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Kevin
Connors (Director/Faculty)
Professional musical
theatre composer and director for almost 30
years. Off-Broadway credits include Prime
Time Prophet, Jukebox Saturday Night, The
Abandoned Loves of Frederick R., Life Anonymous,
Lover - The Valentino Musical, Babes Off Broadway
(finalist for the Michael Stewart Production
Award), Saloon and Suzy Q. Connecticut
credits include numerous professional productions
including The Fantasticks, It’s A
Wonderful Life: A Live Radio Play, Babes in
Toyland, Bah Humbug! (all at Stamford’s
Rich Forum); Grand Re-Opening of the Palace
Theatre starring Skitch Henderson, Louise
Pitre, James Naughton and Joan Rivers; Baby
(Polka Dot Playhouse), Christopher Columbus
and Operetta in Red, White and Blue
(New England Lyric Operetta). Mr. Connors
began his career as a performer touring his
own act with Bob Hope, Henny Youngman and
Johnny Mathis, and his debut CD - The Things
We Never Say - was released in October 2000.
In 1987 he co-founded Music Theatre of Connecticut
with Jim Schilling, and has since directed
many of the Equity MTC MainStage productions
including Yours, Anne (Connecticut
Critics Circle award nominee), It’s
A Wonderful Life: A Live Radio Play (2008
Moss Hart Award Winner), A Little Night
Music, Edges, john & jen and The
Last 5 Years; as well as writing original
music and lyrics for more than 10 childrens’
musicals. His latest work - Mothers and
Sons (with playwright Joe Landry) had
its critically-acclaimed World Premiere on
the MTC Mainstage in January 2009 and is currently
in development for Off-Broadway. He has served
as Adjunct Professor of Musical Theatre at
The Hartt School of Music/University of Hartford
and the University of Bridgeport, taught at
Musical Theatre Works in NYC, and has created
many of MTC’s educational programs including
the nationally-recognized College-Bound in
the Performing Arts, which he now presents
at theatre schools throughout the country.
Kevin is a proud member of AEA, ASCAP and
The Dramatists Guild. www.kevconnors.com
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Jim
Schilling (Director/Faculty)
co-founded MTC in 1987
and has served as teaching artist, Artist
in Residence, director, general manager, actor,
producer and currently as Director of the
School of Performing Arts. He has directed
a number of MTC MainStage productions including
Something’s Afoot, Some Enchanted
Evening and I Do, I Do. He has
also directed numerous Student Productions
including Anything Goes, Oliver!, The Music
Man, 42nd Street, Guys and Dolls, Annie
(all at the Westport Country Playhouse)
The Sound of Music, Grease (3x),
Godspell (3x), Funny Girl, (at
the Quick Center) Annie, Annie Get Your
Gun, Once On This Island, Zombie Prom
and Lucky Stiff. Acting credits include
Upper Broadway (Westport Country Playhouse),
Hamlet (starring Tony Roberts), The
Fantasticks (Rich Forum), It’s
A Wonderful Life: A Live Radio Play, and
on MTC’s MainStage in Jacques Brel
is Alive and Well..., Three Guys Naked from
the Waist Down, and Yours, Anne.
Film
credits include Bullets Over Broadway,
Cadillac Man, Soapdish and Dead Man
Walking. As an arts educator, Jim has
created a number of programs for MTC School
of Performing Arts and for MTC’s ArtReach
programs in area schools including Briggs
High School (Norwalk),Weston Public Schools,
Minds In Motion (Westport/Weston/Wilton),
Rogers Magnet School (Stamford), Six-to-Six
School (Bridgeport) and Coleytown Middle and
Elementary Schools in Westport. Jim holds
a BFA degree in Musical Theatre from Otterbein
College in Ohio, with an emphasis on childrens’
theatre and was also trained at the Actors’
Theatre of Louisville, Playwright’s Horizons
in New York City and Improv Asylum in Boston.
Jim, a graduate of the National Guild of Community
Schools of the Arts’ AMICI Arts Management
Program, continues as a Blue Ribbon Panelist
for the Daytime Emmy Awards, and a member
of “Who’s Who in the American Theatre”
from 1991-present. Member AEA, SAG, AFTRA. |
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Marty
Bongfeldt (Faculty)
joined the faculty of
Music Theatre of Connecticut in the fall of
2001. Marty has a wide range of experience
in many different aspects of show business.
She started working professionally as a child
doing commercials and theatre, later adding
feature film and television credits with such
directors as Ron Howard and Brian DePalma.
Early in her career, Marty received such honors
as being chosen from a very select group of
actor/singers to be coached by the
legendary Mary Martin. Honors and recognition
have continued throughout Marty’s career,
one recent honor: of the many actresses who
have performed Val in A Chorus Line,
it was Marty who was asked to perform “Dance
Ten, Looks Three” for Marvin Hamlisch
at the awards ceremony for Mr. Hamlisch’s
Lifetime Achievement Award directed by Tony
Award winning director Tommy Walsh. New York
and regional stage credits include Comanche
Cafe & Domino Courts, Gillette, Steel
Magnolias and Biloxi Blues. Musicals
include Amalia in She Loves Me, Tiger
Lily opposite Cathy Rigby in Peter Pan,
Pam in Baby, Carrie in Carousel,
Lily St. Regis in Annie and Bonnie
in Anything Goes opposite Van Johnson.
