CAST

Tom Oliverio- Rory 

This will be his second show working with Paul Perez. Thomas has participated in many shows including Ren in Footloose, Roger Davis in Rent, and most recently, Count Claudio in Shakespeare’s Much Ado About Nothing. He also enjoys playing instruments including the guitar, piano, and ukulele.

Jeremy Bacon -Jackson

He has enjoyed acting since he was a young child and hopes to continue it through high school. He has performed in many ETC shows such as Xanadu as Sunny, Rent as Mark, and Little shop of Horrors as Orin. He recently performed in Last Five Years as Jamie for Infinity and will be performing in ETC’s Hairspray.  In his free time he enjoys the bass guitar and basketball.  He is excited to have this year and three more years in Infinity.

Brian Arkin -Wes

A former Artistic Director of Infinity Rep. He has been active in the theatre for a very long time and is happy to start this exciting year.  Brian has been in past shows like Beauty and the Beast as the Beast, Aladdin as Aladdin, 13 as Evan, and Seussical as Horton. He has also been in a few Infinity shows such as Tommy as chorus, 25th Annual spelling Bee as Chip, Nine as Guido, and will be playing Jamie in Infinity’s first show of the 2011-2012 season The Last Five Years. 
 

Joe Coppola - Multiple Roles

Is excited to be part of the cast of MOD.  Joe has recently worked with the company as part of the WORDS, WORDS, WORDS one acts and has appeared with this cast of actors in both SPRING AWAKENING and RENT.

Lindsay Avellino - Hayley

Currently The Artisitic Director of Infinity Rep.  She’s performing in multiple shows at ETC including her favorite musical, RENT, XANADU, 13, HIGH SCHOOL MUSICAL, NINE, and many more. She is also very excited for the upcoming role in Infinity’s production of THE LAST 5 YEARS this fall. Theater is one of her favorite things to do, and she is thrilled to be apart of Infinity this years.  

Jessica Shaw - Kit

 She has been in many production such as Annie, Once on This Island, Nine,  and You’re a Good Man Charlie Brown as Linus.  Besides acting, Jessie enjoys ballet and skiing. 

Susan - Emma Wellington - Susan

Emma was Infinity’s Artistic Directer 2 years ago and it’s Managing Director last year. Some of her favorite roles include Kira in Xanadu, RENT, Kendra in 13 the Musical, Little Sally in Urinetown, and many more. 

Ali Gips - Susan

She’s entering her second year at Infinity Repertory Theatre Company as an infinity member after her first year as a second year student where she enjoyed every minute of it. Some of Alison’s favorite past roles include Maureen Johnson (RENT), Catherine Hyatt (The Last 5 Years), Dr. Jekyll (Bedside Manor) and many more. Aside from acting and singing, she enjoys waterskiing, soccer and softball which she’s played since kindergarden, making videos and being with her friends and family.

Lillianna Levonick - Cassandra

Her first Infinity production was performing as Laura in THE GLASS MENAGERIE.  She also performed in NINE, LITTLE SHOP OF HORRORS, 13, URINETOWN, BEAUTY AND THE BEAST, HIGH SCHOOL MUSICAL 2, and many more. She has also performed is school productions such as SHAKESPEARE’S THE TWELFTH NIGHT and THE BOYFRIEND. Lilliana loves to act, sing, and dance.

Catherine Saraceno - Cassandra

Past credits include Tommy, Hedda Gabler, Dead Mans Cell Phone, Heat Lightning, You’re a Good Man Charlie Brown, NIne, and Last 5 Years. 

CREATIVE

George Griggs - Composer/Lyricist

is a composer and lyricist. In 2010, the workshop version of Gibby Stone And Her Problem, with music and lyrics by Griggs, ran at 59E59 Street Theatre as part of the East to Edinburgh Festival. The show then went on to a European tour later that year.

In August 2007, his score MOD: A Musical Pop-toon! played the Edinburgh Fringe Festival to wide acclaim. MOD was selected for the ASCAP Music Theatre Workshop (directed by Stephen Schwartz). In 2012, MOD will be remounted at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival presented by the UK production team of Hartshorn/Hook.

His rock “radio play” Transmitter Man, produced by Todd Tobias (Guided By Voices, Robert Pollard) was released spring 2007.

Previous commissions include Hearts Are Wild with The City Theater in Pittsburgh, PA, Heat Lightning at Kirk Theater, NYC, various works with New York University TISCH School, and composer/lyricist-in-residence at Yale University (the American premiere of Dario Fo’s About Face).

In July of 2005, The Infinity Theater Company toured with Griggs’ A Midsummer Night’s Dream: A Rock Opera. Performances took place throughout the East Coast including Universal Studios Orlando and Disney World. In 2009, The Shakespeare Theatre Company of Washington, D.C., presented songs from A Midsummer Night’s Dream: A Rock Opera as part of their annual gala, which honored Sir Ian McKellen.

His recordings A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Heat Lightning and Transmitter Man, are distributed by Original Cast Recordings and CDBaby.com.

As lead singer for the original rock band “Showbiz”, Griggs toured as an opening act with Aerosmith, Twisted Sister, Southside Johnny and The Asbury Jukes, Rick Derringer, The Motels, Talking Heads, Joan Jett, and The Ramones, among others.

He is a member of ASCAP, The Songwriters Guild of America, and BMI Musical Theater Workshop.

