Meet The Team

MEET THE TEAM

Kay Cole

Director

Director: In a Booth at Chasen’s, I Only have Eyes for You, Firecracker, Cover of Life,
The Dining Room, Dull Pain, Firecracker, Poison, Desperate Writers, and Washington
Affair.
Director/Choreographer: Reunion, Ecstasy, The Flunky, Rose Bowl Queens, No
Strings, Bark!, The World Goes ‘Round, American Tales, Nuncrackers, Judy’s Scary
Little Christmas, A Year with Frog and Toad, A Chorus Line, I’m Getting My Act
Together, Grass Harp, Robber Bridegroom, Boulevard of Broken Dreams, Sing,
Wild Women Blues & Sony Pictures Broadway, Oliver, Phantom of the Opera, The
Addams Family.

Her inventive choreography and staging credits include: Hunger, It’s the Housewives,
Great Expectations, Assassins, Pirates Of Penzance, Cabaret, Dr. Jekyll & Mr. Hyde,
South Pacific, Triumph of Love, Actor, Lawyer, Indian Chief, Dancing at Lughnasa, Take
Me Along, The Baker’s Wife.

Broadway: Six Dance Lessons in Six Weeks (Belasco Theatre). Off Broadway:
Desperate Writers. Reprise! Broadway: Three Penny Opera, Fiorello, City of Angels,
Company, On The 20th Century, Follies, Sweeney Todd, Most Happy Fella. London
West End: The Fantasticks , Snoopy, Blockheads. Pasadena Playhouse: Under One
Umbrella, 110 in the Shade, Do I Hear A Waltz. Hollywood Bowl: Sound of Music,
Bernsteins’ Mass, Mame, My Fair Lady, Music Man, Camelot. Geffen Playhouse:
Nightmare Alley, Atlanta, Paint Your Wagon, Six Dances in Six Weeks. Hudson
Theatre: Grave White Way. Kirk Douglas Theatre: Gaytino, Dogeaters. Falcon
Theatre: Six Dance Lessons in Six Weeks. Antaeus Theatre: Tonight at 8:30.
Playwrights Arena: The Next Step, Songs For A New World. Shakespeare Center
LA: As You Like It, Comedy of Errors. Film & Television: Directing: Country Rules,
THQ, Waiting in Line; Choreographing: Guidepost Junction, Ella, Jekyll, Disney’s
Santa Clause 3, Awakening of Spring and Six Dance Lessons in Six Weeks.
Kay has taught Acting for Film & Television at Emerson College Los Angeles, UCLA
Summer Musical Theatre Conservatory. She is the proud recipient of the 2006
Playwrights Arena Award for her outstanding contribution to Los Angeles Theatre.
In 2009, she received a nomination for best choreography from the NAACP Theatre
Awards for her work on Atlanta at the Geffen Playhouse. She has begun pre-
production for the new rock musical film Daniel in Babylon.

Visit: www.kaycole.net

Conwell Worthington, II

Producer

Currently producing HAIR 50th Anniversary LA and Tour, Blood Rock (a new rock musical), In A Booth At Chasen's (preview at the Kennedy Center), The Love Boats on Stage, Pre-Broadway in development The Beach Boys Musical, in development, Exit Laughing, Dusty (based on the life of Dusty Springfield), Dallas Cowboys Cheerleaders Musical, I Only Have Eyes for You, and several other shows in development for touring. One of the original producing team of Dirty Dancing, Australia and tour, Caesars Magical Empire a 70 million dollar interactive show that ran for over 7 years and Pip’s Island a multi-million-dollar interactive production.

Worthington was Head of Show Development for The Walt Disney Company until 1992 when he moved to Producer of Disney Attractions and served as a Producer of Walt Disney's international stage shows of Beauty and the Beast. Selected as one of only 3 Producers in the Theatrical Division, he helped develop many half time shows and over 350 major events, while also working on the creative teams of Fantasmic, Dick Tracey, Beauty and the Beast, Aida, The Lion King and Little Mermaid.

Mr. Worthington has set new levels of royalty payments and guarantees around the world, such as (Beauty and The Beast) which resulted in over 100 million dollars of guarantee’s in royalties to Walt Disney Company. His streamline approach to remounting the original 23 million dollar Broadway production made it affordable for local presenters.

He recently worked on the development of the New Amsterdam Theatre 42nd Street and El Capitan Hollywood, operating and producing for the Paramount Theatre's development of a 200 million dollar entertainment district, and remodeled operations and creative for the Encore Theatre, a new theatre in California. He routinely consults with numerous theatres throughout the world.

Cindy Lu Mancini

Writer and Director

Mancini began her professional career traveling as a dancer right out of high school, but eventually returned home and joined the New Jersey Ballet Company where she danced for several years and developed a love for theatrical jazz. Musical theatre was something Mancini always aspired to and once departed from classical ballet, she was cast in both American and European Tours of West Side Story. In 1990, Mancini moved to North Carolina and established Dancespace, a performing arts conservatory. Her present company, Signature, was the next logical step into producing original work on stage and it began with a professional company of performers she trained herself from an early age. Signature has consistently expanded its roots over the years and An Extra Penny is the latest example of Mancini’s passion for exploring new and uncharted avenues of theatrical storytelling. It is, by far, her most ambitious project to date.

