Jonathan Norton

Tiana Kaye Blair

Tiana Kaye Blair is a director, actor, educator, and culture worker based in the Dallas-Forth Worth metroplex. Her directing credits include: Spell #7, Dutchman, Mlima’s Tale, Libra Season, Working: A Musical, Hurt Village, Rage, Public Works Twelfth Night, and Trouble In Mind. Some of her acting credits include: penny candy, Steel Magnolias, In The Heights, The Great Society, Hair, and The Mountaintop. Blair is also a member of Progress Theatre, an international touring ensemble committed to using art to encourage social consciousness, cross-community dialogue and cultural awareness amongst audiences diverse in race, age and spiritual background. She is proud to serve the Southern Methodist University Department of Theater, teaching SoulWork as a Professor of Practice of Acting and Movement. SoulWork is a comprehensive theater making methodology and pedagogy based in African American performance traditions, developed by Dr. Cristal Chanelle Truscott. This ensemble based method engages the artist’s cultural knowledge of self and community in efforts to inspire social consciousness with respect to artistic practice, performance, and curricula. Blair holds a Bachelors of Arts in Theater from Prairie View A&M University and a Masters of Fine Arts in Acting from Southern Methodist University. Progresstheatre.com | www.soulworkmethod.com

Blake Hackler

Blake is a director, actor and playwright who has appeared in productions on Broadway, Off-Broadway and in regional theaters throughout the country.  He currently serves as the Chair of Theater at Southern Methodist University and also holds a faculty position at Yale University. He is a member of the esteemed BMI/Lehman Engel Musical Theatre Writing Program, and is an award-winning playwright.  He has twice been named a Fulbright Scholar, to Bulgaria and Romania, and was a 2018 Macdowell Fellow. Education: MFA, Yale School of Drama.

Bob Hess

Bob Hess moved to Dallas from Louisville, Kentucky in 1980 to work at Dallas Theater Center  under founder Paul Baker. He considers it an incredible full-circle honor to be back as a member of the resident acting company, having last appeared here in The Sound of Music, Our Town, A Christmas Carol, To Kill a Mockingbird and It’s a Bird, It’s a Plane, It’s Superman. In a career spanning over 40 years in DFW, Bob has appeared on nearly every stage in the Metroplex; performances have included I Am My Own Wife, Hand to God, Pride and Prejudice, and Company (WaterTower Theatre), La Cage aux Folles, It Shoulda Been You,The Nance, Vanya and Sonia and Masha and Spike, Dirty Rotten Scoundrels, and The Normal Heart (Uptown Players), Light Up the Sky, Vieux Carre, and The Mousetrap (Theatre Three), The Great God Pan and Scapino (Second Thought Theatre), Artist Descending a Staircase and King Liz (Amphibian Productions), The Children and Hir (Stage West), Rock of Ages, Million Dollar Quartet, Big River, Chess (directed by Rob Marshall), and Annie (directed by Bob Fitch) (Casa Manana), Miracle on 34th Street (directed by Robyn Flatt, Paul Baker’s daughter) and A Year with Frog and Toad (Dallas Children’s Theater), The Goat, or Who Is Sylvia? (Kitchen Dog Theatre), and Driving Miss Daisy (with Sandy Duncan) (North Carolina Theatre and George Street Playhouse). The recipient of numerous awards from DFW Critics Forum to Broadway World, Bob is represented by The Mary Collins Agency and is proud to serve as an Assistant Professor of Acting at University of North Texas.

