Music Director & Accompanist | HARPER CARUSO

HARPER CARUSO (she/her) is a Jeff Award-nominated musical director, actor, and musician based in the Chicago area. Chicago credits include HEDWIG AND THE ANGRY INCH (Haven); 9 TO 5 THE MUSICAL (Metropolis); THE BAND'S VISIT, ONCE (Writers Theatre); and tick...tick, BOOM! (BoHo Theatre). Much love to Nidhi and our cat, Theo. Instagram: @harpercaruso.

Lighting Designer & Master Electrician | KYLE JARVIS

KYLE JARVIS (he/him) studied lighting design at Ball State University, where he honed his technical and creative skills. Most recently, he collaborated with Brent Ervin-Eikoff on the lighting design for Herculaneum. Kyle is particularly passionate about bringing his lighting expertise to dance and creative movement performances. In addition to his stage work, Kyle has extensive experience in commercial and event lighting. He currently works at Grand Stage, a Chicago-based lighting systems integrator, where he serves as project manager. His true passion lies in providing updated technology to the next generation of theatre kids. Kyle is incredibly grateful for the opportunity to work on The Last Five Years, and he looks forward to continuing to merge his technical skills with his creative vision to enhance the theatrical experience.

Production Intimacy Director | SYDNEY RENE COX

SYDNEY RENÉ COX (she/her) is thrilled to be part of The Last Five Years. Previous Chicago Intimacy credits include work with Oil Lamp, Remy Bumppo, The Once and Future Festival, and Rejected Sequel Theater. Regional Intimacy credits include ART4. Film Intimacy credits include work with DePaul University graduate and undergraduate programs, GhostBat Productions, and various independent projects. 

Associate Director | KYLE ANNE GRENDYS

KYLE ANNE GRENDYS (she/her) is a Chicago based filmmaker & writer that specializes in stories that center around communities that often follow the word disability. Her short bio-documentary “Fraser Syndrome & Me” has screened in 15 countries worldwide. Being a musical theatre kid at heart, she has played versions of an Old Lady in many different productions in her youth: SNOW WHITE (Old Crone), SCHOOL HOUSE ROCK (Mother Necessity), LES MISERABLES (Old Woman), & more. Proud UW-Milwaukee film alumni and current MFA Directing candidate at Depaul University. She couldn’t be more excited to break back into the world of musical theatre with such amazingly talented people. Instagram: @kyleanne 

Creative Producer | JESSICA ERVIN

JESSICA ERVIN (she/her) is a Chicago-based actor, working in theatre, film, and television. An ensemble member at Rivendell Theatre Ensemble, Jessica received an equity Jeff nomination for her portrayal of Ester in DRY LAND and originated the role of Annie in Tuckie White's MOTHERHOUSE (Jeff Award - Best Ensemble; Best New Work). She has also worked with Rivendell on I WANNA FUCKING TEAR YOU APART, THE SCIENTIFIC METHOD, ALIAS GRACE, THE FIREBIRDS TAKE THE FIELD, WOMEN AT WAR, and 8:46 BREATHING ROOM. Other theatre work includes roles with Minetta Lane Theatre, Goodman, A Red Orchid Theatre, American Blues Theatre, Strawdog Theatre, Prop Thtr, Walkabout Theatre, and Route 66. On screen, Jessica has appeared on CHICAGO FIRE (NBC), and in the films PRINCESS CYD, PROVO, TEACHER, NEW NORMAL, ROT, and APPETITE, among other shorts. She is proud to be represented by Actors Talent Group. 

Creative Producer | KYLE STOFFERS

KYLE STOFFERS (he/him) is a director of theatre based in Chicago where he most recently directed THE RECEPTIONIST for Kalliope & Co. He reoutinely works with A Red Orchid Theatre where his credits include TRAITOR and THE MUTILATED (Assistant Director), PILGRIM'S PROGRESS and RED HANDED OTTER (Assistant Stage Manager), and for A Red Orchid's Incubator Series with THE RECEPTIONIST, TOM & ELIZA *postponed indefinitely due to COVID, and PUGET SOUND (Director), THE SILENCE THAT FOLLOWS and WHERE'S THE REST OF ME (Assistant Director), CELEBRATION (Assistant Director & Stage Manager), and ALL US GOOD GUYS (Stage Manager). He has also worked on Casting for nearly every production at A Red Orchid since 2016 and served as their Interim Managing Director in 2022 and 2023. Other Chicago Credits include: WITH OR WITHOUT WINGS (Director, Steppenwolf Look Out); ALIAS GRACE (Assistant Director, Rivendell Theatre); THE SWEETER OPTION (Assistant Stage Manager, Strawdog Theatre); and A SCENT OF FLOWERS (Assistant Stage Manager, BackStage Theatre). Kyle received his BA in Theatre Directing from Ball State University and currently serves as the Casting & Administrative Associate at A Red Orchid Theatre. For more visit kylestoffers.com.

Writer & Composer | JASON ROBERT BROWN

JASON ROBERT BROWN is the ultimate multi-hyphenate - an equally skilled composer, lyricist, conductor, arranger, orchestrator, director and performer - best known for his dazzling scores to several of the most renowned musicals of our time, including the generation-defining The Last Five Years, his debut song cycle Songs for a New World, and the seminal Parade, for which he won the 1999 Tony Award for Best Score.

