Sooner Theatre
101 E. Main Street
Norman, OK 73069
(405) 321-9600
(405) 364-0543 (fax)
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Aubrey Adams is excited to be a part of The Studio, and is really enjoying working with such passionate, talented children everyday! Over the past few years, she has been involved in several Sooner productions, working both on and off the stage. Some of her favorite credits include, Lucy, You’re A Good Man, Charlie Brown, Tess, Crazy for You, Ronette, Little Shop of Horrors, Ensemble, Lyric Theatre’s Disney’s High School Musical. She graduated from OSU in 2006 and began choreographing for many local theatres including, Choctaw High School, Poteet Theatre, Norman High School, Classen High School for the Performing Arts, Summerstock Productions, Rose State College and The Sooner Theatre. She has a love for the performing arts, and is excited to share that with these young kids! “The Lord is my strength and my shield; my heart trusts in Him, and I am helped. My heart leaps for joy and I will give thanks to him in song.” Psalms 28:7 |
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Jennifer Heavner Baker holds a Bachelor of Fine Arts with an emphasis in Music Theatre from the University of Oklahoma. She is a professional actress and choreographer who has worked in numerous productions across the country. Most recent roles include Rita La Porta in Lucky Stiff, Nancy in Oliver!, Carlotta in Phantom, Miss Mona in The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas and the Prima Donna in Sugar Babies at Bucks County Playhouse. Additionally, she has appeared in commercials, television and film. As a choreographer, her jobs include Six Flags Amusement Parks, Discoveryland, Bear Creek Farms, the Oklahoma Dome Dedication, numerous musicals and live events and Oklahoma Lottery commercials. She is active with the Norman Christmas Parade and June Bug Jam, co-directs Norman’s Celebrity Sing, serves on the cabinet for United Way of Norman and is a board member for the Norman Chamber of Commerce. Jennifer resides in Norman with her husband Jay and their two daughters, Addison and Aubrey. |
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Mariann Cook is currently in her seventh year as an assistant professor at OU. She holds a Master of Music degree in Vocal Performance from the University of Oklahoma. Stage credits include Anna in a national tour and Broadway run of The King and I with Yul Brynner, Aldonza in productions of Man of La Mancha with John Raitt, and Natalie in The Merry Widow with Susan Powell. Lyric Theatre of Oklahoma audiences have seen Cook portray roles in Gypsy, The Sound of Music, Plain and Fancy, Oliver and Carousel. She is featured as Anita on a CD of West Side Story with the Nashville Symphony, and has performed Broadway Evenings with many nationally recognized Symphony Orchestras. She is also currently a monthly Guest-Artist Voice Instructor for the Tex-Arts Academy in Austin, Texas, where last summer she performed the role of Nettie Fowler in Carousel with Patrick Cassidy. |
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Thomas E. Cunningham recently finished wrapping the film, Soul’s Midnight; his second film with Greymark Productions. Tommy has played The Phantom and Che in the Broadway National tours of Andrew lloyd Webber’s The Phantom of the Opera and Evita. He has done workshops for performers at The Sooner Theatre and has numerous other acting credits spanning across film, TV and stage. |
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Steven Harris (accompanist) was born in Norman Oklahoma in 1975. He has earned his (BFA)- Bachelors of Fine Arts in (Music) Piano major from the University of Oklahoma in 2008. While attending OU, he worked as a professional musician throughout the state and once in a while out of state. His duties have included working as an (associate musical director)- rehearsal pianist and vocal coach for musical theatre productions from grade school through professional levels. He has worked with productions such as, A Chorus Line, Damn Yankees, Sooner Theatre Showcase, Will Rogers Follies, My Fair Lady, Godspell, Good News, The Music Man, Oklahoma, Fiddler on The Roof, The Wizard of Oz, Li’l Abner, The Fantasticks, etc. He is currently on the accompanying/coaching staff for the University of Oklahoma School of Music, Musical Theatre and the School of Dance. He has also served as accompanist and teacher assistant for Moore Public Schools vocal/instrumental program since 2001.Steven is extremely proud of having affiliations with Sooner Theatre Productions and working in the new Studio of The Sooner Theatre. |
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Melany Pattison grew up in Ardmore and came to OU on a music scholarship. She graduated with a BFA in vocal performance. Melany has toured and directed with Cimarron Circuit Opera Company for 20 years and also directed their summer children’s camps before coming to The Sooner Theatre and co-founded the summer production camp at The Sooner. Willy Wonka Junior is her 12th summer production to direct. Throughout the year, Melany is the musical director for The Sooner Theatre Show Troupe. Melany is on the staff of All Saints Catholic School where she teaches music, drama, musical theatre and directs the choir and was selected as the 2007-08 Teacher of the Year. Melany has a daughter, Molly, who will be a 8th grader at Alcott and twin boys, Nick and Clay, who are 2008 Norman High graduates. In her spare time, Melany frequently performs in Sooner Theatre productions and fundraisers. |
