Cast
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Carina Cherbosque (Sister Bear) is so excited to be touring with The Berenstain Bears LIVE! Favorite credits include: Marianne (Tartuffe), Gertie Cummings (Green Grow The Lilacs) and Sunday in the Park With George. Proud graduate of The Boston Conservatory, BFA Musical Theatre. Many thanks to my family, friends and ATB. |
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Zachary Decker (Papa Bear) is so excited to be joining to Bears family! Favorite credits include: Eddie (The Wild Party), Morris Cohen (Fiorello!), and Bottom (Midsummer). He recently graduated from Drake University in May with a BFA in Musical Theatre. Since then, he's made the move to New York City and is so excited to be touring with The Berenstain Bears Live! Many thanks to Holly, Matt Murphy Productions, and the design team for this crazy, fun opportunity! And of course, huge thanks to his family and friends for their amazing support! www.ZacharyDecker.com |
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Kayla Leacock (Mama Bear) is thrilled to be making her tour debut in The Berenstain Bears LIVE! Kayla is a former Walnut Street Theatre Acting Apprentice, alum of the Young People’s Chorus of NYC and New York City Opera Children’s Chorus. Recent credits include: Elephant and Piggie’s “We Are in a Play!” (Squirrelle/Delivery Dog), NYMF staged reading: FORA (Syren/ Gully Gale), RAGTIME (Ensemble), Hairspray (Dynamite/ Cindy Watkins), Zombie in Love (Candy/ Worm). Many thanks to my family, friends, Holly, and Matt Murphy Productions! www.kaylaleacock.com |
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Kyle Price (Freddy Bear, Gramps, and others) is a recent grad of CAP21 and is so thrilled to be touring with this group of bears! Favorite past roles include: Dupree (Cry Baby), Robertson Ay (Mary Poppins), and Donkey (Shrek). Huge thanks to Holly and the Berenstain Bears team for such an exciting opportunity! Shout out to his family and friends for their continual love and support! |
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Dana Rose (Lizzie Bear, Gran, and others) an NYC based Actor is so excited to join the Berenstain Bears family on her first tour. Favorite credits include: Buddy Holly Story (Marlena Madison), 9 to 5 (Maria), Footloose (Ensemble), The Spitfire Grill (Hannah). Dana Rose was also recently a part of the S.T.A.R ensemble @ The Directors company as an Actor/ Educator. She recently Graduated from the Hartt School with a BFA In Musical Theater. She thanks her friends, family, teachers, and loving Boyfriend for their constant support. |
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Eric Willingham (Brother Bear) is a New York based actor born in Alabama. Eric is an alumna from The American Musical and Dramatic Academy where he majored in musical theatre. Some stage credits include original cast of the new Off-Broadway musical Owen & Mzee (Owen) and the first African American Brother Bear of The Berenstain Bears LIVE! National Tour. TV credits include a feature on HBO's new series The Deuce. He thanks God, his parents (RIP Daddy), grandma Jimmie and his team. He’s so excited to be returning as Brother Bear! Eric is repped by Advantage and UGA Talent. |
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Sinclair Marielle Mason (Stage Manager) Born and raised in Long Beach, New York this recent graduate is new to Bear Country. She recently graduated from Wilkes University with a BFA in Technical Theatre in January 2018 is now joining us as Production Stage Manager. She got her start doing stage crew at Long Beach High School her sophomore year and has never looked back. Her love for stage management grew when she began attending Wilkes University. “I always love being the audience member who loses herself in the story, if someone can do that for me, what’s to stop me from creating that for someone else? I thank my friends and family for their endless support. I wouldn’t be where I am today without them.” |
Creative
Michael Borton (Book, Music & Lyrics) is thrilled that this production will entertain children this summer in NYC. Michael lives in the Philadelphia area and works as a composer, performer, music director, and private instructor. He’s composed for AFTY and the Walnut Street Theatre; including several of their outreach shows and annual A Christmas Carol. He has music directed at the Walnut Street Theatre, La Salle University, Theater Horizon and is currently the Director of Music at Waldron Mercy Academy.
Michael Slade (Additional Book Material) Playwright, librettist, Emmy-nominated television writer. Work for family audiences includes: Ten Theatreworks/USA musicals (Superfudge, Lyle, Lyle Crocodile, The Three Pigs). Pokemon Live! (Radio City Music Hall, national, international tours). Several shows for TADA! And A Child Shall Lead, (PlayScripts) inspiring play about a group of child concentration camp prisoners (opened to rave reviews in Chicago, November 2010). Children’s novel The Horses Of Central Park (Scholastic Hardcover/Apple Paperback) won ISAR Award for Children’s Literature.
