Composer Glenn Paxton Book and Lyrics Robert White* and Phyllis White *Robert White is a member of the Dramatists Guild Glenn Paxton (Composer) was born in Chicago, graduated cum laude from Princeton University, and now lives in Ojai, California. His first professional composing credit was the score to the Broadway musical First Impressions, produced by Jule Styne, directed by Abe Burrows, starring Polly Bergen, Farley Granger, Hermione Gingold, and, in the British production, Patricia Routledge. He has written the music to innumerable TV specials, documentaries, and theatrical movies including When the Legends Die (20th Century-Fox feature starring Richard Widmark, with original songs performed by Freddie Hart), Amazing Stories (ABC, Steven Spielberg), the much repeated PBS Christmas show An American Christmas: words and music (with Burt Lancaster and James Earl Jones, and original Paxton songs performed by Freda Payne and Peter Yarrow), The Stately Ghosts of England (NBC, with Margaret Rutherford), The Hill Country (NBC, with the main theme, The Hill Country Theme, later recorded by the Boston Pops orchestra, Willie Nelson, The Reivers, and many others), PBS’s New World Visions (recorded by members of the New York Philharmonic), many Andy Rooney specials and essays for television, many ABC Afterschool Specials including an Emmy Award nomination for original music (My Other Mother), and numerous movies for television including Dark Night of the Scarecrow (CBS, with Charles Durning), Vital Signs (CBS, with Ed Asner), Isabel’s Choice (CBS, with Jean Stapleton), The Two Worlds of Jennie Logan (CBS, with Lindsay Wagner), Dream Breakers  (CBS, with Kyle McLachlan), Charlie and the Great Balloon Chase (with Jack Albertson and Adrienne Barbeau), and Clone Master (Paramount-NBC, with Ralph Bellamy). His musical The Adventures of Friar Tuck, with words by Allan Leicht, ran for a month at the Saratoga Performing Arts Center in Saratoga, New York, following presentations of the work at the Eugene O’Neill Theater Center. In 1997 it was performed in St. Petersburg, Russia in a cultural exchange, produced by the O’Neill Theater. There have also been productions in New York, Cleveland, and New Orleans. The Lansing Symphony, Gustav Meier conducting, premiered his orchestral-choral composition The Evening Sing at Wharton Hall in Lansing. His multimedia full-length work Walking Home, based on personal accounts of farmers and townspeople in western Illinois 70-100 years ago, and commissioned by Western Illinois University, was premiered at the university starring Timothy Nolen and Karen Bearsdsley. His CD of original piano music, Prairie Indigo, relating to childhood memories of his grandparents’ farm in rural Illinois, has played on over 150 radio stations during the past few years. Glenn’s opera Monticello, (www.MonticelloTheOpera.com), about Sally Hemings and Thomas Jefferson, with libretto by Leroy Aarons, was premiered by L.A. Theater Works at the Skirball Cultural Center, Los Angeles, in April, 2000, and a commercial recording of the work by L.A. Theater Works, is in release. This recording marked the beginning of his collaboration with music director Victoria Kirsch. A second production, a full production, took place at California Plaza in Los Angeles, produced by Grand Performances in 2001. There have been full-length broadcasts of the opera on public radio across the country. Sara’s Diary, 9/11, a song cycle for soprano and piano with text by Leroy Aarons, was premiered at Los Angeles County Museum of Art’s Bing Theater and broadcast on Radio Kmozart, Los Angeles, in 2003. Many performances of the work took place in 2004 in southern and northern California. The musical WR and Daisy, about W.R. Hearst and Marion Davies, written in collaboration with Robert and Phyllis White, premiered in a full production at Theater West in Los Angeles in 2004. Robert White (Co-writer, book and lyrics) Born to a band leader and a singer who were on the road, Robert White’s entire life has been in show business, from his childhood years spent touring the country with his parents on one night stands to his later, lifelong career as a writer. He learned the fine points of comedy from George Burns, mastered the revue and sketch writing on the Hoagy Carmichael Show, and later wrote comedies, including Danny Thomas Show, The Real McCoys, and Mr. Adams and Eve for Howard Duff and Ida Lupino. After Robert and Phyllis married, they wrote together extensively. In London they wrote for BBC and Associated Redifussion, and collaborated on a film, The Cool Mikado. Back in Hollywood, they together wrote My Favorite Martian  and other television comedies, westerns, detective stories, and dramas. Along the way they wrote documentaries for Wolpert, and dozens of animation scripts. Robert and Phyllis also found time to write several daytime