ANYA TURNER (singer, lyricist, librettist) and ROBERT GRUSECKI (pianist/singer, composer, lyricist) write for the musical theatre and cabaret. Two-time Richard Rodgers Award finalists and Manhattan Association of Cabaret's song-of-the-year nominees, they live together in a fifth floor walk-up in a neighborhood of Manhattan called Yorkville.
Anya and Robert have created two full-length musicals: GREETINGS FROM YORKVILLE, and After All, a musical much ado. Together they have also written dozens of modern cabaret songs and performed them at many popular Manhattan nightclubs. Two collections of their songs were recorded for Original Cast Records: Anya & Robert: Ordinary People and Anya & Robert: You Loved Me. Turner and Grusecki’s songs have been performed by such artists as Karen Akers, Donna McKechnie, and Steve Ross at NYC’s Avery Fisher Hall, Town Hall, Symphony Space and the 92nd Street Y.
Before embarking on their songwriting collaboration, Anya appeared Off-Broadway in Cut The Ribbons and One Damn Thing After Another. Robert served as pianist for Broadway’s Grand Hotel and The Madwoman of Central Park West.
THOMMIE WALSH [1950 – 2007] (director) created the role of Bobby in the original Broadway production of A Chorus Line. He later co-wrote a book with Robert Viagas and Baayork Lee On The Line (Limelight) chronicling the musical’s early beginnings. His success on Broadway continued as choreographer for The Best Little Whorehouse In Texas followed by The 1940’s Radio Hour, Do Black Patent Leather Shoes Really Reflect Up?, Nine, Lunch Hour and My Favorite Year. He received Tony and Drama Desk awards for his choreography for A Day in Hollywood/A Night in the Ukraine and My One and Only, for which he also received a Tony Award nomination for best direction. He went on to direct Lucky Stiff Off-Broadway, Always (West End debut), and A Broadway Baby at Goodspeed Opera House.
Thommie worked closely with Anya and Robert over the past nine years on numerous projects. During the past three years he was actively involved in the development and planning of GREETINGS FROM YORKVILLE. www.thommiewalsh.com
BAAYORK LEE (director’s muse) Directing credits include: The King & I (2004-5 tour), R&H’s Cinderella at NY City Opera, Barnum for Cy Coleman in Sydney, Australia, Porgy and Bess and Jesus Christ Superstar’s European Tours, The Kennedy Center’s Carmen Jones (Vanessa Williams) conducted by Placido Domingo, Gypsy (Signature Theater-Arlington, Virginia) and William Finn’s A New Brain. She was associate director for Barbara Cook: A Broadway Evening. Choreography credits include: the 2006 Broadway revival of A Chorus Line, and the Shaw Festival’s Mack And Mabel (Niagara-On-The-Lake, Canada). An original cast member in a dozen Broadway shows, Baayork created the role of Connie in A Chorus Line. She was associate choreographer for Tommy Tune and Thommie Walsh on My One and Only and assistant choreographer for Michael Bennett and has directed over 35 companies of A Chorus Line. She is the co-author of On the Line: The Creation of A Chorus Line published by William Morrow. Baayork assisted Thommie Walsh on many projects over the last thirty years.
JESSE POLESHUCK (scenic designer) made his Broadway debut with Sly Fox starring Richard Dreyfuss and Eric Stoltz directed by Arthur Penn. Off Broadway productions include: A Mother, A Daughter, And A Gun starring Olympia Dukakis directed by Jonathan Lynn, The Gorey Details at Century Center, and Menopause the Musical (New York and Las Vegas). He was recently represented by the national tour of Legends!, starring Joan Collins and Linda Evans. He has been the associate designer for numerous Broadway productions including: Edward Albee's The Goat, Fortune's Fool, The Ride Down Mount Morgan, and The Best Man and has worked at Second Stage, The Guthrie, La Jolla Playhouse, The Old Globe and The Palladium in London. He as served as a puppet consultant on The Lion King, a projection illustrator on Lennon, a special effects consultant for Universal Studios (Twister), as well as art direction for shows on CBS, MTV, PBS and ABC.
DONA GRANATA (costume designer) Broadway: Amour, Canciones De Mi Padre. Theatre: Modern/Orthodox, The Designated Mourner, Best Little Whore House, Scenes From An Execution, Ghosts, All’s Well That Ends Well, Dark Rapture. Film: Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants II, Ramen Girl, Dr. T and The Women, Earthly Possessions, Cookie’s Fortune, Gloria, Shadrach, The Gingerbread Man, Critical Care, Kansas City, Love Is All There Is, Dark Horse, Scenes From The Class, Struggles In Beverly Hills, Nobody’s Fool, Lust In The Dust, The Goodbye People, Deathtrap, and The Wiz. Television: Filthy Gorgeous, Fat Actress, The Regans, Roman Spring of Mrs. Stone, Judy Garland: Me and My Shadow (Emmy Award and Costume Designers’ Guild Award), Suddenly, Radiant City, Grandpa’s Funeral, David’s Mother, It Had To Be You, Mrs. Cage, Once In A Blue Moon, Sons and Daughters, and Canciones De Me Padre. Opera: A Wedding, Makropulous Affair, Beatrice and Benedict, Countess Maritza, The Barber of Seville.
