Play-by-Play Q&A Facebook Live Guests

RENEE LAWLESS - MONDAY MAY 11TH, 1PM CST

Miss Lawless was active in the Miss America Pageant Scholarship System as she was a former Miss Jacksonville, Talent winner and Top Ten finalist at the Miss Florida Pageant, as well as Talent winner and 3rd runner up to Miss Ohio.

Renee Lawless currently stars as lead character, Katheryn Cryer, on Tyler Perry’s “The Haves and the Have Nots” on the OWN network. The show is the number one the OWN Network.

A seasoned theater actress, she recently performed with the
Broadway national tour of Wicked as the Midwife and Madame
Morrible. Renee also appeared on Broadway in Disney’s Beauty and the Beast as Eggtimer, Ms. Potts and Madame de la Grande Bousch. Renee’s additional theatrical credits include Menopause the Musical, Always Patsy Cline, Brigadoon, My Fair Lady and Nine. In television and film, Renee has been featured in “Heavens to Betsy” alongside Dolly Parton, Ghost Story, The Obituary and The Lucky Ones. She was recently awarded Best actress from the Creation International Film festival for the Indi Film, They Came and Left. Stay tuned for her new Webseries Aunt Cissy to be released late 2020.

She released her first Gospel CD, ‘Renee Lawless A Live Sampler’ in 2002. Renee is also in pre-production of her own series “Renee’s Way”, as well as, writing her own Christmas Décor Book. Renee also is a motivational speaker currently speaking around the country. Renee is active with the Family Legacy Organization. Helping children in Zamba, receive clothing, education and medical attention while learning about Christ’s love.

Renee is a graduate of Stetson University and did her Master studies at the University of Cincinnati in Vocal Performance. She currently divides her time between Los Angeles and Jacksonville. https://www.reneelawless.com/

JESSICA TYLER WRIGHT - TUESDAY MAY 12TH, 1PM CST

Broadway; Sweeney Todd and Company (John Doyle),
MTC’s LoveMusik (Hal Prince), and Lincoln Center’s War Horse.

Off Broadway; Marjorie Taylor in Allegro (Lucille Lortel nomination for Outstanding Featured Actress in a Musical, Classic Stage Company). NYC Opera; Herta in Dear Erich, Vera in
Dolores Claiborne, and Pacquette in Candide (Hal Prince).

National Tours; Sweeney Todd and Radio City Christmas Spectacular. Regional favorites include; Marian in The Music Man and Lilli in Kiss Me Kate (MTWichita), KT in Merrily We Roll
Along (Cincinnati Playhouse), Grace in Annie (North Shore MT), Irene in Crazy For You (MTWichita and CA Music Circus), Mary Jane in Big River (Papermill), and Kost in Cabaret (CA Music Circus).

TV; Blue Bloods with Tom Sellek and a national commercial for Nexium. 
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BFA and BM from Millikin University.
www.jessicatylerwright.com

ADRIANA TRIGIANI - WEDNESDAY MAY 13TH, 1PM CST

Adriana Trigiani is the New York Times bestselling author of eighteen books in fiction and nonfiction, which have been published in thirty-eight countries around the world. She is an award-winning playwright, television writer and producer, and filmmaker. She wrote and directed the film version of her debut novel Big Stone Gap, which was shot entirely on location in her Virginia hometown. Her screen adaptation of Very Valentine debuted on Lifetime television in June 2019. Adriana is the cofounder of the Origin Project, an in-school writing program that serves more than 1,500 students in Appalachia. She is working on a new novel to be released in 2021, a children's picture book (late fall 2021) and a new film, which she is writing and directing. She lives in Greenwich Village with her family.

