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Return to European Cabaret
Cast and Creative Team
 Richard Hopkins (Director, Show Concept and Development) Artistic Director of Florida Studio Theatre since 1980, Richard Hopkins has guided the company from a small touring group to a professional regional theatre. Mr. Hopkins began his professional theatre career as a resident actor with Asolo State Theatre in Sarasota, Florida. In 1974 he founded the Palisades Theatre Company in Washington, DC, which subsequently moved to St. Petersburg to become American Stage. He served as its Producing Director from 1974-1980. Additional experiences include: President of the Florida Professional Theatres Association (1983-1985), Panelist for Theatre Program of Florida Arts Council, and Director/Instructor for Ringling Brothers Barnum and Bailey Circus’ Clown College (1981). His many directing credits include: Metamorphoses, The Bully Pulpit, God’s Man in Texas, Hysteria, Gross Indecency: The Three Trials of Oscar Wilde, 2: Goering at Nuremberg, Six Degrees of Separation, Execution of Justice, Death by Misadventure, Hi-Hat-Hattie, Invictus, Agnes of God, Beyond Therapy, True West, La Ronde, and Betrayal and numerous other plays and Cabaret projects including Sophie Tucker, Inspired Lunacy, and Shakespeare’s Greatest Hits, Over the Rainbow.
 Rebecca Langford (Show Development) has been part of the development team for FST’s Cabaret Theatre since her arrival in Sarasota in 1998. Shows she has helped develop include: Shakespeare’s Greatest Hits, Brassy Broads, Hot and Cole, My One and Only Gershwin, GI Jive, Three Friends, Two Guitars and a Broken Tambourine, Piano Men and The Flip Side. She was the Director of Development for Laughing Matters...Too, A Vaudeville Cabaret and the original Laughing Matters. Ms. Langford serves as Managing Director for Florida Studio Theatre. In this capacity she acts as a liaison between the administration office and the artistic, education, and production offices. In addition, Ms. Langford has 16 years of Improv experience and created FST’s Improv program. Prior to her arrival at Florida Studio Theatre she worked as a theatre artist in Austin, Texas at the Austin Shakespeare Festival, in the box office for the Zachary Scott Theatre, and held the position of Audience Development Coordinator for the Largo Cultural Center in Florida. She is originally from Atlanta, Georgia where she attended Georgia State University and began her career in theatre as an actress.
 Jim Prosser (Show Development, Arrangements, Pianist) This is Jim’s eleventh season in the FST Cabaret for which he has developed and performed in numerous shows, including The Flip Side, Piano Men, Three Friends, GI Jive, and Too Darn Hot. He has also worked extensively for FST’s Education programs, writing scores for the WRITE A PLAY program, and most recently Androcles and the Lion. FST Cabaret Club Development/Playing: My One and Only Gershwin, Over the Rainbow, Inspired Lunacy, Harry Who?, Shakespeare’s Greatest Hits, Three Girls Berlin, By Mercer. Training: BM Degree in Theory/Composition from the College of Wooster.
.jpg) Dennis Courtney (Director) returns for his 18th FST production, most recently having staged Hedwig and the Angry Inch, The Flip Side, Piano Men, Ethel Waters: His Eye Is On The Sparrow and It Ain’t Nothin’ But the Blues. Mr. Courtney has been the director/choreographer of over 200 stage productions including Peter Pan with Cathy Rigby; Can-Can with Leslie Uggams; the regional premiere of I Love You, You’re Perfect, Now Change; the premiere productions of Red Hot Mama; Begger’s Holiday; The Beethovens and numerous others in the U.S., Canada and Europe. He is the recipient of two recent directing awards for his work on The Last 5 Years. He has been the creator and director of dozens of live special events, working with such headliners as Celine Dion, Bette Midler, David Letterman, Quincy Jones, and Kevin Bacon. Mr. Courtney directed the fifth-season opener of ABC-TV’s Perfect Strangers as well as numerous TV commercials. As a performer, Dennis appeared on Broadway and on tour in Starlight Express, Peter Pan with Sandy Duncan, Roza with Georgia Brown, Joseph...Dreamcoat, Grease with Andrea McArdle and regionally in many other productions. Mr. Courtney is based in New York City. For more information or to comment visit www.denniscourtney.com. Dennis Courtney
Vince DiMura (Music Director) Jazz Pianist/Composer Vince di Mura, has performed on concert stages throughout North America, Canada, and Latin America. His first commercially released CD, "Imperfect Balance" is available on line and his most resent release, "A Darker Shade of Romance" is available at Itunes.com and CDBaby.com. Mr. di Mura holds many awards including multiple fellowships from Meet the Composer, the Union County Foundation, CEPAC, and the Puffin Cultural Foundation for his work in Spoken Word/Jazz Fusion. He has also received compositional grants from the New Jersey State Council on the Arts, The Mid-Atlantic Arts Foundation.
