“Buckley is Buoyant and hilarious... and does more with a stool and a smile than a lesser Theater company could do with a big budget and cast.”
—Windy City Media • FULL REVIEW
MELINDA BUCKLEY (Writer / Performer) has appeared on Broadway and in the National tours of several shows, including Crazy For You, A Chorus Line and Bob Fosse’s revival of Sweet Charity. She performed improv and sketch material with Gotham City Improv and Chicago City Limits, and appeared as a stand up at Caroline’s, Stand-Up NY, and Gotham Comedy Club. She has written and performed several solo shows, her latest being, MOTHER (and me). On the other side of the table, highlights include directing Town Hall’s hit musical series, Broadway By The Year, which featured a Tony award winning cast, and choreographing Paramour, which starred Len Cariou and premiered at the Old Globe Theatre. For the big screen, she choreographed the musical sequences for Columbia Pictures’, Stuart Little I and II with Geena Davis, Hugh Laurie and Jonathon Lipnicki, the independent film 1999, starring Amanda Peet and Jennifer Garner, and assisted Pat Birch on Working Girl as well as several episodes of Saturday Night Live. Other TV credits include, choreographing the daytime drama One Life to Live and an award-winning promo for the CBS Fall Lineup. Most recently, she choreographed a CBS promo for Girl Power which aired during Super Bowl 2019 and was named one of the top ten ads by Paste magazine (https://bit.ly/2LSYNfc). She assisted Lonny Price (as SDC Fellow) in the filming of Company at the NY Philharmonic, which starred Neil Patrick Harris, Patti Lupone, Stephen Colbert, Martha Plimpton, and Jon Cryer.
Melinda has written, directed, and choreographed numerous commercial and corporate productions for such clients as Fox, ESPN, WE tv, Sesame Street, McDonald’s, Microsoft, Pepsi, IBM, American Express and Audi. She is a proud member of AEA, SAG-AFTRA and SDC.
KIMBERLY SENIOR (Director) directed the Broadway premiere of Ayad Akhtar’s Pulitzer Prize-winning play Disgraced, which she previously directed Off-Broadway at Lincoln Center Theater (LCT3 with Aasif Mandvi), Goodman Theatre, Seattle Re, Berkeley Rep and Mark Taper Forum. Off-Broadway: Sakina’s Restaurant (Minetta Lane Theatre; The Niceties (Manhattan Theatre Club); Career Suicide (produced by Judd Apatow); Discord (Primary Stages); Engagements (Second Stage Theater); The Who and the What (LCT3). Regionally: The Niceties (Huntington Theater Company); Disgraced; Rapture, Blister, Burn and Support Group for Men (Goodman Theatre); Buried Child, The Scene, Marjorie Prime, The Diary of Anne Frank, Hedda Gabler, The Letters (Writers Theatre); Sheltered (Alliance Theatre); Sex with Strangers (Geffen Playhouse); Want and The North Plan (Steppenwolf Theatre); Other than Honorable (Geva Theatre Center); among others. TV: “Chris Gethard’s Career Suicide: (HBO). Senior is the Founder of Collaboraction, a resident director at Writers Theatre, and an Associate Artist at TimeLine Theatre Company. Senior was the recipient of the 2016 Special Non-Equity Jeff Award, 2016 Alan Schneider Award (TCG) and 2018 Einhorn Award (Primary Stages). Senior was named the 2012 Best Director in Chicago by Chicago Magazine. She was a finalist for both SDC's Zelda Fichandler and Joe A Callaway Awards and is the recipient of the 2010 Excellence in Teaching Award from Columbia College. Senior lives in New Jersey with her two children, Noah and Delaney, and is a proud member of SDC.
DYLAN PAGER (Assistant Director) is a graduate of Northwestern University where he majored in theater and concentrated in directing and artistic administration. He is currently working on Hamilton with Baseline Theatrical. Additionally, he is assistant directing Kimberly Senior on Engagements at Second Stage Uptown.
DANIEL CARLYON (Sound Designer) is a theatrical sound designer and writer living in Chicago. He is an active part of the Chicago theater scene, and has worked at Chicago Shakespeare Theater, the Goodman, and Steppenwolf Theatre, among many others. He also works in New York, including at Lincoln Center, on Broadway, and one time on a barge. Watch his original web series The Adventures of Jacketman!