Digital Playbill

Director

Scott Shipman has been an actor and director in the central Texas area for over 20 years. Acting and directing credits include shows at Zilker Theater Productions, Austin Shakespeare, Zach Theater, Austin Opera, TexARTS, Pennsylvania Shakespeare Company, Sugarloaf Mountain, as well as being a company member of Austin Playhouse and having been a guest artist at St. Edward's University and University of Texas, Austin. For his work onstage Scott has been the recipient of multiple B. Iden Payne awards as well as numerous additional B. Iden Payne and Austin Critics Table award nominations. Scott holds a BFA in theatrical performance from Texas State University.

Assistant Director & Choreographer

Jacob is honored to return to Penfold Theatre. He has previously choreographed for Commonwealth Shakespeare Company in Boston, MA and danced with Ensemble 360, Grant Jacoby & Dancers and Lady BOS productions. His most recent on stage credits include The SpongeBob Musical (Squidward), Ordinary Days (Warren), Falsettos (Marvin) and Sweeney Todd (Anthony).  Jacob originally hails from  Massachusetts and studied Theater & Dance at Connecticut College. He trained with The British American Drama Academy, National Theatre Institute, and Labyrinth Theater Company. He'd like to thank his friends, family and the incredibly talented cast, crew and creative team!

Production Stage Manager

Kaitlyn "Kat" Kennedy - ZACH: Tortoise & Hare, The Lion, The Witch, and the Wardrobe, Matilda, Christmas Carol, PENFOLD: Miracle of 34th Street Radiocast, It's a Wonderful Life Radiocast, Amadeus, Murder on the Rails. Additional Credits: BFA in Theatre Design with an emphasis in Stage Management from Baylor University. She would like to thank her parents and friends for their love and support. 2 Timothy 1:7.

Music Director & Pianist

Susan Finnigan has spent many years at the keyboard of musical theatre productions in Houston and Austin, including several productions at Zilker Theater Productions, Austin Playhouse, Zach Theatre, Summer Stock Austin, TexArts, St. Edward’s University, University of Texas at Austin, and Magnolia Musical Theatre. She has been nominated for several Austin Critic’s Table, B. Iden Payne, and Central Texas Excellence in Theatre awards for Best Musical Direction. She has worked as the Staff Coach/Accompanist and Applied Voice Coordinator for St. Edward’s University for eighteen years. She also finds lots of time for her six grandchildren!

Set Designer

Mel is excited to be working on her first show with Penfold Theatre. She is a graduate of UT Austin and was  a Technical Director in public education for over 10 years. Mel started her career at The Studio Theatre in Washington, DC where she served as one of three scenic carpenters and currently freelances around the Central Texas area designing scenery and building props at The University of Texas and other community theaters and schools. She is also the camp Production Technical Director for Tal’s Theatre Camp at Baylor University, which is held every summer. As a seasoned technician, she has designed over 25 shows and built over 60 but the award she is most proud of has been Rouse High School’s The Hunchback of Notre Dame for Best Production at the 2022 Heller Awards. Mel also owns her own small business, Mighty With All Trades, creating unique gifts for designers and technicians with a mission to celebrate those that make theatre happen. She would like to thank the production team for welcoming her to Penfold and her family for always being her biggest fans. 

Lighting Designer

Patrick Anthony is a freelance lighting and scenic designer based in Austin, Texas. He holds a Bachelor of Arts in Theatre from Loyola University: New Orleans, and studied Scene Design at the Lir Academy of Trinity College Dublin. Patrick has worked in the Austin community since 2009, designing over 200 productions of theatre, musical theatre and dance. Frequent collaborators include Austin Shakespeare, Filigree Theatre, The Archive Theatre & The Vortex Repertory Company. He has also designed internationally at the Dublin and Edinburgh Fringe Festivals.Patrick is the recipient of the 2012, 2016 & 2021 B. Iden Payne award for Outstanding Lighting Design, the 2016 & 2017 Austin Critics' Table Award for Lighting Design and the 2025 Austin Theatre Critics Awards for Lighting Design. He teaches Stagecraft in the St Edward's University.

Sound Designer

Costume Designer

Glenda has been working with Penfold since 2009 designing costumes for Nevermore: The Imaginary Life and Mysterious Death of Edgar Allan Poe, A Christmas Carol, Miracle on 34th Street, It's a Wonderful Life, Ordinary Days, Red, Moonlight and Magnolias, The Pavilion, I Love You Because, Going With Jenny, John &  Jen, Three Days of Rain and The Last Five Years. 

Prop Designer

Ismael is thrilled to be working with Penfold for the first time. When not performing, he is working behind the scenes in and around Austin. Soto Arts & Design was founded in 2021 although Ismael has been designing now for many years, from costume and prop construction to wig and scenic design. Past projects include Same Time Next Year, White Christmas, Annie Get Your Gun, Beehive the 60’s Musical, A Christmas Carol, The Buddy Holly Story, Sister Act the Musical, and The Addams Family Musical with the Palace Theatre. Disney’s The Little Mermaid with Zilker Hillside Theatre and Matt & Ben with the Morgan Theater Company.

Technical Director

Monroe Oxley, a native Texan with a Master's degree in Theatre from East Texas A&M University, boasts over 16 years of experience as a Technical Director. Monroe has been imparting his knowledge for over 14 years as an educator,  currently serving as the Scene Shop Manager and Technical Director for ACC Highland.

Percussion

Reed

Synthesizer

House Manager

Alexandra Russo is an Austin based area actress with a passion for production and theater management. She received her theater degree from the University of Texas and has been part of numerous behind the scene productions over the years in tech, front of house, or as a production manager. On stage, she has worked with many companies including Different Stages, City Theater, Georgetown Palace, The Stage Austin, Austin Summer Musical for Children and Paradox Players, receiving several BIP nominations over the years. In addition to theater, she worked for many years in property management and as a teacher and trainer for parent child classes.

