Who's Who at Post in 2012

Production Stage Manager

A Sheridan, Wyoming native, Ashley is excited to be returning once again to the Post Playhouse! Currently, Ashley is a technical theatre major at Chadron State College with an emphasis in stage management. She has been the Head of Properties at the college for the last two years and has served as an actor in You’re A Good Man, Charlie Brown as Snoopy and in How I Learned to Drive as the Teenage Greek Chorus. She has also been production stage manager for Bus Stop and Vampire Cowboy Trilogy. After her experiences last summer, Ashley is ecstatic to be joining such a fantastic cast and crew for another summer!

Dan Denton hails from Topeka, KS where he is routinely involved in theatre productions.  You may recognize Dan from last year playing the roles of Jimmy in Hank Williams: Lost Highway, Jinx in Forever Plaid, and Chip in The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee here at the Post Playhouse.  Dan is proud to have finished his first production working as the music director for [Title of Show] this past year, and couldn’t be happier than to have had that opportunity.  Most recently, he played Frank Sinatra in the new musical The Rat Pack Lounge.  Dan hopes audiences are just as excited for these summer productions as he is!

Season Costume & Scenic Designer

This backwoods spitfire hailing from Pennsylvania’s Laurel Highlands now lives and works in our Nation’s Capital.  As well as designing and assisting in the city, he can be seen as a design assistant on REAL ESTATE INTERVENTION with Sabrina Soto on HGTV.  He also does Costume craft work for MY FAIR LADY (Arena Stage) and Nabucco (The Washington National Opera).  Shows he has assisted on include MACBETH (Folger Theater) directed by Teller, 1001 (Rorschach Theater Co.), CYMBALINE (Milwaukee Shakespeare) MY NAME IS ASHER LEV (Arden Theater), STUNNING (Wholly Mammoth) winner of the Helen Hayes Award, and THE LIEUTENANT OF INISHMORE (Signature Theater, 2009 Tony Award Winner).

His designs include SUITE SURRENDER (1st Stage), GREASE (Post Playhouse), DON QUIXOTE (Gala Theatro), BOLA NIEVE; CUBA’S KING OF SONG (Gala), SUMMER IN NOHANT (Ambassador Theater), A YEAR WITH FROG AND TOAD (KCACTF Region II Selection 2010), THE ASH GIRL (The University of Maryland), ANTON IN SHOW BUSINESS (University of Maryland), ANTIGONE: IN THE WOODS, LES MISERABLES (Mancini Award Winner, Scenic Design), HONK!, SUESSICAL THE MUSICAL, THE SECRET GARDEN, JAMES AND THE GIANT PEACH, CHARLIE AND THE CHOCOLATE FACTORY, INTO THE WOODS, ONCE ON THIS ISLAND, and GUYS AND DOLLS.

For Pictures, renderings, and more info please visit www.DanIwaniec.com

Annie Get Your Gun – Annie, The Drowsy Chaperone – Kitty, Seussical – Sour Kangaroo, Hollywood: a Cabaret

Janet McWilliams hails from Philadelphia, PA, and is excited to be making her Post Playhouse debut!  Favorite credits include RENT (Maureen Johnson), OKLAHOMA (Ado Annie), MUCH ADO ABOUT NOTHING (Hero), BABY (Lizzie), and DAMN YANKEES (Gloria Thorpe).  Janet is a proud graduate of Temple University as well as a lover of travel, coffee, and reality TV.  She is so grateful to be part of the 2012 company at Post is and excited for this summer’s fun line-up of shows.  Thanks to Tom for bringing me here and to my family who supports me always!  www.janetamcwilliams.com

Box Office, Assistant Stage Manager, Run Crew

Jon Marquez hales from Western Nebraska, where he was a member of many musical ensembles while attending Chadron State College. He served as the principle trumpet player for four years, sang in the select vocal jazz ensemble and was a member of the CSC concert choir. Show choir has always served as a important foundation of his life as he has been an active show choir clinician in Western Nebraska for the past four years. He is currently head director of the Chadron High School Cardinal Singers. His group was featured this year at the Nebraska Rural School Board Association in Kearney. Jon is in his third year serving as head director of the Musical at Chadron High School where he has directed Bye Bye Birdie, All Shook Up and Into The Woods.  Jon has also been cast in several roles including Anything Goes (the captain), Beauty and the Beast (Lafou), Into the Woods (Cinderella’s Prince) Godspell (Lamar) and served as a member of the orchestra in You’re a Good Man, Charlie Brown. Jon has always admired the talent at the Post Playhouse and is ecstatic to be working with such talented people.

