DERRICK COBEY Broadway: Scottsboro Boys; Off Broadway: Tin Pan Alley Rag (Roundabout); Ragtime in Concert (Lincoln Center); National Tours: Rent, Forever Swing; Regional: Parade, Pacific Overtures, A Little Night Music (Arden Theatre); Into the Woods, Little Shop of Horrors, Macbeth (Great Lakes/ Idaho Shakespeare Festival); Jesus Christ Superstar (North Shore); Abyssinia (Goodspeed); Ragtime (Paper Mill Playhouse); Big River (Lyric of Oklahoma); Side Show (Cleveland Playhouse); Numerous shows with Sacramento Music Circus; Andrew Lippa’s I Am Harvey Milk.

STEPHEN HOPE returns to FST where he was seen in last year’s By Gershwin. Since then, he performed in Apartment 3A and A Tuna Christmas for JCity Theatre. Other credits include the original Broadway productions of Joseph...Dreamcoat and The Scarlet Pimpernel, Off-Broadway in Ascension, Civil War Voices, Dames At Sea, and Fairy Tales, and regionally in Barnum, Chicago, and Paint Your Wagon. FST audiences will remember Stephen from The Exonerated, Ruthless!, ...Spelling Bee, and numerous cabarets.

GAYLE SAMUELS is currently appearing in Black Nativity at a movie theatre near you. She earned a Best Actress nomination for her portrayal of Billie Holiday in Lady Day At Emerson’s Bar & Grill and received rave reviews for her portrayal of Rose in August Wilson’s Fences and as Louise in Seven Guitars. Broadway: Dancin’, Dreamgirls, Grind, Sunset Boulevard. Off- Broadway: Sistas, Little Shop Of Horrors, The Dark Star From Harlem (portraying Josephine Baker).

RUTHIE STEPHENS is excited to be making her debut at the FST. A native of England, Ruthie was recently at Buckingham Palace watching her mother be made into a Member of The British Empire (MBE) for which she is very proud. Last year Ruthie won the Broadway World Award for her portrayal of Yitzhak in Hedwig, a role she has now played three times. In her spare time Ruthie likes to swing on her trapeze. She makes her home in Manhattan with the composer Eve Beglarian. 

JIM PROSSER Over his many years at FST, Jim has most often performed in the Cabaret, where he has arranged and co-developed many shows including By Gershwin, Laughing Matters, European Cabaret, That’s Life, Again, British Invasion, Shakespeare’s Greatest Hits, Harry Who?, Too Darn Hot, Reel Music and recently The Prima Donnettes and Let’s Twist Again: with the Wanderers. He has also served as resident composer/music director for FST’s Education department, writing numerous songs and scores for children’s shows such as Androcles and the Lion, The Princess and the Pea, and the WRITE A PLAY elementary tours. In addition, Jim plays with the FST Improv Troupe and has also performed locally with Jazz Around The Corner.