Administrative Staff
Sara Pearson, Executive Director and Producer
Eileen Grady, Associate Producer
Natalie Reimer, Assistant Producer
Michael Vogel, Special Events Producer
Artistic Staff
Jay Manley, Director
Debra Chambliss, Musical Director
Dottie Lester-White, Choreographer
Ken Rowland, Scenic Designer
Patricia Polen, Costume Designer
Sara Pearson
Executive Director/Producer
2013 marks Sara's sixth season as Executive Director/Producer. Sara completed her 6-year service as a member of the Mountain Play Board of Directors in September 2006. She has worked for the past 20 years with a variety of non-profit organizations in the Bay Area including the Marin Agricultural Land Trust, Marin Conservation Corps and Mother Jones Magazine. Her expertise is in non-profit fundraising and membership.
Eileen Grady
Associate Producer
This is Eileen’s seventh season
with the
Mountain
Play and
third as
Associate
Producer.
She has
previously served as Vice
President of the Board of
Directors and as Producer/
Director of the Mountain
Play’s annual fall gala since
2006. For the past 25 years,
Eileen has worked as a producer,
director, songwriter
and musician in almost every
genre of music and theatre.
Eileen’s theatrical credits
include La Vida Breve
(Director), Into The Words
(Director), Oh, Boy! (Asst.
Director), Wine, Women &
Song: Benefit Concerts for
the Fight Against Breast
Cancer(Concert Artist/Asst.
Producer) and The Breast of
Broadway (Producer/Director).
Natalie Reimer
Assistant Producer
This is Natalie's third season working with the Mountain Play and first as Assistant Producer. Previously, she has worked back stage and as volunteer coordinator. Natalie is a recent theatre arts graduate of CSU Long Beach where she focused on theatre and production management. She has worked with the University Players and California Repertory Company in Long Beach, been a part of the Marin Theatre Company internship program and spent a semester in Coventry, England where she stage managed two shows. Natalie has been coming to the Mountain Play since she was one year old and is thrilled to be a part of the 100th season.
Michael Vogel
Special Events Producer
Michael C. Vogel has been with the Mt. Play since 2000. He served as a
member of the Board of Director for six years from 2000-2006, including a
stint as the Vice-President. Michael became the Special Events Producer in
2007 focusing on booking the pre & post-show entertainment as well as
coordinating the annual raffle. Michael is also involved with many of the
"special effects" that are a unique part of each year's annual production.
His favorite experience with the Mt. Play took place during the 2007
production of The Wizard of Oz, in which at every performance he called
the plane which flew over the audience, pulling a banner proclaiming,
"Surrender Dorothy"!
A member of the Mill Valley Art Commission, Michael’s theatrical career
Children's Theatre Company, he moved on to spin records & emcee at a
prominent NY disco, as well as sound engineer and emcee at the Avalon Ballroom in San Francisco
(where he did sound for everyone from Janis Joplin to Flatt & Scruggs), tour
managed the San Francisco Shakespeare Co. and worked as a stage manager for
Royal Viking Lines. He also was a DJ for KBOO FM (Alternative Radio) in
Oregon for 4 years, managed Commander Cody & his Lost Planet Airman, AB Skhy
Blues Band & was a booking agent before coming to his present home with the
Mt. Play Association.
Jay Manley
Director
Jay Manley is an award-winning director whose musicals and plays throughout the Bay Area have garnered repeated praise and numerous awards from the Bay Area Theatre Critics Circle and Dean Goodman "Choice" Awards. He founded Foothill Music Theatre in Los Altos, California, to present classic and new musicals on the campus of Foothill College. He was recipient of a 2006 special citation from the Bay Area Theatre Critics Circle "...in recognition of his distinguished career as founder and artistic director of Foothill Music Theatre." At Foothill College where he chaired the Theatre Arts Department, he also established the Foothill Theatre Conservatory, a flourishing pre-professional actor training program. For the last 30 years, Jay has led popular theatre tours to New York, Ashland, London, and other major theatre production centers, through his company, New York Theatre Tour: www.nytheatretour.com. Jay's extensive knowledge of American musical theatre history has made him a sought-after speaker and lecturer. Jay earned a B.A. and M.A. from San Francisco State University and holds a Ph.D. from UC Berkeley. He lives in the East Bay.