Paul Andrew Perez - Book Writer/Director

Paul is a writer, director, actor, teacher and theatre administrator.   His writing credits include the March 2003 Off Broadway production of Heat Lightning at the Kirk Theatre.  His piece MOD was selected for the ASCAP workshop under the direction of Stephen Schwartz.   In 2007 MOD was produced at The 59East 59 Street Theatre in New York City and in the prestigious Edinburgh Fringe Festival. He recently wrote a radio play Transmitter Man which was released in 2007 and was commissioned by the Buddies program to write 2 new bilingual musicals on the immigration experience.  His other play Sleepwalker is currently in development.  His has also written countless adaptations of children’s stories including Puss ‘N GoGo Boots and a new version of 

The Emperors New Clothes.

Paul is also The Executive Director of The Infinity Repertory Theatre Company and has had the pleasure of directing Mary Zimmerman’s The Arabian Nights, Metamorphoses, as well as Godspell, An Evening of David Ives, Romeo and Juliet, Reckless and a tour production of George Griggs’s A Midsummer Nights Dream.  Other directing credits include the Off-Broadway productions of Dream City Twosome and Bea’s Nest, the workshop production of You Kali starring Blair Brown, 2 Galas for The Northern Westchester Center For The Arts including hosts Richard Gere, Vanessa Williams, Kevin Spacey and Gregory Hines.

Paul is a member of S.S.D.C., A.F.T.R.A., A.E.A., S.A.G., A.A.T.E., Dramatist’s Guild as well as having served on an Advisory Board for The St. Thomas Aquinas College Theatre Program.  He founded the acclaimed Main Street Arts in Nyack, NY and served as its Artistic Director for nine years and developed over 100 plays.  He also worked for The Northern Westchester Center for The Arts as The Director of Theatre for six years and developed and built The Colleen Dewhurst Theatre.

Mickey Melillo - Company Manager/Stage Manager

Mickey is starting his second year as the Company Manager of Infinity.  Mickey has been involved in every Infinity show since Tommy in May of 2009. As well as many Westchester Theatre Productions, Mickey has been an actor in the Infinity productions of Hedda Gabbler, Dead Man’s Cell Phone, and 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee.  In addition, Mickey stage managed Infinity’s productions of Heat Lightning, Charlie Brown (which travelled to Italy, Slovenia and Croatia in the Summer 2011), 9, and Gibby Stone and her Problem which travelled to Edinburgh Scotland in 2010.  Mickey is looking forward to all the fun with the 2011-2012 company and for our upcoming trip to Edinburgh this Summer.

Melissa Hansen - Choreographer

is a proud member of Actors’ Equity .  She has performed in the Broadway National Tours of Hairspray (Penny) and Grease (US Sandy, Swing) as well as various regional theatres.  

Melissa has taught and choreographed in schools from Los Angeles to New York and is thrilled to be a part of MOD.

James Gerth - Technical Director

Over the last 37 years, James Gerth has been a Broadway actor, regional theater Producer or Production Stage Manager and, locally, the Technical Director for The Mahopac Farm Playhouse, An Evening Dinner Theater,  Yorktown Stage, The Taconic Opera, The Colleen Dewhurst Theater, The Pulse Theater District,  and Putnam Valley and Somers High School Musicals. Jim is a partner, Scenic Designer, and Master Carpenter for G and G Scenic.

Hartshorn-Hook Productions - Production Consultants

When Louis Hartshorn and Brian Hook decided to start Hartshorn – Hook Productions they were working at Manchester’s Palace Theatre. The large receiving house was playing home to the UK tour of The Producers, an irony not lost on either of them.

Having set their sights on becoming “the biggest commercial producers in the world”, they made their first step a production of West Side Story in collaboration with the Manchester Consort and the Royal Northern College of Music in 2008. The venture, directed by Stefan Janski, was staged to mark the 50th anniversary of Sondheim and Bernstein’s masterpiece.

Since then Hartshorn – Hook Productions has worked with The Lowry Theatre, Mary Cossette Productions, and South Hill Park Arts Centre, mounted shows in London’s King’s Head theatre and the Arts theatre (making them the West End’s youngest ever producers) and produced over thirty other productions from the UK, Europe and the USA. Most recently they co-produced Woody Sez, starring David Lutken, a biopic of American folk legend Woody Guthrie staged at The Arts Theatre in 2011, which was nominated for the Ned Sherrin Award for Best Musical in the 2011 Evening Standard Theatre Awards.

Between producing commercial theatre Louis and Brian are dedicated to giving back to the industry, speaking and leading workshops at numerous venues and events such 24/7 and Not Part Of theatre festivals in Manchester and Bury College. Louis and Brian are also developing a new initiative to help champion new writing, involve communities in touring theatre and support developing artists. Many exciting projects are in the pipeline – you can keep up with all the news here on the site, or on Facebook and Twitter.

The Infinity Rep Theatre Company - Producer

The Infinity Repertory Theater Company of Westchester, NY, in their ninth year, 

was founded as training ground for young artists and has developed into an innovative company that reinterprets classics, as well as develops new musicals.  In their nine year history they have performed their unique brand of theatre for audiences all over the world, ranging from their home base in Westchester, NY, as well as at The prestigious 59E59 St Theatre in NYC and numerous tours through Florida and California appearing at various theme parks (Disney, Universal, Seaworld, KnottBerry Farms).  The have traveled extensively and entertained thousands internationally with performances in Bamberg, Heidelberg, Lake Constance, Wurzburg, Rothenburg Ob Der Tauber in Germany, and Vienna, Austria, and Venice, Italy, Portorosz, Slovenia, and Piran, Porec, Vrsar, Rovinj and Pula in Croatia.  This production of MOD will mark their third appearance at The Edinburgh Fringe Festival.  Infinity Rep was also honored by The Maria Fareri Children’s Hospital for raising over $30,000 in two years for the Children’s Ward with their groundbreaking performance of “Tales from a Hospital Bed” .  The New York Times has hailed this company as “fresh and exciting”.