Creative Team Bios

(Director) is a multiple award-winning accomplished bilingual theatre artist with over 25 years of experience on the stage as a singer, actor, director, writer, and Teaching Artist. Hailing proudly from Puerto Rico and calling Buffalo, NY her home she is the Co-Founder and Artistic Director of Raíces Theatre Company, the only Latino theatre company in WNY dedicated to telling Latino stories. She studied musical theatre at the American Musical and Dramatic Academy and has worked as a performer with Pregones Theatre in the Bronx, NY. She recently made her OffBroadway directing debut at IATI with BLOOM by Marco Antonio Rodríguez. Pérez was assistant director for Marco Antonio Rodríguez’ world premiere adaptation of La breve y maravillosa vida de Oscar Wao at New York’s Spanish Repertory Theatre. In Buffalo, she performed and directed with almost every theatre company including Road Less Traveled Productions, Ujima, Musicalfare, and Kavinoky. Victoria has been recognized multiple times for Buffalo’s local theatre awards in the categories of outstanding performance in a lead role, supporting role, a musical supporting role, and a director. She is the Lead Teaching Artist at Shea’s Performing Arts Center and has worked for many arts organizations including Arts in Education Institute of WNY, Buffalo Center for Arts and Technologies, Antecessors, Irish Classical Theatre, and Theater of Youth. RICK DesROCHERS (Conceiver/Producer) is Associate Professor of Theatre and Director of Theatre and Multimedia Performing Arts at Lehman College, City University of New York. He has served as the Director of New Play and Musical Development for the Joseph Papp Public Theater/New York Shakespeare Festival; the Goodman Theatre; and Artistic Director of the New Theatre of Boston. He has served as a director and dramaturg for the NYC Music Theatre Festival, NYU' s Tisch School of the Arts, the Playwrights ' Center of Minneapolis, and the Soho Theatre of London. His work is primarily based in devised multimedia-based theatrical performance, using the training techniques of Ecole Jacques Lecoq and Viewpoints, and includes Lehman College productions of Shakespeare’s Hamlet and Brecht’s Life of Galileo, and a devised multimedia production of BUSTED! created with choreographer Amy Larimer and hip-hop composer DJ Far Fetch. Degrees: M.F.A. in directing the University of Massachusetts at Amherst; Ph.D. in theatre Graduate Center, City University of New York. He is the 2015-2016 recipient of the Houghton Library Joan Nordell Visiting Fellowship at Harvard -

VICTORIA PÉREZ University, and the author of The New Humor in the Progressive Era (Palgrave Macmillan); The Comic Offense from Vaudeville to Contemporary Comedy (Bloomsbury); “Keaton, Class, and Social Control: Comic Vaudeville in the Progressive Era” in Performing the Progressive Era (University of Iowa Press). ALEXA DOWNING (Assistant Dir./Production Staff Writer) is a junior Multimedia Performing Arts and Film major at Lehman College. Credits at Lehman include Skinheadgirl in Naomi Iizuka’s Polaroid Stories both onstage and in an online hybrid performance and Fabiana Aziza Cunningham in the digital production of The Last Days of Judas Iscariot directed by the wonderful Victoria Pérez. She has been studying acting in her hometown of Denver, CO for about ten years as well as writing - graduating from the Denver School of the Arts creative writing program in 2019 where she developed a love for devised theater and directing/stage management. Outside of Lehman, she has been working primarily in film; having recently played a lead role in her first feature The Cave directed by Cory Santilli. As well as several short and student works. She would like to thank the cast and crew of ¡Pa’Lante! for all their wonderful work. ISAIAS MORALES (Assistant Dir./Dramaturg) is a transfer student and senior at Lehman College majoring in Multimedia Performing Arts (BFA). He worked with Lou Bellamy in his production of Day of Absence at St. John’s University in Minnesota. He performed in the New Playwrights Festival in the plays Sonder and Volts and Ohms. He also performed in The Last Days of Judas Iscariot as Butch Honeywell, Matthias of Galilee, and Soldier Number One. This production is his first Assistant Directing debut. During his free time, he likes to be with family and friends and get into deep conversations about life or just act like a fool with them. Add him on IG @Kaz2298. ALYSSA VAN GORDER (Production Stage Manager) is a singer, actress, stage manager, and producer. She received her BFA in Vocal Performance from SUNY Purchase and has been seen in various operas, musicals, plays, and films. Alyssa has also co-founded two theatre companies and produced numerous plays and musicals to date. She has worked with various organizations to raise money and awareness for charities, which include Broadway Cares, The Ronald McDonald House, Susan G. Komen for the Cure, Helping Hands and The Anti-Defamation League. Alyssa is also currently the Managing Director of TITAN Theatre

