISTANT STAGE MANAGER (she/her), is a freshman acting major. Select credits include: Emotional Women (US Freeride; Rider Student Theater Company), How We Fall (Jordan; Rider Student Capstone), and Dancin' After Midnight (Dancer, Rider Dance Ensemble).
CLARE HANRAHAN, PROPS MANAGER, is always happy and excited to come back and work for her Alma mater. Her recent work includes The Children’s Hour, Love and Information, and LAST WORDS at Rider University. Clare actively works in the North Jersey and New York City metro area theater scene, where she will join the team at Plays in the Park in Edison, NJ this summer. Clare would like to thank Louise Grafton for sharing her wisdom about the dangers of hot glue guns and for always being her inspiration.
ALYSSA GIL-PUJOLS, ASSISTANT LIGHTING DIRECTOR, (She/Her) is a sophomore Theater Design and Technology major. Rider Main Stage Credits include: Natasha, Pierre & the Great Comet of 1812 (Assistant Sound Engineer), Radium Girls (Sound Mixer), A Doll's House (Sound Designer), Anything Goes (Sound Mixer), and Rent (Sound Mixer). Rider Student Theater Company Credits include: Ride the Cyclone (Sound Designer), Inside the Spitz a BoBurnham Cabaret (Sound Designer), and The Guy Who Doesn't Like Musicals (Sound Designer). Summer Stock Credits at Roundabout Youth Ensemble & Princeton Summer Theater include: Grooves (Sound Designer), Dracula (Sound designer), The Last 5 Five Years (Assistant Sound Engineer/ Sound Mixer), and Emergency (Sound Designer).
DERYN C. KRANER, CHOREOGRAPHER. Deryn C. Kraner is a Junior BFA Musical Theatre Major with a Minor in Dance. Professional Credits include: Flashdance the Musical (Destiny, Ensemble), Seven Brides for Seven Brothers (Swing for Brides, Ensemble), and A Christmas Story the Musical (Child/Adult Ensemble). Rider Credits include: Nell Gwynn (Choreographer), Asking Strangers the Meaning of Life (Choreographer), Entr’Acte: Femininomenon (Choreographer), Rider Dances 2024 (Dancer and Costume & Makeup Designer), Natasha, Pierre, & the Great Comet of 1812 (Assistant Costume Designer), Entre’Acte: Come Together (Soloist, Featured Dancer), Momentum: Rider’s First Year Showcase (Soloist, Featured Dancer).
CHLOE LE BRETON, ASSISTANT COSTUME DESIGNER, is a Junior Acting major with a minor in Filmmaking for the actor. Rider Mainstage credits include Asking Strangers the Meaning of Life (Writer). Rider Student Theatre Company credits include Romeo & Juliet (Friar Laurence), Puffs (Xavia Jones understudy track), and The Minor Feelings of a Minor Character (Person 1). Professional credits include Detox: The Art of Expression (ASM) and various roles at the Sweet Noise festival presented by New Perspectives Theatre Company.
BUCK LINTON, DIRECTOR OF PRODUCTION MANAGEMENT. Earning his MFA in Scenography and Technical Design (Virginia Tech), Buck joined Rider University as its Technical Director in 2012 and became the Director of Production Management in 2022. He professionally produced more than 200 productions with such venues as The Kennedy Center, Paper Mill Playhouse, Manhattan Theatre Club, Seattle Repertory Theatre, Berkeley Repertory Theatre, La Jolla Playhouse and McCarter Theatre. Selected works include Travesties, Sleeping Beauty Wakes, Take Flight, Herringbone, Lookingglass Alice and A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Falstaff, Die Zauberflöte, Pelléas et Mélisande, Dialogues des Carmélites, La Clemenza di Tito, Oreste, Sunjata Kamalenya, The Odyssey Experience, Die Fledermaus, Rigoletto, Turandot, Chicago, EDDA (Ping Chong & Sequentia Ensemble, international tour). Since 2012, he has produced more than 100 productions for Rider University’s College of Arts and Sciences in the performing arts.
TODD LOYD, LIGHTING DESIGNER, is the lighting director for Rider University’s Department of Performing Arts. He supervises the lighting for every performance that the department produces in addition to mentoring several students that assist in designing, hanging, focusing, and programming the lighting for each show. At Rider he has designed over 30 productions including plays, musicals, dance recitals, cabarets, and operas. Some of the highlights include Anything Goes, Radium Girls, The Prom, Clean Slate: A World Premiere Musical, Urinetown, Cabaret, Polaroid Stories, Rider Dances: Moving in Our Community, Pippin, Bright Star, Hair, Heathers The Musical, Once On This Island, She Kills Monsters, A Chorus Line and Metamorphoses. Other selected professional projects include Rock of Ages and Baskerville: A Sherlock Holmes Mystery (Forestburgh Playhouse), Clean Slate: A World Premiere Musical and The Gun Show (Passage Theatre), and Journey to Oz (Children's Theatre of Charlotte and Experiential Theater Company).
JIM PARKS, COSTUME DESIGNER, Jim is excited to have designed for this production of RENT. It’s a show he has never had the opportunity to work on but one that he’s always wanted to. Past design credits for Rider University include: Urinetown, Radium Girls, Cendrillon and Suor Angelica. His most recent work could be seen on Middlesex County’s Plays in the Park “A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum”. His past credits include work in a variety of plays, musicals, opera, television and film.
