Co-Director/Choreographer
Natalie Malotke is a director, choreographer, creative event producer and teaching artist. Credits include: Choreographer of Blood/Love (Off-Broadway), for which she received a Drama Desk nomination. Associate on Charlie and the Chocolate Factory (Choreo Team on Broadway and National Tour), Joy: A True New Musical (Off-Broadway), Spirit of Life for China Broadway Entertainment, Candide at Carnegie Hall, and I Married an Angel at City Center,all alongside Joshua Bergasse. Mystic Pizza at La Mirada Theatre with Casey Hushion, Little Dancer at Lincoln Center with Susan Stroman, and Really Rosie at City Center with Leigh Silverman. Regional directing and choreography credits at Pioneer Theatre Company, Theatre Aspen, New London Barn Playhouse, Weston Theatre Company, Wagon Wheel, Pittsburgh Music Theatre, Northern Stage, and the national tour of Daniel Tiger's Neighborhood Live!. Industrial and corporate events for Uber, Nickelodeon, CoComelon, Arts for Autism, Bloomberg Philanthropies, Hermès, Target, and The Robin Hood Foundation. TV: Choreography: SNL with Jason Sudeikis and Billie Eilish; PBS, A Capitol Fourth. Faculty at Steps, Broadway Dance Center, and Penn State University. Natalie is a University of Michigan graduate and proud MIchigander, grateful to this team (Ben, Kelly, Ali, Jonathan, Steven and more) for a beautiful homecoming! IG: @nataliemalotke
Co-Director/Choreographer
Alison Solomon is a director, choreographer, and teaching artist who has traveled the world making theater! Recent credits include: Charlie and the Chocolate Factory (Global Tour), When Elvis Met the Beatles (World Premiere), Strike Up the Band (Carnegie Hall), A Gentleman's Guide to Love and Murder (Riverside Theatre), Natasha, Pierre... (NYFA), Sweeney Todd (Signature Theatre), Sunday in the Park with George (Pasadena Playhouse), Into the Woods (Guthrie Theatre), Fiddler on the Roof (Philadelphia Orchestra), Straight White Men (Westport Country Playhouse). Alison has choreographed ad spots featuring Lauren Froderman ("SYTYCD"), Gillian Murphy (ABT), and Ashley Bouder (NYCB) and was part of the team that choreographed the NFL Super Bowl LII Dirty Dancing commercial featuring Odell Beckham Jr., Eli Manning, and the NY Giants. In addition to her career as a choreographer, she spent over a decade both performing on Broadway and as an Associate Choreographer, and currently runs a training program for up and coming associate directors and choreographers. Broadway/Off-Broadway Associate credits include: Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, Gigi, Beautiful - The Carole King Musical, Smokey Joe's Cafe, I Married an Angel, Sweet Charity with Sutton Foster, Bandstand, A Walk on the Moon.Congrats and thank you to everyone on stage and off who made tonight possible! IG: @alisolomonNY www.alisolomon.com
Co-Music Director/Arranger
Steven Cuevas (he/him) is a Filipino American music director, musician, orchestrator, and arranger based in NYC. He is currently the Associate Music Director of the Off-Broadway revival of The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee. Broadway: Mamma Mia!; Operation Mincemeat; The Lion King; The Notebook; The Who's Tommy; Days of Wine and Roses; New York, New York; Dancin'; & Juliet; Moulin Rouge!; Tina: The Tina Turner Musical; Once On This Island; Anastasia; Kinky Boots. Select Off-Broadway: Teeth, The Connector, Hell's Kitchen, Kinky Boots, Little Shop of Horrors, Closer Than Ever. Tours: Tina, Moulin Rouge!, Once On This Island, Kinky Boots, How the Grinch Stole Christmas!, Spring Awakening. Regional: Eighty-Sixed (Diversionary Theatre), Macbeth in Stride (A.R.T.). Recordings: Straight Forward, Once On This Island, How the Grinch..., Monstersongs. Orchestrations: Gold Mountain. Proud member: Local 802 AFM, AEA, Recording Academy. @StevenMCuevas
Co-Music Director/Arranger
Jonathan K. Parks is an award-winning music director, pianist, vocal coach, and educator. He currently serves on the faculty of the University of Alabama at Birmingham as the music director of the theatre department and splits his time between Alabama and New York City. In NYC, Jonathan has played on Broadway (Chicago), Off-Broadway (Emojiland), and at numerous cultural institutions, including the Metropolitan Opera, the Big Apple Circus, Manhattan Concert Productions, and Broadway Backwards. He has toured the country and the world with Chicago, Young Frankenstein, and The Four Phantoms in Concert. Regionally, he has music directed and conducted at theatres around the country, including: New London Barn Playhouse's productions of West Side Story (New Hampshire Theatre Award for Best Musical), The Wedding Singer, A Chorus Line, Forever Plaid, How to Succeed..., and Gypsy; Barrington Stage Company's West Side Story (Berkshire Theatre Award for Outstanding Musical Production) and A Little Night Music (Berkshire Theatre Award for Outstanding Musical Production); Ogunquit Playhouse's and Gateway Playhouse's co-productions of Mary Poppins and Young Frankenstein; Northern Stage's Mary Poppins; and Theatre SilCo's Hair (Denver Post Ovation Award for Best Musical), Kiss of the Spider Woman, Cabaret, and Into the Woods, among many others. Jonathan has also served in the theatre departments at AMDA, Marymount Manhattan College, and New York University. He is a proud member of the American Federation of Musicians, Local 802. @jonathankparks
Showcase Judges
