WENDY ANN GARDNER- BOOK, MUSIC, LYRICS

Wendy Ann Gardner (Book/Music/Lyrics) - Yes, A Cat Named Marty Cohen, Windywoo and her Naughty Naughty Pets, is a composer, lyricist, and author who lives in New York City. Her first musical, Windywoo and Her Naughty Naughty Pets, (Amas, NYMF, Legacy Theatre), debuted in the 2015 New York Musical Theater Festival as a Developmental Reading, directed by award-winning Jonathan Cerullo, produced by Tony Award-winning producer Greg Nobile (Gentlemen’s Guide to Love and Murder, Sweeney Todd, Gypsy) and Seaview Productions. Her new musical, Yes, A Cat Named Marty Cohen, follows the tale of her beloved Scottish Fold, Marty as he emigrates to America from Scotland.

Wendy was nominated for two Gemini Awards in 2006 and 2007 for her Animated TV show, The Naughty Naughty Pets, produced by CBC Canada and Decode Entertainment, which aired on Cartoon Network, CBC, BBC, NHK, translated into seven languages and syndicated worldwide.

She also wrote a series of children's books about the Naughty Naughty Pets characters, published by Hyperion Books for Children in 2006. She is the founder and creator of Scary Stories Inc., which licensed her unique graphics, commissioned by many companies, notably, Target, Nylabone, Paul Frank Industries, Mudpuppy, and Fiesta, to create toys and accessories since 1998.

She is a member of ASCAP, ACTRA, and the Dramatist Guild and sits on the board of All Out Arts, a nonprofit organization dedicated to fighting prejudice through the arts.

Wendy Ann Gardner is a graduate of the Ontario College of Art and Design (OCAD) Toronto, Canada, and is currently in the MA Visual Arts Education program at Hunter College. She is currently working on a new musical about the complex love lives of chickens, called Bumblefoot.

**Colin R. Freeman MUSICAL DIRECTOR**

Theatre includes Annie, Assassins, Cats, Chess, Anything Goes, Annie Get Your Gun, Disney’s The Little Mermaid, Grease, My Fair Lady, Gypsy, Guys and Dolls, Harmony, The Wizard of Oz, Sweet Charity, Forever Plaid, Harmony (Broadway), Pirates: The Penzance Musical (Broadway). His varied concert work has taken him from recording for the B.B.C. to conducting many of the principal U.S. and Canadian symphony orchestras, including the Pittsburgh, Rochester, Ottawa, Calgary, Utah, St Louis, Minnesota symphony orchestras, and the Los Angeles Philharmonic at the Hollywood Bowl. He has worked as an arranger and orchestrator for Lorna Luft, Mitzi Gaynor, Rod Stewart, Hal Linden, and Randy Rainbow, amongst others. He is an Ovation Award winner and Desert Theatre League winner for Best Musical Direction. He lives happily in New York with his wife, Lorna Luft.

**Stephanie Bianchi**
**Music**
**Arrangements**

**Stephanie Bianchi** is a music director, board-certified music therapist, voiceover actor, and composer/lyricist. She has written and performed music and lyrics for a variety of TV and radio shows and ads, independent films, children’s videos, and educational programs. She founded Synaptic Soul - a band of music therapists created to raise music therapy awareness and serve as a platform for MT causes, and wrote all the songs on their 2011 debut album “Awake”. She is also one half of the musical theatre writing duo Whiskey and Fall Weather (with Eric C. Webb). Their current projects in development include the irreverent anti-romantic musical comedy “Breakup”, a yet-to-be-titled rock musical about John Wilkes Booth, and a supernatural musical thriller based on a documented New York ghost story. Additionally, she is Music Director for The Guided Imagery Opera, an experimental immersive opera experience created by Joule L’Adara of Sounding Circles.

