Creative Team
Nancy Hill Cobb, music
Nancy Hill Cobb is an American composer who has spent a large part of her career as a music faculty member and administrator in American universities. Currently Professor of Music at the University of Northern Iowa, Cobb spent a varying number of years as a conductor and composer at Mercer University, Oklahoma Baptist University, Dallas Baptist University, Florida Gulf Coast University and Indiana State University. She holds the D.M.A. in composition from the University of Oklahoma, the M.M. in composition from Michigan State University and the B.M. in theory and composition from Oklahoma Baptist University. Her principal teachers were Claude Bass, H. Owen Reed, Carlisle Floyd and Michael Hennagin.
Cobb was given a Special Distinction Award for her 1998 entry into the American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers’ Rudolph Nissim Composition Contest for her choral/orchestral work Threnody. She has also been an ASCAP Standard Award winner since 1996.
Cobb’s works are performed nationally and internationally with recent performances held in Denmark, Japan, Germany, and New Zealand.
Cavan Hallman, book and lyrics
Cavan Hallman is the founding Artistic Director for Mirrorbox Theatre, where he has directed the Iowa premieres of Exit Strategy, Red Speedo, Luna Gale, There Is A Happiness That Morning Is, Sender, Orange Julius, The Parking Lot and Love & Other Destinations. Mirrorbox's nationally recognized online reading series, Out the Box was recognized by TimeOut NY over twenty times in 2020 as one of the best streaming theatre offerings in the world. For Out the Box, Hallman has directed William Jackson Harper, Michael Stahl-David, Peter Mark Kendall, and many more stars of Broadway and the screen.
Cavan Hallman's plays have been performed in Iowa, NYC, Chicago, New Orleans, Seattle, and internationally, including three commissions for Smithsonian-affiliated museums. His touring plays have reached an audience of over five million teachers and students. Hallman is a graduate of Columbia College Chicago, and received his MFA in Playwriting from the University of New Orleans.
Production Team
Rachel Klein, director
Rachel Klein is a NYC-based director, whose work The New York Times has praised: "What makes this show pop is the bracing vision of its director, Rachel Klein." Off-Broadway Direction: Red Roses, Green Gold (Minetta Lane Theatre/featuring the music of the Grateful Dead/Music Supervisor: Jeff Chimenti of Dead and Company); Around the World in 80 Days (The Davenport Theatre); The Anthem (The Lynn Redgrave Theatre/starring Randy Jones, the Original Cowboy from the Village People); Gay Bride of Frankenstein (iStar Theatre Lab). Selected NYC Theatre: Tink! (New York Musical Festival); More Than All the World (adapted from Marlowe's Edward II); Symphony of Shadows (Jerome Robbins Foundation commission); A Midsummer Night's Dream (Shrunken Shakespeare Co); Circus of Circus (The House of Yes); The Tragedy of Maria Macabre (Tides Foundation commission.) Selected Regional and Workshops: Hairspray (Jenny Wiley Amphitheater); Snow (Playwrights Horizons); Tonya and Nancy: The Rock Opera (Lucille Lortel Theatre); 54 The Musical (Starring Frankie Grande and Pose's MJ Rodriguez); Helen (A musical adapted from the Euripides play); Where Angels Fear to Tread (THML Theatre Co.) Ms. Klein directed the roast of Michael Musto which raised funds for the Callen Lorde Community Health Center, featuring Rosie O'Donnell, Bruce Vilanch, Bianca Del Rio and Jinkx Monsoon.
Rebecca Burkhardt, musical director
Conductor and professor emeritus Rebecca Burkhardt is sought after as a guest conductor throughout the United States and abroad. She served as the Director of Orchestral Activities, conductor for the UNI Opera Theatre and music director for Theatre UNI at the University of Northern Iowa from 1988-2020. As a composer she has works in the choral, chamber music and orchestral genres. Two musicals, A Scotch Verdict and JUST ANN, were written in collaboration with UNI theatre professor emeritus Cynthia Goatley.
Ann Beyersdorfer, scenic designer
Ann Beyersdorfer is a NYC based designer. Her design work has been featured across New York, regionally, and nationally. Design Credits include the off-broadway sleeper hit, AFTERGLOW, as well as CARMEN (Rose Hall at Lincoln Center, postponed), KNEAD (The Alliance Theatre), YOGA PLAY (Syracuse Stage, postponed), and SC7NARIO and SYNC: A Dance Series (film). Associate Broadway Design Credits include: COMPANY (the current revival), INK, JITNEY, THE CHILDREN, ANASTASIA (first national tour+EU productions). Additional associate design credits: SAMSON ET DALILA (The Metropolitan Opera), PHISH New Year's Eve Concert '17/'18 (Madison Square Garden), an immersive touring production of Peter Pan in China, and WAYS & MEANS (AAD, CBS Pilot). Ann is a Live Design/LDI 30 Under 30 recipient, Broadway World Regional Award winner, a United Solo Festival Award Winner for Best Set Design, and a proud member of USA Local 829. www.annbeyersdorfer.com @annbeyersdorfer
Eric Lange, lighting designer
Eric has served as the Department Head of Theatre at the University of Northern Iowa since 2004. Prior to that he served as the Technical Director for the department. He continues to provide some lighting design for TheatreUNI, and has provided lighting consultation for a number of high school, university and community venues in Iowa. Eric has worked professionally for a number of theaters including the Alley Theatre, the Dallas Theatre Center, the Philadelphia Academy of Music, and the Tennessee Performing Arts Center. Prior to working at UNI, he was the staff technical director for the Theatre Department at Vanderbilt University. Since 1983 Eric has worked as a designer, technician, consultant and manager for productions in regional, community and educational theaters.
Tommy Truelsen, sound designer
Tommy Truelsen, sound designer, is excited to make his return to the University of Northern Iowa. While he is a proud 2019 alumnus of the UNI School of Music, Tommy is no stranger to the theatre through his work with TheatreUNI during his undergraduate career. Truelsen completed a sound design fellowship at the Hangar Theatre in Ithaca, New York and recently designed for the Sound Scripts Series at Rec Room Arts in Houston, Texas. Selected local design credits include Feel Better (Theatre Cedar Rapids), Dracula (Theatre Cedar Rapids), and Legacy of Light (TheatreUNI).