Creative Team

Breast in Show is written by Lisa Hayes with music and lyrics by Joan Cushing. Eileen Mitchard is the executive producer.

 

Lisa hayesBreast in Show: Writer

 

Lisa Hayes, is an accomplished playwright and actress. She has toured her one-woman show of Jane Eyre in the U.S. and Great Britain. She has performed her solo play Nurse!, based on interviews with nurses in New York, off-Broadway as well as in Rome, Krakow, and Istanbul. Her newest solo performance, Finding the Light, is based on Pulitzer prize-winning photographer Marissa Roth’s personal journey in creating the documentary photo exhibit “One Person Crying: Women and War.” She recently debuted the play in The Hague. Bedside Manners, her play on doctor/nurse communication created with journalist Suzanne Gordon, was just published by Cornell University Press.
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Lisa’s is President and CEO of the Accokeek Foundation, a Maryland non-profit that cultivates passion for the natural and cultural heritage of Piscataway Park, a national park just across the Potomac River from George Washington’s Mount Vernon. In 2012 she was one of 18 museum professionals from around the world selected to participate in the Noyce Leadership Institute. In 2011 she was a recipient of an American Antiquarian Society Fellowship for Creative and Performing Artists and Writers. Lisa is a member of the Dramatists Guild, Actor’s Equity Association, Screen Actors Guild, and the International Museum Theatre Alliance.

 

Joan Cushing

Breast in Show: Music & Lyrics

 

Joan Cushing is best known for her political satirical revue Mrs. Foggybottom & Friends,  which ran for 10 hit years at the Omni-Shoreham Hotel in Washington, D.C. In New York, she performed her solo nightclub act Lady Sings the News! at the Ballroom, appeared in Gary Trudeau’s Tanner for President series on HBO, directed by Robert Altman, and studied musical theatre writing at the BMI Musical Theatre Workshop.

More recently, she has adapted 13 popular children’s books as musicals, including Miss Nelson is Missing, Junie B. Jones, Petite Rouge (NY Musical Theatre Festival), Heidi (w Martha King de Silva), George & Martha  (commissioned by Imaginaton Stage); Brave Irene (Adventure Theatre), and Diary of a Worm, a Spider & a Fly (Oregon Children’s Theatre).  According to TYA Magazine,  she is “the most produced playwright in children’s theatre.” Adult works include Tussaud, based on Madame Tussaud’s bloody pursuit of art; The Christmas Doll (2007 Nat’l Youth Theatre Award for Outstanding New Play/Musical) and Lizzie Bright & the Buckminster Boy (Playwrights Theatre of NJ).  Several new commissions are in the works: 101 Dalmatians (w Martha King de Silva (Imagination Stage) and Ella’s Big Chance: a Jazz-Age Cinderella (Children’s Theatre of Charlotte).  Ms. Cushing, who lives in DC, dedicates Breast In Show to the memory of her husband, Paul Buchbinder, who died of pancreatic cancer.  Cushing has 2 sons and 4 grandchildren. She is represented by the Susan Gurman Agency. See www.joancushing.com. Read The Beacon’s feature on Joan Cushing and Breast In Show here.[spacer height=”10px”]

kathryn

Director of Breast In Show

 

Kathryn Chase Bryer has been with Imagination Stage has served as the Assoc. Artistic Director of Imagination Stage, Inc. since 2002 She is a theatre artist with a background in directing, acting, dramaturgy, teaching, and administration. She holds a B.S. from Northwestern University.
For Imagination Stage, Kathryn has directed over 40 productions in the last 20 years and has helped to develop and commission over a dozen scripts, many of which have been published by Dramatic Publishing. Most notably, she has worked closely with playwright/lyricist/composer Joan Cushing as a director and dramaturge to develop scripts such as MISS NELSON IS MISSING, MISS NELSON HAS A FIELD DAY, and JUNIE B JONES AND A LITTLE MONKEY BUSINESS, and PETITE ROUGE chosen to be performed off-Broadway at the New York Music Theatre Festival) and GEORGE AND MARTHA TONS OF FUN and the playwright and composer team of Karen Zacarias and Deborah Wicks LaPuma (CINDERELLA EATS RICE AND BEANS, FERDINAND THE BULL, and LOOKING FOR ROBERTO CLEMENTE (winner of the Best Show for Families 2008 DC Theatre), all of which have been and are being done around the country in other youth theatres. This season she directed LYLE THE CROCODILE and THE BFG at Imagination Stage. In Jan. 2014, Kate directed SCAPIN for Constellation Theatre company. She served as Director and Dramaturg for the 2011 production of BREAST IN SHOW and is happy to return to revive it with this all new, all fantastic cast![spacer height=”10px”]

Eileen MitchardExecutive Producer of Breast in Show

 

Eileen Mitchard began her theatrical journey when she was accepted to the Ruth M. Knight Summer Theatre Workshop for two years. She earned a degree in Speech and Drama from The Catholic University of America where she studied with the legendary Father Gilbert Hartke . While in college Eileen performed in several shows with the Chappaqua Summer Theatre. She also has a Masters degree from New York University.

For more than 40 years Eileen has been involved in theatre – as an actress, producer, teacher and director. She is a graduate of the Commercial Theatre Institute and was recently elected to the National Society of Arts and Letters.

In addition she has experience in sales, marketing and management of large projects in a variety of industries.

So it was a dream come true for her to knit two parts of her life together when she conceived the idea to create an original musical that would give voice to all of those who have been touched by this awful disease.

Thank you to my family and friends for their support and everyone who shared their stories with us and have been involved in this journey. A special thanks for Joan, Lisa, Kate, Caroline, Debbie and Len for believing that we could create this show.