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Steven Abusch (Executive Director)
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... is co-founder and Executive Director of the Play Group Theatre. He has studied both visual and performing arts throughout his life and received his BFA in Fine Arts after studying at Scuola Lorenzo de'Medici in Florence, Italy and at SUNY Binghamtom. Directing credits include: Pippin, Lord of the Flies, You're a Good Man, Charlie Brown and The Hobbit. Designing credits include: Little Shop of Horrors, Family for Sale (which he also co-wrote), The Wiz, The Me Nobody Knows, West Side Story, Frog and Toad and Into the Woods. Steven designed and created a series of man-eating plant puppets for PGT's Little Shop of Horrors, the Candy Wonderland in Charlie and the Chocolate Factory and co-designed and created the masks and puppets for Children of Eden. He also wrote and
directed Inside Out. Steven's favorite role is off-stage husband to Jill and father to Aviva and Ilana.
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Jill Abusch (Artistic Director)
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... is co-founder and Artistic Director of the Play Group Theatre. She studied acting and directing at the Stella Adler Conservatory and the Classical Studio at NYU Tisch School of the Arts, where she earned a BFA in Drama. Jill is the co-writer and lyricist of Piper, Family for Sale and Girl Talk. Directing credits include: The Red Sneaks, Fabulous Fable Factory, Little Shop of Horrors, Working, Pippin, Once on this Island, Godspell, The People Garden, Piper, Children of Eden, A Midsummer Night's Dream, The Me Nobody Knows, Sweet Dreams, Hair, Sandyland!, Fame, Girl Talk, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, The Dining Room, Grease, Honk!, Quilters, West Side Story and Into the Woods. She adores working alongside husband and partner, Steven, and is especially proud of their favorite productions to date: Aviva and Ilana.
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Jeff Downing (Associate Artistic Director)
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... is originally from Chillicothe, Ohio and received a BFA in Theater Design and Production from the University of Cincinnati, College-Conservatory of Music. Jeff is proud to be finishing his third year with The Play Group Theatre and has directed All I Really Need to Know I Learned in Kindergarten, Once Upon A Time, The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, Still Life with Iris, Lucky Stiff, Seussical, The Laramie Project, Starmites, A Man of No Importance and The Wizard of Oz. He is also the resident designer at PGT, serving as set and costume designer for many of our productions. Jeff spends his summers in Helena, Montana teaching at the Grandstreet Theatre. He is co-founder of The Wide Awake Theatre Project, an educational organization that brings New York artists and performers to communities across the country.
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Margie Kment (Director of Operations)
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...started taking acting classes at a local children’s theatre in Davenport , Iowa when she was 10. From then on, she was hooked! As a kid, she directed and starred in numerous productions on her front porch with the neighborhood kids and performed in productions at Junior Theatre until she finished high school. She has studied acting in London at the Hampstead Theatre and in New York with Atlantic Theater Company. In college, she was a company member of Mad Duckling Children’s Theatre and managed and performed with Absolute Improv. She received a B.A. in Theater Arts from the University of Oregon and moved to New York in 2006. She has worked for Richard Frankel Productions and Broadway Asia Entertainment (general management) and is currently an Associate Producer with Small Pond Entertainment.
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Stephanie Kovacs-Helfrich (Master Teacher)
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... has worked with PGT since her return to New York in 1996 from a residency at the Florida Studio Theatre in Sarasota, Florida. Stephanie has taught countless classes and workshops including Acting Technique, Masks, Improvisation, Musical Theatre, Storytelling, Playwriting, On Camera, Theatre Skills, Character Development, Audition Technique and more. She has also directed many PGT productions such as: The Littlest Angel, The Little Prince, The Phantom Tollbooth, Our Town, Once Upon a Mattress, Really Rosie, Schoolhouse Rock, The Sound of Music, Merrily We Roll Along and others, as well as creating the PGT Three-Week Summer Intensive Program. Stephanie trained in acting at The Minneapolis Children's Theatre, Yale, A.C.T. and NYU's Tisch School of the Arts. Stephanie also works as an actor and casting director.
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Derrick Cobey (Teaching Artist)
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... earned a Bachelors
of Music in Musical Theater degree from
Baldwin-Wallace College. He recently appeared in The Mikado at City
Center in NYC and in Jesus Christ
Superstar at North Shore Music Theater. Recent credits also include the National Tours of Rent and Forever Swing as well as Abyssinia (Goodspeed), The
Buddy Holly Story (Carousel Theatre), Henson in
Ragtime (Paper Mill Playhouse), Oklahoma, Brigadoon,
Ragtime, Damn Yankees, Wizard
of Oz, Footloose (Sacramento Music Circus), Milton in
Avenue X, Flick in Violet (Cain Park), Mr. Lindquist
in A Little Night Music, Agwe in Once on this Island
(Connecticut Repertory Theatre), Fred in Smokey Joe’s
Cafe (Actors Playhouse), Pacific Overtures (Arden
Theatre) and Jim in Big River (Virginia Music Theatre).
Derrick has served as the music director of a large children’s choir, taught musical theater workshops and
directed and choreographed various shows regionally for
the past several years. He is very excited to join The PGT Team!
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Jessica Danser (Choreographer, Teaching Artist)
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... a native New Yorker, graduated Cum Laude from the SUNY Purchase Conservatory of Dance with a BFA in Dance Composition. She has been a 5-time Fellowship recipient at the world renowned Ailey School, and has trained at the Martha Graham School, the Limon Institute and Talented Unlimited High School. Her choreography has been presented at the 92nd St. Y, the Cooper Union, Peridance, the Cunningham Studios, Teatro Clunia (Burgos, Spain), Chelsea Piers and the American Theater for Actors. Musical theatre choreography credits include Purchase College's You're a Good Man, Charlie Brown and Talent Unlimited High School's Pippin. Jessica has taught dance at the Ailey School, the Astoria Dance Theatre, Allegra Dance Studio, the Renaissance Charter School and the Central Queens Y. She is pleased to be a member of the PGT family!
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Barbara Orwick (Musical Director)
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... received her Bachelor of Music Degree from Manhattanville College in 1983 and has been making music in Westchester County ever since. She regularly accompanies several area choirs and musically directs at many local schools and theatre companies. Barbara's PGT credits include Little Shop of Horrors, Peter Pan, How to Eat Like a Child, Pippin, The Wiz, Into the Woods, Out of this World... and Others, Once on this Island, You're a Good Man, Charlie Brown, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, Once Upon a Mattress, Godspell, Grease, The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, West Side Story and Seussical. Barbara composed the scores for Girl Talk and Family for Sale, for which she also co-wrote lyrics.
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Caren Valente (Choreographer, Teaching Artist)
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... is a graduate of Marymount Manhattan College with a BA in Dance. Caren is making a career as a dancer through teaching, choreographing and performing. She is thrilled to be working with PGT and currently choreographs the musical productions at Scarsdale High School and White Plains Middle School. Caren is on the faculty of The Steffi Nossen School of Dance, as well as Beverly Dance Studio, and is the coach of the Purchase College Dance Team where she also teaches Musical Theater Dance through the youth programs in the arts.
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