The Drowsy Chaperone – Drowsy Chaperone, Always…Patsy Cline – Louise, Annie Get Your Gun – Dolly, Seussical – Mrs. Mayor/Bird,

Jorie Janeway is thrilled to make her Post Playhouse debut and get to play some dream roles in the process!  A native of Connecticut, Jorie seems to never be in one place for more than a couple of months, and could not be happier about traveling all over!  National Tour: HAIRSPRAY (Female Authority Figure). Regional: GODSPELL (“Turn Back Oh Man” and “By My Side”), THE PRODUCERS (Showgirl), THE FULL MONTY (Susan), THE MOMMIES (Caroline), HAIRSPRAY (Female Authority Figure).  Thanks to Tom, Rob, and Ryan. Love to the fam!

Annie Get Your Gun – Potter Porter
Hollywood: A Cabaret – Performer

Marge is a retiree of Nebraska Game & Parks.  She and her husband Vince, spent 10 1/2 years at Niobrara State Park and 25 years at Fort Robinson State Park.  She is also an alumnus of the Post Playhouse.  She appeared in Steel Magnolia in 1991 as Ouiser and in the Olio’s at the Melodrama in 1992.  Most recently she was Aunt Eller in Oklahoma! and  Hank William’s mother in Hank Williams: Lost Highway and a stage technician for A Year With Frog & Toad and The Wizard of Oz in 2010.  She also serves on the Board of Directors for the Post Playhouse. Over the years, the Post Playhouse has provided Fort Robinson and the surrounding area a wonderful gift.  This includes excellent entertainment, community involvement and long lasting friendships.  Thanks for the memories – 44 years of wonderful!

Music Director – Always…Patsy Cline, Seussical & Keyboards – Annie Get Your Gun, The Drowsy Chaperone

Matthew Meckes is pleased to be joining the staff of Post Playhouse for their summer 2012 season.  Recently Meckes has worked at Florida Studio Theatre as an intern pianist where he Assistant Music Directed Next to Normal and Associate Music Directed Shake, Rattle and Roll.  Previous show that Meckes has music directed are Assassins, Lucky Stiff, Once on this Island, The Fantasticks, Les Miserables, Gypsy and several Cabarets and Musical Revues.  Before becoming a Music Director Meckes attended Berklee College of Music where he received his BA in Composition.  He went on to produce shows independently for five years with Insomniak Theatre Company.  Meckes is thrilled to be working with so many great artists this summer and thanks those he has worked with already for their constant inspiration and motivation.

The Drowsy Chaperone – Janet
Annie Get Your Gun – Winnie
Seussical – Bird
Hollywood: a Cabaret – Performer

Morgan is thrilled to return for her second summer at Post after having appeared in last year’s season of Grease (Frenchy), Godspell (Joanne), Oklahoma! and A Year WIth Frog and Toad (Ensemble). A resident of New York City, she has performed in various venues such as the Marquis, Town Hall and Second Stage. Other credits include The Sound of Music, Little Women and the new musical Tortoise and the Hare. Proud graduate of Marymount Manhattan College. MUCH love to Tom, Rob and the rest of the Post family!

Chadron State College
Chadron, NE

Sean Barrett is thrilled to be returning for his second season at the Post Playhouse.  Sean is a graduate of Indiana University of Pennsylvania with a B.A. in theater.  Some favorite roles include Frog, A Year with Frog and Toad, The Stranger, Discovering Eden: A New Joe York Musical, Truffaldino, A Servant to Two Masters, Uncle Duke, Doonesbury: The Musical, LeFou, Disney’s Beauty and the Beast.  Sean would like to thank his friends, family, the fish, and Cubby.  Rock the Arts and keep theater alive!!!!

