Technical and Artistic Staff Biographies
David Castaneda (Lighting Designer) has shed light on more than 450 productions along the east coast including more than 25 richly colored musicals here at The Round Barn Theatre over five years. Some bright moments in NYC: New York Shakespeare Festival, Abingdon Theatre, Peculiar Works Project and Hal Prince Musical Theatre Workshop for The Directors Company. Regional illuminations include Albany/Berkshire Ballet, NY/VT, Theatre Winter Haven, FL, Hofstra USA, NY, Cape Fear Regional
Theatre, NC, Seacoast Rep, NH, Carousel Dinner Theatre, OH, Merrimack Rep, MA, Millbrook Playhouse, PA, River Rep, CT, New Stage Theatre, MS and projects in Bogota, Columbia and South Korea. David radiates from the North Carolina School of the Arts where he learned to change almost any light bulb imaginable.
Paul Dodds (Sound Designer) is returning for his third season at The Round Barn Theater. He is originally from Syracuse, IN but holds a BA in Theatre Audio from Purdue University and Line Array Certification from JBL. He has worked at Elliott Hall of Music in Lafayette, IN for John Mellencamp, Kelly Clarkson, B.B. King, Garrison Keillor, Brad Paisley, Merle Cunningham Dance Company and the Broadway on Tour productions of Blast, Elton John and Tim Rice’s Aida and Evita.
Heidi Ferris (Music Director: A Wonderful Life) is pleased to return to The Round Barn Theatre for her sixth season! Her time has been divided among Actor and Music Director since 2002. Some of her favorite shows here include West Side Story, The Secret Garden, and Singing in the Rain. Favorite roles on The Round Barn stage include Amneris in Aida, Babette in Beauty and the Beast, and of course, Guenevere in Camelot. She has also recently worked for Cornwell’s Dinner Theatre in Michigan as Music Director and Cast Member of Midlife: The Crisis Musical. When not performing on stage she has enjoyed being a part of the popular Vesper Chorale, in South Bend, and most recently, the Renaissance group Cantus Cathedralis. She sends bouquets of thanks to her wonderful family and friends or their endless love.
Jeremy Littlejohn (Artistic Director) is thrilled to be returning to The Round Barn Theatre for his second season as Artistic Director. Jeremy has performed in over 30 different musicals on the Joseph Stein Stage, and has also served as a Director, Stage Manager, Properties Master, House Manager, Light and Sound Operator, Production Assistant, Tour Guide, Box Office Manager and Lye Soap Maker (one of his personal favorites) for Amish Acres to name a few. In 2004 he created a Second Stage Series in The Locke Township Meeting House down the hall from the Round Barn. The budding program has produced extremely successful productions of The Glass Menagerie, Driving Miss Daisy, Enter Laughing, Steel Magnolias and most recently Lost in Yonkers. The program will break new ground in 2008 by producing the first ever non musical on The Joseph Stein Stage when Thorton Wilder’s Our Town is mounted in August. Some of his other directing projects include Plain and Fancy (20th Anniversary production), Bye Bye Birdie, Thoroughly Modern Millie, White Christmas and his favorite, Nunsense! He also took time out of his busy schedule in 2007 to direct Guys and Dolls for Bethel College and appeared as Bill Sykes in the Elco Performing Arts Center’s production of Oliver! Favorite onstage credits include Cogsworth in Beauty and the Beast, Archibald Craven in The Secret Garden, Tevye in Fiddler on the Roof, Johnny Brown in The Unsinkable Molly Brown, Horton the Elephant in Seussical and Homer in the Staged Reading of Floyd Collins. In 2007 Jeremy joined former Artistic Directors Rich Snyder and Scott Saegesser as one of three people to have played all of the male roles in Plain and Fancy. He would like to thank the Pletcher family for the opportunity and the patrons for their constant support and encouragement
Derek Martin (Choreographer: The Music Man, Carousel) is thrilled to be “Back Home Again in Indiana!” He is currently pursuing his MFA in Acting with Regent University where he was recently seen as Jack in Into the Woods and Puck in A Midsummer Night’s Dream. He also choreographed both shows along with an original piece And Sarah Laughed which is touring internationally with Broadway talent Carol Jaudos. Derek is very excited to step into Dirk Lumbard’s shoes as Harold Hill. He would like to thank first and foremost, God for everything as well as his family and Jennifer his lovely fiancée. “God Bless and enjoy the show!”
