Meet the Musical Theatre Program Chair
Our Musical Theatre Program Chair, Michael Serrecchia, was an original cast member of A Chorus Line for which he received a Special Drama Desk Award and Theatre Critics Circle Award. Other Broadway credits include The Rothchilds; The Selling of the President; Heathen; Lady Audley’s Secret; Seesaw and Sing Happy. He spent four and a half years circling the globe as Chita Rivera’s dance partner in “Chita Plus Two” for which he won a MAC Award. Dallas directing and choreography credits include The regional premiers of: A Class Act (D/FW Theatre Critics Forum Award Best Direction of a Musical) The Full Monty (Column and Stoney Awards for Best Direction and Best Choreography of a Musical) The Light in the Piazza, The Drowsey Chaperone (Dallas Critic’s Choice Award) Next to Normal (D/FW Theatre Critics Forum Award Best Direction of a Musical). Non-regional premiers include How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying. (D/FW Theatre Critics Forum Award Best Direction of a Musical) On Golden Pond, Lobby Hero, Almost, Maine, Moonlight and Magnolias (Stoney Award Best Direction of a Play) 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee (Fort Worth Critic’s Award best Direction of a Musical) Duets, It’s Only Life, I’ll Leave it to You and the multi award winning production of Nine, the Musical. In 2011 Mr. Serrecchia was honored with the prestigious Natalie Skelton Award for Artistic Excellence.
For more information about Mr. Serrecchia, visit his website www.michaelserrecchia.com.
Paula Morelan
Paula holds a B.F.A. from Texas Christian University and studied with Nathalia Krassovska, Victor Moreno, and Fernando Schaffenburg. She has received numerous awards for her choreography in the DFW metroplex and has completed two original works with Mr. Akin Babatunde, Reveal and Song Un-Told. Choreography credits include Kincaid Regional Theatre, Uptown Players, Flower Mound Performing Arts Theatre, Shakespeare Festival of Dallas, Theatre Three, Dallas Repertory Theatre, Lyric Stage, Dallas Children’s Theatre, and Plano Repertory Theatre.
Sarah Rutan
Classically trained and a member of Actor’s Equity Association, Sarah began teaching at KD after seven seasons as a member of the acting company at the Oregon Shakespeare Festival. in Ashland. Her impressive regional theater resume includes such notable theaters as Amphibian Stage Productions, Trinity Shakespeare Festival, Dallas Theater Center, Milwaukee Repertory Theater, Shakespeare in the Park-Bend, OR, Idaho Repertory Theatre, and Meadows Showcase at SMU.
Joe Cutaia
Joe Cutaia, a native Texan, has had extensive training in dance, studying notably in Dallas, New York and Chicago. Mr. Cutaia’s professional experiences include the Broadway national touring companies of Little Me with Donald O’Connor, George M with Ken Berry and Hello Dolly with Carol Channing. He has also performed as a dancer/singer for regional Miss USA pageants around the United States. As a tap dancer, he has studied and performed with Honey Coles, Buster Cooper, Bob Audi, Jay Fagan, Gregory Hines, Diane Walker and Barbara Ryan Phillips. As an actor, Joe Cutaia studied with Adam Roarke at the Film Labs at Las Colinas, Lou Diamond Phillips, and the Dallas Summer Musical, Musical Theatre School. He has worked for the Dallas Children’s Theatre and has appeared in various television commercials. He has also performed in numerous performances of The Spectacular Senior Follies. Currently, Joe and his wife Ann are the owners of The Chaplin Cotillions, LLC, conducting etiquette and ballroom classes around the state of Texas for students in grades 2 through 9.
Stephany Butler
As a KD Conservatory graduate of both the Acting and Musical Theatre Programs, Stephanie Butler now works as an actress and choreographer in the DFW area. Stephanie has been working with theatres such as Echo, ICT and Garland Summer Musicals since. As a company member for Echo Theatre of the past 3 years, Stephanie has recently been appointed as Echo’s administrative assistant and loving every minute of it. She is also going into her 4th year teaching at Ursuline Academy of Dallas and 2nd year of teaching at KD Conservatory.
Lizz Bashore
Ashlee Elizabeth Bashore, better known to most everyone as Lizz, is an actor, director, choreographer and educator currently based in Dallas, TX.
Her passion is to explore the depths of the human condition in the classroom with her students as well as on stage and film. On stage, Ashlee has performed in over 40 regional theaters from the Philadelphia Tri-State area, Michigan, and across the Dallas-Fort Worth professional theater market. She has worked many Indi sets in her time thus far, and is currently working locally on a horror flick in the making.
