Michael Abrams
Acting

Beth

Beth Bontley
Acting, Lyric Interpretation

ElizaBeth Bontley graduated from Trinity University with a BA in Speech/Drama; from the Circle in the Square Theater School in NYC; and recently completed her MFA in Interdisciplinary Arts through Goddard College. While in New York, she performed extensively off and off/off Broadway with Willow Cabin Theater, Our Gang Theater, Circle in the Square Projects and Roundabout Stage II.
Locally, she appeared in Echo Theater’s Fefu and her Friends; in Theater Three’s The Women; The Memory of Water, as well as several staged readings at Circle Theater; Steel Magnolias at Artisan Theater; and has been active in Ft. Worth’s V-Day celebrations.
She has directed for DFW Playwrights, the Texas Unbound Festival, Watertower’s Out of the Loop Festival, Unity’s Magdalene Festival, TCC, Bedford Onstage, Wingspan Theater, and was assistant director to Susan Sargeant’s Moon for the Misbegotten at Circle Theater. She produced, directed and performed in The Guys. Recently, she has been focusing on creating original material including, 6 Women Who Have Found their Author at TCU, The Girlz2Women Quest, and her year long project 12 in 12 at the Firehouse Gallery.
She is an acting and performance coach and a speaker on holistic principles, eco-philosophy and women’s issues. She taught acting at TCU and TCC; currently teaching at Stage and Dallas Summer Musicals.

kevin cook

Kevin Cook
Director of Education

Kevin earned his B.A. in Theatre Arts from the University of Richmond in Virginia and his M.A. in Theatre from Bowling Green State University in Ohio. Kevin spent many years touring as a professional actor before settling down to teach acting as well as to create and manage theatre productions. Kevin wrote the book for GET HAPPY one of the definitive works on the songwriter Harold Arlen and won Winter Haven’s National Playwriting Award for Best Musical for the children’s fantasy A DRAGON’S TALE! Kevin’s management includes productions with Penn and Teller, Kathy Bates, Farrah Fawcett, Gary Sinese, Lynn Redgrave, John Mahoney and Holly Hunter (all NYC), Sheena Easton (Las Vegas), David Cassidy (Las Vegas, National and International Tours) as well as one of the largest production shows in the world MGM Grand’s EFX (Las Vegas). As Director of Education, Mr. Cook oversees curriculum and manages the expansion of the school.

Mary Anna Austin Dennard
Acting

Mary Anna has also performed numerous roles at the Dallas Theatre Center , Theatre Three, The Water Tower Theatre, Stage West, Dallas Children’s Theatre, The Open Stage, Dallas Repertory Theatre, New Arts Theatre, and the American Conservatory Theatre in San Francisco , and the Odyssey Theatre in Los Angeles . Mary Anna has won the Dallas Theatre Critics Forum Award for outstanding actress for Reckless, best supporting actress for A House With Two Doors Is Difficult to Guard at Stage West and the 1998 Leon Rabin Award for outstanding performance by an actress for Marvin’s Room. For fifteen years Mary Anna was a casting director for feature films, television, and commercials. She has also been associated with the Kim Dawson Agency as Director of Talent Development. Mary Anna majored in theatre at Trinity University and was granted a scholarship to the American Conservatory Theatre in San Francisco . Mary Anna has been an instructor at the DSM School for seven years.

Michael Gasparro

Michael Gasparro

A Dallas native and graduate of the prestigious Baylor University School of Music Michael Gasparro is no stranger to Dallas Summer Musicals and is thrilled to be part of the staff at the DSM Academy. Michael has been singing since before he could talk and began developing his love for Musical Theater throughout his time at Coppell High School where he played roles such as Charlie Brown in You're a Good Man Charlie Brown and Curly in Oklahoma.  While at Baylor he broadened his horizons by beginning to train as a Classical Vocalist and Operatic Tenor. His recent operatic appearances include the title role of Ormindo in Francesco Cavalli's L'Ormindo and Leroy in Offenbach's The Lantern Marriage.  Also a classically trained pianist Michael often accompanies himself and others for various performances in the area.  As a voice instructor Michael fuses his love for a wide realm of styles of music with strong vocal techniques to help his students learn the skills necessary to perform many different styles of singing.  He currently works as a Private Voice Instructor at Coppell and Lewisville High Schools as well as a church musician and professional singer in the Dallas area.

denis kashoid
Denis Kashoid
Musical Director

Denis Kashoid comes to Dallas Summer Musicals by way of Russia. Following ten years of studying the art of music, Mr. Kashoid continued his education by completing a Masters degree in music performance and education awarded by Moscow’s Tchaikovsky Conservatory. Denis is a teacher accredited on the college level, a performance artist in piano and trumpet, musical director for the theatre and an orchestrator. In the United States, Denis has most recently been the conductor and musical director for FIDDLER ON THE ROOF, YOU’RE A GOOD MAN CHARLIE BROWN, HIGH SCHOOL MUSICAL, SEUSSICAL and GODSPELL. Mr. Kashoid is scheduled to be the music director, vocal coach and conductor for Dallas Summer Musicals student production of SCHOOLHOUSE ROCK Jr. and JUNGLE BOOK. Dallas Summer Musicals is very glad that Denis first picked up a violin at the age of six. To hear samples of some of Denis Kashoid’s original composition and film scoring, visit www.deniskashoid.com.