Jessica Grové is a Broadway performer who made her debut at the age of 15 as Dorothy in The Wizard of Oz, also touring the US and Canada with the production. Her other Broadway credits include Les Misérables (Eponine), the original cast of Thoroughly Modern Millie (with THE Sutton Foster!), Sunday in the Park with George at Studio 54, and A Little Night Music with Bernadette Peters and Elaine Stritch. She also toured nationally in The Boy Friend (Polly), directed by Julie Andrews. She is a full-time Michigan resident now, serving as Director of Marketing for The Encore Musical Theatre Company in Dexter, MI, where she and her husband, Dan Cooney, are raising their family (Gavin: 14, Lolly: 10, and Stella the dog: 2.5). She is a certified voice teacher (Berklee College of Music, and The Contemporary Commercial Music Vocal Pedagogy Institute of Shenandoah Conservatory) and loves working with the stars of tomorrow whenever she gets the opportunity! Break a leg to all of the wonderful rising stars tonight! IG: @JessicaGroVAY
Sharmaine Jones is a proud alumna of Western Michigan University, where she earned her B.A. in Musical Theatre Performance. Her work has taken her across the country and overseas, with favorite credits including Nala with Disney Cruise Line (Disney Dream and Disney Wonder), Sour Kangaroo on the Seussical National Tour (TheatreWorksUSA), Smokey Joe's Café (IL), Ain't Misbehavin' (NY), and The Piano Lesson (MI). She is excited to be part of this experience and celebrates these incredible rising stars—keep shining bright! 💫
IG: @Sharshar720
Kelli Crump (she/her) is a proud Detroit native who holds a Master of Fine Arts in Acting from the National Theatre Conservatory and a Master of Arts in Arts Administration from the University of Michigan. Kelli is also a graduate of Central Michigan University and has studied Shakespeare at the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Arts. Kelli is a recipient of the 2025 Outstanding Acting Teacher Fellowship presented by the National Alliance of Acting Teachers, The Kennedy Center American College Theatre Festival, and The Juilliard School. She is a recipient of the NAPAT Classical Acting Award, the VASTA Vocal Excellence Award, the Charlene Gordon Arts Impact Award, the John Cauble Emerging Leader Award, and the Region III ASPIRE Faculty Fellowship Award presented by the Kennedy Center American College Theatre Festival. Kelli has worked with many of our nation's most critically acclaimed and award-winning professional theatre organizations, including the Denver Center for the Performing Arts and Magic Theatre in San Francisco. For more than a decade, Kelli has worked as a teaching artist, exposing others to the depth, richness, and excitement of culturally inclusive, anti-racist, and socially conscious live theatre.
Kelli is a National Councilor and proud member of Actors' Equity Association, SAG/AFTRA, and was an official TonyⓇ Award voter for the 2023-24 Broadway season. Stage credits include: Clyde's, Hair, Doubt, Hairspray, The Laramie Project, Little Shop of Horrors, Hamlet, Chicago, Tartuffe and A Little Night Music. Film/TV credits include: HBO's LOOKING, ABC's When We Rise, Being Flynn with Robert DeNiro, The Normals with Bryan Greenberg, The Hideout with Treat Williams, and The Storyteller with Christopher Atkins.
Michael Lluberes is an award-winning director, playwright and artistic leader. He is the former Producing Artistic Director of Flint Repertory Theatre. Michael conceived and directed the new LGBTQ+ version of The Fantasticks, Godspell (In a Pool) and Flint Mural Plays. Directing: Ragtime, Death of a Salesman, One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, The Glass Menagerie, Into The Woods, Assassins, The Boatman (Flint Rep). His plays and musicals include: The Boy in the Bathroom, Peter Pan: The Boy Who Hated Mothers, The Geranium on the Windowsill Just Died. His work has been seen at Ensemble Studio Theatre,The Acting Company, The Old Globe, Hangar Theatre, Blank Theatre, Adirondack Theatre Festival, Kennedy Center, Cincinnati Playhouse, St. Louis Rep, Casa Mañana, Capital Rep, Maltz Jupiter, Pioneer Theatre Company, Lincoln Center Theater Directors Lab. Recipient of the ASCAP Harold Adamson Award, The American Harmony Prize, Wilde Award for Best Director, Tyrone Guthrie Centre Fellowship. Graduate of UNCSA. Up next: Into The Woods starring Natascia Diaz (Arrow Rock Lyceum Theatre), Sweeney Todd (TheatreWorks Colorado Springs). www.michaellluberes.com.
HOST
Megan Krause (Meyer) is a professional actor, director, choreographer, and producer who serves in multiple roles throughout the theatre community. She studied at the American Musical and Dramatic Academy in New York City, graduating in 2012. Following graduation, she performed on Broadway, Off-Broadway, and at several dinner theatres in Orlando. Megan currently serves as the Managing Director of Center Stage Theatre at the Midland Center for the Arts and is the co-founder of The Friction Theatre alongside her husband, Chris Krause. She also works closely with the Flint Repertory Theatre and has appeared both onstage and offstage in a variety of productions. Recent performance credits include Fastrada in Pippin, Maureen in Rent, Judy in White Christmas, Annie in Evil Dead: The Musical, Sister Amnesia in Nunsense, Eva Perón in Evita, and Sally Bowles in Cabaret. Her choreography credits include productions of Pippin, Cabaret, Chicago, Evil Dead: The Musical, American Idiot, and Nunsense at theatres throughout the region. Additional directing and choreography credits include Rock of Ages, Forever Plaid, and White Christmas. www.themeganmeyer.com