Christina Austin Lopez

Christina Austin Lopez is a member of Dallas Theater Center’s Diane and Hal Brierley Resident Acting Company where her credits include Our Town, The Sound of Music, A Christmas Carol, Tiny Beautiful Things, In the Heights and Public Works The Odyssey. She is a graduate of Baylor University where she received a BFA in Theatre Performance with a Concentration in Musical Theatre. Her other regional credits include: The Music Man (Theatre Three), 72 Miles to Go (Alley All New), West Side Story (A.D. Players), Miss Bennet: Christmas at Pemberley and The Wickhams: Christmas at Pemberley (Main Street Theatre Houston), Rapture Blister Burn (4^th Wall Theatre), A Christmas Carol (Zach Theatre), In the Heights (North Carolina Theatre), The House on Mango Street (CaraMia Theatre), and Borderline (Stages Houston Sin Muros Festival).  Her Baylor credits include: Fiddler on the Roof, Crazy for you, Mr. Burns A Post Electric Play, and Spring Awakening. Christina is also a social media personality with over 1.8M followers on TikTok (@xtina_lopez).  christinaaustinlopez.com  Luke 1:37

Liz Mikel

Liz Mikel is a proud member of the Dee and Hal Brierley Resident Acting

Company of the Tony-Award winning, Dallas Theater Center, recently celebrating her 30th year anniversary at DTC. Her credits include: Cake Ladies, Working, Something Grim(m), In the Bleak Midwinter; Little Women; penny candy; Twelfth Night; Sweat; Steel Magnolias; Public Works Dallas’ The Winter’s Tale; White Rabbit Red Rabbit; The Trials of Sam Houston; Miller, Mississippi; Inherit the Wind; Public Works Dallas’ The Tempest; Bella: An American Tall Tale; Romeo and Juliet; Medea; School for Wives; The Rocky Horror Show; A Raisin in the Sun; Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor® Dreamcoat; The Wiz; Dividing the Estate; A Christmas Carol; Death of a Salesman; Give It Up!; A Midsummer Night’s Dream (2009, 1991); The Who’s Tommy; Ain’t Misbehavin’ and Crowns. Broadway and Off-Broadway: Fruit Trilogy, Lysistrata Jones. Regional: American Repertory Theater; The MUNY; The Cape Playhouse; A Contemporary Theater; Arkansas Repertory Theater. Local: Casa Mañana Theatre; Dallas Children’s Theater; Jubilee Theater; Theatre Three; WaterTower Theatre. TV/Film: Get On Up; Dallas; The Secret Life of Walter Mitty; Straight A’s; Past Life; Friday Night Lights; Sordid Lives: The Series; and Welcome Home, Roscoe Jenkins. Awards: Leon Rabin, DFW Theater Critics Forum, D Magazine, Dallas Observer, Dallas Voice, and multiple Column Awards. 2015 Lunt Fontanne Fellow. Liz will play John Handcock in the Broadway Revival and tour of the musical comedy 1776, directed by Tony-Award winner and American Repertory Theater Artistic Director, Diane Paulus and Jeffrey Page.

Alex Organ

Alex Organ is a member of Dallas Theater Center’s Diane and Hal Brierley Resident Acting Company where his credits include: The Sound of Music; Our Town; Cake Ladies; Working: A Musical; Little Women, Twelfth Night; Public Works Dallas’ As You Like It: White Rabbit Red Rabbit, The Trials of Sam Houston; Frankenstein; Miller, Mississippi; Inherit the Wind; Electra; Public Works Dallas’ The Tempest: Constellations; Dreamgirls; All the Way; A Christmas Carol; Sense and Sensibility; The Rocky Horror Show; Les Misérables; The Fortress of Solitude; and Fly By Night. Local/Regional: Second Thought Theatre; Undermain Theatre; Theatre Three; WaterTower Theatre; Trinity Shakespeare Festival; Shakespeare Dallas; Lyric Stage; Epic Theater Ensemble; Repertory Theatre of St. Louis; Cincinnati Playhouse in the Park; Alley Theatre. Alex was the Artistic Director at Second Thought Theater for six years, and he holds an MFA from the Yale School of Drama.