CRAIG PINCUS, SOUND ENGINEER, Craig Pincus has worked in professional audio & system design for the past twenty-nine years. He has engineered and produced audio for musical theater performances, national television broadcast, and recording studio clientele. Craig holds a Bachelor's degree in Communication from Rutgers University and teaches digital audio production at Brookdale Community College in Lincroft, NJ. Craig also performs and records music, owns a sound & event production service, and directs TheatreCraft Musical Program, a children’s theater company, created with his wife Renee, producing theatrical performances in the central NJ area.
T. OLIVER REID, DIRECTOR. T. Oliver Reid is a multi-talented grammy nominated artist (Hadestown and Sondheim Unplugged) who has spent the past 20 years working on Broadway shows which have amassed more than 20 Tony Awards from the American Theatre Wing’s Tony Awards. He is also an accomplished cabaret artist and multiple award winner for his solo show, “Drop Me Off In Harlem” which he directed, wrote and starred in. He has produced and directed concerts for Feinstein’s 54 Below and continues to work in film and television. His CD, Do I Love You, is available on iTunes.
Broadway credits include, “Hadestown”, “Once On This Island”, “Sunset Boulevard”, “After Midnight”, “Chicago”, “Kiss Me Kate”, “Follies”, “Thoroughly Modern Millie”, “Never Gonna Dance”, “La Cage Aux Folles”, “The Wedding Singer”, “Mary Poppins”, “Damn Yankees” and the 25th Anniversary concert of “Dreamgirls”. He is Associate Choreographer on Hadestown Broadway and choreographer of the 2nd National tour of Hadestown. www.toliverreid.com
BRANDON RUSH, TECHNICAL DIRECTOR, Brandon Rush is thrilled to make his debut as Technical Director for Rider University’s 2024-25 season! Since his graduation from Rider in 2015, he kept a consistent relationship with Rider’s Theatre Department, where he has worked as an overhire carpenter, Sceneshop Supervisor, and most recently as Assistant Technical Director. Rider University Production Credits include: Assistant Technical Director for Radium Girls, Doll’s House, Enemies, and Anything Goes. As a freelance Technical Director, his credits include: Dracula, The Last Five Years, and Emergency at Princeton Summer Theater.
MELENA SCOTT, SCENIC DESIGNER, is a junior Theater Design and technology major. Rider technical credits include: A Doll's House (Production Stage Manager), The Great Comet of 1812 (Stage Manager), The Prom (Assistant Stage Manager), Clean Slate: A World Premiere Musical (Assistant Stage Manager), Urinetown (Assistant Stage Manager). Recent Professional credits include: Detox: The Art of Expression (Production Stage Manager) at Passage Theatre Company.
SAMUEL STEPHENSON, COORDINATOR OF PERFORMANCE MANAGEMENT (he/him/his), received his Bachelor of Arts degrees in English Literature and Music from Wabash College, graduating magna cum laude under a full-ride Lilly Scholarship. As a Joseph Flummerfelt Scholar, he received his Master of Music in Choral Conducting with distinction from Westminster Choir College. Samuel has performed with many choirs across the world. He toured with the Wabash College Glee Club internationally to Taiwan and organized and managed the renowned Choral Institute at Oxford, a summer program at the University of Oxford for inspiring conductors to work with leading figures in the choral world. He has performed with The Same Stream, whose recordings can be found on all major music services, and at the Weiwuying National Center for the Arts as part of the opera chorus for Verdi’s La Traviata. Most recently, Samuel conducted Morten Lauridsen’s Mid-Winter Songs with the Westminster Choir in concert at Washington D.C. He currently works as the Performance Management Coordinator at Rider University and Music Director at St. Andrew’s United Methodist Church in Warminster, PA.
ELLEE JO TROWBRIDGE, PRODUCTION STAGE MANAGER (she/her), is a Senior BA Double Major in Musical Theatre and Technical Theatre. Select Performing credits include: Much Ado About Nothing (Balthasar/Dogberry, Beatrice/Benedick US), Radium Girls (Irene Rudolph, Katherine Wiley, Mrs. Michaels, Board Member #2, Grace Fryer US). Select Tech credits include: Anything Goes (Stage Manager), Into The Woods (Production Stage Manager.)
CAYLEE WILSON, ASSISTANT STAGE MANAGER (she/they) is a sophomore Theatre Tech and Design Major pursuing a career in Stage Management. Select Credits include: The Guy Who Doesn't Like Musicals (Stage Manager, Rider Student Theatre Company) and Please, I'm a Star (Light Operator, Rider Student Theatre Company).
GRACE WOLF, DIALOGUE COACH/DRAMATURG, (she/they) is a junior Musical Theatre Major. Rider Main Stage credits: "Momentum: Freshman Musical Theatre Showcase" and "Come Together: Sophomore Musical Theatre Showcase". Rider Student Theatre Company: "Six Degrees of Sierra Boggess" (Performer), "Love Letter to Lake House" (Assistant Stage Manager). Regional: "The Prom" at Axelrod Performing Arts Center.