dramas. Their last project for television was a Steve Martin special, after which they wrote two books. Phyllis passed away after collaborating on the book for the musical, W.R. and Daisy. Since then Robert has written a half-dozen plays that have been performed in theatres around the country. Awards: — The National Academy of Television Arts & Sciences,     nomination, outstanding writing, 1977-78 — Writers Guild of America, outstanding script, 1979 — Writers Guild of America, outstanding script, 1984 Phyllis White (Co-writer, book and lyrics) began writing while at the University of Minnesota. Among many television shows which she wrote alone and with Robert, she was head writer on “Adventure,” which won the Peabody Award. With him, she was nominated by the Television Academy for an Emmy, and received two Outstanding Writing Awards from the Writers Guild of America. Her last literary work was collaborating on the book for “W.R. and Daisy.” After Phyllis passed away, TV Guide, in its January issue, named the people who died the previous year who had contributed most to television in their lifetime. About Phyllis they said: “Was there a more eclectic TV scribe? White was headwriter for the The Tonight Show and won a Peabody for penning the documentary series Adventure. Later, she wrote Westerns (The Virginian), crime shows (Mission: Impossible), sitcoms (The Flying Nun) and soaps (Guiding Light). Creative Team and Cast of a Staged Reading of W.R. and Daisy June 29, 2010, at Marion Davies’ Beach House (Annenberg Community Beach House), Santa Monica, CA. Director Leslie Paxton Music Director/Pianist Victoria Kirsch Cast Gualtiero Negrini William Randolph Hearst (WR) Kristin Peterson Wat Marion Davies (Daisy) Suzan Hanson Tour Guide, Louella Parsons,  Constance Talmadge, Millicent Hearst Greg Fedderly Joe Willicombe, Jimmy Love, Tom Ince Brigid Ryan Daisy’s maid (Bridget) Philip Persons Narrator Leslie Paxton (Director) performed for many years in Los Angeles theater, playing roles as varied as Woman in Talk to Me Like the Rain, Laura in Still Life, and Gertrude in the Tiny Hamlet Show. She has also worked in television and film and directed two one-woman shows at the Fountain Theater. After moving to Ojai, she directed Ojai’s first two productions of The Vagina Monologues and adapted and directed a reader’s theater version of the original book The Wizard of Oz. She directed two plays at the historic Ojai Art Center and is a member of the prestigious Theater 150 where she directed The Seahorse and performed many roles including Winnie in Beckett’s Happy Days, directed by John Diehl. She just finished a season there, playing an eccentric grandmother in Eleemosynary, a gibberish speaking grandmother in Fuddy Mears, and, in Inspecting Carol, a veteran actress and vocal coach who uses lemons in an interesting way. She is married to composer Glenn Paxton. Victoria Kirsch (Music Director/Pianist) is delighted to collaborate once again with composer Glenn Paxton after serving as Music Director and pianist for his opera Monticello, first performed for L.A. Theatre Works in 2000 and then for its fully-staged premiere at Grand Performances in 2001. Since 1998 she has enjoyed an extensive collaboration with Julia Migenes, playing the celebrated soprano’s one-woman show Diva on the Verge  throughout the world. She is a popular teaching artist for the L.A. Opera’s Education and Community Programs Department, and she creates and performs exhibit-based programs at local museums. She is the pianist and music director of the LA-based Operetta Foundation, which presents staged concerts of rare operetta gems. A recent recipient of an NEA Chairman's Grant from outgoing chair Dana Gioia, she co-created a program based on the works of Emily Dickinson which was presented at the Beach House in December 2009. She was a vocal faculty member at USC's Thornton School of Music and the Music Academy of the West in Santa Barbara, and she is currently a faculty pianist for SongFest in Malibu. Gualtiero Negrini (William Randolph Hearst, “WR”) is an Italian-American singing actor who has performed leading roles with Lyric Opera of Chicago, Washington Opera, Columbus Opera, Tulsa Opera, Long Beach Grand Opera, Chattanooga Opera, and many others. With the Chicago company he has sung 28 roles, and has shared the stage with such greats as Luciano Pavarotti, Alfredo Kraus, Mirella Freni and Nicolai Ghiaurov. With the Chicago Symphony he has sung the role of David in Die Meistersinger under Sir Erich Leinsdorf, and with the San Francisco Symphony he sang in the New Year’s Eve Vienna Gala under Yves Abel. Mr. Negrini is also known to many as the cantankerous tenor Ubaldo Piangi in over 3,000 performances of Sir Andrew Lloyd- Webber’s The Phantom of the Opera, both in Los Angeles and San Francisco. Having been a veteran of television and film