
JESSICA ROFÉ, Artistic
Director and Founder 
Former Casting Director, Jessica’s love of the theatre began at a very early
age. Her parents took her to see Annie on Broadway and she was
immediately smitten with the acting bug. At the age of 10, Jessica performed
on Broadway at the Shubert Theatre in a benefit for famed choreographer
Agnes DeMille. She shared the stage with some of the biggest legends in
the business that night, including Tommy Tune and Mikhail Baryshnikov. Jessica continued her studies at the prestigious University of Michigan's Musical
Theatre Conservatory Program. After graduation, she received her Masters
in Secondary Education at New York University, where she graduated with
honors. Founding A CLASS ACT was a dream come true for Jessica. With this
program, she is able to combine her love of children with her love of theatre,
and hopes to enrich a child's life and imagination through this powerful
artistic medium.
STEVE BLANCHARD, the longest running actor to have played the Beast in Beauty and the Beast on Broadway!
BROADWAY: Beauty and the Beast (Beast & Gaston) Camelot (Lancelot), A Christmas Carol (Fred), The Three Musketeers (Arimus understudy) NATIONAL TOURS : Camelot, Phantom of the Opera, A Funny Thing Happened..., West Side Story, Hans Christian Anderson. OFF BROADWAY: Frankenstein, Johnny Guitar, An Oak Tree, Moby Dick REGIONAL: Chess, Esmeralda TV: Ed, Police Story, Third Watch, Law & Order, Sunseat Beat, Rapmaster Ronnie, One Life to Live, Another World, Guiding Light, Superior Court. Steve was the longest running actor to have played the Beast in Beauty and the Beast. He played the role for a record 8 years!
NANCY OPEL
A graduate of the Juillard School. Recently appeared in Polish Joke
at Manhattan Theatre Club for which she received a Lucille Lortel nomination.
She received a Tony Award nomination for her performance as Penelope Pennywise
in Urinetown. Other Broadway credits: Triumph of Love, Anything
Goes, Sunday in the Park with George, Teddy and Alice and Evita.
She has appeared in a number of David Ives’ plays: Lives of the Saints,
Mere Mortals, Don Juan in Chicago and All in the Timing. Also:
Wiseguys, On a Clear Day... (Encores! revival); Hundreds of
Hats; and Personals. TV/Film: “Law & Order: Criminal Intent,”
“Law & Order,” Marci X, The Ice Storm, Second Skin.
EMILY
SKINNER
Emily recently starred on Broadway as Miss Mona in the Actor's Fund
concert of The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas at the August Wilson
Theater. Other Broadway; Side Show (Tony nomination, Drama League
Award), Jekyll & Hyde, James Joyce’s The Dead, The Full
Monty and Dinner at Eight (Outer Critics Circle nomination).
National Tour: Disney's On the Record. With City Center's Encores:
No Strings, Pardon My English, A Tree Grows in Brooklyn, Broadway Bash. Off-Broadway: leading roles at the WPA Theater, Playwright's Horizons,
Manhattan Theater Club, York Theater, The Paramount Theater at Madison Square
Garden. Regional: multiple shows at The Kennedy Center, McCarter, Long Wharf,
The Old Globe, Ford's Theater, St. Louis MUNY, TheaterVirgina. She has directed
and performed in numerous BROADWAY BY THE YEAR concerts at Town Hall. Recordings:
countless cast albums and audio books, Duets; Unsuspecting Hearts;
Skinner/Ripley Raw at Town Hall (all with Alice Ripley); Elegies
for Angels, Punks and Raging Queens; The Stephen Sondheim Album; Wall
to Wall Sondheim; Believe: The Songs of The Sherman Brothers;
The Stephen Schwartz Album, 20th Century Fox's animated feature Anastasia;
and her self-titled solo CD.
JESSICA
BOEVERS
Broadway: Jenny in In My Life (original cast), Ado Annie in
Oklahoma! (original revival cast), Eponine in Les Misérables
, Philia in Forum (original revival cast), Maureen in Rent
, Belle (cover) in Beauty and the Beast and Petra in A
Little Night Music at The New York City Opera and Los Angeles Opera.
Regional: Beatrice in Much Ado About Nothing (La Jolla Playhouse
in association with Aquila Theatre Co.); Tracy Lord in The Philadelphia
Story and Eliza in My Fair Lady (Walnut Street); Ophelia in
Hamlet (Colonial); Mrs. Millimant in The Way of the World (Yale
Rep); Sarah in The Ballad of Little Jo (Steppenwolf, directed by
Tina Landau); productions at Williamstown Theatre Festival, the Goodman,
Geva, and the Apple Tree Theatre in Chicago, where she is Artistic Associate
and directed Eve Ensler's Necessary Targets and Michael John LaChiusa's
Hello Again.