​https://adrianatrigiani.com/

photo credit: Timothy Stephenson

RICHARD CARSEY - THURSDAY MAY 14TH, 1PM CST

Richard Carsey is a conductor, arranger, pianist, and actor. He is Music Director and Conductor for DISNEY ON CLASSIC, a multi-media concert that tour of Japan, featuring The Orchestra Japan and eight American singers. He is currently a conductor for the longest-running musical in history, THE PHANTOM OF THE OPERA on Broadway. Other Broadway productions include CAROUSEL with Jessie Mueller, Joshua Henry and Renée Fleming; and THE HOUSE OF BLUE LEAVES, featuring Ben Stiller, Edie Falco and Jennifer Jason Leigh. National tours in- clude Cameron Mackintosh’s new production of PHANTOM in 2013-2015, the Broadway revival of LA CAGE AUX FOLLES with George Hamilton, and the musical LITTLE HOUSE ON THE PRAIRIE with Melissa Gilbert. He served as Musical Director for Joshua Schmidt’s musical A MINISTER’S WIFE at Lincoln Center Theater. Internationally, he has performed as pianist and conductor in such exotic locales as Lima, Athens, Barcelona, Islamabad, and Kuwait. Richard enjoyed a long association with the Skylight Opera Theatre in Milwaukee, WI as Principal Con- ductor, and for nine seasons was Artistic Director. 
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​Highlights include the world premiere and PBS television broadcast of Richard Wargo’s opera BALLYMORE; a PBS broadcast of THE MIKADO; and the world premiere of the opera THE RIVALS by Kirke Mechem. He has been guest conductor with the symphony orchestras of Kansas City, Indianapolis, Hartford, Sacra- mento, Panama City, and St. Louis, among others. 

​As an actor he has appeared in over 350 performances of the play 2 PIANOS 4 HANDS at regional theaters including Dallas Theater Center, Actor’s Theater of Louisville, The Globe (Saskatchewan), Laguna Beach Playhouse, and Hartford Stage (Connecticut Critic’s Circle Award). Other acting highlights include THE BOYS IN THE BAND (Harold); TWELFTH NIGHT (Malvolio); SOUVENIR (Cosme) and OLD WICKED SONGS (Mashkin). He is a frequent conductor for Windborne Music, which presents classic rock and roll with symphony orchestras. He most recently conducted a 75-piece live or- chestra with the 1991 animated film BEAUTY AND THE BEAST at the 11,000-seat Yokohama Arena. 

www.richardcarsey.com

GUY STROMAN - FRIDAY MAY 15TH, 1PM CST

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Guy Stroman is an award-winning director whose work in NYC and around the country includes: collaborations with Sandy Duncan, June Squibb, Lou Diamond Phillips, Sally Struthers, Lynn Redgrave, Jean Stapleton; directing a wide range of productions, including Twelfth Night, The King and I, The Glass Menagerie, Driving Miss Daisy, Man of La Mancha, The 39 Steps, Art, Shakespeare’s R&J, Steel Magnolias, Love Letters, Boeing, Boeing, and numerous, long-running productions of Forever Plaid and Plaid Tidings.

Guy originated the role of Frankie in Forever Plaid, in New York, London’s West End, and LA, where he received a Best Actor award from the LA Drama Critics. Most recent: Lewis Black’s One Slight Hitch, David Dean Bottrell Makes Love-A One Man Show (Dixon Place).

http://www.guystroman.com/

YVONNE FRAZIER - SUNDAY MAY 17TH, 1PM CST

In America, Ms Frazier made her Carnegie Hall debut in New York City in the Mozart Requiem and Vaughan Williams' Dona Nobis Pacem with the New York Choral Society. At Lincoln Center's Alice Tully Hall, she sang with the Boy's Choir of Harlem in Ode to St. Cecilia's Day by Handel to great success. Other American engagements include Opera Company of Boston, Opera Ebony, the American Symphony Orchestra, the St. Luke's Chamber ensemble, Nashville symphony Orchestra and the Brooklyn Academy of Music.

Additionally, Ms Frazier toured extensively across America with the Eliot Feld Ballet singing a song cycle arranged by Mr. Feld of Goethe songs by Hugo Wolf which he entitled Adieu. With the Alvin Ailey Dance Theater, Ms Frazier had many engagements singing at the Metropolitan Opera and New York City Center. Ms Frazier was a member of the AGMA music union as well as the Screen Actor's Guild of America through which she gained credits for extensive studio experience singing for Hollywood motion picture soundtracks.