Jason Robert Brown has been hailed as "one of Broadway's smartest and most sophisticated songwriters since Stephen Sondheim" (Philadelphia Inquirer), and his "extraordinary, jubilant theater music" (Chicago Tribune) has been heard all over the world, whether in one of the hundreds of productions of his musicals every year or in his own incendiary live performances. The New York Times refers to Jason as "a leading member of a new generation of composers who embody high hopes for the American musical." Jason's score for The Bridges of Madison County, a musical adapted with Marsha Norman from the bestselling novel, received two Tony Awards (for Best Score and Orchestrations). Honeymoon In Vegas, based on Andrew Bergman's film, opened on Broadway in 2015 following a triumphant production at Paper Mill Playhouse. A film version of his epochal Off-Broadway musical The Last Five Years was released in 2015, starring Anna Kendrick and Jeremy Jordan and directed by Richard LaGravenese. His major musicals as composer and lyricist include: 13, written with Robert Horn and Dan Elish, which opened on Broadway in 2008 and was subsequently directed by the composer for its West End premiere in 2012; The Last Five Years, which was cited as one of Time Magazine's 10 Best of 2001 and won Drama Desk Awards for Best Music and Best Lyrics (and was later directed by the composer in its record-breaking Off-Broadway run at Second Stage Theatre in 2013); Parade, written with Alfred Uhry and directed by Harold Prince, which won both the Drama Desk and New York Drama Critics' Circle Awards for Best New Musical, as well as garnering Jason the Tony Award for Original Score; and Songs for a New World, a theatrical song cycle directed by Daisy Prince, which has since been seen in hundreds of productions around the world since its 1995 Off-Broadway debut, including a celebrated revival at New York's City Center in the summer of 2018. Parade was also the subject of a major revival directed by Rob Ashford, first at London's Donmar Warehouse and then at the Mark Taper Forum in Los Angeles. Jason conducted his orchestral adaptation of E.B. White's novel The Trumpet of the Swan with the National Symphony Orchestra, and recorded the score for PS Classics. Future projects include a new chamber musical created with Daisy Prince and Jonathan Marc Sherman calledThe Connector; an adaptation of Lilian Lee's Farewell My Concubine, created with Kenneth Lin and Moisés Kaufman; and a collaboration with Billy Crystal, Amanda Green, Lowell Ganz and Babaloo Mandel on a musical of Mr. Saturday Night. Jason is the winner of the 2018 Louis Auchincloss Prize, the 2002 Kleban Award for Outstanding Lyrics and the 1996 Gilman & Gonzalez-Falla Foundation Award for Musical Theatre. Jason's songs, including the cabaret standard "Stars and the Moon," have been performed and recorded by Ariana Grande, Audra McDonald, Kristin Chenoweth, Billy Porter, Betty Buckley, Renée Fleming, Jon Hendricks and many others, and his song "Someone To Fall Back On" was featured in the Walden Media film, Bandslam.

As a soloist or with his band The Caucasian Rhythm Kings, Jason has performed concerts around the world. For the past four years (and ongoing), his monthly sold-out performances at New York's SubCulture have featured many of the music and theater world's most extraordinary performers. His newest collection, "How We React and How We Recover", was released in June 2018 on Ghostlight Records. His previous solo album, "Wearing Someone Else's Clothes", was named one of Amazon.com's best of 2005, and is available from Sh-K-Boom Records. Jason's 2012 concert with Anika Noni Rose was broadcast on PBS, and he was the featured soloist for a live episode of Friday Night Is Music Night, broadcast live from the London Palladium and featuring the BBC Concert Orchestra. His collaboration with singer Lauren Kennedy, "Songs of Jason Robert Brown", is available on PS Classics. Jason is also the composer of the incidental music for the Broadway revival of You Can't Take It With You, David Lindsay-Abaire's Kimberly Akimbo and Fuddy Meers, and Kenneth Lonergan's The Waverly Gallery, and he was a Tony Award nominee for his contributions to the score of Urban Cowboy the Musical. He has also contributed music to the hit Nickelodeon television series, The Wonder Pets as well as Sesame Street. Jason spent ten years teaching at the USC School of Dramatic Arts, and has also taught at Harvard University, Princeton University and Emerson College.

For the musical Prince of Broadway, a celebration of the career of his mentor Harold Prince, Jason was the musical supervisor and arranger. Other New York credits as conductor and arranger include Urban Cowboy the Musical on Broadway; Dinah Was, off-Broadway and on national tour; When Pigs Fly"off-Broadway; William Finn's A New Brain at Lincoln Center Theater; the 1992 tribute to Stephen Sondheim at Carnegie Hall (recorded by RCA Victor); Yoko Ono's New York Rock, at the WPA Theatre; and Michael John LaChiusa's The Petrified Princ" at the Public Theatre. Jason orchestrated Andrew Lippa's john and jen, Off-Broadway at Lamb's Theatre. Additionally, Jason served as the orchestrator and arranger of Charles Strouse and Lee Adams's score for a proposed musical of Star Wars. Jason has conducted and created arrangements and orchestrations for Liza Minnelli, John Pizzarelli, and Michael Feinstein, among many others.

Jason studied composition at the Eastman School of Music in Rochester, N.Y., with Samuel Adler, Christopher Rouse, and Joseph Schwantner. He lives with his wife, composer Georgia Stitt, and their daughters in New York City. Jason is a proud member of the Dramatists Guild and the American Federation of Musicians Local 802. Visit him on the web at www.jasonrobertbrown.com.