Next Step Prep: Guest Artists

Previous Guest Artists

ALEX GEMIGNANI (2009, 2010, 2011) Alex has appeared on Broadway in The People in the Picture, Sweeney Todd, Avenue Q, Passion, Sunday In The Park With George, and portrayed Jean Valjean in the 2006 Broadway revival of Les Misérables.  Off- Broadway: The Public Theatre’s production of Sondheim and Weidman’s Road Show.

ERIN ORTMAN (2009, 2010, 2011) Erin currently serves on the Acting Faculty at CAP21 (Collaborative Arts Project) Musical Theatre Conservatory in New York City. She also serves as a teaching artist for Broadway Classroom and has a thriving private acting studio in Manhattan. Erin is also a member of the Lincoln Center Director’s Lab.

MARNI NIXON (2011) A Broadway, film, and TV veteran, Marni was the winner of the 2011 George Peabody Award for “Significant Contribution to American Music.” She is the singing voice of Deborah Kerr, Natalie Wood and Audrey Hepburn in the Motion Pictures and on the Soundtracks of The King and I, An Affair to Remember, West Side Story, and My Fair Lady; and also provided the voice of Grandmather Fa in Disney’s Mulan.

ANDY TAYLOR (2009, 2011, 2013) Andy can currently be seen on Broadway in the hit show Once. He also performed the role of Leo Bloom in the National Tour of The Producers and was seen on Broadway in Titanic and Moon Over Buffalo(with Carol Burnett).

ALET TAYLOR (2009, 2011, 2013) Alet has appeared onstage in Mel Brooks’ The Producers (1st National Tour).  New York: The Brain From Planet X, The Boys From Syracuse, Sweet Adeline, L’il Abner, One Touch of Venus (City Center Encores), Tip Toes, and Louisiana Purchase (Carnegie Hall).  Alet is a current faculty member of the American Musical and Dramatic Academy (AMDA)

MARY ANNA DENNARD (2011) Mary Anna is a nationally recognized college audition coach and author of “I Got In—The Ultimate College Audition Guide for Acting and Musical Theatre.”

LINDA MURPHY (2010, 2011, 2012, 2013) Linda is an adjunct professor of dance at The University of Montana. She holds a BFA in dance from Southern Methodist University, and has studied and performed in New York City and Los Angeles. She also teaches tap at On Center Performing Arts and Ballet Arts Academy in Missoula, and continues to attend major tap festivals around the world.

LYNN HELDING (2010, 2011, 2012, 2013)  Lynn Helding is Associate Professor of Voice and Performance Studies at Dickinson College, a recitalist specializing in recital and chamber music of our time, a trained vocologist and singing voice specialist, and an active presenter on current topics in vocal pedagogy.

GEORGIA STITT (2011, 2012) Georgia is a Broadway composer and lyricist. Her musicals currently in development include: Big Red Sun (NAMT Festival winner in 2010); Hello! My Baby; The Water (winner of the 2008 ANMT Search for New Voices in American Musical Theatre); Sing Me A Happy Song (a musical revue); and Mosaic. In 2012 Georgia, together with fellow NSP guest artist Susan Egan, performed her two woman show Glamour and Goop as a fundraiser for the Next Step Prep scholarship fund.

SETH RUDETSKY (2010) Seth is a prominent Broadway vocal coach who appeared regularly on the MTV-produced Legally Blonde reality show and is also host of Seth’s Big Fat Broadway on Sirius/XM Satellite Radio’s Broadway’s Best. In 2010, Seth was the featured performer in the first Next Step Prep scholarship fundraising event, An Evening With Seth Rudetsky.

BILL BOWERS (2009, 2010, 2012, 2013) Actor/mime/educator on Broadway for Lion King, Scarlet Pimpernel; Mime: Under a Montana Moon, It Goes Without Saying; Film: Two Weeks Notice.

JASON ROBERT BROWN (2009, 2010) Broadway composer: Parade (Tony Award winner), The Last 5 Years, Songs for a New World, 13.

TERRY MCGONIGLE (2009)  Instructor/department coordinator Las Vegas Academy, 2008 inductee Educational Theatre Association’s National Teacher Hall of Fame.

JACK FAILLA (2009) Dancer/choreographer Siegfried and Roy, Las Vegas; Moulin Rouge, Paris; International tours with Suzanne Somers and Carol Channing.

STEVE SMITH (2009, 2010)  Artistic director: Big Apple Circus; past Dean of Ringling Bros. Clown College; 1993 inductee to the Clown Hall of Fame.

MARCUS OLSON (2009, 2010) Broadway Performer: Passion, Assassins; National Tour: Into the Woods (Baker).

ALAN CAMPBELL (2009) Performer/ Producer Broadway: Tony Award nominee for Sunset Boulevard (Joe Gillis); TV: Jake and the Fatman, Three’s a Crowd;Artistic Producer of Hot Summer Nights at the Kennedy Theater in Raleigh North Carolina; Film: Weekend Warriors, Bump in the Night, Tom, Dick and Harry, andUniversal’s Simple Wish.