Denise Minter (Music Director: The Music Man) a native of the Midwest, is happy to be included in ‘Harold Hill’s staff’ for her initial summer at The Round Barn Theatre. She has served as Music Director for multiple regional professional theatre productions in Michigan and Arizona, as well as educational and civic theatre productions, and has nearly a thousand years of experience as a music educator at the junior high school, high school, and community college levels, all in Michigan. Favorite productions include I Love You, You’re Perfect, Now Change, Forever Plaid, Singin’ in the Rain, Nunsense A-men, Into the Woods, and Fiddler on the Roof. Ms. Minter holds a Bachelor of Music Education degree from Otterbein College in Ohio, and a Master of Education from Arizona State University in Tempe, Arizona, where she now works and lives.
Lance Mullins (Asst. Stage Mgr.) is a resident of Nappanee and a 2007 graduate of Northwood High School. He moved to Nappanee from Mississippi when he was ten years old and started down the musical theatre path with Nappanee Civic Theatre. Some of his favorite roles include Lefou in Beauty and the Beast, Mereb in Aida, and Charlie in Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. In his spare time he enjoys writing music, photography, and creating new things. I live life by my favorite quote, “Life isn’t about finding yourself. Life is about creating yourself.” –George Bernard Shaw.
Richard Pletcher (Executive Producer) founded Amish Acres with his father LaVern in 1968. The Amish farm was preserved and restored and is now listed in The National Register of Historic Places. Following a one year experiment in dinner-theatre with George Bledsoe in 1971, he added musical theatre to the interpretation of the historic farm by producing Plain and Fancy in the Locke Township Meeting House in 1986. It moved to the Round Barn Theatre in 1991. The play has been running for 21 consecutive years having surpassed 3,000 performances before audiences of over 300,000 people. Plain and Fancy’s Tony Award® winning author Joseph Stein and Tony Award® winning composer Albert Hague have attended Plain and Fancy at Amish Acres.
At Mr. Stein’s urging Amish Acres became a regional musical repertory theatre in 1996 with the addition of five shows in rotation with Plain and Fancy each season. Amish Acres has now produced seventy two different Broadway musicals and The Round Barn Theatre stage is named for and dedicated to Joseph Stein. Seven of Mr. Stein’s musicals have been produced on his stage, including Plain and Fancy, Fiddler on the Roof, The Baker’s Wife, and Zorba, plus staged readings of Take Me Along and Rags plus a Second Stage Production of Enter Laughing. Carmelina will be produced as a staged reading in 2008.
In October of 2006, Dick and his wife Susan were guests of Joseph and Elisa Stein in New York City for the York Theatre’s Mufti Series production of Plain and Fancy, the last in a month long, three show festival of Stein’s work that included Take Me Along and Carmelina. Artistic Director James Morgan recognized Amish Acres’ twenty year production of Plain and Fancy in the program and in his introductions from the stage.
In addition, Dick has designed the sets for forty productions. He also brought the United States Postal Service Dedication Ceremony for its Amish Quilt Commemorative Stamps to Nappanee and The Round Barn Theatre in 2001 and was inducted into the Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year Hall of Fame.
Erin Ramer (Technical Director) is a native of Goshen, Indiana and new to The Round Barn Theatre this season. For the past four years Erin worked and resided at Amigo Centre in Sturgis, Michigan as their Marketing Director and Adult Program Coordinator. She graduated from Goshen College in 2004 with a dual degree in Art and Technical Theatre and since graduation has continued to assist and design for GC. Some of her design credits include Into the Woods, You Can’t Take it With You, After Mrs. Rochester and Absolutely! Perhaps. Erin is excited to be a part of Amish Acres and to be, once again, in the theatre full-time. In addition to her role in the theatre, Erin will be assisting Amish Acres with their Elderhostel programs and marketing for The Round Barn Theatre Season. In May, Erin was married and would like to thank her new husband for his love and support.