Ms. Bongfeldt has originated roles in many
new works produced in NYC including Alexander
Zhurbin’s A Nervous Splendor, Hell’s
Belles, A Murder is Foretold, and Madly
in Love. Marty is a teacher and a professional
choreographer/director, and has served many
times on film sets as dialogue coach and legal
guardian to under-aged actors. Marty has worked
as a casting assistant for commercials and
live industrials in NYC and served as the
casting coordinator for Square Route and Twin
Tiger’s Productions as well as production
coordinator for HYT Productions in New York
City. Member AEA, SAG and AFTRA. |
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Mary
Jo Duffy (Faculty)
performed on and off
Broadway before moving to Newtown, CT with
her husband Daniel, daughter A’ine, and
four labrador retrievers. Mary Jo began her
formal vocal training with Metropolitan Opera
singer Mimi Lerner in Pittsburgh, PA, then
went on to study with Lorenzo Malfatti and
Margaret Ross at Chatham College as a Minna
Kaufmann Ruud voice scholar. Mary Jo continued
her vocal training after college with Beatrice
Krebs at Carnegie-Mellon University before
moving to New York City where she studied
extensively with Tony McDowell. Mary Jo played
Liberty in Tom O’Horgan’s Senator
Joe on Broadway, Magnolia in the National
and European tours of Showboat and
has spent years working in regional theatres
across the country, as well as industrial
trade shows and television commercials. Favorite
roles include Shelby in Steel Magnolias,
Maria in West Side Story, Julie in
Carousel and Laurey in Oklahoma.
Mary Jo has worked with film director David
Lynch at BAM and has performed as a soloist
in several Columbia Artists Concert tours
across the country. Ms. Duffy has been directing
the musicals at the Fraser-Woods School in
Newtown for the past four years as well as
guest directing in some of the local public
schools. Mary Jo teaches musical theatre,
drama, and private voice in Newtown, CT, and
has been on the MTC vocal faculty since 2003.
Member AEA, SAG. |
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Deborah
Levy (Faculty)
has been on the faculty
at MTC since 1989! Aside from teaching and
directing at MTC, Deb worked at the Johnston
Talent Agency for thirteen years. Deb was
a commercial agent for two well known children’s
agencies in New York; Abrams Artists and Associates,
and Jordan, Gill and Dornbaum. After graduating
from Mount Holyoke College, Deb studied acting
at Circle in the Square in NYC. She performed
in several Off Broadway productions including
Inside Out and Mrs. Warren’s Profession.
Summer Stock credits include Fiddler on
the Roof at the New Jersey Festival Theatre,
as well as roles with Keene State Theatre,
Hope Theatre, and The Summer Theatre at Mount
Holyoke College. Deb also performed in a live
Industrial for Pepsi Cola (where she met her
husband, Mark), and she also appeared in several
soap operas including One Life to Live
and As the World Turns. Currently Deb
performs with Steppin’ Out Entertainment,
a local theatre group that does murder mysteries,
musical revues and the holiday show at the
Spinning Wheel Inn in Redding, CT. She lives
in Trumbull with her husband and their daughters,
Leah (a graduate of the MTC College-Bound
program) and Justine. Member AEA, AFTRA. |
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Sarah
Pfisterer (Faculty)
has played over 1000
performances in the role of Christine in The
Phantom of the Opera on Broadway and across
the country. She was nominated for the prestigious
Joseph Jefferson award for her portrayal of
the romantic heroine. Also on Broadway, she
played Magnolia in Harold Prince's award-winning
revival of Show Boat, and was seen
in Children and Art directed by Richard
Maltby, celebrating Stephen Sondheim’s
75th birthday. Off Broadway she played Anna
Smith in Meet Me in St. Louis at the
Irish Repertory Theatre. Regionally she appeared
in The Music of Andrew Lloyd Webber
at the Kennedy Center in Washington DC, Maria
in Sound of Music (IRNE award for Best
Actress), Julie in Carousel (IRNE award
for Best Actress), Marian in The Music
Man (IRNE Award nomination), Anna in The
King and I (IRNE Award nomination), Belle
in Beauty and the Beast (IRNE Award
nomination), Betty Blake in Will Rogers
Follies, and Eliza in My Fair Lady.
A Metropolitan Opera semi-finalist, Sarah
has done extensive concert work with conductors
such as Michael Tilson Thomas and John McGlinn
and did a recording of Jerome Kern’s
Oh Boy in London under the direction of
Mr. McGlinn. She has appeared on The Today
Show and The Rosie O'Donnell Show.
In addition to numerous commercials and industrial
films, she is featured in the music video
Beggar's Waltz. Sarah has Bachelors
and Masters degrees from Northwestern University.
She has given Master Classes in voice and
acting at high schools and colleges across
the country and has taught private voice for
a number of years. She is the proud mom of
Hannah and Lily. |
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Kimberly
Porio (Faculty)
began her dance training
in jazz, tap and ballet with Mikki Williams
at A Dance Class in Westport, Connecticut
in 1975. She later performed all across the
tri-state area with “The Jazz Troupe”
directed by Ms. Williams, including performances
at The Levitt Pavilion, the SoNo Arts Festival
and “A Tribute to Tony Bennett”
at the St. James Theatre on Broadway. Kimberly
taught Jazz classes at A Dance Class prior
to attending Providence College where she
studied Modern Jazz and Ballet. Kimberly taught
a Master Jazz Class at Providence College
and was a contributing
choreographer for the first annual PC Dance
Company performance. She continues her training
at D’Valda and Sirico Dance Center in
Fairfield, where she taught both ballet and
jazz from 1999-2002 and teaches Jazz Dance
to the Dance Club at Green Farms Academy during
their Winter term. She is excited and proud
to be continuing her teaching career here
at MTC. |
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