MEET THE TEAM
MARY DUNCAN (Book/Additional Lyrics/Director) - Mary currently serves as Artistic Director of Opera at the Peabody Institute at John Hopkins University. She recently directed the premiere of TIME AND CHANCE by Tony Award-winning playwright Mark Medoff, featuring Academy Award and Golden Globe nominee Kathleen Quinlan. She has directed and or choreographed over 75 operas and theater works at venues across the US including 3 seasons at the Kennedy Center, with the National Symphony Orchestra, at Juilliard, and at the Harvey Theater BAM. She returns to Prague this summer to direct Don Giovanni at the Estates Theater where Mozart premiered the work. She is a graduate of Juilliard and studied at The A.R.T. Institute at Harvard where she assisted Robert Brustein. She is the recipient of a Sandoz Corporation grant for her adaptation of Wedekind’s Spring Awakening, a project mentored by the Eugene O’Neill Music Theater Conference and premiered at Circle in the Square Theater School.
MARK HANTOOT (Book/Additional Lyrics) studied playwriting at Brown, NYU, and the Lila Acheson Wallace Playwrights’ Program at the Juilliard School. Plays include the Samuel FrenchAward-winning “The Last Great Immortal Play”, staged at Juilliard and the St. Clements Theater in NY; “Miss Schumann’s Quartet” with music by Scott Steidl at the Wonderhorse Theater in NY and “Young Adulteries,” a musical revue with music by Scott Steidl at the Harold Clurman Theater. Mark served as Executive Producer for the feature film “The Featherweight,” produced by Leonardo DiCaprio’s Appian Way and distributed by Tribeca Films. The movie premiered in competition at the 2023 Venice Film Festival. Mark also serves as story writer and producer for “Yugly,” an animated feature currently in production. Other projects in development include the TV series “Whitecoat,” and the feature film “Invalido.”
SCOTT STEIDL (Music/Lyrics) - Scott is a Juilliard trained ASCAP Award winning composer. His New York City theater credits include the Off Broadway musicals Young Adulteries, Miss. Schumann's Quartet, and Close Enough for Jazz. His musical version of Spring Awakening was performed at the Circle in the Square Theater in New York City as well as at the Aspen Music Festival and American Southwest Theater Company. Steidl holds two doctoral degrees including a Doctor of Fine Arts from the Juilliard School, a Master of Fine Arts and two bachelor's degrees. He won three top ASCAP composer grants as well as the Alexander Gretchaninov Scholarship and the Irving Berlin Prize at the Juilliard School. He has worked with legendary composers including Elliott Carter, Peter Mennin, Vincent Persichetti and David Diamond. His media includes works for full orchestra, small ensemble, jazz, rock, vocal and theatrical groups. Steidl’s Merkin Recital Hall concert showed a "strong extroverted profile" according to Allan Kozinn of The New York Times, who also described his one act opera The Monkey's Paw as "colorful, and richly detailed" and "immensely persuasive.” The orchestra work Fire Dreams, first played by the Long Beach Symphony, was the title track of his orchestral CD Fire Dreams, recorded by The New Zealand Symphony Orchestra. Recently he has recorded and produced numerous songs including songs for the rock EP Same Old Blues, followed by the LP Hallicom. Both can be heard on all major platforms.
ELIZABETH DeBRULER (Additional book) - Liz studied acting at Brown University and the Eugene O’Neill Theater Center, working with Sheldon Patinkin and Henry Winkler. She appeared in numerous plays in NY, including MISS SCHUMANN’S QUARTET and A RESOUNDING TINKLE at the Wonderhorse Theater, and the musical YOUNG ADULTERIES at the Harold Clurman Theater on Theater Row. She starred in the premiere of Rudyard Kipling’s STORY OF THE GADSBYS at AMDA Studio One. In Chicago, she starred in A GAME OF TRIVIA with Will Zarhn, and originated the role of the “Dancer” in the premiere of Jules Feiffer’s play FEIFFER’S AMERICA at the Northlight Theater in Chicago. Liz has a particular interest in new work, and often assists in the development of original projects.
PAUL CANTERNA (Producer) - Paul is a graduate of the University of Pittsburgh School of Law and University of Southern California’s famed graduate Peter Stark Producing Program. He spent the past three decades producing and writing for film and television, as well as managing such diverse talents as world renowned comic Russell Peters, legendary documentarian Steve James (Hoop Dreams) and best selling novelist Whitley Strieber (Hunger; Wolfen).