Artistic Director – Post Playhouse
Director – Always…Patsy Cline, The Drowsy Chaperone

Tom is the Producing Artistic Director for the Post Playhouse at Fort Robinson State Park in Nebraska and is an Associate Professor for the BFA Music Theatre Program at Florida State University. Most recently at the Post Playhouse, Tom has directed Grease, Broadway Gold: a Cabaret, Pump Boys & Dinnettes, The Wizard of Oz, Nunsense, Always…Patsy Cline, Hello, Dolly!, Oklahoma!, South Pacific, and Guys and Dolls, and at Florida State, he has directed The Drowsy Chaperone, How To Succeed in Business Without Really Trying, On The Town, Hair, The Rocky Horror Show and Sweeney Todd and music directed Spring Awakening, Jesus Christ Superstar, Spelling Bee, RENT, Into The Woods, The Man of LaMancha, and Urinetown. Tom has also directed for theatres such as the Centennial Theatre Festival in Connecticut, Seaside Music Theatre in Daytona Beach, FL, The Lost Colony in Manteo, North Carolina, and the Bigfork Musical Theatre in Montana. His work has also taken him to Zug, Switzerland and to St. Croix in the U.S. Virgin Islands. Tom is also the former Head of the Music Theatre Department at Illinois Wesleyan University, where he taught acting, directing, and musical theatre courses. Some additional directing/music directing credits include Chicago, 42nd Street, A New Brain, and A Man of No Importance. Other professional credits include You’re A Good Man, Charlie Brown!, Lucky Stiff, The Fantasticks!, Crazy for You, Grease, Little Shop of Horrors, and Fiddler on the Roof. He is also a member of The Society of Stage Directors and Choreographers.

Wally Seiler recently retired as a Vice President of Bank of the West in Alliance, Nebraska, and as manager of its Wealth Management Department.  He is a member of the Nebraska Humanities Council’s Speakers Bureau through which he presents a program, “Mark Twain on the Lecture Circuit.”  He has presented this program throughout the United States.  Seiler once won a nationwide Mark Twain Look-alike Contest and, as a result, served as the host of the Calaveras Jumping Frog Jubilee in Angels Camp, California.  This event capitalizes on one of Twain’s best-loved stories, The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County.
Seiler is the Chapter Advisor of the Alliance DeMolay Chapter, treasurer of the First Presbyterian Church, and a member of the Board of Directors of the Mari Sandoz Heritage Society, the Carnegie Arts Center, Post Playhouse at Ft. Robinson, the Darold A. Newblom Foundation and the Snow-Redfern Foundation.  In addition, he is a member of the Alliance City Council.  He is a former Commissioner of the Nebraska Library Commission on which he served for six years.  He served as the Commission’s chair for two of those years.  In 2002, he received the Nebraska Library Association’s Trustee Citation and in 2005 was recognized at the American Library Association’s convention in Chicago as one of the nation’s outstanding library advocates.  He is a former chairman of the Nebraska Library Association’s Intellectual Freedom Committee.
A lifelong participant in, and appreciator of, the theatre, this is Seiler’s first time to participate in a Post Playhouse production.

Willis is thrilled to be joining such a talented cast and crew at the Post Playhouse this season! A native to Deer Trail Colorado, Willis was formerly at the University of Northern Colorado and is currently studying Theatre Performance at Chadron State College in Chadron, Nebraska. Previous credits include Sam Shepard’s The God Of Hell (Welch), Elmer Rice’s The Adding Machine, William Inge’s Bus Stop (Bo Decker), Bye, Bye Birdie (Albert Petersen), You’re A Good Man, Charlie Brown (Schroeder), and Curtains! (Sid Bernstein). Willis would like to thank his friends, family and mentors for all their support and love.