Devanand Janki (Director and Choreographer) New York credits: Zanna, Don’t! (Lortel, Callaway & GLAAD awards), Junie B. Jones (Lortel nom.), Cupid & Psyche, Henry & Mudge (Lortel nom.), Romantic Poetry, This One Girls Story. Broadway concerts: Funny Girl, Hair, Dreamgirls, Seth’s Broadway 101. Lincoln Center: Amahl and the Night Visitors, Babes in Toyland, Anything Goes in concert (assoc.). Regional: RENT, Aladdin, Man of La Mancha, The Full Monty, The Scarlet Pimpernel, How Can You Run With a Shell on Your Back?, Asphalt Beach, One Man’s Dream II (Tokyo Disney). Broadway Bares (9 years). Performance: Miss Saigon, Cats, The King & I, Side Show (Broadway), A Chorus Line, West Side Story (tour). www.devanandjanki.com
Lora LaVon (Costume Design) Credits include Junie B. Jones and Click Clack Moo with Theaterworks USA, A Child’s Christmas in Wales for the National Theater of the Deaf, The Time of Your Life and King John at the Shakespeare Theater of New Jersey, Lonesome West, Three Days of Rain and Proof at Hartford’s Theaterworks, ART and M. Butterfly at Syracuse Stage, South Pacific and Suddenly Last Summer for Barrington Stage, and Measure for Measure at Yale Rep. Lora earned her MFA from the Yale School of Drama.
Luke Hegel-Cantarella (Scenic Design) NY: Make Me a Song (New World Stages), Human Error (Atlantic), Cam Jansen (Lambs), Junie B. Jones (Lortel); Regional: Lyric Theater of Oklahoma, Two Rivers Theater Company, Berkshire Theater Festival, Barrington Stage, Pittsburgh Public, Repertory Theater of St. Louis, Adirondack Theater Festival, TheatreWorks, Prince Music Theater, Yale Rep. International: Woody Sez (West End/London), Blue Shade (Amsterdam). Opera/Dance: The Wooden Floor, Peabody, Curtis, Wolftrap Opera Company, New England Conservatory, Eastern Connecticut Ballet, Hartford Ballet. Film/TV: Julie & Julia, Damages, Pink Panther 2, State of Play, Synecdoche, NY. Luke is the Head of the Set Design program at the UCIrvine.
R. MacKenzie Lewis (Orchestrations) has music directed, composed, orchestrated and performed for theatres, bands, and orchestras all over the country including the world premier musical with Ben Vereen, Soaring on Black Wings and the upcoming Wings at the Kennedy Center for Performing Arts. He is also the Co-Executive Director for 8th Wonder Productions and full-time composer/MD for Eastern Michigan University.
Nancy Renee Braun - (Associate Director/Choreographer) NY Choreography: Fantasy Football: The Musical? (NYMF Best of Fest Runner-Up), Godspell Times Square Flash Mob (over 40,000 YouTube hits!), Henri Gabler (Theatre 54), I’m Gonna Love You Forever (The Gene Frankel Theatre), A Night With Northwestern (Hudson Theatre). NY Associate Choreography: Fat Camp (NYMF Outstanding Choreography Award), Robber Bridegroom (Roundabout Theatre workshop), Perez Hilton Saves The Universe! (Joe’s Pub), Babes In Toyland (Avery Fisher Hall at Lincoln Center), Funny Girl (Revision Theatre), If You Give A Pig A Pancake (Theatreworks), and three years as an assistant for Broadway Bares. NY acting credits: Broadway revival of Patti LuPone’s Gypsy, and the upcoming Off-Broadway show Fat Camp.Northwestern University graduate.
Alex James (Associate Director) is a New York City based director and stage manager, and is proud to have worked in multiple positions with The Berenstain Bears Live! since 2012. Off-Broadway credits include: Pinkalicious and Fancy Nancy Splendiferous Christmas with Vital Theatre Company, Jay Allan Zimmerman’s Incredibly Deaf Musical. Other favorite NYC and regional credits include: The Uncanny Valley (The Brick Theater), Infallibility (Fringe NYC 2013), SoundBites (Theater Now New York), The Untitled Ginsberg Project, Betrayal, Spring Awakening, and Floyd Collins. Graduate of Pace University.
Shane Parks (Associate General Manager) joined Matt Murphy Productions at the beginning of 2017 after three years with Broadway Asia International, where he managed shows in China, the UK, and the US. Originally from Maryland, he is a graduate of the University of Maryland, Baltimore County, with a Bachelor’s in Music Composition, and New York University, with an MFA in Musical Theater Writing. Shane has supervised the touring production of The Berenstain Bears LIVE and Off-Broadway, touring, and Las Vegas productions of Sex Tips for Straight Women from a Gay Man. He lives in Brooklyn with his fiancé, a garden of books, and pet chromecast.
Matt Murphy (Producer) In addition to serving as Co-Producer on several Broadway shows, Matt Murphy Productions is currently producing Off-Broadway’s longest-running comedy Sex Tips for Straight Women from a Gay Man on tour and at Paris Las Vegas, as well as The Berenstain Bears LIVE! in Family Matters, the Musical, which ran Off-Broadway for four years and has been touring throughout North America since 2008. Matt’s producing debut in New York was the Off-Broadway hit Altar Boyz, which became one of the longest-running Off-Broadway musicals in history with its remarkable 5-year run at New World Stages. Recent Broadway productions include the Tony Award-Winning musical Memphis, Thurgood, which garnered Laurence Fishburn a Tony nomination, and the critically-acclaimed musical Side Show. Matt is also the founder and president of Marquee Merchandise, which creates and manages the sales of merchandise and concessions for Broadway and Off-Broadway shows as well as The Broadway Store, an online shopping center for all things Broadway.
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