Dean Kravitz

PTW Executive Director / Artistic & Music Director / Song Interpretation Classes / Musical Theatre Performance Classes / Professional, College and School Show Audition Preparation Private Lessons

Dean began his studies at age five on the violin and added piano at age seven. After his piano debut at Carnegie Recital Hall at age 11, Dean received the Van Cliburn award for piano performance at age 13. He studied violin, piano, composition, and scoring at the Eastman School of Music where he won the Duke Ellington Award for Outstanding Arranging and Composition. Dean also received the highest score in the BMI Musical Theatre Songwriting competition in 1986.

Dean Kravitz

He graduated with honors from Yale University in 1987 where he received a BA in Composition. At Yale, Dean composed, orchestrated and musical directed the full length musical, "Experiments", which was performed at Yale commencement. Also at Yale, Dean studied orchestration with Jacob Druckman (from Julliard faculty) and composition with Maury Yeston (composer of "Nine"). Dean has also studied jazz improvisation with the legendary jazz alto saxophonist Phil Woods. He has studied vocal pedagogy and voice therapy at Westminster Choir College and choral conducting at University of the Arts in Philadelphia. Dean is a New Jersey Certified Teacher, received his Masters in Teaching in 2008, and is currently a Choral Director and Music Technology teacher at Chatham Middle School.

With his production companies, Dean Kravitz Music (DKM) and Elasticmusic, Dean has composed, orchestrated and sung/played for over 150 National and Regional TV/Radio commercials for major advertising agencies in NY, Boston, Dallas, and California for products such as Pepsi, Toys R Us, McDonalds, Reebock, Motorola, Lady Footlocker, Hefty, Blue Cross/Blue Shield & Clairol. Dean has composed, orchestrated and arranged music for several cartoons on Nickelodeon's "Nick Jr.", as well as the music that premiered the TV Land network. He currently still has music played frequently on the air.

As a keyboardist, Dean has played for Donna Summer, Cyndi Lauper, Debby Gibson and Marc Anthony. On piano, he has performed for Chevy Chase, Donald Trump, Regis Philbin and the New York Yankees.

Dean has been an active teacher, arranger, pianist and musical director with PTW since 1983, and is so happy to be able to share his love and knowledge of music with young students. Dean has a wonderful wife, Liz, and adorable twin 5-year-old boys, Sammy and Max.

About Performers Theatre Workshop

Tia Dionne Hodge

PTW Faculty: Acting & Drama Classes / Private Acting & Drama Lessons / TV Commercials, TV Acting and Filmmaking Classes / Professional, College & School Show Audition Preparation Private Lessons / PTW Summer Camp & Summer Musical Theatre Conservatory

Tia Dionne Hodge-Jones is an award-winning writer/playwright, actor, and director/producer. She has appeared in national on-camera and radio commercials, on Law & Order, Law & Order: Criminal Intent, Conviction, as well as the pilot The Third Degree for Fox.

Tia Dionne Hodge

In 1998, she received a Best Actress nomination by the Independent Reviewers of New England for her performance as “Veronica” in New Repertory Theatre’s production of Athol Fugard’s Valley Song. She appeared as the recurring characters “Angel Mel” and “Amelia Bennett” on ABC’s One Life to Live. Tia received the Adrienne Kennedy Society’s Louis Kent-Hope Award for Excellence in Creative Writing & Poetry, and is a former National Poetry Slam Team Champion. Her plays, Puddin’, Love… Like Lemonade and A Spider in Wine all received workshops by New Jersey Dramatists & Waterfront Ensemble. Puddin’ was accepted into the 2009 New Moon Reading Series at Luna Stage (Montclair, NJ) and the 2009 NY International Fringe Festival. Some of Tia’s monologues and essays can be found in More Monologues for Women, by Women; vol II and Black Comedy: 9 Plays. Tia is a member of the Dramatists Guild of America, New York Women in Film, SAG, AFTRA and AEA. She earned her M.A. and B.A. in English Lit from Case Western Reserve in 1996. Tia is a proud acting instructor at Performers Theatre Workshop.

