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The New Musicals Lab X CNU
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The New Musicals Lab X TheaterCNU
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LEADERSHIP
BRUCE BRONSTEIN
Founder & Producer, The New Musicals Lab
Executive Director, Ferguson Center For The Arts
Cast as an orphan in a community theatre production of Oliver! more than 40 years ago, and singing the solo line “cold jelly and custard” in “Food, Glorious Food,” Bruce Bronstein was hooked.
After graduating with a BA in Theatre and Communications from New Jersey’s Trenton State College, Bronstein began his professional career off-stage as a booking agent with The Booking Group in New York City, representing performing artists and touring productions of Broadway shows, from David Copperfield and George Carlin to Jesus Christ Superstar and Damn Yankees. Then, like many one-time aspiring performers, he saw an opportunity and ran away to join the circus – the Big Apple Circus, where he served as director of marketing, managing East Coast, Mid-Atlantic and Midwest engagements. Following a successful tenure with Big Apple, he headed to the Wharton Center for the Performing Arts at Michigan State University – one of the nation’s largest and most successful university-based performing arts presenters – to serve as director of communications, where he oversaw marketing, advertising, ticket operations and assisted with programming.
In 2005, he joined the staff of Christopher Newport University’s Ferguson Center for the Arts as director of communications, opening the Concert Hall and building the center’s brand during its first three seasons. Then, in 2008, he was tapped by university president Paul Trible to lead Christopher Newport’s Office of Communications & Public Relations, overseeing all marketing, communications and brand management for the university.
In 2015, Bruce returned to the Ferguson Center as the Executive Director, and has continued to build upon the center’s previous success while elevating existing community programs like Arts for All and creating new initiatives with Christopher Newport’s Theater and Music departments.
“I know the transformative power of live theatre. It is my mission to create opportunities and remove obstacles so everyone can participate in the soul-nourishing experiences that are only possible through the arts.” - Bruce Bronstein, Executive Director, Ferguson Center
COLIN RUFFER
Artistic Director & Music Supervisor
The New Musicals Lab @ Ferguson Center
Colin Ruffer, Assistant Professor of Theater at CNU, specializes in Musical Theatre singing. He received his MFA in Voice Pedagogy for Musical Theatre from Penn State University, where he trained with Mary Saunders-Barton. Ruffer also holds an MM in Voice Performance from The Boston Conservatory of Music and a BME in Music Education from Winthrop University where primary vocal teachers include Jerry Helton Rebecca Folsom.
As a music director/vocal coach/accompanist, Ruffer has worked with Penn State NuMusicals, The Boston Conservatory Vocal/Choral Intensive, Penn State S.T.A.T.E., The Boston Conservatory of Music, Penn State Centre Stage, Matthews Playhouse, Central Piedmont Community College, Theatre Charlotte and The Edge Theatre Company.
Performance highlights include Into the Woods, The Scarlet Pimpernel, Falsettos, Cinderella, Fiddler On the Roof, Oklahoma!, Lil’ Abner, Anything Goes, Once Upon a Mattress, Die Zauberflöte, La Bohemé, Transformations, the Rape of Lucretia, Carmen, Our Town and the Cunning Little Vixen. Ruffer has also performed as a soloist with the Toledo Symphony, Troy Symphony, and at Boston’s Symphony Hall.
Most recently, Ruffer wrote, directed and performed a solo cabaret that explored the trope of “Heroes and Villains” as portrayed in traditional American Musical Theatre. Portraying well-known characters ranging from Princes & Princesses to evil dentists and sassy sea witches, the material showcased Ruffer’s work with vocal cross-training and defied the norms of voice type, gender and musical limitations.
ILANA RANSOM TOEPLITZ
Director-In-Residence (2021 Lab)
Ilana is a director/choreographer specializing in new work, comedy, and musical theatre. On Broadway, Ilana was Leigh Silverman’s Assistant Director on the 2014 Tony-Nominated revival of VIOLET starring Sutton Foster as well as the 2018 SDCF Mike Ockrent Fellow with Casey Nicholaw on THE PROM.