Company and a proud member of Actors’ Equity. www.alyssavangorder.com JAHDIEL RODRIGUEZ (Stage Manager) is a Lehman College alumnus with a BFA in Multimedia Performing Arts. Credits include: When January Feels Like Summer (Jeron), Hamlet (Marcellus & Osric), Electricidad (Nino), Polaroid Stories (Orpheus), The Last Days of Judas Iscariot (Judas), etc. Jahdiel was a PA for both Slave Play and MJ the Musical on Broadway. He has operated lights on seven theatre/dance productions, lightdesigned Lehman’s 2020 Student Playwriting Festival, and stage-managed their Fall 2021 Playwriting Festival. Jahdiel recently stagemanaged Titan Theatre Company’s Future Classics Festival, Fly-by-Night Dance Company’s Where Shall I Send My Joys and is stage managing Lehman’s Spring 2022 Multimedia Performing Arts Showcase. His short, one-act play Sonder premiered in Lehman’s Spring 2021 Fest and is available for viewing on the Lehman College Theatre and Dance YouTube channel. JULIE PETEANI (Assistant Stage Manager & Dance Captain) is a Theatre Major in her final year at Lehman College. She has previously been a part of productions at the White Plains Performing Arts Center, On Your Toes Dance Studio & Studio B Dance Center. She is so excited to be working on her second Lehman production and would like to thank individuals individually but hates to be wordy. MIRIAM NILOFA CROWE (Lighting Design) has designed many shows at Lehman College since 2015. Recently in NY: Kennedy (film version and Off-Broadway), Teenage Dick (Ma Yi +The Public), Trial by Jury (Bronx Opera), Sanctuary (Lindsey Hanson Dance), Stop-Motion, Mirrors and Charlie’s Waiting (Parity Productions), Hurricane Party (The Collective NY), SeagullMachine and Home/Sick (The Assembly), This is Modern Art and Platonov (Blessed Unrest), Anna (Dusan Tynek), PS 160 (Gabrielle Mertz), 6 Characters … (Theodora Skipitares), 2Hymnvb (Anneke Hansen), The Penalty (The Apothetae), Medea (Bryan Davidson Blue), and Symphony for the Dance Floor (BAM). She has an MFA from Yale School of Drama and is an Adjunct at Lehman College and NYU Tisch Drama. www.wingspace.com/miriam KYLE HIGGINS (Scenic Design) has designed for Lehman College since 2010. Her shows include: A View from the Bridge, Hairspray, Urinetown the Musical, Midsummer Night’s Dream, Noises Off, Motherfucker with the Hat, Macbeth, The Life and Times of Galileo, and Polaroid Stories. During the Pandemic she designed the online production of Kenopsia. She holds an MFA from NYU Tisch School of the Arts and is a member of the United Scenic Artists Local 829. For the past 20 years, she worked at Hudson Scenic Studio as a Scenic Artist, creating scenery for Broadway. She served as the Union Shop Steward for 12 of those years. While - every project is challenging, fun, and in the end a beautiful work of art, her proudest achievements will always be her son and daughter, now fine young adults! CHRIS HIGGINS (Technical Director) was appointed in July 2009 as the full time Technical Director for Lehman Stages. Mr. Higgins brings to the position over thirty-five years of experience as a technical director and carpenter in regional theater, summer stock, touring, and commercial scene shops. Prior to joining the staff at Lehman College, Mr. Higgins was a faculty member at New York City College of Technology. Mr. Higgins has also held full-time positions at NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts and at the University of Massachusetts’ Amherst campus. Mr. Higgins worked professionally at Hudson Scenic Studios, a commercial scene shop building scenery for Broadway shows and tours. He holds a BA in Theater Arts from the University of Pennsylvania, and an MFA in Technical Design and Production from the Yale School of Drama. Mr. Higgins is also an active member of IATSE Local One. JENNY ROCHA (Costume Design) is a costume designer, choreographer, dancer, teaching artist, and Artistic Director of both Rocha Dance Theater and The Painted Ladies. A 1st generation Portuguese American from New Bedford, Massachusetts, Rocha attended Roger Williams University for Dance and Performance. She then moved to New York City, where Jenny served as a member of Sean Curran Company, Heidi Latsky Dance, and other choreographers for 12 collective years. As a costume designer, she has created a prolific collection for both of her companies. In addition, Rocha has designed for Heidi Latsky Dance, The Raving Jaynes, Lesley Garrison, Roger Williams University, Rutgers University and Lehman College. As a teaching artist, she has taught dance at universities and colleges nationwide. Rocha is in her eleventh year as a teaching artist at the Brooklyn Academy of Music and serves on the guest faculty of Mark Morris Dance Center. ANTHONY PAUL-CAVARETTA (Costume Shop Manager) has been the costume shop manager

