Creative Team
Book and Music - Joe Kinosian
Joe Kinosian (Book and Music). Joe is the composer and co-bookwriter (with lyricist Kellen Blair) of Murder for Two, which he’s also performed in over 700 times. Murder for Two had its world premiere at Chicago Shakespeare Theater, receiving the Joseph Jefferson Award for Best New Musical and earning Joe a nomination for Best Leading Actor, before going on to an acclaimed off-Broadway run, where it earned Drama Desk, Drama League, and Outer Critics Circle Award nominations. A two-year national tour and well-received productions in Japan, China, Korea, England, Chile, and Argentina followed.
Joe’s work with Kellen has been showcased at The Kennedy Center, Lincoln Center, and on Broadway at the Theatre World Awards, and their new backstage musical/farce is currently in development at Second Stage Theater. In addition, Joe (with Marcus Stevens) adapted the children’s book Dragons Love Tacos into a successful touring musical. Joe is the recipient of the ASCAP Foundation Mary Rodgers/Lorenz Hart Award, selected and presented by Stephen Schwartz, and the Harrington Award from the BMI Workshop. His acting credits include Dear Edwina (off-Broadway), as well as regional productions of Dirty Blonde with Emily Skinner, An Act of God, and the title role in The Nerd. kinosianandblair.com
Book and Lyrics - Kellen Blair
Kellen Blair (book and Lyrics) is the Drama Desk nominated co-creator of Murder for Two, the murder mystery musical comedy that ran for a year off-Broadway and has been continuously produced across the United States and internationally since 2014. The show earned Kellen (and co-writer Joe Kinosian) the Joseph Jefferson Award for Best New Musical Work in Chicago and
the ASCAP Foundation Mary Rodgers / Lorenz Hart Award for their contribution to musical theatre.
Kellen’s lyrics have been heard on Broadway stages (at the Theatre World Awards), at the Kennedy Center, and in theatres across the country. His other musical works include Scrooge in Love (available to license through Tams-Witmark), Just Between the All of Us (an immersive musical comedy commissioned by Pittsburgh CLO), and Diane Steals the Show (being developed with Second Stage Theatre). In addition to writing for the theater, Kellen enjoys writing fiction and poetry. He teaches film and playwriting in New York City, where he lives with his wife and young son. www.kinosianandblair.com
Director - Caroline Leslie
Caroline Leslie is an acclaimed freelance director with extensive comedy experience. Her latest production, Bleak Expectations, has just closed a successful west-end run at the Criterion Theatre.
Previous work includes The Wipers Times (West End and National Tour), Radio Times (Watermill Theatre and National Tour) and The Kitchen Sink (Queens Hornchurch).
Set and Costume Designer - Dora Schweitzer
Dora trained on the Motley Theatre Design Course, and has designed over ninety productions. These include the premieres of two plays written by Ian Hislop; The Wipers Times (Watermill, tour, Arts Leicester Square), and Trial By Laughter (Watermill, national tour). Recently she has designed several productions at Queens Theatre Hornchurch including their Essex Girls and Boys season, Sleeping Beauty, and Killing Jack, directed by Caroline Leslie.
Other productions include Grumpy Old Women Live (Avalon), A Passage To India(Northampton), Seagull (Arcola), Pride and Prejudice, Cider With Rosie, Dick Turpin, Merchant of Venice (Bury St Edmunds); Emma (Watford Palace). Dora designed two aerial productions with the innovative classical theatre company Actors of Dionysus: 'Medea' (Rose, Kingston) and Helen of Troy (touring).
Lighting Designer - Alexandra Stafford
Alex is delighted to be returning to Chipping Norton Theatre to light Murder For Two, having previously lit A Tender Thing, Stones in His Pockets, The Island & The Kreutzer Sonata
Other recent theatre credits include:
Around The World in 80 Day-ish! (York Theatre Royal); Jack & The Beanstalk, Peter Pan and Cinderella (York Theatre Royal & Evolution Productions); Alice in Wonderland, Robin Hood, The Wind in the Willows, Home Girl, Solace of the Road (Derby Theatre); Wilko (Queens Theatre Hornchurch); Anna Hibiscus’ Song (Utopia Theatre); Mugabe, My Dad and Me (ETT & Brixton House, UK Tour); Model Village, The Swearing Jar, The Great Almighty Gill, Harvest, Finding Nana (New Perspectives); Into Battle (In Soft Wings Productions); Bubble, Skellig, Kindertransport (Nottingham Playhouse); Around the World in 80 Days USA & UK Tour New Vic production in partnership with Kenny Wax Family Entertainment; Well Done, Mummy Penguin, Oh, No George! (Can’t Sit Still); Babe, The Sheep Pig (Mercury Theatre Colchester); Lava, All The Little Lights (Fifth Word Theatre); Mirror Mirror, Emil & the Detectives, The Remarkable Adventures of Oliver Twist, The Red Tree and Make Do and Mend (Red Earth Theatre); Playhouse Creatures, Proof, The Rivals (The New Vic); A Thing Mislaid (Maison Foo); Aidy the Awesome, Tarzanna (The Gramophones); Sherlock Holmes & The Hound of the Baskervilles, Betrayal (York Theatre Royal); Hard Times (Oldham Coliseum); Outsiders & Antigone (Pilot Theatre) & sixteen Family Pantomimes for Harrogate Theatre
Sound Designer
Matt Eaton
Musical Director
Barnaby Southgate
Producers - John Terry and Rachel Jermy for Chipping Norton Theatre
Chipping Norton Theatre is an ambitious and furiously busy theatre, cinema and arts centre in the Cotswolds, welcoming over 50000 people a year to a town of little over 7,000. Winner of The Stage award for Outstanding Contribution to Regional Theatre, Chippy Theatre is one of the smallest producing houses in the country, making eye catching and mischievous productions for local and national touring audiences.
Recent tours and transfers include The Mountaintop (UK Tour), Jeeves and Wooster in Perfect Nonsense (Barn Cirencester and UK tour), Skylight by David Hare (National Tour), The Island by Athol Fugard (tour and Southwark Playhouse), The Kreutzer Sonata (Arcola Theatre transfer) and The Rise and Fall of Little Voice (Greenwich Theatre transfer).
Murder for Two was originally produced in New York by Jayson Raitt, Barbara Whitman, Steven Chaikelson and Second Stage Theatre.
“Murder for Two” World Premiere was presented on May 12, 2011 at Chicago Shakespeare Theater, Chicago, IL.; Barbara Gaines, Artistic Director, Criss Henderson, Executive Director. “Murder for Two” was developed for Chicago Shakespeare Theater by Rick Boynton, Creative Producer.
Contact
Chipping Norton Theatre Ltd
2, Spring Street, OX7 5NL
www.chippingnortontheatre.com