THE MUSICAL

Yes, A Cat Named Marty Cohen is a 60 minute, 15 song, new musical, for all ages, written by Wendy Ann Gardner, creator of the Naughty Naughty Pets children's books and animated TV series. It follows the story of Marty Cohen, a Scottish Fold cat with unusual ears, who travels to New York City in search of a better life. There he discovers a half-brother named Artie, hot dogs on a stick, and new friends who stand up for him against prejudice and discrimination.

Wendy Ann Gardner with one of her creations. — **Wendy Ann Gardner**
**BOOK, MUSIC, LYRICS**

Jonathan S. Cerullo DIRECTOR

Broadway/NYC: choreographic consultant: *Say Goodnight, Gracie,* assistant director and/or choreo: *Band In Berlin*, *Anna Karenina* (4 Tony Award nominations)*, The Three Musketeers,* original cast: *Legs Diamond* (3 Tony Award nominations), choreographer, Big Apple Circus’ *Carnivale! & Picturesque* (Lincoln Center). Produced/directed, *With Love Now and Forever,* CATS4COVID Relief Reunion Concert benefit for BC/EFA, raising $25,000 (Streaming). Off-Broadway: directed and choreo Mr. Puppy, The Musical (AMT Theatre/NYC) Conceived and directed A Lotta Night Music (Amas Muscal Theatre) produced/directed, *Legs Diamond Reunion Concert* (Feinstein’s/54 Below also Lincon Center Library of Performing Arts), directed and/or choreo, *The Flip Side* and No Foolin’ (Amas Music Theatre), *Fictitious* (Theatre Now NY - 2016 Best Director), *Windywoo* (Amas Musical Theatre & NYMF), *Pins and Needles* (La Mama), *Uta Hagen’s Tribute* (Town Hall), *Chance* (Fresh Fruit Festival Multiple Fruity award-winner), choreographer; *Under Fire* (2009 Best of Fest NYMF). TV: created and directed “Dear Mr. Gershwin” (CBC TV), choreo, “Evening At Pops”, assistant director, “Donny Osmond's This Is The Moment”, “Natalie Cole’s Christmas Special”, all for Great Performances. Film: “The First Wives Club”, “The Stepford Wives”, “The Cowboy Way”. Regional: Denver Center, Goodspeed, Arena Stage, Berkshire Theatre Festival, Uta Hagen in *Six Dance Lessons;* Geffen Playhouse, The Blank Theatre. Member of SDC (President’s Award 2020), AEA, DG, and former Callaway & Lortel Awards committees. Artistic Associate at Amas Music Theatre. Executive producer and president of JSCTheatricals, which has produced special events, festivals, award shows, professional AEA showcases, and readings. Alumnus of the Commercial Theatre Institute and the NY Foundation for the Arts Entrepreneurial program. For more information, please visit www.jsctheatricals.com

**Nikolas George Brown**
**STAGE MANAGER**

Nikolas has been professional Stage Managing for the past 10 years Credits include. Broadway: *Michael Jackson The Musical, Once Upon A One More Time the Britney Spears Musical, SIX the Musical, Gatsby: The Great Gatsby Musical, The Illusionist The Magic of the Holidays*. National Tours: *Bring It On The Musical*. Off-Broadway: *The Crusaded of Conner Stephens, Little Shop of Horrors* at New York City Center, *Romeo and Juliet* at Classic Stage Company. New York City: New York Musical Theater Festival, New York Fringe Festival and New York International Theater Festival. Regional Theater: The Repertory Theater of St. Louis, The MUNY, Shakespeare Festival St. Louis and Cleveland Public Theater. Love to family and friends.

Isaac Alter

Music Arrangements

Isaac Alter is a New York-based music director, accompanist, arranger, and conductor. Since graduating from college and moving to New York at the end of 2016, he has worked on a variety of music and musical theater projects, including Waitress, The Great Comet of 1812, and the Broadway-bound stage adaptation of Frozen. He holds a B.A. magna cum laude from Harvard University, where he studied stem cell biology and music.