Ilyse Robbins, she/her (Choreographer) is delighted to be back at CST having previously worked on choreography here for Ain’t Misbehavin’ (co-produced with Front Porch and GBSC: Elliot Norton Award – Outstanding Musical Production) and Brundibar. Recent projects include Lizzie (Umbrella Stage); Assassins (Lyric Stage); Tell Me on a Sunday, Cabaret (Peterborough Players); Beehive, Little Women (GBSC). Her original choreography for the World Premiere of Swan Lake in Blue: A Jazz Ballet at GBSC won the Elliot Norton Award – Outstanding Choreography and she directed the award-winning Move on the Cha-Chas at United Solo Festival NYC. Ilyse is a teacher, coach, and writer. She holds a BS in Communication/Theater from Northwestern, theater certification from BADA and an Ed.M. from Harvard. Upcoming projects: White Rabbit, Red Rabbit (Umbrella Stage – actor), Peter and the Wolf (BYSO – Narrator), Mr. Popper’s Penguins (WFT – Director/Choreographer). Ilyse is a proud Member of SDC. Love to Glen and the kids. www.ilyserobbins.com

Todd C. Gordon has served as music director for ThreePenny Opera, Into the Woods, Ragtime, Lippa’s The Wild Party, Dessa Rose, Cabaret, Gutenberg! The Musical, Bill W. and Dr. Bob, The Black Monk (reading), Side by Side by Sondheim, The Gold Rush Girls (reading), According to Tip with Ken Howard,  Sophie Tucker, The Last of the Red Hot Mamas with Mary Callanan, And the World Goes ‘Round, Rent, Little Shop of Horrors (New Repertory Theatre); H.M.S. Pinafore (The Publick Theatre); Carnival, Jacques Brel… (Gloucester Stage); Tomfoolery (Charles Play House); Sunday in the Park with George (Brandeis Theatre Co.); Gypsy, Groucho (Stoneham Theatre); The Music Man, West Side Story, Children of Eden, Working, and The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas (Emerson Stage). Todd has received two IRNE awards and five IRNE nominations for his work as musical director. When not working on shows, Todd maintains a private vocal studio in the prestigious Steinert Building in Boston.

Scott Edmiston is the recipient of the Elliot Norton Prize for Sustained Excellence for his theatrical work over the past 27 years.  He has directed more than 70 productions at theaters including the Central Square Theatre, American Repertory Theater, Umbrella Stage Company, SpeakEasy Stage Company, Lyric Stage, and the Huntington Theatre where he was an artistic associate. Six of his productions have been honored with the Elliot Norton Award for Outstanding Production or Musical: CST’s Constellations, Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?, My Fair Lady, A Marvelous Party, Miss Witherspoon, and Five by Tenn. Edmiston is well known for his direction of American classics such as Long Day’s Journey Into Night, The Little Foxes, Anna Christie, The Glass Menagerie, Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, and To Kill a Mockingbird. He has directed more than 25 New England premieres, most recently The Minutes by Tracey Letts and The Thanksgiving Play by Larissa Fasthorse. Awards include the Elliot Norton Award for Outstanding Director for My Fair Lady, The History Boys, The Light in the Piazza, Five by Tenn, Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, Casa Valentina, and Molly Sweeney; Penn State’s Distinguished Alumni Award; and the StageSource Theatre Hero Award. He teaches acting and dramatic literature at Berklee and previously served as Dean of Theater at Boston Conservatory at Berklee.

Hans Krása Born of mixed German/Czech parentage, Mr. Krása studied at the German Music Academy in Prague. Zemlinsky, his mentor, encouraged an interest in Mahler and early Schoenberg. In the 1920s, he was influenced by French music, particularly Debussy, Ravel, Les Six and Stravinsky. He travelled to Paris to study with Roussel for a few months and then to the Berlin Conservatory. His successes included Symphony taken up by Koussevitzky in Boston, and the prize-winning opera Verlobung im Traum, conducted at the German Theatre in Prague by Szell. His theatrical collaborations with Czech playwright Adolf Hoffmeister included the children’s opera Brundibar, (1938). After the Munich Pact he did not escape from Prague before the German occupation in 1939 and in 1942 he was deported to Terezín. A revised version of Brundibar received 55 performances at Terezín and was immortalized in a Nazi propaganda film. His compositions from his final years include Overture for Small Orchestra and Three Songs for baritone, clarinet, viola and cello. Mr. Krása was executed in Auschwitz concentration camp in 1944.