In demand nationally as a Musical Director, he has conducted shows and seasons at The Bethesda Nederlander Theatre, The Augusta Barn Theatre, Bucks County Playhouse, Artpark, Tennessee Repertory Company, The Asolo Theatre Company, American Stage, Passage Theatre, Act II Playhouse, The Arden Theatre Company, the Blowing Rock Stage Company, Flat Rock Playhouse, Western Michigan’s Cherry County Playhouse, The Barter Theatre, Arkansas Repertory Company and The Muhlenburg Summer Theatre Festival. Mr. di Mura has fulfilled dozens of compositional commissions for Rutgers and Princeton Universities, Rider University, the University of Colorado, The Scioto Society, Children’s Theatre
Cast
 Tara Bruno Florida Studio Theatre debut! Since graduating from The University of the Arts in Philadelphia, Tara has toured nationally with Barbie Live! (Original cast recording) traveled throughout Europe, South America, and Africa while performing on Her Majesty’s Queen Elizabeth II, and bared it all in NYC for Broadway Bares XVII: Myth Behavior benefiting BC/EFA (Denis Jones, dir.) Favorite Regional Roles include Norma (Victor/Victoria), Polly (Crazy For You), and Lily St. Regis (Annie).
 Alan Gillespie is thrilled to be back in Sarasota after appearing as Chris in Miss Saigon and Steve Baker in Showboat at the Van Wezel (both National Tours). Selected credits: Frankie in Forever Plaid (Casino Niagara) (New Provincetown Players), The Specialist in The Who’s Tommy (Tokyo, Japan), Stride u/s in Jekyll &Hyde, (Robert Cuccioli, Dir) (WBT). Spider u/s in Jeykll & Hyde (DCT), and So Long, 174th St with George S. Irving (American Place Theatre/Lambs Theatre.) Alan is also a guest artist at Carnegie Hall.
 Stephen Hope Broadway- Joseph...Dreamcoat, The Scarlet Pimpernel. Off Broadway - Ascension, Fairy Tales, Anyone Can Whistle, Dames at Sea, Rabboni. Regional- Camelot, My One and Only, Man of La Mancha, Paint Your Wagon. FST audiences have seen Stephen in numerous productions including The Exonerated, Ruthless!, Laughing Matters...Too!, and The Flip Side. He also recreated choreography for this season’s Altar Boyz and provided original staging for Laughing Matters...Too and Good Evening.
 Forrest Richards mostly recently received rave reviews for her portrayal of Sally Adams (the Ethel Merman role) in Call Me Madam and as Vern in Bingo the Musical at the Golden Apple. She previously appeared on the FST mainstage in It Ain’t Nothin’ But the Blues, And The World Goes ‘Round (Sarasota Magazine's Best Actress in a Musical award) and Roleplay, and in the Cabaret with the zany political/satirical revue License to Bash and in On the Road. Most memorable roles include Guenevere in Camelot opposite David McCallum, Virginia in Patent Leather Shoes with Megan Mullally, Sally in Me and My Girl, and as Agnes in I Do! I Do! in Singapore.
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