acting and voiceover work, this past fall he was seen and heard on the HBO series Curb Your Enthusiasm as the amiable opera-singing restaurant owner who is so rudely interrupted by Larry David. He is also a well known conductor and vocal coach and resides in South Pasadena, California with his wife Lucia and their three children. Kristin Peterson Wat (Marion Davies [“Daisy”]). A native Southern Californian, Kristin graduated from UC Irvine, earning Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees in classical vocal performance. She enjoys a diverse career in opera, musical theater, and concert work. Her stage experience is rooted at Opera Pacific, with appearances at Long Beach Opera and Los Angeles Opera. Her regional theater credits include leading roles in Phantom, Die Fledermaus, West Side Story, Kismet, The Most Happy Fella, Pirates of Penzance, The Magic Flute, Into the Woods and The Mikado, among several more. Her solo concert work includes Brahms' Ein Deutches Requiem, Mahler's Symphony No. 4, and Mozart's Requiem. Kristin’s competitive drive has earned her top awards in national and international vocal competitions from the Metropolitan Opera Western Regional Finals, to the International Eisteddfod in Wales. A varied career has also afforded her enjoyable work in commercials and television as well. Suzan Hanson (Tour Guide, Louella Parsons, Constance Talmadge, Millicent Hearst) recently reprised the role of Eurydice at the Hong Kong Arts and Edinburgh International Festivals - a role she created for the world premiere of Orpheus X by Rinde Eckert at A.R.T. Other roles include Brünnhilde in Wagner’s Siegfried and Götterdämerung  (Dove version) for Pittsburgh Opera Theater and Long Beach Opera, and the recent LBO offering of Ullmann’s Emperor of Atlantis double billed with Orff’s The Clever Woman, staged in the hull of the Queen Mary. In traditional opera Suzan’s roles include Cio-cio-san, Countess, Donna Anna, Fiordigli, the four heroines in Tales of Hoffman, Susannah, Tatiana and Titania at various companies including San Francisco Opera, Carnegie Hall, Virginia Opera, Arizona Opera, and New Israeli Opera. Frequently sought for new works, Hanson created the role of Hanako in Philip Glass’ Sound of a Voice (A.R.T., Long Beach Opera) as well as lead roles in White Raven (O Corvo Branco) (Glass/Wilson; Lincoln Center, Teatro Real Madrid, Lisbon), Tales of the Nutcracker (Bohmler/Helfgot; Opera San Jose), Hydrogen Jukebox (Glass/Ginsberg; Lincoln Center, Spoleto Festival USA and Italy), Fall of the House of Usher (Glass, A.R.T, Kentucky Opera, Maggio Musicale Fiorentino) and Coyote Tales (Mollicone/Harnick, Lyric Opera Kansas City). On the theatrical stage, highlights of Ms. Hanson’s career include Maria (Wintertime; San Jose Rep) and Sharon in Master Class, opposite Faye Dunaway’s Maria Callas. In recording she may be heard in The Tender Land (Koch International), Coyote Tales (Newport Classics) and Cage’s Europera 3 (Mode). www.suzanhanson.com Greg Fedderly (Joe Willicombe, Jimmy Love, Tom Ince) received a Master’s degree from the University of Southern California, where he was also the first recipient of the Marilyn Horne Scholarship. Fedderly is a principal artist at Los Angeles Opera; he has appeared in a variety of roles with the company. He has also appeared at the 1992 Aldeburgh Festival, with West Deutsches Rundfunkorchester, Orquestra Sinfonica de Barcelona, Théâtre du Châtelet, Drottningholm Festival, The Washington Opera, Houston Grand Opera, Glimmerglass Opera and Seattle Opera. In summer 2001, he accompanied Los Angeles Opera to Finland’s Savonlinna Festival, where he sang Narraboth in performances of Salome. In addition, he appeared as Gastone in Los Angeles Opera’s autumn 2001 production of La Traviata and as Raoul de St. Brioche in that company’s December 2001 presentation of The Merry Widow. In 2002, Mr. Fedderly made his San Francisco Opera debut as Pang in Turandot and returned to Los Angeles Opera to sing that same role in May – June 2002. Brigid Ryan (Bridget - Daisy’s Maid) most recently worked on the upcoming web series Gigi with The Lost Nomads produced by the BBC. She currently is working on the independent feature film Route 30 too in her home state of Pennsylvania. Brigid graduated from the Carnegie Mellon School of Drama. Philip Persons (Narrator). In addition to five productions on the Theatre 40 stage, he has appeared in leading roles in a variety of Los Angeles theatres in such plays as Richard III, Still Life, The Dybbuk, Twelfth Night, The Physicists, Mrs. Warren’s Profession, Hedda Gabler, and Troilus and Cressida. On TV he has been seen in Quantum Leap, L.A. Law, and Dr. Quinn, Medicine Woman. Persons holds an MA in Theatre from UCLA and has been featured in numerous commercials and industrial films, as well as the cult sci-fi feature, The Jupiter Menace.