Ty Lawrence
Ty Lawrence
Production Stage Manager

As a student of theatre and cultural anthropology, Ms Lawrence attended Tarleton State University in Stephenville, Texas. Her technical stage work includes productions of Oklahoma!, How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying, Annie Get Your Gun, The Diary of Anne Frank and Penny. Ty began her stage management career with the Junior Players Guild in Dallas with The Best Christmas Pageant Ever. She has gone on to be the resident Production Stage Manager for the Spectacular Senior Follies presented annually at the historic Majestic Theatre as well as becoming the resident Production Stage Manager for Dallas Summer Musicals Academy of Performing Arts. Current students know her management skills from her recent academy productions such as Schoolhouse Rock, Disney’s The Jungle Book Kids, Cool Yule Tidings and The Big Bad Musical. Ty is also stage manages productions for DFW Performing Arts Conservatory such as their upcoming Fame.


Jennifer Laws
Dance Instructor / Choreographer

Jennifer Laws teaches preballet, ballet, creative movement, jazz, hip-hop, theatre dance, lyrical, liturgical, ballroom, and acting to ages 3 to 93.Ms. Laws has been a featured triple-threat - dancer, singer, and actress - in several musical theater productions, including Garland Summer Musicals, Irving Community Theatre, and McKinney Summer Musicals, and has choreographed several productions for Quad C Theatre. As a theatre major at Collin College, she was a nominee for the national KC/ACTF Irene Ryan Outstanding Performer Award and received a Quad C Theatre Outstanding Theatre Student award. In 2009, she was awarded The Column’s Chita Rivera Dance Award for Best Female Dancer in the DFW Theatre Community.
During her summers, she has enhanced her skills at Broadway Dance Center, Steps on Broadway, American Theatre Dance Workshop, City Center's Dunham Institute and The Ailey School, all in New York City. She has also studied with ballet master Finis Jhung, Anne Green Gilbert, and a number of Bob Fosse protégés, including Chet Walker. When you aren’t looking, she’s behind the scenes as stage manager, music editor, set builder, program designer, costume buyer, photographer, and dance historian.
Ms. Laws has also been a part of teaching a pilot program to the DFW Metroplex called Dancing Classrooms, created by Pierre Dulaine, and featured in the documentary “Mad Hot Ballroom” and highlighted in the film “Take the Lead”, teaching basic ballroom to public school 5th graders. Ms. Laws spent 7 years coordinating an outreach program held at the Douglass Community Center in Plano, and with support of the Plano Boys and Girls Club, was excited to independently expand on her concept in 2007, teaching free dance classes for at-risk and underserved youths. The Collin County Boys & Girls Club named Ms. Laws, the current facilitator and instructor for the Dance Fusion Outreach program, “2002 Club Volunteer of the Year”.

Reyn Longino
Dance Instructor / Choreographer

Co-founder and dance instructor of the DSM Kids Musical Theatre classes. Reyn received both a Bachelor of Business Administration and a Bachelor of Fine Arts-Dance from SMU in Dallas . While pursuing a more traditional “day” job in the business world, Reyn pursued various performing opportunities including the Delia Stewart Jazz Dance Company in Houston , the Dallas Reperatory Theatre, the Colorado Arts Festival, the Houston and Dallas Junior League Charity Balls, and the Dallas Summer Musicals Kick-Off shows. She has taught and choreographed for the Humphrey School of Musical Theatre with Theatre Under the Stars in Houston .