Mary-Lee Taylor Kinosian

Composer

Mary Lee Taylor Kinosian, a native of Columbia, SC, began studying music at age five and joined the Columbia Philharmonic Orchestra (later the S.C. Philharmonic) at age fourteen. She enjoyed a successful career in San Jose, Calif. (with the San Jose Symphony, Midsummer Mozart Festival and as soloist and concertmaster with the Redwood Symphony) and Nashville, Tenn. (as principal second violin with The Nashville Symphony Orchestra and the Nashville String Machine) before returning to Columbia in 1996. Since then, she has played numerous engagements, ranging from musical theatre to her well-received performance of Kurt Weill's Violin Concerto. Her work with the Upton Trio, as both composer and violinist has been featured on NPR's Theme and Variations. She is the Concertmaster of the SC Philharmonic, but also appears with the Sterling Chamber Players, and serves as assistant concertmaster of the Greenville Symphony.

Bryana Gabrial

Assistant Producer

Bryana Gabrial had a passion for creative arts from a very young age. At twenty years old she completed her first writing compilation with two others to come in the following years. She has taken classes with esteemed authors and mentored by Mancini and Cole in the role of Assistant Director during An Extra Penny in 2016 and again in 2022. Gabrial has been involved in props and costuming making for previous productions. Now she finds herself in an assistant producer role as well as the supervisor of the script for An Extra Penny.

Bruce Landon Yauger

Sound Design

Bruce Landon Yauger is a Broadway sound designer whose credits include Jesus Christ Superstar (with Ted Neeley and Carl Anderson), A Chorus Line, West Side Story, Fiddler on the Roof and dozens of others, as well as Spiderman Live!, a precursor to the Broadway show, for which he also served as principal composer. Bruce has several albums out under the alias of Bruce Landon and performs regionally as a solo artist or with the band Sama Papa. Bruce also heads Falconmusik, LLC, a multimedia production company. Credits include the international tour of Blithe Spirit with Angela Lansbury and Trip of Love at Stage 42.

Jeremy Kurn

Arranger

Raised in a disciplined classical world, Jeremy Kurn became a lifelong student of composition, improvisation, jazz, classical and musical theater. He took an unconventional journey to find authentic musical inspiration sourced by years of travel, spiritual practices, experimental music, mountain climbing and martial arts. Jeremy now works as a professional composer, arranger, producer and music director. He has completed three original musicals debuted locally and abroad, his arrangements have been played by orchestras and big bands throughout the country and he has worked locally with the DCPA, Town Hall Arts Center, DL Parsons Theater, Aurora Fox Theater, and others.

Ken White

Lighting Design

Ken is the Associate Dean of the College of Visual and Performing Arts at The University of North Carolina at Greensboro where he has taught Lighting Design, Stage Management, and Computer Aided Drafting. Prior to joining the faculty at UNCG, he was a tenured professor at both Louisiana State University and East Carolina University. In 2012 he was the Lighting Designer and Sound/Video Engineer for the worldwide premier of Dante at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival in Scotland. He is a member of United Scenic Artists Local 829, and his designs have been seen in theatres across the southeast including The Arkansas Repertory Theatre, Arrowrock Lyceum Theatre, The Arkansas Shakespeare Theatre, Birmingham Summerfest, Cumberland County Playhouse, The Dogwood Dell Amphitheater, Tallahassee Little Theatre and Cape Fear Regional Theatre. Audiences worldwide have seen his work as the lighting designer for the Regional's Competition Scene in the movie Pitch Perfect, where (if you are quick) he can also be seen as the lighting operator.

Rita Styron

Production Manager

Rita Styron began her theatrical journey by performing in musicals as a young girl, but when an opportunity to work as a Stage Manager with a visiting New York Director for the production of “Black Elk Speaks” was presented to her, she was hooked. From that day forward, Rita has continued to work as a Stage Manager for various Theaters, Acting Companies and Universities in North Carolina. She received a BS degree in Business Administration from UNC Pembroke and has over 15 years of experience working in the financial industry as a Project Assistant.

Frank Albano

Graphic Design

A New Jersey native, Frank studied at Mason Gross School of the Arts at Rutgers University. Currently teaching graphic design and photography at a high school in Central New Jersey, he formerly worked in New York City as an advertising art director for many years before becoming an educator. While a teacher, he still works on a wide range of design projects, from theater to advertising, packaging and more recently as the creative director on two mobile app startups. When the design projects are quiet, Frank paints and writes as well.

Sharon Pait

General Manager

Sharon Pait has joined the Signature team and brought her many years of large scale project management experience to the theatrical table. Sharon received a BS Degree in Geology from NCSU, and an MS Degree in Civil Engineering from Oklahoma State University. Now retired, Sharon worked in Texas and Oklahoma as a professional Civil Engineer with the City of Amarillo, and the City of Oklahoma City overseeing construction projects, budgets, and contracts, as well as working with independent oil companies as a Geotech, evaluating oil and gas well information.

WELCOME

In Memory of Cindy Mancini