JENEVIEVE BREWER-ABOUTFACE specializes on commercials, print, voiceovers, industrials, hosting and trade shows. Some of her recent bookings include national spots for Verizon, Advair, Time Warner Cable, Ipod, Subway, Tyson and Ebay. Recent print bookings include AT&tT Timberland and Nike just to name a few. Aboutface is always looking for new types, all ages.
KRISTY CATES
Original Broadway Cast of Wicked (ensemble/Elphaba understudy). Kristy then went on to a year long run as Elphaba in the Chicago production of Wicked. She was most recently seen the Human Race Theatre production of Stephen Schwartz's "Snapshots." Off Broadway/ Regional: Boobs! The Musical, Princess Ida, St. Louis MUNY, The Lucille Lortel White Barn Theatre , North Bay Opera, The Playhouse on the Green, The Eugene O'Neill Conference and the NY Fringe Festival. NYC/Chicago concerts: Don't Tell Mama, The Duplex, Joe's Pub, Laurie Beechman Theatre, and a sold out series "An Evening with Kristy Cates" at the Metropolis Performing Arts Center. She was honored to be a National Anthem soloist for the Chicago Bears, Bulls and White Sox. BFA: Cincinnati-College Conservatory of Music. Proud member of AEA.
BARBARA COLEMAN, Innovative
Artists NY
Barbara has been representing children, teens and young adults since 1981.
During the past 25 years, she has worked as an agent for feature films,
television series, theater, & commercials. Head of the Youth Talent
Commercial division of Innovative Artists NY, she represents talent for
all ages of commercials, as well as animation. Two current hit series: Disney's
LITTLE EINSTEINS and Nickelodeon's THE WONDER PETS! Other clients include
national commercials for Disney World, The Cartoon Network, Johnson &
Johnson, Huggies, Kraft Macaroni & Cheese, Ipod, Coca-Cola, Sprint &
Mastercard. Barbara has represented many high profile actors such as Macaulay
Culkin, Ethan Hawke, James Van der Beek, Marlon Wayans, Melissa Joan Hart,
Lauryn Hill & Jennifer Connelly. Her career path has also included working
with Julia Stiles, Lindsay Lohan, Kirsten Dunst, Christian Slater, Lacey
Chabert, Matt LeBlanc, and Cynthia Nixon when they were children.
BARRETT FOA
Broadway: Princeton & Rod in Avenue Q, Leaf Coneybear in The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee, and the original cast of Mamma Mia! Off-Bway: The Drunken City (Playwrights Horizons, spring ‘08), Jesus in Godspell (2000 cast recording), Cupid in Cupid & Psyche. Regional: Claudio in Much Ado About Nothing (Mark Lamos, dir. Hartford Stage/Shakespeare Theatre, D.C.), Karel in The Lady In Question (by and starring Charles Busch, Bay Street Theatre, Sag Harbor), Frederic in Pirates! and the evil Mordred in Camelot (both at Paper Mill). Leading roles in Henry Krieger’s Kept (TheatreWorks in CA), Just So (North Shore), The Fantasticks (St. Louis Muny), Gypsy (Weston Playhouse), Children of Eden and The Sound of Music (MT Wichita). Numerous readings with Project Shaw and Food For Thought. TV: “Six Degrees.” Proud: Actors’ Equity member, native New Yorker, Interlochen Arts Camper, University of Michigan Musical Theatre Department graduate.
PATRICK GOODWIN
Patrick Goodwin has worked at Telsey + Company Casting since the fall of 2006, immediately after graduating from Drew University (summa cum laude) with a double major in Theatre Arts and Political Science. Some Broadway and Off-Broadway casting credits of Telsey + Company include: A Catered Affair, Cry-Baby, South Pacific, November, The Homecoming, In The Heights, Dr. Seuss’: How the Grinch Stole Christmas!, Company, Grey Gardens, The Color Purple, Sweeney Todd, Wicked, Hairspray, Rent, Legally Blonde, Next to Normal, Tarzan, The Rocky Horror Show, Talk Radio, The Drowsy Chaperone, Dirty Rotten Scoundrels, Frozen, Anna in the Tropics, La Boheme, Aida, Death of a Salesman, Electra, De La Guarda, Hedwig and the Angry Inch, Capeman, and Wit. Some film credits include Sex and the City: The Movie, Dancing with Shiva, Across The Universe, Dan in Real Life, Ira & Abby, Then She Found Me, Keane, Rent, Pieces of April, Camp, Finding Forrester, The Bone Collector, and The Grey Zone. Telsey + Company also casts for the Atlantic Theatre, Signature Theatre, MCC Theater, and many regional theatre companies.
