Moonstone Connections

John O’Brien currently serves as Director of Programming for The Fabulous Fox Theatre in St. Louis, where he is responsible for programming the U.S. Bank Broadway Series. In addition to his work with Fox Associates, he is Editor of the industry newsletter Broadway Briefing and previously served as Director of Operations for Broadway Brands, publisher of Broadway Briefing and Broadway News. Prior to working with Fox Associates, John worked with various companies in New York and St. Louis, including Roundabout Theatre Company, The Muny, New York Musical Festival, and RKO Stage. John is a member of the Broadway League and the Independent Presenters Network and is a Tony Awards voter.

Kevin Connors has been a professional musical theatre composer and director for more than 40 years. Off-Broadway: PLAY LIKE A WINNER (NYMF award-winner 2016 and 2017), PRIME TIME PROPHET, JUKEBOX SATURDAY NIGHT, THE ABANDONED LOVES OF FREDERICK R., LIFE ANONYMOUS, LOVER: THE VALENTINO MUSICAL, BABES OFF BROADWAY, SALOON AND SUZY Q. Selected regional productions: THE FANTASTICKS, IT'S A WONDERFUL LIFE: A LIVE RADIO PLAY, BABES IN TOYLAND, A CHRISTMAS CAROL, BABY; with such stars as Joan Rivers, Joanna Gleason, James Naughton, Skitch Henderson, and Johnny Mathis. Co-founder Music Theatre of Connecticut in 1987 where he still serves as Executive Artistic Director. He has directed over 100 MTC Equity MainStage productions including NEXT TO NORMAL, THE BRIDGES OF MADISON COUNTY, JEKYLL & HYDE, CABARET, LITTLE SHOP OF HORRORS, EVITA, DOUBT, MASTER CLASS, GYPSY, (all Connecticut Critics’ Circle Award Nominations/Winners), and IT'S A WONDERFUL LIFE: A LIVE RADIO PLAY (Moss Hart Award Winner). 2019 BroadwayWorld Award Winner as Best Director for MTC’s CAT ON A HOT TIN ROOF and 2020 Connecticut Critics’ Circle Award Winner Best Director for MTC’s RAGTIME. As a composer he has penned the score for numerous musicals including IT'S A WONDERFUL LIFE: A LIVE RADIO PLAY and A CHRISTMAS CAROL: A LIVE RADIO PLAY (both published by Playscripts, Inc.). He is a ten-time Connecticut Critics’ Circle Best Director nominee/winner, the recipient of the Tom Killen Award for Outstanding Contribution to Connecticut Professional Theatre, and served on the faculties of The Hartt School of Music/University of Hartford, Sacred Heart University, the University of Bridgeport and Musical Theatre Works in NYC.

Teresa Eyring (she/her/hers), executive director/CEO, joined TCG in 2007. Teresa Eyring has served as executive director of TCG since 2007. Under her leadership, TCG has invested in building greater equity, diversity, and inclusion in the American theatre field and promotes a vision for “a better world for theatre, and a better world because of theatre.” Prior to joining TCG, Eyring spent more than 20 years as an executive in theatres across the U.S. Prior positions have included: managing director of the Children’s Theatre Company in Minneapolis; managing director of the Wilma Theater in Philadelphia; assistant executive director of the Guthrie Theater in Minneapolis; and development director of the Woolly Mammoth Theatre Company in Washington, D.C. Eyring holds a BA in International Relations from Stanford University and an MFA in Theatre Administration from Yale School of Drama. She is on the boards of the Actors Fund, the Performing Arts Alliance, and the Upper Manhattan Empowerment Zone. She is also an advisory board member of SMU DataArts.

SCOTT C. SICKLES is an LGBTQ/biracial Korean American writer whose plays have been performed in New York City, across the U.S., and internationally in Canada, Australia, the UK, Hungary, Singapore, Indonesia, and Lebanon. Recently, he published Playing on the Periphery: Monologues and Scenes for Queer Kids (Amazon). Full-lengths include: Nonsense and Beauty (Repertory Theatre of St. Louis: Edgerton New Play Award; Outstanding New Play, St. Louis Theater Circle; ATCA Steinberg Finalist); Marianas Trench (O’Neill Finalist); Pangea (O’Neill Semifinalist), and Composure (NY Innovative Theatre Award; Lambda Literary Finalist), among others. Five consecutive Writers Guild of America Awards for “General Hospital” and eight Emmy nominations.