Before moving to Dallas to work on her MFA in Acting at Southern Methodist University, she founded 23 Piece Productions, a production company focusing on bringing all mediums of art together to explore the human spirit. During her time working with 23PP, she directed and produced two shows as part of the Philadelphia Fringe Festival. She is an adjunct faculty member at KD Conservatory College and at Mountain View College teaching voice, speech and phonetic, acting for stage and camera, and the theater studies. Additionally, other creative contracts have included choreography for musicals, directing MainStages for local colleges and puppetry work.
Michael Childs
Michael D’Andre Childs is an accomplished Director, Music Director, Composer, Playwright, Choreographer, and Actor. Originally from San Antonio, Michael made his Dallas debut in 2015 and has excelled since, having numerous opportunities to display his talents. Most recently, his Live Entertainment Company, Artists Unplugged, headlined and hosted Last Night in Black History. Some of his other credits include: Last Night in Black History (Director/Choreographer), Sweatbox Refugee (Dance Concert Choreographer), Legally Blonde Jr. (Music Director), First Date (Assistant Director and Music Director). TILL (Director/ Musical Director), As We Lie Still (Choreographer), A Good Man (Director/Musical Director), RENT (Tom Collins/Assistant Musical Director), EDGES (Assistant Director) and countless others
Adam C. Wright
Adam C. Wright is a Dallas, Texas native and composer, vocal arranger, orchestrator, and performer. Since 1997, he has music directed theater, including the U.S. premieres of Soho Cinders and Closer to Heaven at Uptown Players. He also served as copyist, music director and conductor for concert readings for the new musical Facing East in Dallas and London. Other credits include the regional premieres of It Shoulda Been You, End of the Rainbow, The Nance, Hello Again, Bare: A Pop Opera, Altar Boyz, and Zanna Don’t! at Uptown Players. Other favorite projects include Maury Yeston’s Phantom, Into the Woods, The Adventures of Flat Stanley, and The Rocky Horrow Show. As a composer, projects include Another Night at the Crescent, Fire and Blood, A Taste of Beauty, Project Youth, Isabella’s Treasure, the U.S. Southwestern regional premiere of The Nance and stage adaptations of If a Frog Had Wings and Unlucky Lolabug, children’s books by Beth Ryan and Michael Albee. He is an evaluator and affiliate for the National New Works Festival Main Street Musicals. Adam is on the teaching faculty of the Dallas Children’s Theater and KD Conservatory and is an accompanist for the vocal tech and musical theater classes at Booker T. Washington High School. He was Betty Buckley’s Dallas rehearsal pianist for her 2012 cabaret show “The Other Woman: The Vixens of Broadway.”
Olivia Allen
Oliva Allen has spent the past 16 years learning, performing, and teaching dance in small venues in New Jersey to large amphitheaters in Southern and Central China. She has been invited to perform with the likes of “The Carreno-Barbieri Festival” and has played lead roles in Long Beach Ballet’s “Ambassador to China Tour.” She has enjoyed a diverse education in dance styles and ballet technique from world-renowned educators. A few of her biggest influences and mentors are Kathleen Moore, Maria Youskavitch, Johnny Zhong, Jenny Johnson, and Paula Morelan.
Megan Kelly Bates
Megan Kelly-Bates received a Bachelor of Music Degree from Oklahoma City University. It was at OCU where she had the opportunity to sing for Kristin Chenoweth, Stephen Schwartz, Kander & Ebb, and John McDaniel from the Rosie O’Donnell Show. Upon graduating with honors, Megan moved to New York City where she did many stage readings and concerts, including landing the role of Ishmael in Cameron Mackintosh’s Moby Dick the Musical, and she can be heard on the cast recording. She can now be seen on many stages in the DFW area such as WaterTower Theatre, Theatre Three, Casa Manana, and Contemporary Theatre of Dallas. Megan has received awards for choreography and acting and was named Best Belter in the 2008 Dallas Observer’s Best Of Issue.
Chris Widomski
Chris Widomski, a native of Utica, New York, Christopher holds degrees in Music Education and Organ Performance from SUNY Potsdam and Southern Methodist University respectively. Comfortable behind a keyboard, holding a baton, or with a battery of woodwinds, he has been an active performer throughout the United States and Canada. After completing studies with Larry Palmer at SMU, he spent a year as a musician touring with SHREK the Musical. He has written orchestrations for performances in New York and Dallas, worked frequently as a rehearsal and audition pianist, and conducted numerous musical theatre productions. Christopher was previously the Music Director and Conductor of the Clarkson University Orchestra and most recently was guest conductor for a performance of Mendelssohn’s “Elijah” in Syracuse, New York.