KAITLIN
HOPKINS
Broadway: The Grinch Who Stole Christmas, Noises Off, Anything Goes
(concert/Lincoln Center). Off Broadway:The Great American Trailer Park
Musical, BARE, Nicky Silver's Beautiful Child (The Vineyard Theatre),
Bat Boy-The Musical (Drama Desk/Ovation nomination). Regional:
The Opposite of Sex (Williamstown Theatre Festival), Disney's On
The Record (National tour), Shaw's The Philanderer (South
Coast Repertory/Ovation nomination), She Loves Me (The Reprise
Series/Ovation nomination), Present Laughter and Blithe Spirit
(The Pasadena Playhouse), John Adams' opera I Was Looking at the
Ceiling and Then I Saw The Sky (International tour/Lincoln Center)
directed by Peter Sellars. Kaitlin has recorded over 20 radio plays including:
The Heidi Chronicles, Working and Proof with Anne Heche
(LA Theater Works/NPR). Film/Television includes: The Nanny Diaries,
Trust the Man, How To Kill Your Neighbor's Dog with Kenneth Branagh,
Crocodile Dundee in Los Angeles, Little Boy Blue, “Law and Order
SVU,” “Six Degrees,” “Law and Order CI,” “Rescue Me,” “Spin City‚” “Providence,”
“The Practice,” “Star Trek Voyager,” “Deep Space Nine,” “JAG,” “The Division,”
“Wings” and three years as Dr Kelsey Harrison on “Another World.” Kaitlin is a founding advisory board member for The William Inge Festival, The Edward
Albee Theater Conference, and The Pasadena Playhouse Outreach Program. She
also served as Co-Artistic Director for The Ojai Playwright's Conference,
a panel member for The NFAA and a judge for The Irene Ryan Awards.
ERIC
JACKSON
Broadway: Young Frankenstein, and Thoroughly Modern
Millie. Some other theatrical credits include Les
Miserables, Aida, Kiss Me, Kate, Dreamgirls, My Fair
Lady and The Irish Repertory Theater's Finian's
Rainbow as well as the national tours of Chicago,
Ragtime and The Radio City Christmas Spectacular. His
teaching has extended to workshops such as The
Broadway Student Lab. Broadway Teaching Lab, and Hands
On Broadway. Eric has been the resident choreographer
and musical theater instructor for The Young People's
Theater in Ann Arbor, Michigan and has helped develop
the new Finian's Rainbow Jr. Eric is a graduate of The
University of Michigan with a B.F.A. in Musical
Theatre.
LESLIE
KRITZER was most recently seen in her Drama Desk nominated portrayal
of Pickles in The Great American Trailer Park Musical, for which
the New York Times called her “Flat-out hilarious, a consistent source of
off-kilter brilliance.” The Times hailed Leslie as "A young dynamo
with Judy Garland's chops”, for her starring turn as Fanny Brice in the
PaperMill Playhouse production of Funny Girl. She has worked regionally
in such musicals as Tell Me On A Sunday at the Kennedy Center, Company
at Pittsburgh CLO (Marta), Joseph… at Casa Manana (the Narrator),
Babes in Arms at the Goodspeed Opera House (Baby Rose), Grease
at PaperMill Playhouse (Rizzo) and the world premiere of Vanities
at TheatreWorks in Palo Alto. Leslie was privileged to attend the Sundance
Theater Lab, performing in Richard Forman's Teddy Bears and Charles
Mee's Wintertime. She has appeared on Broadway in Hairspray,
Off-Broadway in Bat Boy (Shelley) and Godspell, and on tour
in Urinetown (Little Becky). As a concert artist, Leslie has been
featured all over the world, most notably singing alongside Alan Menken
and Tim Rice at Royal Albert Hall in London (An Evening with Tim Rice).
She has sung at Town Hall (Broadway Musicals of 1951 with a live album available
on Bayview Records) and can be heard on the cast recordings of Godspell
(Fynsworth Alley) and The Great American Trailer Park Musical (Sh-K-Boom).
Leslie holds a BFA in Musical Theatre from Cincinnati College Conservatory
of Music and is thrilled to be returning to Broadway in the spring with
Legally Blonde. She is currently developing her next solo project,
Rifftina...Riff Masta to the Stars.
JAN
NEUBERGER
Jan was a member of the original cast of Wicked, in which
she delivered the green baby nightly and stepped in frequently—nearly 100
times—as Madame Morrible. Also on Broadway: Original casts of How the
Grinch Stole Christmas (Grandma Who); Big (Miss Watson); A
Change in the Heir (Martha); and the 1974 revival of Gypsy. Off-Broadway: All in the Timing; Forbidden Broadway ’84 and ’85; Henry
IV Parts 1&2 (Mistress Quickly/LaMama Etc.); Rags (Rachel/American
Jewish Theatre revival); Chirstina Alberta’s Father (Mrs. Bone/Vineyard
Theatre); etc. Regional favorites: You Can’t Take it With You (Penny/ Pittsburgh
Public); On the 20th Century (Letitia/Goodspeed Opera); Pirates of Penzance
(Ruth/Guthrie Theatre); Thornton Wilder Rediscovered (Actors Theatre
of Louisville); Nine (Necrophorous/Paper Mill Playhouse); etc.