Ms Frazier's European engagements have included the Zurich Opera, Rome Opera, Amsterdam Opera, Nice Opera, Hannover State Theater as well as the theaters in Dortmund, Aachen, Augsburg, Freiburg, Heidelberg, Hagen, Kaiserslautern and Bern with Yoram David and Mario Venzago in roles ranging from Vitellia in La Clemenza di Tito, Mimi in La Boheme, Elisabeth in Don Carlo, Abigaille in Verdi's Nabucco, to roles such as Venus in Wagner's Tannhäuser (Paris Version) to the title roles in Strauss' Ariadne auf Naxos and Verdi's Aida.
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Oratorio and orchestral engagements have included such works as the Verdi Requiem, Beethoven's Ninth Symphony, Gershwin's Porgy and Bess, Dvorak's Stabat Mater, Death of Cleopatra of Berlioz with the Staatsphilharmoni of Gdansk, Poland, the Philharmonie in Berlin, the Gasteig in Munich, the Alte Oper in Frankfurt, the Tonhalle in Düsseldorf and the Rosengarten in Mannheim, all in Germany; the Casino in Basel, Switzerland, the Residence Orchestra in The Hague, The National Radio Orchestra in Hilversum and the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam in The Netherlands and the SWR national German radio broadcasts of live as well as recorded programs to name a few. Ms Frazier participates regularly in benefit concerts and galas such as The German Film Ball and the Diamond Trading Company's (a division of De Beers) prestigious Diamond Design Awards held in Venice, Italy, as well as Spiritual programs.

Yvonne Frazier is a native of Cleveland, Ohio where she received her earliest musical education before moving to Massachusetts where she studied and graduated from the University of Lowell (today University of Massachusetts at Lowell) with subsequent study at Boston Conservatory. Ms Frazier is a recipient of the Lani Nakashima Award from the Juilliard School of Music as well as a scholarship recipient for study at the Tanglewood Institute of Music, summer home of the Boston Symphony Orchestra, Seiji Ozawa and Leonard Bernstein directors, in the Phyllis Curtin program for singers.

http://www.yvonne-frazier.de/

JUSTIN BRILL & SHANNA VANDERWERKER - MONDAY MAY 18TH, 1PM CST

Justin Brill is currently on the MT Faculty of Columbia College Chicago and has performed all over the midwest since moving to Chicago in 2013, including Drury Lane, Theatre at the Center, The Marriott Theatre, The Fireside Theatre and Milwaukee Rep. Prior to moving to Chicago, Justin lived in NYC and performed on Broadway (RENT, ALL SHOOK UP, HIGH FIDELITY) as well as The Metropolitan Opera, National Tours (WICKED, BEAUTY & THE BEAST)  and Las Vegas (Monty Python’s SPAMALOT, MAMMA MIA!). Directing credits include LYSISTRATA JONES for Refuge Theatre Project and coming in winter 2020, MAMMA MIA! for Music Theatre Works. Justin also co-produced Steven Strafford’s Jeff nominated solo show METHTACULAR! with About Face Theatre. http://justinbrill.com/

Shanna VanDerwerker is a Chicago based choreographer and dance instructor currently on faculty at the Chicago College of Performing Arts at Roosevelt University, Columbia College Chicago, and Dovetail Studios. She has a Bachelor of Arts in Dance from Point Park University. As a professional dancer Shanna performed on Broadway, national tours, several regional theaters, and Walt Disney World.  She was the Associate Choreographer of Amazing Grace on Broadway and the Assistant Choreographer of High Fidelity on Broadway. Shanna has choreographed for Porchlight Music Theatre, Mercury Theater Chicago and choreographed the Chicago premiere of Lysistrata Jones for Refuge Theater Project for which she received a Jeff Nomination. She is returning for her third season as choreographer at The Fireside Theatre in Fort Atkinson, WI where she previously worked on Newsies, Beauty and the Beast and Singin' In The Rain. She has choreographed for numerous studios and festivals around the country including Regional Dance America Midstates in Madison, WI and the Educational Theater Association's International Thespian Festival 2015. Her style is primarily musical theater jazz, but Shanna also teaches ballet, tap and lyrical. https://www.shannavdance.com/