Molly Searcy

Molly Searcy  is a member of Dallas Theater Center’s Diane and Hal Brierley Resident Acting Company where her credits include: Cake Ladies (Keith/Keisha); The Sound of Music (Nun, Grand Waltz pas de deux); Our Town (Mrs. Soames); A Christmas Carol (Christmas Past/Sister-in-Law); Working: A Musical (Dolores the Waitress); The Wolves (#11); Something Grim(m); In the Bleak Midwinter: A Christmas Carol for Our Time; and Frankenstein. Local/Regional: Undermain Theatre; Second Thought Theatre; Alley Theatre; Arena Stage; Stages Repertory Theatre; Houston Symphony; Main Street Theater; 4^th Wall Theatre Co.; Houston Grand Opera; Unity Theatre. In addition to her work in the theatre, Molly is a voice over artist for Microsoft, Crunchyroll, Sentai Filmworks, and Sound Cadence Studios. Her work in anime allows her to travel both nationally and internationally as a frequent guest of anime conventions. Molly earned her MFA from Southern Methodist University and is represented by Mary Collins Agency.

Tiffany Solano

Tiffany Solano joined Dallas Theater Center’s Diane and Hal Brierley Resident Acting Company in 2018. Favorite roles at Dallas Theater Center include “Maria” in The Sound of Music and “Nina” in In the Heights. Other DTC credits include: Working: A Musical; Something Grim(m); In the Bleak Midwinter: A Christmas Carol for Our Time; American Mariachi; Public Works Dallas’ As You Like It; Twelfth Night; and two seasons of A Christmas Carol. She has performed at theaters nationwide, most recently at The Goodman in Chicago. Other regional highlights: The Mark Taper Forum, Denver Center Theatre, South Coast Repertory, San Jose Repertory, Mixed Blood Theatre and Will & Company. Locally, she has performed with Theatre Three, Dallas Children’s Theater, Cara Mía Theatre Co. and Dallas Museum of Art / Arts & Letters Live. Other notable credits include Cesar and Ruben: The Musical, written and directed by Ed Begley Jr.; and flying on a magic carpet in Disney’s Aladdin: A Musical Spectacular as Princess Jasmine. She has also appeared in numerous commercials, television, and film productions. She is represented by Kim Dawson Agency. For Tiffany, there is no greater role than being Mom to Sofia and Nolan. @tiffanyesolano

Sally Nystuen Vahle

Sally Nystuen Vahle is a member of the Diane and Hal Brierley Resident Acting Company. The 2022-2023 season marks Sally’s 30^th year acting on the stages at Dallas Theater Center.  Sally has been fortunate to play a wide range of roles at DTC over these many years—her favorites include: Ouiser in Steel Magnolias;  Mildred in Miller, Mississippi; Scrooge in A Christmas Carol; Fraulein Kost in Cabaret; Medea in Medea; Clytemnestra in Electra, and Tracey in Sweat.

Most recently, Sally appeared in the musical Working, as Leann in Cake Ladies, The Ghost of Christmas Present in A Christmas Carol and  Frau Schmidt in The Sound of Music.  Sally is Lunt-Fontanne Fellowship Award recipient, The Linda and Bill Custard Award recipient, and is a Co-Founder of Dallas’ Kitchen Dog Theater. In addition to her work on stage, Sally works extensively in broadcast/voice-over.

Sally is a Professor of Acting in the Department of Dance and Theater at the University of North Texas. Representation: The Mary Collins Agency. Instagram: @sallyactsvahle

Websites:  www.sallyvahle.com and www.sallyvahlevoiceover.com

Zachary J. Willis

Zachary J. Willis has been performing as long as he can remember. He started singing in church at the age of five and many competitions and talent shows quickly followed. Zach was bit by the theater bug in middle school and that passion continues today. After studying Musical Theatre at Sam Houston State University, Zach returned to the metroplex and has worked with many theater companies in north Texas including Casa Mañana, Theatre Three, Uptown Players, Jubilee Theatre, and Circle Theatre as well as Stages Repertory Theatre, The Alley, and Theatre Under the Stars (TUTS) in Houston, Texas. Zach is now a member of the Brierley Resident Acting Company at the Tony Award-winning Dallas Theater Center. When he’s not performing, Zach enjoys painting, reading a book, or listening to a good podcast. www.zacharyjwillis.com. @zacharyjwillis.