Ilana was the Associate Director for the national tours of DIRTY DANCING: THE CLASSIC STORY ON STAGE (2017-2018, by Eleanor Bergstein, directed by Sarna Lapine, choreographed by Michele Lynch) and A CHRISTMAS STORY: THE MUSICAL! (2014-2015, directed by Matt Lenz, choreographed by Warren Carlyle).
Ilana holds assistant or associate credits with Sarna Lapine, Leigh Silverman, Susan Stroman, Joe Calarco, Martin Charnin, Dan Knechtges, Baayork Lee, and with Signature Theatre (VA), Second Stage Theatre (NYC), New York City Center – Encores!, The Huntington Theatre, Keen Company, Pittsburgh CLO (Assistant Choreographer for the 2012 season), and the York Theatre Company.
Ilana is a Mike Ockrent Fellow and a Drama League Director’s Project Alum (2017 Leo Shull New Musicals Directing Fellow).
ABOUT
ABOUT THE NEW MUSICALS LAB
The New Musicals Lab @ Ferguson Center is a new musical incubator program on the campus of Christopher Newport University in Newport News, Virginia. The Lab is making space for new musicals by providing access to world-class facilities, creative funding and student talent. The program brings together emerging musical theatre artists, directors, composers, writers, designers and actors –working alongside CNU talent.
The 2021 Lab runs June 7th to July 24th, 2021, with eight (8) NEW musicals being crafted at The Ferguson Center. Each show is in a different stage of development, with some still working out their structure and others almost ready for a full production.
Submissions are accepted during the Fall/Winter and reviewed by a selection committee at Ferguson Center. Lusicals are notified early in the new year.
ABOUT THE FERGUSON CENTER
Christopher Newport University’s Ferguson Center for the Arts has become an international force, presenting the finest cultural attractions in the world. More than 2 million patrons have experienced hundreds of performances in its acoustically superb theaters.
Ferguson Center is proud to present a broad range of performances in order to reach the largest possible number of community members, all-the-while maintaining its status as the finest performing arts center in Hampton Roads. The mission of the Ferguson Center is to culturally engage the community by providing access to the finest artists in the world.
Designed by renowned architects I.M. Pei and Henry Cobb, the Ferguson Center is a world-class venue. Audiences from throughout Virginia and beyond enjoy year-round attractions that have included such headline talent as tenor Andrea Bocelli, John Legend, Tony Bennett, Wynton Marsalis, Jay Leno, Ziggy Marley, Joan Baez, Liza Minnelli, Blue Man Group, and Broadway shows like "Jersey Boys," "The King and I" and Disney's "Beauty and the Beast," among others.
The Center features the 1,700-seat Diamonstein Concert Hall, the 500-seat Peebles Theatre and the 250-seat Studio Theater. It houses the Departments of Fine Art and Art History, Music, and Theater and Dance. The facility also includes art galleries, art studios, workshops and rehearsal spaces.
ABOUT CHrISTOPHER NEWPORT UNIVERSITY
Founded in 1960 as Christopher Newport College, a two-year branch of the College of William & Mary, we are in Coastal Virginia, in the city of Newport News. Christopher Newport gained independence in 1977 and became a university in 1992.
Christopher Newport is named for the 17th-century mariner who helped establish the Jamestown colony, the first permanent English-speaking settlement in the New World, just a few miles from our campus.
Today, Christopher Newport is a four-year public university that enrolls 5,000 students in rigorous and rewarding academic programs in the liberal arts and sciences through the College of Arts and Humanities, the College of Natural and Behavioral Sciences, the College of Social Sciences, and the Luter School of Business. CNU offers great teaching and small class sizes with an emphasis on leadership, civic engagement and honor.