MJ BERNHARDT - TUESDAY MAY 19TH, 1PM CST

​MJ Bernardt is the Production Stage Manager at The Fireside Theatre in Fort Atkinson, Wisconsin. The Fireside is one of the Midwest’s most popular entertainment destinations and the only Actors’ Equity dinner theatre in Wisconsin. MJ is celebrating her 27th season with The Fireside. She began as Assistant Stage Manager/Properties (and sometimes actress), but has proudly spent the past 15 years as their Production Stage Manager. She holds a BA in Theatre Arts from Viterbo University in La Crosse, Wisconsin.

www.firesidetheatre.com

KELSEY DEANE, ELIZABETH MCMONAGLE, GREG PRAGEL - WEDNESDAY MAY 20TH, 1PM CST

You may remember Denae from Play by Play’s production of Always…Patsy Cline, where she starred as Patsy. Denae is a Wisconsin native, growing up in Ashwaubenon. An alumni of Ashwaubenon High school, she went on to receive her BFA in Musical Theatre from the University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point. For the past eight years, Denae has been a NYC-based actress, making a career for herself on stage, both in NYC and regionally, and is a proud member of the Actor’s Equity Association (AEA).

​You can currently see Denae as the Wigmaker/Fantine US on the Broadway National Tour of Les Miserables.

Other credits include: Rent, 9 to 5, Show Boat, Les Miz, Man of La Mancha, West Side Story, Wonderful Town.

​Elizabeth McMonagle is a Green Bay native and proud AEA actress living in NYC. She was last seen at Play-By-Play performing as Lizzie in BABY: the Musical opposite her talented husband, Greg Pragel.

Other favorite roles include Fanny Brice (Funny Girl), Eponine (Les Miserables), Hodel (Fiddler on the Roof), Thersites (Troilus & Cressida).

Insta: @professor_mcmonagle
​www.elizabethmcmonagle.com 

Greg is an actor, director, fight director, and teaching artist in NYC. He hails from Buffalo, NY and is an alum of Niagara University and the Stella Adler Studio. He's a resident acting company member for Hamlet Isn't Dead (hamletisntdead.com) and proud member of AEA. Favorite acting credits are Konstantin in The Seagull (Harold Clurman Lab Theatre), Cletis in Lone Star (Triad Theatre), Berowne in Love's Labour's Lost (HID), & Danny in BABY: the Musical (with Play-By-Play, performing opposite his talented wife, Liz). He's directed the world premiere of 36 Juniper (nominated for NYIT's 2019 Outstanding Premiere Production of a Play) with Wrong House Productions, the world premiere of David's Play NYFringe festival 2019, assistant directed As You Like It (Stella Adler Studio), staged a reading of Venus in Fur, and just opened (before having to cancel) A Midsummer Night's Dream. 

Fight directed The Collector (59E59), Really, Really (Wrong House), Noises Off! (Amateur Comedy Club), Julius Caesar, Hamlet, and the all female production of Troilus & Cressida (Hamlet Isn't Dead). He's also a teaching artist at public schools in New York through TADA! Youth Theater and The Shakespeare Forum, as well as conducting his own workshops and private lessons. www.gregpragel.com

MARY MURFITT - THURSDAY MAY 21ST, 1PM CST

MARY MURFITT (actor|composer/lyricist/librettist|director) is thrilled to joining her dear old friend, Mary Ehlinger, once again. They go way back!! Play-by-Play audiences might remember Mary from PBP’s production of Oil City Symphony a few years ago. Mary was a co-author and original cast member of Oil City, which received the Outer Critic’s Circle Award for Best Off-Broadway Musical and Mary received a Theatre World Award & Drama Desk Award for her work as an actor in the show. Since then she has directed (and performed in) numerous productions of Oil City Symphony across the country.

Mary is also the creator/composer/lyricist (and original cast member) of the hit Off-Broadway musical Cowgirls (for which she received a New York Drama League Award). Once again she had the privilege of working with Mary E. who was also an
original cast member as well as music arranger for the show. Other writing credits include: Petticoat Rules (book & lyrics); Looking for Home: A Story of from the Orphan Trains (book/music/lyrics); BoomerAngst (book/music/lyrics);
The Magdalen (book/music/lyrics); and Pyrate Queens (book/music/lyrics).

http://marymurfitt.com/