for Lehman College since 2018. Prior to that, he was the costume shop manager at The Pearl Theatre Company on W42nd Street. He has also been the shop manager at Long Island University, Hope Summer Repertory Theatre, and the assistant shop manager at Chautauqua Opera. He is an award-winning costume designer having worked for Hudson Valley Shakespeare Festival, Peterborough Players, Theatre For the New City, Titan Theatre Company, Gallery Players, Lee Strasberg Theatre & Film Institute, Chautauqua Opera, Hope Summer Repertory Theatre, and Sarasota Youth Opera among many others. Film Design Credits: Camp Wedding (2019), Penned (Short 2019), The Tell-Tale Heart: A Musicabre (Short 2019) *Winner of the 2019 Cinema World Fest for Best Costumes, and Winner of the 2019 South Film and Arts Academy Festival for Best Costume Design in a Feature Film, and C.I.T. (Short 2016); M.F.A. Theatre (Purdue University) LUKE SANTY (Sound Design/Live Music Supervisor) is a Brooklyn-based musician and theater artist interested in the fields of sound design and creative tech. He is Co-Artistic Director and Musical Director of puppet-based theatre company Little Did Productions (lilttledidproductions.com), which has performed at St. Ann’s Warehouse, the Center for Puppetry Arts (Atlanta, GA), and at the National Puppetry Festival (Storrs, CT). Other Favorite Credits include Lost and Found (EMPAC), LA Party (Dartmouth College), First Violin (Mabou Mines), and several productions with Lehman College. LUKEINTERNET.bandcamp.com YESENIA LEON (Live Sound Mix) is an aspiring music producer, writer, and college counselor. She is a recent graduate of Lehman College, returning for her second bachelor’s degree in music. Yesenia has worked as a stagehand in her middle and high school musical performances. ¡Pa’Lante! will be her debut as a sound operator, which is a new and exciting venture for her. Outside of school she is an avid reader and works to assist new students in transition into Lehman college successfully. She hopes to continue to work on more productions in the future. VICTOR RENDON (Music Director/Ensemble Conductor) is a percussionist, educator, composer, and arranger. Rendón holds a Bachelor of Music from the University of North Texas and a Master’s degree in education from Hunter College (NYC). He has had a lengthy career teaching instrumental music and Latin percussion in the New York City public school system. Victor is an active clinician and is the author of The Art of Playing Timbales published by Music in Motion Films and distributed by Alfred Music. Victor currently performs with his group, Bronx Conexion Latin-Jazz Big Band, as well as his Afro-Caribbean percussion group, CoTim-Bó. Victor also teaches at Lehman College where he teaches percussion, and leads the Percussion Ensemble, in addition to the Lehman Latin Jazz Ensemble. www.bronxconexion.com JUSTIN GALLAGHER (Digital Program Design) is a sophomore majoring in Multimedia Performing Arts (BFA) with a concentration in Theatre. Directorial Credits: Comfort Woman (Secret Theatre/Manhattan Repertory), Bella Napoli (Secret Theatre/Workshop Theatre/Manhattan Repertory), The Wonderful World of Science (Manhattan Repertory), and Family Dynamics, which was nominated for Best Play in the 2018 New York Theatre Festival. Other directing & assistant director/choreographer credits: Annie Jr., Willy Wonka Jr., The Wizard of Oz (MUNY and RSC versions) Alice in Wonderland, & Seussical Jr. Theatre: Bloody, Bloody, Andrew Jackson (Lyncoya) at the Nuyorican Poets Café; Disney’s High School Musical 2 (Teen Ensemble Alternate/ World Premiere/TOTS/Fox Theatre Atlanta under Tony Nominated director, Jeff Calhoun). Music Video: Drew Seeley’s “Feels So Much Better to Love. ” Justin is a proud member of Local 306 and usher at Disney’s The Lion King on Broadway. www.thejustingallagher.com

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