TEMPLE BEAUTIFUL has proven to be a high-water mark in a thirty-year-plus wild ride in the music business for Chuck. Its title track was a “Coolest Song in the World” on Little Steven’s Underground Garage. Before going solo in 1990, Chuck was guitarist and songwriter with Paisley Underground pioneers Green on Red. Since then he has released 14 more under his own name. He has appeared on the BBC, NPR’s Fresh Air, and Late Night with David Letterman, and tours internationally with his band The Mission Express. His songs have been featured in The L Word, Looking, Sons of Anarchy, True Blood, and Californication. His current release is The Land That Time Forgot. Not one to rest on his laurels, he is making demos with Matt Winegar toward his next CD.
A longtime San Franciscan, klipschutz (pen name of Kurt Lipschutz) is a poet, songwriter and occasional journalist whose underground reputation continues to grow. Among his many dreams growing up, being the lead writer of the libretto for a rock musical never once came up. But here we are, and along with Chuck he is moving this puppy ever closer, inch by inch, to Opening Night. In addition to extensive co-writing with Chuck, he has published widely. His poetry collections include Mr. Congeniality, Premeditations, Twilight of the Male Ego, and The Erection of Scaffolding for the Re-Painting of Heaven by the Lowest Bidder. Along with Jeremy Gaulke, from 2013 to 2017 he helmed the handmade, collectible minimag FOUR BY TWO through 12 issues. A complete set resides in UC Berkeley’s Bancroft Library’s Special Collection.
CLAY DAVID - Producer
A musical theatre professional for over three decades, on the way to producing, Clay David has done practically every job in the theatre: acting, directing, set design, prop design, lighting, and more. His career has taken him from London to Broadway, from Off-Broadway to regional theatre, from national tours to educational theatre. He has been received a TITAN Award for Excellence in Theatre, five San Francisco Bay Area Theater Critic’s Circle Awards, a Dean Goodman Choice Award (Best Director), a Lee Hartgrave FAME Best Play Award, a Victor Borge Legacy Award, a BRAVO Award for Outstanding Innovation and Excellence in the Arts, and is an AMCO Kennedy Center National Winner. He is currently nominated as Broadway.com’s The Person to Watch.
EMILIE WHELAN - Director
A director, performer, and arts organizer, Emilie has recently relocated to the Bay Area from New Orleans. An alumnus of Lincoln Center’s Director’s Lab and current member of The Network of Ensemble Theatres and Ubuntu Theatre Project, she has trained with Hand2Mouth, TEETH, and Pig Iron. With an MFA in Directing from UCSD, and having worked with the Stella Adler Conservatory, Amsterdam International Program, and Experimental Theatre Wing, Emile moved to New Orleans to establish the social-political theatre company Cripple Creek Theatre Company. She also co-founded The DISTILLERY Artist Residency housed at the Contemporary Arts Center and served as Performance Coordinator of the New Orleans Fringe Festival.
MATT JAFFE - Musical Director
A 22-year-old singer/songwriter from San Francisco, Matt started pursuing music more seriously when Jerry Harrison (Talking Heads) offered to produce his first record. He has opened for Mavis Staples and Wilco and has written with Chuck Prophet and Tom Higgerson of the Plain White T’s. With his band, Matt has played stages across the country, including The Fillmore, The Troubadour, and Irving Plaza. His latest release is The Spirit Catches You, another installment in his campaign to bring guitar gospel back to the masses.
ADAM LARSEN - Projection Design
For the past 15 years Adam has designed video projections for nearly 100 productions both On and Off Broadway, throughout the US, and abroad. Shows include Hal Prince’s LoveMusik (Broadway), The Gospel at Colonus (Athens, Edinburgh and Spoleto Festivals), The Wind-Up Bird Chronicles (Singapore and Edinburgh Festival), Brief Encounter and My Fair Lady (Shaw Festival), The Women of Brewster Place (Alliance/Arena Stage), Lily Plants a Garden (Mark Taper), Le Martyre de St. Sebastien, and Peer Gynt (San Francisco Symphony).
ALEX RODRIGUEZ - Choreographer
An award-winning Bay Area artist, Alex’s most recent credits include choreography for Ragtime (Berkeley Playhouse), Reefer Madness, Silence! The Musical, The Wild Party (TBA Award 2016) and Heathers: The Musical (TBA and BATCC Awards 2015) for Ray of Light Theatre. National Tour: Miss Saigon. Regional Credits: Evita (TBA Lead Actor 2014), Triassic Parq (TBA Featured 2014), ROLT Cabarets: No Hablo Español: Tales of the Whitest Brown Boy, Let Saigons Be Bygones, and Rant: Take It or Leave It.
NICK BENACERRAF - Set Design
A national designer of sets and environments for live performance, and co-artistic director of Manhattan’s The Assembly, Nick has collaborated with Judith Malina (The Living Theatre), Trusty Sidekick (Lincoln Center), Waterwell (Under the Radar), Lars Jan (Center for New Performance), BAM Poetry, Meiyin Wang (La Mama), Kristin Marting (HERE), Goat in the Road (New Orleans), Son of Semele (LA), and has assisted design luminaries Richard Foreman, Mimi Lien, Suzanne Lacy, Douglas Little, and Christine Jones.
JC CARLOS MOORE - Lighting Design
With countless Broadway musicals to his credit, among them Lion King, Spiderman, Wicked, Billy Elliot, Matilda, The Color Purple, Kinky Boots, and Warhorse, JC has also worked on numerous concert projects (U2 360 Degree Tour, Taylor Swift, Madonna, MTV Music Awards, BET Awards, Tony Awards, The Grammys), and in TV/film (Power/Omarie Hardwick, Spiderman/Jamie Foxx, Ricky and the Flash/Meryl Streep, Sesame Street, Jimmy Fallon, Seth Meyers, E! TV, and the Super Bowl with Beyoncé, Bruno Mars, and the Red Hot Chili Peppers).