Matthew is an artist, educator, and community leader. His artistic body of work is multi-disciplinary and some of his favorite projects are: A Christmas Carol, an eight-minute solo-performance; Read, Sing; Resist, Melania Trump; The Talking Cure Speaks; Gay Fantasia, a late-night immersive event; CHICKEN, a solo-performance journey of life, liberty, and the pursuit of healthiness in the shadow of HIV, as well as directing productions of FROST/NIXON and 1984.

As an educator he has taught at independent schools, colleges and universities across the nation. His students have gone on to careers starring in Broadway shows, television, and major motion pictures. In 2006, Matthew was a member of faculty awarded the Creative Ticket National School of Distinction Award from the John F. Kennedy Center's Alliance for the Arts Education Network.

Matthew is the Producing Executive Director at St Lou Fringe and Director of the Emerging Leaders Program & Member Relations for FOCUS St. Louis. He also owns an independent arts company named, The Drama Club STL. Matthew was honored to be named one of the 2020 Diverse Business Leaders by the St. Louis Business Journal last year for his work with St Lou Fringe.

Matthew married Sean Gottlieb last year in a simple ceremony under the St. Louis Arch. They live in Lafayette Square in a row house built in 1890 with Lewis the Dog and Tuxedo the Cat.

Featuring Amelia Acosta Powell, Associate Artistic Director Repertory Theatre St. Louis.

Tom Ridgely has led the St. Louis Shakespeare Festival since 2018. A Drama Desk-nominated director, he has developed or presented work at the Public Theater, The Old Globe, Oregon Shakespeare Festival, Hudson Valley Shakespeare Festival, Shakespeare Society, Red Bull and more. He’s worked with Tony nominees Sting, Sherie Rene Scott, Laura Osnes, Will Swenson, Kelli O’Hara, Bill Irwin and others, and his productions have won DFW Theater Critics Forum and ECNY Awards and been nominated for CT Critics Circle and BroadwayWorld Connecticut Awards. He also co-founded Waterwell in New York and served as its Artistic Director from 2002-2018. There he created and produced more than a dozen world-premieres and adaptations of classics that were nominated for three IT awards, a Drama Desk, a New York Magazine Culture Award and a Village Voice “Best of NYC”. Known for building innovative community partnerships, he most recently resurrected the lost WWII-era Frank Loesser musicals, Blueprint Specials, featuring Broadway and military veterans and presented on board the former USS Intrepid aircraft carrier, as well as adapting and directing Waterwell’s dual-language (English/Farsi) version of Hamlet, designed and performed by a company of predominantly Middle Eastern and South Asian artists. As Artistic Director of Waterwell, he also oversaw the Waterwell Drama Program at the Professional Performing Arts School, one of the preeminent training grounds for young artists and innovators in the country, which offers daily, year-round, conservatory-style classes to more than 200 New York City public school students absolutely free of charge.

Our guest on Episode 2 is Judith Cullen, Executive Director of the Fox Performing Arts Charitable Foundation. Originally from St. Charles, MO, she began her career as a dancer and performed at Powell Hall, the MUNY, Keil Opera House, JCA, Edison Theatre, STL Civic Ballet, St. Charles Civic Ballet, and on Corky the Clown’s Show before she was 10.

She then turned to choreography and eventually full-time stage managing.

She went on to study at Lindenwood University and worked on staff for 5 years at the star led Westport Playhouse, Theatre Project Company, MUNY Student Theatre Project Company, Judith worked on the National Tour of CATS, Miss Saigon, Best Little Whorehouse in Texas, The Odd Couple with George Gobel, Twigs with Cloris Leachman, and Shear Madness at the Kennedy Center in D.C, Then she spent 5 more full-time years at Stages St. Louis. She returned to college to earn a BA in Legal Studies and a Master’s Certificate in Mediation from Dominican University in Illinois. In 2019, she accepted the Executive Director position at the Fox Performing Arts Charitable Foundation.

Eddie Coffield, Artistic Director of the New Jewish Theatre and former Production Manager of The Repertory Theatre of St. Louis tells his story.