Download creative team and producers

 CREATIVE TEAM AND PRODUCERS CHRISTOPHER RENSHAW CONCEPT / SCRIPT & DIRECTOR Chris was born in reading, England, and attended Magdalen College, Oxford. He served as Resident Director of the Royal Opera House. Since then he has directed operas, plays and musicals all over the world. His favorite opera productions include Norma with Joan Sutherland (Sydney Opera House); Eugene Onegin conducted by Rostropovich (Aldeburgh Festival); and a new production of Benjamin Britten’s A Midsummer Nights Dream (Covent Garden). His celebrated series of Gilbert and Sullivan’s operettas (The Mikado, HMS Pinafore and The Gondoliers) at Sadler’s Wells Theatre in London led to a crossover into plays and musicals. Christopher directed Hayley and Juliet Mills in Noel Coward’s Fallen Angels in Australia, Sir Brian Rix in Dry Rot in London’s West End, a TV production of “Ruddigore” with Vincent Price and Café Puccini at London’s Wyndham’s Theatre, produced by Andrew Lloyd Webber and Cameron Mackintosh. He received a Tony nomination and a Drama Desk Award for The King And I with Donna Murphy and Lou Diamond Phillips, which also won four Tonys. Christopher’s production of Queen’s We Will Rock You is still playing at London’s Dominion Theatre. His production of Taboo, which he co-­‐conceived with Boy George reopened in London last year. His highly acclaimed award-­‐winning production of The King And I will return to Australia later this year. Chris is currently working with Broadway composers Maury Yeston and Frank Wildhorn on the development of two new original musical productions. ALEX LACAMOIRE ARRANGEMENTS / ORCHESTRATIONS / MUSIC SUPERVISION Alex is a Cuban-­‐American music director/arranger/orchestrator, who has worked on many shows both on and off Broadway. He was born in Los Angeles, California, and began to play piano at age four. He and his family moved to Miami, Florida when he was 9. He entered Southwood Middle School, a school known for its fine arts program and went on to New World School of the Arts. Alex graduated at Berklee College of Music and studied Jazz, Arranging, and Film Scoring. His Broadway work includes music director of Wicked in 2005, and Music Supervisor and assisting with the orchestrations for the musical High Fidelity in 2006. In 2007 he was music director for the Off Broadway production of In the Heights, which earned him a Drama Desk Award nomination for Outstanding Orchestrations. Following its successful Off Broadway run, In The Heights transferred to the Richard Rodgers Theatre on Broadway. Alex, along with Bill Sherman, won the 2008 Tony Award for Best Orchestrations and the 2009 Grammy Award for Best Musical Theater Album for their combined work on In The Heights. Other credits for Alex as music director, arranger, and/or Orchestrator include: Bat Boy: The Musical, the 2001 National Tour of Godspell, Stephen Schwartz's Captain Louie, and Legally Blonde. He is also credited with helping with the recordings of Captain Louie (2005, Original cast) as Orchestrator; Bat Boy (2001 Original Cast) as Musical Director; and Godspell (2000 touring cast) as conductor. His recent work includes "Bring It On – the Musical” (Music Supervisor, Co-­‐Orchestrator and Arranger) and dance arrangements for the 2012 Broadway revival of “Annie”. TOM PIPER SCENIC AND COSTUME DESIGNER Recent designs for the Royal Shakespeare Company, where Tom is Associate Designer, include Boris Godunov, Much Ado About Nothing, Macbaeth, The City Madam, The Histories Cycle (Richard II, Henry IV parts I and II, Henry V, Henry VI parts I, II and III, and Richard III) for which he won the 2009 Olivier Award for Best Costume Design. He was nominated for the 2009 Olivier Award for Best Set Design for As You Like It and Antony and Cleopatra. Other recent theatre credits: Red Velvet (Tricycle theatre, London); King Lear (Citizens Theatre, Glasgow); and Richard III, The Tempest, As You Like It (Bridge Project at Brooklyn Academy of Music, New York and Old Vic Theatre, London). Tom has designed costumes and sets for all worldwide replica productions of the musical Zorro with music by The Gipsy Kings (London, Moscow, Dutch National Tour, Tokyo, Seoul and Atlanta). He will be designing costumes for Pride and Prejudice and The Winter’s Tale for Regents Park Open Air Theatre in London later this year. Full credits are available at www.tompiperdesign.co.uk NORGE ESPINOSA MENDOZA SPANISH SCRIPT AND LYRICS Poet, playwright and essayist, born in Santa Clara, Cuba. Graduated at the Institute Superior Arts in Havana as theatre critic, Norge has been working with some of the most important Cuban theatre companies among which were the Teatro El Público and the Teatro de las Estaciones. He’s the winner of several poetry prizes; He won the literary 1989 “El Caimán Barbudo” award with his book Las breves tribulaciones which includes some homoerotic poems, a real breakthrough at that time in Cuba. He is also the author of the children’s books Los pequeños prodigios (1996), and Las estrategias del páramo (poems, 2000). In 2001 he was part of the University of Iowa’s International Writing Program while living in the USA until 2002. Norge was part of a project directed by the Royal Court in Cuba and contributed to the development of new playwriting. He is a regular visitor of London where some of his plays were rehearsed or presented as readings. Norge appeared in various anthologies in Cuba, France, Spain, Mexico and some other countries. Some of his works for stage are: La Virgencita de Bronce, Cintas de seda, Ícaros, Trío, and Federico de noche; several of these plays have been awarded in