Heather Holcombe

PTW Faculty: Voice Department Chair

Group Voice Classes / Private Voice Lessons / Show Director / Professional, College and School Show Audition Preparation Private Lessons

Heather made her operatic debut in 1987 in the role of Siebel in Gounod’s Faust as a resident artist with Tri Cities Opera Company in Binghamton, New York. Ms. Holcombe was heard the following seasons as Gretchen in The Student Prince, Zerlina in Don Giovanni and on tour as Hansel in Hansel and Gretel. Equally at home in musical theater, she sang the role of Nimue in the Walnut Street Theater’s production of Camelot, and has numerous orchestral appearances as a featured artist in the U.S. and Canada, with such prestigious orchestras as the Houston Symphony, the Vancouver Symphony

Heather Holcombe

and the Hamilton Philharmonic Orchestra. Ms. Holcombe has sung for two Presidential Administrations at the White House. Ms. Holcombe is a graduate of Temple University in Philadelphia where she received the Esther Boyer Award for Excellence in Opera.

Brian Loeffler

PTW Faculty: Musical Theatre Department Chair / Show Director & Choreographer / Song Interpretation Classes / Musical Theatre Performance Classes / Private Musical Theatre & Song Interpretation Lessons / PTW Summer Camp & Summer Musical Theatre Conservatory

Brian's long list of credits include the New York production of Grease! on Broadway (starring Rosie O’Donnell), and national/international tours including Bye, Bye, Birdie (starring Tommy Tune and Ann Reinking), West Side Story (Riff) and Oklahoma! (Will Parker – 50th Anniversary Production). His regional directing and/or choreographing productions include

Brian Loeffler

Jerry Springer – The Opera, Urinetown: The Musical (Chicago’s Joseph Jefferson Award and After Dark Award for Choreography), Pirates of Penzance, Grease, Disney’s Aladdin, A Chorus Line, Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat, Anything Goes, Damn Yankees, The Wizard of Oz, You’re A Good Man Charlie Brown, The Wit and Wisdon of Will’s Women: A Shakespeare Celebration (which he conceived and co-created) and Big River at theaters which include the Mercury Theater in Chicago, Playhouse on the Square in Memphis, Carousel Dinner Theatre in Ohio, Seaside Shakespeare Festival in Nantucket and Milford Theatre in Pennsylvania. Brian has more than 15 years teaching experience. Former students include Michael Pitt (leading role in Boulevard Dreams, Henry Parker in Dawson’s Creek, also Murder by Numbers and Funny Games) and Patrick Wilson (Little Children, The Phantom of the Opera, Angels in America). He is a member of both The Actors’ Equity Association and The Screen Actors Guild and most recently perfrormed in The Taming of the Shrew at the New York Fringe Festival. Brian is a graduate of the University of Notre Dame and resides in New York City.

Olivia Rosenkrantz

PTW Faculty: Tap Dance Teacher and Guru

Olivia was born in France where she performed as a singer/actress from age 5. In New York City, she trained in modern dance with Murray Louis and Alvin Nikolais, tap with Savion Glover and Brenda Bufalino. Olivia was soloist tap dancer and vocalist for the American Tap Dance Orchestra, touring nationally and internationally under the artistic direction of mentor Brenda Bufalino. She choreographed and danced for Ka-Tap (North Indian music and dance crossing with tap and Jazz), toured with Heather Cornell’s Manhattan tap and with Mad Theatricals. Currently, Olivia is dance captain

Olivia Rosenkrantz

and dancer of Brenda Bufalino's New Tap Orchestra. With partner Mari Fujibayashi, she is artistic director, choreographer/dancer of the duo Tapage (www.tapage.org), performing internationally with classical orchestras, jazz trios and world music ensembles. Tapage currently collaborates with the Mexican string quartet “Cuarteto Latinoamericano” creating work to Latin American compositions.

Olivia has performed in North and South America, Europe and Japan, appeared at the Joyce Theater, Alice Tully Hall at Lincoln Center and ballet Arts in NY) as well as internationally.

Harrison Young

PTW Faculty: Musical Director For Classes & Shows / Song Interpretation / Private Piano Lessons / Private Guitar Lessons / Private Songwriting & Composition Lessons / Private Jazz – Pop - Rock Singing Lessons / PTW Musical Theatre Summer Camp & Conservatory

Harrison Young is an accomplished performer, audio producer and music teacher from Northern NJ.