Phil Rittner (Music Director: The Fantasticks, Plain and Fancy, Carousel) is happy to be returning to The Round Barn for a third season. He is originally from Hartford, CT but currently lives in New York City. He is currently on faculty at The Hartt School, The Hartford Conservatory, Greater Hartford Academy of the Arts and The New School for Drama. Favorite productions include The Round Barn’s Camelot in 2006, The Spitfire Grill for Hartford Conservatory, Sweeney Todd, Mame and On The Town. In addition to Plain and Fancy and The Fantasticks, Phil will also be the Music Director for Rodgers and Hammerstein’s Carousel this season. He would like to thank Carolyn Kirsch for introducing him to this beautiful show way back on Sullivan St. He is currently a private teacher in both Manhattan and Hartford.
Nathan Rux (Sound Designer: A Wonderful Life)
Scott Saegesser (Costume Designer: The Fantasticks, Plain and Fancy) is in his thirteenth season at The Round Barn Theatre where he has served in several capacities including actor, director, choreographer, company manager, costume designer and artistic director. After thirteen seasons, he has worked on over sixty mainstage productions and numerous other productions such as the Staged Reading series, the Second Stage series, New Year's Eve cabarets and Theatre for Young Actors presentations. Some of the shows he is most proud of during his tenure at the RBT are Aida, The SecretGarden, 1776, My Fair Lady, Man of La Mancha, Beauty and the Beast, The King and I and West Side Story. After this season's production of The Fantasticks, Scott will be leaving the theatre to pursue his other passion, fitness. He has been a fitness instructor since 1989 and a personal trainer since 1997. He currently works at Maple City Racquet and Fitness in Goshen and Nappanee Health and Fitness in Nappanee. He is an internationally certified Bodypump and RPM instructor with Les Mills International and a NESTA certified personal trainer. He is extremely happy and grateful to have been working in theatre for over 25 years and wishes to express his love and thanks to everyone that he has been privileged to work with here at The Round Barn in the last thirteen years. It is with solemn resolve that he says farewell.
Brett Egan Schrier (Director: The Fantasticks) is delighted to be directing another production at The Round Barn Theatre after directing Forever Plaid two seasons ago. Brett has also served as Music Director for several Round Barn productions including: Beauty and the Beast, Fiddler on the Roof, and The Will Rogers Follies. The past year has been incredibly busy for Brett. He served as Co-Director/Music Director for the Northern Stage production of A Chorus Line, and also conducted productions of Cats, Midlife! The Crisis Musical and Beauty and the Beast at Northern Stage. In April, he directed and composed original music for Music Box, a cabaret starring Broadway's Mara Davi at Ars Nova in New York City. In June, Brett worked in London, where he had the great pleasure of conceiving and performing a musical cabaret event in Notting Hill, and he also recently performed in Sex! Songs! And Satisfaction at The Knitting Factory in New York City. Brett's additional theatrical credits include the national tours of 42nd Street, Hairspray and Miss Saigon, the original Boston Company of I Love You, You're Perfect, Now Change, and Grease. Brett resides in New York City, where he continues to work as a private audition coach, and is a graduate of The Boston Conservatory. His upcoming projects include Take Two, an original musical which he is in the process of writing.
Richard P. Snyder (Director: The Music Man) is pleased to be directing and acting once again on the Round Barn stage. Rich was the original Artistic Director of the RBT and is the only performer who has worked with every artistic director here at the theatre. You may remember him in such roles as Zosar in Aida, John Adams In 1776 or Jesus in Godspell. Rich teaches English and Theatre at Goshen High school and dedicates all of his work in theatre to his beautiful wife, Gina.
Katrina Stodd (Music Director: Kiss Me, Kate ) is excited to return to her roots for her debut at the Round Barn! She is a native of the Quad Cities (Illinois side!) and holds a BA in Vocal Performance and Theatre from Luther College. Musically, she has overseen productions for Troupe America (Minneapolis) The Theatre of Monmouth (Maine) and several as a Music Director and Vocal Coach with Stagedoor Manor in New York. When not sitting behind the piano, she can be seen onstage as well, and has performed and toured with various theatres across the country. She currently resides in New York City. “Multitudes of thanks to family and DAK for their unfailing love and support!”
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