Debra Chambliss
Music Director
Debra Chambliss is a vocalist, pianist, instructor and Music Director who has worked in the Bay Area for over 25 years. She became Music Director for the Mountain Play in 2007, but she has been playing the keyboard in the orchestra since 1991. She has worked as an accompanist and music director at dozens of theaters, including The Willows, Contra Costa Musical Theater, and Woodminster. Highlights have included playing keyboards at the Post Street Theatre for the national tour of The 20th Annual Putnam County Spelling bee and at the Orpheum Theatre for Edward Scissorhands, as well as directing music for the West Coast Premier of Children of Eden. Debra has an affinity for children's theater, and served as Resident Music Director of KD Musical Theater for several years, as well as directing many performance workshops, musicals and summer training programs at places such as ACT, Yes, and Marin Theatre Company. She cantors and plays for churches throughout Marin County, and is the music instructor at St. Anselm and St. Rita schools as well as teaching at her private piano studio.
Dottie Lester-White
Choreographer
Dottie performed on Broadway in Katherine Hepburn's Coco, Ruby Keeler's No, No, Nanette and the revival of Cabaret, Mame and No, No Nanette. Choreography credits include Foothill Summer Musicals How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying, Curtains, Anything Goes and The Producers. American Musical Theatre of San Jose productions of Phantom of the Opera, The Music Man, No, No Nanette, Fiddler of the Roof, Children of Eden and The 3hree Musketeers. San Jose Stage Company shows include Altar Boyz, Beehive, Urinetown The Musical, UG and The Great American Trailer Park Musical. San Jose Repertory Theatre's Enter The Guardsman, Woodminster Amphitheatre's Me and My Girl, Cabaret and A Chorus Line and The Little Theatre On The Square's production of Victor/Victoria, and Funny Girl. Shows for The Prather Entertainment Group are South Pacific, Will Rogers Follies, Funny Girl, My Fair Lady, Christmas Carol, Miss Saigon, Oliver, Singin' in the Rain, Guys and Dolls, Unsinkable Molly Brown and Meet Me in St. Louis.
Ken Rowland
Scenic Designer
This marks Ken's twenty-sixth year as the Mountain Play's Scenic Designer, during which he has received five Bay Area Theatre Critic' Circle awards, including the 1996 production of My Fair Lady. Ken's design venues include Marin Theatre Company, Theatre Artists of Marin, Berkeley Opera, Marin Shakespeare Company and the Ross Valley Players Barn Theatre, where he has been a resident designer. To date, Ken has logged 220 scenic designs for various Bay Area Theaters. In addition to his design efforts, he has directed extensively for the Ross Valley Players and Berkeley Opera. Ken's performance roots are in opera, giving way in recent years to musical theater and drama, where he has played leading roles in over a dozen musicals and as many plays including Henry Higgins in the MPA's 1996 and 2004 productions of My Fair Lady.
Patricia Polen
Costume Designer
Patricia is returning to the Mountain Play for her twenty-third season. She has been designing and building costumes professionally since the mid-1970’s, with over one hundred shows to her credit. In addition, Patricia is a professional make-up artist, having worked in that capacity with the San Francisco Opera for thirty years and as head of Wigs and Make-up for the Portland Opera. Pat received a Dean Goodman Choice Award for her costume designs for the Mountain Play’s 2004 production of My Fair Lady. Her costuming work has also been recognized with four Bay Area Critics’ Circle awards, most recently for the Mountain Play’s 2003 production of Annie.