Harrison Young

He has appeared on numerous albums in several genres, having played most recently on the legendary hip hop artist Talib Kweli's brand new single, 'Cold Rain.' He has toured nationally and internationally with several groups, including Doro Pesch, Germany's queen of metal, as her keyboardist and rhythm guitarist. Harrison was also given the honor of performing at the 2010 Detroit International Jazz Festival as the featured vocalist of the William Paterson University Jazz Septet. Harrison is currently hard at work with his own band, Earth Minor, on a brand new album, due out in 2012. This is the follow up to their debut album, Dark Matters, which is available now on iTunes and at earthminor.com.

So, whether your child would like to write and record a song, learn piano or guitar, or study voice with the most modern techniques, Harrison will have it covered.

Molly Dunn

PTW Faculty: Group Voice Classes / Private Singing Lessons / Show Director / PTW Summer Camp & Summer Musical Theatre Conservatory

Molly Dunn studied at Performers Theatre Workshop for over 5 years! She is pursuing a Master of Music in Vocal Performance with a Concentration in Music Theatre at NYU Steinhardt. Professional NY credits include: Flossie's Friend in On The Town, with the Staten Island Philharmonics; The Soprano in Grotesque Arabesque (a new rock opera based on the life and tales of Edgar Allen Poe) at The Provincetown Playhouse; The Mosh in We Carry On at the Manhattan Repertory Theatre; and June in The Flitch (a new musical) at the Robert Moss Theatre. Molly studied with Heather Holcombe for 5 years at PTW, who continues to be her mentor as a voice teacher. She recently performed in Lake Como, Italy with her college voice and Alexander Technique teacher of 3 years, Kathryn Armour. A huge a cappella dork, Molly also sang in NYU's Jewish a cappella group, "Ani V'Ata" for 4 years.

Sagine Gousse-Valla

PTW Faculty: Group Acting & Drama Classes / Song Interpretation Classes / Private Acting & Drama Lessons / Broadway Kids Classes / Jr. Jr. Classes / Show Director

Sagine Gousse-Valla studied acting, singing and dancing at Performers Theater Workshop and graduated from the school in 2001 after 10 years of study. She went on to get her BA in Psychology and Sociology at Dartmouth College and completed a Masters in Public Health at Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. Unable to suppress her deep love for performance, Sagine continues to enjoy her love affair with acting and has returned to the arts full time, teaching, performing and producing.

Cathy Trien

PTW Faculty: Professional, College & School Show Audition Preparation Private Lessons / Audition Technique Classes / Song Interpretation Classes / Acting & Drama Classes / Acting & Drama Private Lessons / Show Director / Musical Theatre Performance Classes / Jr. Jr. Classes / PTW Summer Camp & Summer Musical Theatre Conservatory

Cathy Trien began performing at age 9, booked her first commercial by age 10, and became a member of the First All Children’s Theatre in association with Lincoln Center by age 11. She studied at Performers Theatre Workshop throughout middle and high school, and went on to become a staff member at PTW, teaching voice, acting, and dancing. She has toured Europe as Annie in Annie Get Your Gun, played Sheila in The 25th Anniversary National Tour of Hair, and Marty in the National Tour of Grease. Off Broadway she played Coco in Zombie Prom, and did The Great American Trailer Park Musical covering Jeannie and Betty. On Broadway she played Marty in Grease and performed in Gypsy, where she understudied Bernadette Peters. Regionally, she has done over 30 shows including Beehive, Anything Goes, Godspell, and her favorite-- playing Patsy Cline in Always Patsy Cline at the Alabama Shakespeare Festival. Cathy has done television, film, voice overs, commercials and video games including being a regular on Disney's Honey I Shrunk the Kids TV series, Pootie Tang, Gossip Girl and both the voice and motion capture for the character Mary-Jo in Rockstar Games' Grand Theft Auto: Vice City Stories. She is thrilled to make her return (yet again!) to PTW.

Jordan Fife Hunt

PTW Faculty: Jazz, Hip Hop, Modern, Ballet and Tap

Dance Classes / Show Director & Choreographer / Private Jazz, Hip Hop, Modern, Ballet and

Tap Dance Lessons / PTW Summer Camp & SummerMusical Theatre Conservatory

Jordan Fife Hunt is so happy to be a part of the PTW family!