Graphic Design

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Music & Lyrics

Mr. Finn was the writer and composer of Falsettos, for which he received two Tony Awards, Best Book of a Musical (with James Lapine) and Best Original Score. He also wrote and composed In Trousers, March of the Falsettos and Falsettoland (Outer Critics Circle Award for Best Musical, two Los Angeles Drama Critic's Awards, two Drama Desk Awards, the Lucille Lortel Award, and Guggenheim Fellowship in Musical Composition). Mr. Finn wrote the lyrics to Graciela Daniele's Tango Apasionado (music by the great Astor Piazzolla) and, with Michael Starobin, the music to Lapine's version of The Winter's Tale. His musical, Romance in Hard Times, was presented at the Public Theater. He wrote Painting You for Love's Fire, a piece commissioned and performed bye the Acting Company, based on Shakepeare's sonnets. For television, Mr. Finn provided the music and lyrics for the Ace Award-winning HBO cartoon "Ira Sleeps Over," "Tom Thumb and Thumbelina," "Pokey Little Puppy's First Christmas," and, with Ellen Fitzhugh, two "Brave little Toaster" cartoons. Mr. Finn wrote for Vogue, Harper's Bazaar, and The New Yorker. A graduate of Williams College where he was awarded the Hutchinson Fellowship for Musical Composition, Finn taught a weekly master class at the NYU Tisch Graduate Program in Musical Theatre Writing. Other projects include Elegies, A Song Cycle (Lincoln Center) and The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee which ran on Broadway and has been produced nationally and internationally, as well.

Mr. Finn passed away on April 7th, 2025.

Book

Broadway: The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee (Tony, Drama Desk awards); Off Broadway: Striking 12 (Lucille Lortel nomination), Off-Off: Serenade. Regional: Guthrie, Little House on the Prairie; Center Theater Group, Sleeping Beauty Wakes(Los Angeles Ovation Award); London: Blood Drive. Residencies, fellowships, commissions include: Eugene O'Neill National Theater Center, Baryshnikov Dance Foundation, MacDowell Colony, Manhattan Theatre Club, Deaf West, McCarter Theatre, Playwrights Horizons. Rachel is a volunteer mentor for TDF's Open Doors program, a visiting instructor at Yale School of Drama, and adjunct faculty member of NYU's Graduate Musical Theater Writing Program.

Conceiver

Rebecca Feldman is the conceiver of The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee for which she won a Lucille Lortel Award, Drama Desk and Tony Nomination for Best Musical. She directed its world premiere at Barrington Stage Company in the summer of 2004. 

Rebecca is Associate Producer on TRANSPARENT, the MUSICAL FINALE and served as Staff Writer on the finale as well. She is currently developing an episodic drama with Big Kid Pictures, called LA COYOTE, which has been selected to the WeForShe’s 2019 Writeher List.

She is an alumna of the Lincoln Center Director's Lab as well as the AFI Directing Workshop for Women where she won the Jean Firstenburg Award for Best Short.

Her short films include, MY FIRST TIME DRIVING (AFI Jean Firstenburg Award, Best Short at Lake Arrowhead Film Fest, Best of Shorts at Outfest), A/V CLUB (TV Pilot, NYTVF), UBER ALICE (Woodstock Film Fest), DEAD CAT (Producer, Tribeca Film Fest) and IRVING (Official Selection Rhode Island Film Fest, Official Selection USA Film Fest, Ft. Lauderdale Film Fest, Atlanta Jewish Film Fest). 

Additional Material

Jay Reiss is a playwright. He is a Julliard graduate and provided additional material to the book for THE 25TH ANNUAL PUTNAM COUNTY SPELLING BEE. Reiss appeared in the original workshops, Off-Broadway cast, and Broadway cast of the musical as Vice Principal Douglas Panch.

Director, Original Broadway Production

JAMES LAPINE is a playwright and director. On Broadway he has worked with Stephen Sondheim on Sunday in the Park with George; Into the Woods; and Passion. He also conceived and directed the musical review Sondheim on Sondheim. With William Finn he created Falsettos recently revived by Lincoln Center Theater; Little Miss Sunshine; Muscle; and directed Finn's The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee. Other Broadway credits include his play based on Moss Hart's memoir Act One (also LCT), Amour, The Diary of Anne Frank, Golden Child, and Dirty Blonde. He has written the plays Table Settings, Twelve Dreams, The Moment When, Fran's Bed and Mrs. Miller Does Her Thing. Lapine has been nominated for eleven Tony Awards, winning on three occasions. He has also been the recipient of the Pulitzer Prize, SDC's Mr. Abbott Award for Lifetime Achievement in the Theater, and inducted into the Theater Hall of Fame.

Original Play Creators

The Farm was founded in 2000 by Rebecca Feldman, Artistic Director.  It is a collective of writers and performers, including Jay Reiss, Dan Fogler, and Sarah Saltzberg.  The Farm’s interest is in the role of improvisation in creating new work for the theatre.  The Farm initially designates a two-week intensive period in which to discover, develop, and rehearse a play from the impulses borne mainly out of the pressure of a deadline.  Previous projects include “Super” (at Atlantic Theatre Studios), “Why I Hate Florida” (workshop at White Wave in DUMBO) and “C-R-E-P-U-S-C-U-L-E” (at the Present Company Theatorium in October 2002), on which “The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee” is based.  The character and original dialogue of “Beth Marguiles,” “Vice President Douglas Panch,” “Mr. Barfee,” and “Logan Schwarzengrubenierre” were created by Rebecca Feldman, Jay Reiss, Dan Fogler, and Sarah Saltzberg, respectively.