Much, much stock and many concerts. Big screen, “The Producers,” “Exorcist
III;” small screen, “Out of the Box” (Dr. Needlewheedle). Member A.E.A.
since 1974. Jan studied acting with Michael Howard and was accepted in 2000
to the President’s Group of the British American Drama Academy , where she
studied Shakespeare with Jane Lapotaire, Henry Goodman, Michael Langham,
Fiona Shaw, and the legendary John Barton.
SARAH
STATLER, Resident Musical Director
Sarah started singing and playing the piano at an early age. While living
in San José, California, she played leading roles in productions such as
Side Show, Jekyll & Hyde and West Side Story. She
also appeared in promotions for theater on KNTV as well as the Emmy nominated
documentary: “Pulse...The Rhythm of Life.” She moved from California to
New York to earn her BM in voice from the Manhattan School of Music. During
her time spent at there, she appeared in their American Musical Theater
Ensemble’s productions of Side by Side by Sondheim as well as I
Remember It Well...A Tribute to Lerner and Loewe. She also recieved
the ASCAP Foundation’s Fran Morgenstern Davis Scholarship. Over the past
few years, Sarah has started teaching both voice and piano students. Since
then, she has vocally directed such shows as Into The Woods, Jr., Little
by Little and Jesus Christ Superstar. She has also taught
at such places as Northern Stage, The Manhattan School for Children, and
The Children’s Musical Theater of San José.
NIKOLE VALLINS, Jay Binder
Casting
Jay Binder C.S.A.,along with his associates Jack Bowdan C.S.A., Mark Brandon
and Sara Schatz have cast over 50 Broadway shows and the thireteen seasons
of City Center's Encores! Current Projects: Inherit The Wind, Grease,
The West End production of The Lady From Dubuque, A Chorus Line, Journey's
End, The National Tour of Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf, Gypsy, The Thirty
Nine Steps, Happy Days, Is He Dead? Previous Broadway credits include:
The Times They Are A- Changin', Butley,Lestat, Well, Sweet Charity,
Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf, Movin' Out, The Lion King, Beauty and the
Beast, Wonderful Town, Irving Berlin's White Christmas , 45 Seconds From
Broadway, Urinetown, 42nd Street, A Class Act, Seussical, The Dinner Party,
Music Man, Iceman Cometh, You're a Good Man Charlie Brown, The Sound of
Music, Proposals, The Last Night of Ballyhoo, Chicago, Once Upon A Mattress,
The King and I, Damn Yankees, Laughter on the 23rd Floor, Lost in Yonkers,
Jerome Robbins’ Broadway, Jake’s Women, Goodbye Girl, Rumors, Encores!,
Sixteen Wounded, Private Lives, Stones in His Pockets, Judgement at Nuremberg,
Macbeth, Aida (development), Wrong Mountain, Minnelli on Minnelli, Kat and
the Kings, More to Love, High Society, Golden Child, Proposals, Triumph
of Love, King David, Juan Darien, Getting Away With Murder, Hamlet, On the
Waterfront, The Rise and Fall of Little Voice, Broken Glass, Metro, Jake's
Women, Peter Pan, Meet Me In St. Louis, So Long Lonely Street.
RAY
WILLS has appeared on Broadway in The Producers, Wonderful
Town, Big and Anna Karenina. As a featured member of the original
cast of The Producers, Ray appeared in over 1000 performances in
New York and Los Angeles, and as an understudy, performed the role of Max
Bialystock 40 times, opposite Matthew Broderick, Martin Short, and Steven
Weber. His many Off-Broadway credits include A Class Act, All in the
Timing and The Rothschilds. Regionally, he appeared in the
Ravinia Festival production of Anyone Can Whistle starring Patti
LuPone and Michael Cerveris. Television credits include Law and Order:
Criminal Intent, Law and Order: SVU, all the daytime dramas, and recently
the PBS Great Performances broadcast of Candide with the NY Philharmonic.
Film work includes the current movie musical, The Producers, and
Oliver Stone's Nixon. Ray holds an MFA in Acting from Brandeis
University, a BA in Speech Communication/Theatre from Wichita State University,
and currently is an adjunct professor at Kean University in Union, New Jersey.
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Sarah Statler | Nikole Vallins | Ray Wills