NATASHA KATZ (lighting designer) won the Tony award this year for The Coast of Utopia. Recent Broadway: A Chorus Line, Tarzan, The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee, Aida (Tony Award), Beauty and the Beast, Sweet Smell of Success, and Twelfth Night. Opera/Dance: Carnival of the Animals (NYC Ballet), Tryst (Royal Ballet), Don Quixote (ABT), Cyrano
(Metropolitan Opera) Die Soldatan (NYC Opera). Natasha worked as the assistant lighting designer on My One And Only where she met Thommie Walsh and Baayork Lee. In loving memory.
DAVID STOLLINGS (sound designer) designed sound for Matthew Passion and the upcoming production of Emma at the New York Musical Theatre Festival. As an assistant, he worked with Brian Ronan on the Broadway and Off-Broadway productions of Spring Awakening and Grey Gardens, and with Dan Moses Schreier on Gypsy! at City Center and The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee national tour. David is also an engineer, whose work has been heard on such shows as Magpie and Spring Awakening (Off-Broadway).
ROBERT RISKO (artwork) “Risko” is one of today’s most celebrated portrait artists. He has been instrumental in shaping the unique look of Vanity Fair and has been published in the pages of Andy Warhol's Interview since 1978 when Warhol first discovered him. Today he is The New Yorker’s primary theatrical caricaturist rendering scenes from current shows in the tradition of the late great Al Hirschfeld. Risko’s graphic caricatures have appeared in almost every medium including book jackets, video covers and CD packages such as the Capitol Sings composer series and HBO’s Comedy Club series. He had a one-man show in the windows of Barney’s Seventh Avenue, which stopped New Yorkers in their tracks to guess the names of more than 150 portraits, which Risko had been commissioned to draw throughout his 30-year career. VH1 commissioned Risko to render the top Pop 200 Icons of the Twentieth Century for a special countdown, which aired for months. Robert Risko divides his time between New York City and Easthampton, NY. He lives with his dog Ralph. www.robertrisko.com
NATHAN JOHNSON (hair and make-up design). Make-up credits include the 61st Annual Tony Awards (Spring Awakening), Apartment 309 (with Ice T), Boys just Wanna Have Fun (off-Broadway), Little Us (pilot), celebrity and non-celebrity clients. In addition to beauty and corrective make up, Nathan has a passion for character and prosthetics. He trained at The Make Up Designory. Nathan is also a classically trained actor (MFA, Columbia University). Acting credits include The Party Planner (on air personality), My Big Gay Italian Wedding (off-Broadway), One Life to Live (Enzo). He is thrilled to be a part of the amazing Yorkville team.
WHO KNOWS PRODUCTIONS (producer) is a multimedia production company dedicated to creating opportunities for emerging artists in the areas of music, theatre, film, recording, and new media. Founded in 2006, GREETINGS FROM YORKVILLE is the company’s inaugural production. Currently they have several other musical theatre projects under development. Their motto: “Don’t worry. It’ll be fun!”
BRENT PEEK PRODUCTIONS (general manager) has spent more than thirty-five years in the New York theatre as a producer, general manager, theatre operator, production manager and production supervisor. Besides his proud association with Greetings from Yorkville, this season he is represented by Hats!, which is playing in Chicago. Last season, he was represented by Shout! The Mod Musical, which he produced and general managed. He has produced or co-produced Menopause the Musical, Epic Proportions,The Gorey Details, Oblivion Postponed, Abyssinia, Stand-Up Tragedy, Balm in Gilead, The Golden Age”and Quartermaine’s Terms. He has been associated with such Broadway productions as Equus, Gin Game, The Elephant Man,, Mornings at Seven, Nicholas Nickleby, Amadeus, The Dresser, Piaf and Mass Appeal” In addition, he has been the general manager for over fifty productions on and off-Broadway, including Once Around the Sun, Getting and Spending, Jackie: An American Life (London and NYC), After- Play, Three Tall Women, Hedwig and the Angry Inch and Shakespeare for My Father.
SHIRLEY HERZ (publicity) has been a publicist ever since she stopped selling watches for Georg Jensen. During her career she has publicized Broadway, Off-Broadway and Off-Off-Broadway productions, ballet companies, circuses (both American and Russian), World's Fairs, films, television art collections, nightclubs and restaurants and possibly many other things that she can't or doesn't want to remember. She joined the American Theatre Wing's Advisory Committee more than 20 years ago. In 1997 Isabelle Stevenson asked her to help publicize the Wing Seminars which she did happily and has hung in thru thick and thin ever since . . . and hopefully for many years in the future.
ART MEETS COMMERCE (website design) is a full-service new media solutions firm specializing in the arts and entertainment field. Services include website design, comprehensive content management and the development of interactive onlinemarketing campaigns.
www.artmeetscommerce.net