Amy Mills
Acting

Amy Mills has been a professional actor in the Dallas/Ft. Worth area for over twenty-five years. After receiving a BA in theatre from Hope College in Holland, Michigan and an MFA in performance from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, Mills moved to Dallas to complete a professional acting apprenticeship at Theatre Three. Seen last September as Rona Lisa Peretti in THE 25TH ANNUAL PUTNAM COUNTY SPELLIN BEE,  she has also performed the role of Toinette in Moliere’s THE IMAGINARY INVALID and Mary in the critically acclaimed MERRILY WE ROLL ALONG at Theatre Three, as well as roles in A CHRISTMAS CAROL at the Dallas Theater Center in 1998, 2003 and 2004. She won a 2003 Leon Rabin Award for Best Supporting Actress in a Musical for her performance in TITANIC at Lyric Stage. She has also been seen in over 100 performances of Theatre Three’s long-running hit, I LOVE YOU, YOU’RE PERFECT, NOW CHANGE! She has performed in Ft. Worth at the Bass Hall as Maggie in 42ND STREET and Mrs. Fezziwig in A CHRISTMAS CAROL, and at Casa Manana in MY ONE AND ONLY. She has also appeared in regional productions of MID-LIFE, THE CRISIS MUSICAL, A...MY NAME IS ALICE, BEGUILED AGAIN,  MADELINE’S CHRISTMAS, ANYTHING GOES, MISS MARGARIDA’S WAY, CLUB SODA, INTO THE WOODS, SEXUAL PERVERSITY IN CHICAGO, THE THREEPENNEY OPERA, PERSONALS, PUMP BOYS AND DINETTES, CLOSER THAN EVER, A LITTLE NIGHT MUSIC, and THE CLUB.  She has sung alongside Jamie Farr in a New England tour of DAMN YANKEES and beside Phyllis Diller in a mid-western tour of CINDERELLA.  Mills is a founding member of CENTRAL EXPRESSWAY, a 1940s singing group that has performed at private parties, nightclubs, and corporate events.  She has appeared in commercials for Kahn's Hotdogs, recorded vocals for such clients as Mary Kay, Beauticontrol, Southwest Airlines, and is featured on the CD COMING OUT, COMING HOME. Mills has taught musical theatre classes at The Dallas Children’s Theater for almost a decade, and has directed two musicals, RISE AND SHINE and LUCKY STIFF, for Booker T. Washington High School for the Performing and Visual Arts. She has been an adjunct acting and theatre professor at El Centro, Mountain View, Tarrant County-Northeast and Northwest community college campuses. In her spare time, she is a full-time staff member at Theatre Three and hides out in Oak Cliff with her husband, actor Doug Jackson, and their two daughters, Emily and Abigail.

 

Vicki Squires
Artistic Director / Dance Instructor / Choreographer

Vicki is Artistic Director/instructor at the DSM School of Musical Theatre. Vicki has been teaching tap, jazz and musical theatre movement in the Dallas area for over 20 years. She has enjoyed working with Garland Summer Musicals, Irving Community Theatre, Lyric Stage, Contemporary Theatre of Dallas, The Dallas Summer Musicals Kick-Off Shows, the Miss USA Beauty Pageants and industrials for Mary Kay, 7-Up, Disney, Dr. Pepper, and Southland Corporation. Vicki has been nominated and has won both the Leon Rabin Award and The Column Award for her choreography. She was recently honored as the outstanding alumnae in the Dance and Theatre Arts Department at the University of North Texas.


Betsy Stelzer
Music Director/Vocal Instructor

Betsy Stelzer is a performing vocalist and pianist, and is currently completing her Bachelor of Music degree in composition at the University of North Texas. Besides working as an accompanist in the University’s music, theater and dance departments, she performs both as a soloist and with her jazz quartet in the Dallas/Fort Worth community. Ms. Stelzer has played as a pit musician for many musicals, including AVENUE Q, THE LION KING, SUESSICAL THE MUSICAL and ONCE UPON A MATTRESS. She was Assistant Director of the theater program at Island Lake Arts Camp in Starrucca, PA, and is currently Director of Music at the Mosaic Church of Denton. Ms. Stelzer brings the knowledge of music performance and theory to Dallas Summer Musicals Academy. Her goal at the Academy is to educate students not only about the art of musical theater, but also about the voice as a tool inside of this medium.


Lynne Swafford
Voice / Musical Theatre

Lynne has enjoyed a varied musical career as a singer, teacher, coach and director, starring in over 20 operatic roles all over the east coast from South Carolina to Boston, Massachusetts. She pursued her Master of Music in Vocal Performance at Boston University and completed it at Converse College. In her early performance career, she was a soloist with the Columbia Philharmonic Orchestra, NATS Singer of the Year, and regional winner of the Metropolitan Opera Auditions. After singing all over the United States, being a featured singer on tour all over the British Isles and studying and performing in Western Europe, Lynne moved to Dallas where she began to teach and coach for schools, churches, and theaters all over the metroplex—HEB, PISD, RISD, Richland Community College, Northaven UMC, Spring Valley UMC, First Baptist Richardson, Plano Lyric Opera, and Spring Valley Fine Arts Series. She loves to teach on any level—adult or child. She has been a valuable part of the Dallas Summer Musical Workshops all year round for 10 seasons. She is extremely proud of her students many of whom have moved on to CAPS 21 at Tisch(NYU), Miami University, Carnegie Mellon, Cincinnati Conservatory, Webster University, Interlochen and Oberlin to name a few. Many are now out working in NYC, national touring companies and in LA. She spent the summer of 2009 teaching at the Leysin American School in Leysin, Switzerland and was musical director for the Theater Internationale productions of Aladdin and High School Musical as well as the keyboardist.

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