WAPP Bios
TODD SCHAEFER, Artistic Director of WAPP, has appeared locally with New Line Theatre, HotHouse Theatre Co., The New Jewish Theatre, Kirkwood Theatre Guild, West End Players Guild, and NightShift Improvisation Theatre. He has appeared in productions of Bat Boy, Cabaret, A New Brain, The Rocky Horror Show, A New Line Cabaret, Episode II: Attack of the Show Tunes, Pterodactyls, Jeffrey, It's all True, Visiting Mr. Green, Into the Woods, and other shows. He has also designed and built the sets for The Rocky Horror Show and Cabaret. He has done special effects make-up for Rocky Horror, Cabaret, and Bat Boy, and teaches classes in special effects make-up. He is also currently the head costume designer for Robert Schmidt Costumes in St. Louis. Todd received his degree in Theatre from Truman State University, and has been actively involved in the growth and resurgence of downtown's theatre scene. He hopes to continue that involvement with The Washington Avenue Players Project.
The cast of "The Best is Yet to Come"
Luda Chernyak is making her Sheldon debut, but is no stranger to the stage. She is a theatre graduate from Truman State University, and has performed in many plays and musicals. Her favorites being Quilters, Baby, and the Witch in Into the Woods. She has spent the last eight years in LA as a singer/songwriter for the band Likwid Kiwi, where she recorded and performed on the Sunset Strip in clubs like The Roxy, The Whiskey, and The Viper Room. While in Hollywood she was the lead vocalist on two independent music project albums, and as an actor her face has been seen in several nation wide commercials. In the near future, Luda hopes to return to songwriting and singing around St. Louis. She sends love out to her family, and thanks Anheuser Busch for their support.
Miles Grier is a native of Cincinnati, Ohio who came to St. Louis to attend Washington University in 1996 and stayed to teach English at St. Louis University High. While at WU, he was assistant director and director of Black Anthology 1999 and 2000 respectively-evenings of dance, music, monologues, and plays by canonical and emerging black playwrights. He has also played Augustus in WU's production of Rita Dove's The Darker Face of the Earth. Most recently, he played everything from a snooty British nymphomaniac to a murderous Mexican gardener in Vanity Theatre's production of several short plays by David Ives. For musical inspiration, I thank my parents for naming me after Miles Davis and all of my friends, teachers, and colleagues for their support
April Lindsey is pleased to be on stage with The Washington Avenue Players Project’s first concert at the Sheldon. She has recently been seen in St. Louis with New Line Theatre’s Batboy, A New Line Cabaret, Episode II: Attack of the Show Tunes, and The Rocky Horror Show. She is happy to be back performing and living in her hometown. While studying musical theater in New York at Marymount Manhattan College, she performed off Broadway as Ethel in Best Foot Forward and as Jessica Whitfield in the staged reading of Sweet Valley High: The Musical. April also has performed for three years at the New York City Mayor’s Ball. Other roles include Daisy Mae in Li’l Abner, Adelaide in Guys and Dolls, Reno Sweeny in Anything Goes, and Cinderella in Into The Woods.
Todd Schaefer is happy to be back on the Sheldon stage and to be appearing with WAPP. He was last seen at the ArtLoft with New Line Theatre’s Batboy and The Rocky Horror Show as well as appearing on the Sheldon stage in A New Line Cabaret: Episode II Attack of the Show Tunes. Todd received his degree in Theatre from Truman State University, and has been actively involved in the growth and resurgence of downtown’s theatre scene at the ArtLoft on Washington Ave. He has been fortunate and blessed. He treasures the time spent working with St. Louis’s most talented. Todd hopes to fulfill yet another of his interests in the theatre arts, while doing his best to entertain and enlighten the St. Louis public. He would like to thank his partner and family for their inexhaustible support and love.
Deborah
Sharn (vocalist) Deborah has been singing
professionally for over 20 years and performs
regularly with the jazz combo, Gin & Tonic and the band, The Chaser's Fore.
In addition to singing, she's performed with various theater companies,
including New Line Theatre (playing Meredith in Bat Boy, the Baker's Wife in Into
The Woods, Fraulein Kost in Cabaret,
Clara in Passion, and many others),
the Black Rep (as Judy Cantrell in Bubbling
Brown Sugar), and Citilites Theatre (as Eva Peron in Evita and Velma in Chicago).
Deborah also co-hosts the weekly radio show "Break-A-Leg -Theatre in
St. Louis and Beyond" with Scott Miller on KDHX (88.1 FM) every Wednesday
morning at 9am. Upcoming plans for Deborah include a cabaret concert with
pianist Rocky Tucker, more theatre and continued jazz events around the city of
St. Louis.
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