THE PLAYERS
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Paul Vogt*
Broadway: Hairspray (Edna Turnblad), Chicago (Amos Hart). Regional: Replaced Harvey Fierstein in Vegas – Hairspray. 5 National/International tours of Chicago. Paul was the only male authorized to play Ursula in Disney’s The Little Mermaid (MUNY), Laurel and Hardy (Falcon Theater-West Coast Premiere), Idaho (Forestburgh-World/The Smith Center Vegas Premiere), Funny Thing…Forum (Paper Mill), Hairspray (NSMT, Sacramento, MUNY, PCLO, TUTs, North Shore Tuacahn), Disney’s Aladdin (Tuacahn), Minsky’s (Ahmanson-World Premiere) Garry Marshall’s Happy Days the Musical: Original Cast. With Orlando Shakes: Hamlet, Much Ado, Comedy of Errors, As You Like It. Film: Valentine’s Day, Princess Diaries 2, Good Boy, Lilo and Stitch 2, Blonde Ambition. TV: Perfect Harmony, MADtv, The Orville, Side Hustle, ReRUN Show, Raising Hope, Glee, Grey’s Anatomy, Hannah Montana, Arrested Development, Reno 911, Maximum Bob. Twitter @Therealpaulvogt
Web www.paulcvogt.com.
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Kelly Bashar*
KELLY is a company member of the critically acclaimed IMPRO THEATRE and the all-female Improv Shakespeare company, SHREW! She is a highly sought after Instructor and Director of unscripted theater. Most recently, she appeared at Orlando Shakes in their 2023 production of A CHRISTMAS CAROL. Kelly was the woman everyone loved to hate when she played Martin Freeman’s wife Pearl Nygaard in the Golden Globe and Emmy-winning hit miniseries Fargo on FX. Some of her other favorite screen credits include Scorpion, Speechless, Gilmore Girls, and Parks and Recreation. Kelly appeared off Broadway in TWO's A CROWD. On the west coast, she has performed at The Broad Stage, Wallis Annenberg Center, Gary Marshall Theatre, Laguna Playhouse, and The Ford Amphitheater. VO highlights include Smallfoot and VIDEO PALACE for Shudder. Kelly is also a writer and one of the credits she is most proud of is being the co-writer of, (and portraying “Pippin” in), the award winning play Fellowship! The Musical Parody of “The Fellowship of the Ring" - which won NYMF, LA Weekly, and Saturn awards.
https://demoreel.com/kellyholdenbashar
https://twitter.com/KellyBashar
https://www.instagram.com/kellybashar/
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Jen Bascom*
Jennifer Bascom has been performing the Bard for over a decade. She was seen at the Utah Shakespeare Festival as an member of SHREW ! She is currently an immersive show director with Disney Live Entertainment, Disney Signature Experiences. Her directing work has been seen at Star Wars: Galactic Starcruiser, on Disney Cruise Lines, and in Disneyland Paris. She has written and appeared on television programs including True Beauty, Comedy IQ with Wayne Brady, World Cup Comedy, Attack of the Show, U-Jokes, and the award-winning web-series Relation-Fix. Acting credits include: Second City Theatricals, ComedySportzLA, Shrew - the all-female improvised Shakespeare company, and multiple projects with Disney Live Entertainment. Original written works: WBOO A Halloween Radio Show, head script-writer for NBCU/ Tic Toc games, and her screenplay The Christmas Letter which is currently in pre-production. She was invited to give a Ted Talk in 2019 about improv curing the addiction to being right.
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Cory Rouse
Cory has been improvising for over 30 years (ugh) and has improvised from small rooms to Arenas. Since that time, he is grateful for the opportunities to perform as a member of IMPRO THEATRE in Los Angeles, tour nationally with Wayne Brady and Friends, be a founding member of the Saturn Award Winning , Off-Broadway musical “FELLOWSHIP: a musical parody of Lord of the Rings”, host his own show for Disney and for G4tv and appear in a movie here and there. He is known globally as a pioneer in Immersive deign and, currently, works as an award-winning Sr. Creative Director for Walt Disney Imagineering. Huzzah!
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Guest this week
Ah, an answer to be revealed… it could be someone you have seen on Stage, TV or a movie or perhaps…. YOU!
- denotes member of AEA
The Mechanicals
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Dimitri Toscas
Dimitri Toscas was a founding Artistic Director of Garry Marshall Theatre in Burbank, CA. A well established, award-winning director of theatre, musical theatre and opera, his most critically acclaimed Los Angeles productions include:
Master Class (Ovation Nominated: Best Play, Ovation Winner: Best Actress, Carolyn Hennesy), a new production of The Spitfire Grill and Ovation Recommended plays Buyer & Cellar, Bunny Bunny, Scott & Hem and Laurel And Hardy. Toscas garnered national attention for writing and directing two contemporary versions of beloved operas: Verdi's La Traviata and Mozart's Cosi fan tutte, both featuring new English librettos and translations and both commissioned by Skylight Music Theatre in Milwaukee, WI). Toscas also garnered recognition from the Los Angeles Times for writing, directing and designing family productions for the Falcon Theatre: an original musical adaptation of "Cinderella!" (based on the opera Cenerentola), the MAGIC flute (based on Mozart’s comedic opera, which starred Paul Vogt of MADtv and Broadway’s Hairspray and Chicago), and The Little Mermaid (set in ancient Greece, featuring Jessica Rush from Broadway's Gypsy, Jersey Boys and Summer), each show commissioned and produced by celebrated film director Garry Marshall (Pretty Woman, Princess Diaries, Valentine’s Day & Happy Days
Besides stage directing for the theatre, Toscas served on a Special Entertainment Task Force, which developed new shows for Walt Disney World’s EPCOT -- and has directed and developed improvisational, interactive and immersive shows for both Disneyland and Universal Studios Hollywood.
His film and television credits include "additional screenplay" credit for the animated feature Igor, writer/researcher on the Universal/Imagine film Playboy (a bio-pic of Hugh Hefner's life), and Toscas worked briefly as a freelance writer for the Development Department of Aardman Feature Animation Studios, London.
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Jeff Hopkins
Jeff Hopkins has performed improvisation and stand-up comedy around the globe, with The Brave New Workshop and The Second City. He produced the live comedy game shows, "Cosplay Crash" at the Rockwell Table and Stage in Hollywood, California, and "The Butt Dial Stand-up Comedy Game Show" at the ACME Comedy Theatre in North Hollywood. "Lincoln Laughs," the live stand-up comedy showcase he produced has been running in Burbank for three years.