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.
JAMEL BAKER, STAGE MANAGEMENT MENTOR. Jamel is excited to be a part of this production 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.
RILEY BERGER, PRODUCTION STAGE MANAGER, Rider University Class of 2024, is the production manager for the American Repertory Ballet. Highlights with ARB include: Ethan Steifel's Spirit of the Highlands (World Premiere), The Nutcracker (NJ Tour), and Classic Beauty (TD). Select professional credits: Ghetto Gods in Divineland (Passage Theatre, ASM), Like Father, Like Son (The TANK, scenic/sound designer), Clean Slate (Passage Theatre, ASM), Young Frankenstein (Berkshire Theatre Group, ATD), Pipe Dream (BTG, ATD). Select Rider credits: Natasha, Pierre, and the Great Comet of 1812 (PSM), Enemies: A Love Story (PSM), Suor Angelica/Hermit Songs (TD), The Children's Hour (PSM, co-scenic designer), and Urinetown (PSM, ATD). Rylee is thrilled to be returning to Berkshire Theatre Group this summer as an assistant technical director and has held additional roles with the McCarter Theater, the Hangar Theater, and the State Theatre of New Jersey.
BRIANA BRADLEY, VISUAL DESIGN TEAM (she/her), is a junior Film and TV major. This is her first time working on a play, but she is honored to have a role in creating The Fire!
ELEANOR CONOVER, ASSISTANT DIRECTOR (she/her) is a sophomore Musical Theatre major with a minor in Arts and Entertainment Industries Management. Previous Rider technical credits include Nell Gwynn (Assistant Director), Anything Goes (Assistant Stage Manager) and Rider Student Theatre Company’s Minor Feelings of a Minor Character (Assistant Stage Manager/Sound Designer)
GIORGIA DALLASTA, ASSISTANT COSTUME DESIGNER, (she/her) is a sophomore Acting Major here at Rider (former UArts student!) Select credits include: Nell Gwynn (Rider Main Stage), Steel Magnolias (Rider Student Theatre Company), She Loves Me (Amalia Balash, Next Generation Arts Council), Once Upon a Mattress (Choreographer, Next Generation Arts Council), and Anastasia (Anya, QO Theatre)
C. RYANNE DOMINGUES, DIRECTOR teaches acting, directing, and devising as an Assistant Professor at Rider University. From 2017-2024, she was the Artistic Director of Passage Theatre, a professional, regional theatre found in the heart of Trenton, NJ. Prior to her time at Passage, she worked at a variety of theatres on both coasts, with most of her work being for Simpatico Theatre (which she co-founded in 2004) and the Wilma Theatre in Philadelphia. She received her MFA in Directing from the University of California, Irvine and was a participant in the 2008 Lincoln Center Director's Lab. Having trained with Tectonic Theatre Project, her devising work stems from the Moment Work technique. Next up, Ryanne will continue working on a new piece with Passage Theatre that was commissioned by Princeton University with the goal of premiering in 2027.
CLARE HANRAHAN, PROPS DESIGNER 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.
LANE LAVONNE, ASSISTANT DIRECTOR/MOVEMENT ASSISTANT (they/them/theirs), is a senior BFA in Musical Theatre major. Previous directing credits include The First: A Royal Reading (Passage Theatre), Like Father, Like Son (Passage Theatre), Like Father, Like Son (The TANK), Rainbow Fish (GREAT Theatre Co.). Assisting credits include Urinetown (Rider University).
BUCK LINTON, DIRECTOR OF PRODUCTION MANAGEMENT. received his Master of Fine Arts in Scenography and Technical Design from Virginia Tech, and is the Director of Production Management for the College of Arts and Sciences. His work has been seen nationally at The Kennedy Center, Paper Mill Playhouse, McCarter Theatre Center, Manhattan Theatre Club, Second Stage, Seattle Repertory, Berkeley Repertory, Goodman Theatre, and La Jolla Playhouse. Works include Die Fledermaus, Enemies, Suor Angelica, Last Words, Cendrillon, Ballymore, Hansel und Gretel, Dialogues des Carmélites, Falstaff, The Bartered Bride, Trionfo, Die Zauberflöte, Pelléas et Mélisande, Il re Pastore, La Clemenza di Tito, and Oreste (Westminster Opera Theater); The Theory of Relativity, The Penelopiad, Our Town, A Chorus Line, A Doctor in Spite of Himself (Rider University), Sunjata Kamalenya, The Odyssey Experience (Experiential Theatre); Die Fledermaus, Rigoletto and Turandot (Opera New Jersey); Chicago (Peach State Summer Theatre); The Merry Widow, West Side Story (Ash Lawn Opera).
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).
DR. SEAN MCCARTHER, MOVEMENT. Dr. Sean McCarther serves as Professor of Musical Theater Voice at Rider University. In addition to his work as a voice teacher, he is an advanced actor combatant with the Society of American Fight Directors and the Academy of Fight Directors Canada and has trained with Intimacy Directors and Coordinators and Theatrical Intimacy Education. Dr. McCarther’s research interests span the fields of performance psychology, the acquisition of expertise, motor learning, theatrical emotion, and consent-based rehearsal processes. His research appears in several peer-reviewed publications, and he is a frequent lecturer and workshop presenter nationally and internationally.
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.
SOPHIA RAMOS, ASSISTANT STAGE MANAGER, is a sophomore Acting Major. This is her first Rider MainStage she is acting in! Her Rider Student Theatre Company credits include, When I Grow Up: A Bipoc Cabaret, and Patti Lupone was an Acting Major.
NANCY ROIG, ASSISTANT STAGE MANAGER, (she/her) is a sophomore BFA Acting for Film, Television, and Theatre Major. Credits include: Willy Wonka (Mike Teavee; The Performance Project), West Side Story (Anybodys; The Performance Project), Wherever You Go, There You Are (RSTC; Rider University), Nell Gwynn (US Rose Gwynn; Rider University).
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.
ELLA RYBCZYNSKI, STAGE MANAGER (she/they), is a Sophomore Theatre Design and Technology Major. Rider Main Stage credits include: The Prom (Spot Op.), Natasha, Pierre and the Great Comet of 1812 (Sound Op.), Rider Dances (SM), Anything Goes (Light Board Op.), RENT (SM), and Nell Gwynn (ALD). Rider Student Theatre Company credits include: Inside the Spitz: A Bo Burnham Cabaret (SM), and The Six Degrees of Sierra Boggess (PSM).
XANDER SCHMIDT, FOLLOW SPOT OPERATOR (he/him), is a junior Musical Theatre major. Rider mainstage credits include: RENT.
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.
YOSHINORI TANOKURA, SCENIC DESIGNER, originally from Tokyo, is an educator and freelance set designer. Yoshi has been teaching scenic design at Rider University. Outside the school, his design credits include A Christmas Story (Bristol Riverside Theatre), O.K. Trenton (Passage Theatre), The Goat, or Who is Sylvia? (Berkshire Theatre Group), Moon Over Buffalo (People’s Light & Theatre), Clever Little Lies by Joe DiPietro (Westside Theatre, N.Y.C.), Exonerated (Delaware Theatre Company), and Peter and the Starcatcher (Adrienne Arsht Center). Yoshi assisted John Lee Beatty on a number of Broadway productions, such as Doubt and The Color Purple. Yoshi holds an M.F.A. in Set Design from the University of Connecticut and is a member of the United Scenic Artists, Local 829.