Credits: New York City Center ENCORES! - Where's Charley? (Featured Dancer), 1st National Tour - A Chorus Line (Frank, u/s Paul, Mark & Larry), A Chorus Line (Frank, u/s Paul & Richie) - Marriott Lincolnshire Theatre & Zanna, Don’t! (Zanna) at SpeakEasy Stage Company. Jordan received a BFA in Musical Theatre (Dance Emphasis) from The Boston Conservatory. He is the choreographer in residence for The Broadway Dolls, a dancer in the music/dance fusion show GIG and dance faculty member of Performers Theatre Workshop. [www.jordanfifehunt.com]

Amy Engelhardt

PTW Faculty: Private Songwriting & Composition

Lessons / Private Music Theory & Sight Singing Lessons

Amy Engelhardt has been the sole female member of Grammy-nominatedvocal "band without instruments", The Bobssince 1998. She has won numerousASCAP awards for her writing on The Bobs' CDs and DVDs, toured with themeverywhere from Lincoln Center to Los Angeles to Lichtenstein, and created Rhapsody In Bob, Gershwin's concerto arranged for piano and vocal orchestrafor the group, which premiered at Wolf Trap. Amy’s solo CD, Not Gonna BePretty, hailed as the "unlikely marriage of Nellie McKay and Meat Loaf,"was nominated for two Just Plain Folks Music Awards--"The "GrassrootsGrammys" according to the LA Times. Her insanely diverse vocal credits include Jim Henson's Animal Jam, Barbra Streisand's Timeless concerts, Neil Young's Living With War, The Doctor Demento Show, countless appearances on Comedy Central’s Sit-N-Spin series and countless commercials and soundtracks. As a composer/lyricist/librettist, Amy recently completed the score for Bastard Jones, a rock adaptation of Henry Fielding’s Tom Jones, with playwright/novelist Marc Acito (How I Paid For College). Other theater credits include lyrics for commissioned adaptations of Carl Sagan's Contact with Hungarian rocker Peter Sipos, Nicholas Nickleby with electric violinist Eyvind Kang; and music/lyrics for the Bobs/Flying Karamazov Brothers collaboration, A Comedy of Eras at ACT Seattle. Amy was recently a creative consultant on Ashley Brown’s (Broadway’s Mary Poppins) PBS concert special Call Me Irresponsible and Musical Director/Arranger for the world premiere of Drunk with Love: A Tribute to Frances Faye at San Francisco's New Conservatory Theater. Amy is a graduate of Syracuse University and Berklee College of Music.

Stephanie Jones

PTW Faculty: Song Interpretation Classes / Jazz Hip Hop Classes / Musical Theatre Performance Classes / Show Director / PTW Summer Camp & Summer Musical Theatre Conservatory

Stephanie Jones has performed Off Broadway at the Players Theatre in "Oedipus the King" and "Treasure Island", and recently closed a two season run as Juliet in The Castle Shakespeare Repertory’s production of "Romeo and Juliet." She has played Dorothy in the Magical Caravan Players production of "The Wizard of Oz, a New Musical," and Cressida in the Hudson Shakespeare Company’s production of "Troilus and Cressida." In addition to her theatrical resume including "A Tale of Two Cities" at the Paper Mill Playhouse, as a singer, Stephanie has played clubs in the NJ/NY and Boston areas including a brief stint as the house band at the Bitter End with original rock band, Wild Blue. Having recently recorded a demo with her jazz quartet, The Stephanie Jones Ensemble, she is currently playing clubs and halls in the Metropolitan Area and is delighted to be part of Main Street South Orange's Downtown After Sundown 2011 summer concert series. Stephanie graduated from Wellesley College in 2006, and will be pursuing a fine arts degree for Vocal Jazz at City College in the Fall. Her voiceovers and vocals can be heard on commercials for Anbesol, Nerf, Busch Gardens, Nickelodeon and Toys R Us.

Howard Kravitz

PTW Founder

Howard received his BS at the Juilliard School of Music and his MA and Six-year Level degrees from Columbia University. He was certified in the state of New Jersey in both Supervision and Administration. Howard was a teacher and Director of Music in New Jersey public schools for 35 years. He left the public school system in 1992 so he could devote full time to PTW, which continued to expand in both enrollment size and course offerings. Howard's musical compositions and arrangements have been performed worldwide

Howard Kravitz

by such notables as Dizzy Gillespie, Count Basie, Quincy Jones, and Phil Woods. He also wrote arrangements for WABC-TV and the Arlene Francis Show.