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Robert L. Reed is a much sought after tap teacher, producer, choreographer, and performer. He's taught and performed all over the world. He received rave reviews for his teaching at Broadway Dance Center in NYC. For several years he served as Professor and Artist-In -Residence at a performing arts university. Mr. Reed is proficient at teaching many styles of tap and is the protégé of Maceo Anderson, a founding member of the Four Step Brothers dance act. Three of his young students, the St. Louis Hoofers reached the semi-finals on Star Search. He was with Riverdance as dance captain and toured as a principle. with Incognito in Europe. Reed was a featured artist at the Peg Leg Bates Resort and has toured with Cab Calloway. Mr. Reed has opened for such Luminaries as Sammy Davis Jr., Jerry Lewis, Redd Foxx, Cher, the Smothers Brothers and David Hasselhoff, just to name a very few. He is the founder and executive/artistic director of the internationally renowned St. Louis Tap Festival, which is now in it's 16th year. Reed is also the founder of the Robert L. Reed Tap Heritage Institute, Inc., a non-profit organization. He appears in the critically acclaimed Peg Leg Pates documentary Dancing with the Peg. He performs and travels worldwide. As two of the Six Feet of Rhythm he performed with his daughter Robin and his son Robert L. Reed III, who toured with Savion Glover in the international tour of "Bring in da Noise, Bring in da Funk". Robert hosted his own television show in Japan named for him Robert Hall, which recently featured Quentin Tarantino and Brittany Spears as guests. The Mayor of St. Louis, The Honorable Francis Slay declared, July 30, 2005 as Robert L. Reed Tap Heritage Day. |
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Christopher Rice has just returned from a summer performing in New York to continue his training at OU. He has performed in over 50 live productions over the years. His passion for teaching, choreographing, directing, and performing have opened many doors from him. Directing/Choreographer credits include: Disney's High School Musical!, Godspell, Little Women, Into the Woods (for the Sooner Theatre!), You Can't Stop the Beat!, as well as dozens of productions for Oklahoma's CFHC Drama Program. Christopher has spent several semesters as a dance instructor in OKC and, in past summers, has choreographed full productions for local Summer Musical Theatre Intensives. His choreography can bee seen all around the metro area at different high schools and in show choirs and talent programs all around. Christopher has studied dance for many years and comes equipped with the desire for his students to excel and be well-prepared for future performance opportunities. |
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Lucas Ross has a bachelor’s degree from Oklahoma Christian University where he studied theatre and corporate media as well as studying in California at the Los Angeles Film Studies Center. There he trained for acting and improvisation under Douglas Briggs and worked on the hit That 70s Show and other Carsey-Werner sitcoms. He has performed in several productions at Oklahoma Christian as well as the Jewel Box Theatre and Oklahoma Theatre Company. As a stand-up comedian he has opened for Weird Al Yankovic in concert, appeared on The Late Show with Jay Leno and has hosted several banquets and pageants. Recently he began hosting the Oklahoma Opry. He can also be seen in local commercials as well as out of state ads going as far as Dayton, Ohio. |
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Joie Sherman is originally from Fargo, North Dakota. She ventured further south to study at the University of Oklahoma's Weitzenhoffer Department of Musical Theatre. Favorite credits include: Squeaky Fromme; Assassins, Tzeitel, Fiddler on the Roof (Lyric Theatre of Oklahoma); Sarah Brown; Guys and Dolls (The Black Hills Playhouse); Sarah; Company and Melba Snyder; Pal Joey. Joie has also performed with The Oklahoma City Philharmonic as a featured vocalist, and sings with a jazz ensemble around the Norman, Oklahoma City area. |
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Christina Withers is a native of Minneapolis, MN who began her music studies at the age of 6 years old. She continued to study piano at the University of Northern Iowa in Cedar Falls, where she also took classes in Interior Design and Elementary Education. She has received awards including the MTNA Student Achievement Recognition Award and graduated from UNI in 2006. In 2005, Christina participated in the Fine Arts Study Abroad Program in St. Petersburg, Russia, where she studied with various piano faculty of the Hertzen Pedagogical University. She is currently a graduate student at the University of Oklahoma in Piano Performance and Pedagogy, where she holds an assistantship in instructing applied and group piano. Her principal teachers include Genadi Zagor and Sean Botkin at UNI and Dr. Jeongwon Ham, Dr. Jane Magrath and Dr. Barbara Fast at OU. She is an active teacher, collaborative pianist and performer. |
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Susan Wood is a native Oklahoman with a BME from East Central University. Since graduating Susan taught music in the Norman Public School system, studied Music Education at The University of Oklahoma and has been performing and studying voice privately. Her performance experience includes operatic, musical theatre and jazz repertoire. Her credits include a European tour with the Oklahoma Youth Orchestra as the vocal soloist, several Opera Galas at Gaillardia, Marian in The Music Man, Little Mary Sunshine in Little Mary Sunshine, Opening Night, OKC Festival of the Arts, Greenwood Jazz Festival, Jazz in June, Summer Wind Festival, May Fest and several Sooner Theatre productions. Over the past four years Susan has been teaching voice and piano in her own studio and pre-school music classes for the Metropolitan Library System. |
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