literary contest or festivals. As a dedicated gay activist, Norge has been part of some of the most important actions in support of the gay and lesbian Cuban community since the 80 ́s. He is included in the anthology Mapa Callejero, selected by José Quiroga and published in Argentina. Norge is the editor of theater magazine Entretelones, and the literary magazine Extramuros. Ícaros y otras piezas míticas, a collection of his stage works, appeared in 2011. In 2012 he was a participant of the LASA Congress, as part of a panel dedicated to new arts in Cuba. His most recent books are: Escenarios que arden; Mito, verdad y retablo, el Guiñol de los Hermanos Camejo y Pepe Carril; Notas en Piñera and Cuerpos de un deseo diferente, all published between 2012 and 2013. ROCLAN GONZALEZ CHAVEZ CHOREOGRAPHY Born in Cuba, Roclan studied at the prestigious Escuela Nacionales the Arte in Havana, graduating in 1996 with distinction in both contemporary and folkloric dance and was the only person in his year to be awarded a post graduate scholarship to study choreography. Since then, he has worked with most of Cuba‘s best known music and dance groups, including Omar Portuanda, Company Segundo, salsa big band Los Van Van and the world renowned Tropicana Cabaret. He is the main Choreographer for Cuban television ballet, which perform regularly on TV and state events. For the last five years, he has choreographed the national Cuban music awards, Cuba disco and many music videos for top Cuban bands. His recent international tours include choreographing the hit shows Lady Salsa, and The Kings of Salsa. Which have toured internationally for the last seven years in Europe, UK, Asia, Australia and USA to great critical acclaim. He has also worked extensively all over Latin America and studied many styles from this region from Brazilian samba, contemporary ballet to Argentinean tango. Roclan has an unrivalled understanding of the folkloric roots of salsa and Cuban dance, which he blends with breathtaking contemporary moves, producing a unique dance fusion. He is regarded as one of the most talented and versatile young choreographers to come out of Cuba in the last decade. JON LEE ORIGINAL PRODUCER Jon started his career as a professional trumpeter working extensively in London’s West End and session world. In 1995, he formed the jazz orchestra ‘Echoes of Ellington’ that toured for 2 years with The Birmingham Royal Ballet’s highly acclaimed jazz ballet The Nutcracker Sweeties. The orchestra also played at all the major European jazz festivals and had a regular club spot at Ronnie’s Scotts. It was at the Edinburgh Festival in 1997, that he first started producing shows and his love of Latin music led him to put on his first Cuban production Lady Salsa with Toby Gough. This show went on to run in London’s West End for 16 months and has toured the world for the past 9 years in partnership with Mark Brady of ATA Allstar Artists Pty Ltd. Since then, Mark and Jon have produced several successful shows together from Cuba including The Bar at Buena Vista, The Kings of Salsa and The Creole Choir of Cuba that have all toured around the world. His new production of Ballet Revolución is currently touring Germany. Having worked in Cuba now for over 11 years, he has gained a great insight to the music and dance of this incredible country, and Carmen Jones is a culmination of his years working there. WILLEM METZ ORIGINAL PRODUCER & WORLDWIDE GENERAL MANAGER Willem trained Stage Management at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art (RADA) in London, United Kingdom. After a secondment at Cameron Mackintosh’s London office Willem moved onto production stage managing countless large musicals in Continental Europe. He ran various large worldwide industrial presentations for Daimler-­‐Chrysler (World Premiere of the new S-­‐500 and SLR-­‐Roadster) and Citroën (C5 Series). Willem production stage managed several large international musical productions (Miss Saigon (Stuttgart), Starlight Express (Bochum), Disney’s The Hunchback of Notre Dame (World Premiere in Berlin), Beauty and the Beast (Stuttgart) and The Lion Ling (Hamburg)). Willem moved on to become a theatre producer and has executive produced over 40 large musicals. He initiated and general managed the International Licensed Productions Department of Stage Entertainment. Willem has been a senior member of the company’s International Management Team for many years. His own company Willem Metz Management (WMM) is based in Willem’s home country the Netherlands and represents and general manages the rights of some of the greatest musical titles (Zorro, Love Story, Peter Pan, Around The World In Eighty Days, A Christmas Carol, Through The Looking Glass, Heidi, Forbidden City etc.). More titles will be added to this catalogue in due time. WMM also represents some of the entertainment industry’s greatest creative talents and consults international producers with regard to the development and overall production aspects of large musicals. He is currently producing a large original world premiere musical production for the Singapore Repertory Theatre, opening in Singapore during the Fall of 2015. Willem is general managing a new production of the musical Zorro, presented by M Musical Art in Seoul, South Korea. He is proud to be partnering with David Nur on the new company STAGE ASIA PRODUCTIONS Ltd. which will be presenting some of the greatest musicals in the Far and Middle East. As the production’s General Manager, Willem will look after the roll-­‐out of CARMEN JONES in subsequent licensed productions following the June 2014 show case presentation in Cuba.