GOING DOWN SWINGIN'GOING DOWN SWINGIN'

Peter Hilliard is the composer of 10 Operas, 4 musicals, and numerous other works with Matthew Boresi, including The Filthy Habit, a finalist in the National Opera Association chamber opera competition, which has received 12 productions. It was the first opera ever presented in the Chicago Fringe Festival and was the subject of an Emmy nominated public television feature in Minnesota.

Other operas include Circe on Superior, a comic singspiel, Inbox Zero, a monodrama about a man who falls for an internet scam, and Blue Viola, commissioned by Urban Arias in Washington DC and subsequently produced in Duluth Minnesota and at Opera Memphis, and The Last American Hammer, starring Elizabeth Futral. The Last American Hammer was presented at the Opera America New Works Forum in 2019 and received subsequent productions at Pittsburgh Opera, The University of Illinois, and Opera Grand Rapids. Hilliard and Boresi also revamped their comic reduction of the complete Verdi operas, co-commissioned by a consortium of opera companies from across the country. A virtual production presented by Resonance Works Pittsburgh won a 2022 Opera America award for Digital Excellence in Opera (Education/Enrichment Material) . During the pandemic of 2020, Hilliard and Boresi conceived a consortium of 9 opera companies to commission 9 short operas in the manner of Boccaccio’s Decameron. The resulting project; The Decameron Opera Coalition became one of the most ambitious new opera projects in the history of opera in the US, and a model for virtual opera in a changing world. Peter is also the recipient of the 2020 Hoefer Prize at the San Francisco Conservatory.

Peter has received numerous commissions for Orchestra, Chorus, Concert Band, and Piano, and his work has been performed by the Orchestra of St. Olaf College, The Mendelssohn Club of Philadelphia, The San Francisco Girl’s Chorus, The Anna Crusis Women's Chorale, the Philadelphia Gay Men's Chorus, VocalEssence, The Abington Symphony, The Young New Yorker's Chorus, VoxMusica Sacramento, The Ocean City Pops, The Temple University Women's Choir, The Choral Arts Society of Philadelphia, opera luminaries like Luca Pisaroni, Karen Slack, Jennifer Aylmer, Elizabeth Futral and Caroline Worra, and Broadway stars Christiane Noll and Marla Schaffel.

Peter is an active conductor, pianist, and educator in the Philadelphia area. With Glen Clugston, Hilliard built a new performing score and parts for Victor Herbert’s opera Natoma from the original materials housed at the library of congress, allowing Herbert’s most ambitious score to be heard for the first time in a century. He is an Assistant Professor at Villanova University where he directs the music in the graduate theatre department and teaches the core classes in the undergraduate music minor. He conducts a 90 voice community chorus that performs choral masterworks and popular music, and he is the Music Director for the Savoy Company, the oldest Gilbert and Sullivan company in the world. He has conducted The Grand Duke, Iolanthe and The Pirates of Penzance at the International Gilbert and Sullivan Festival in the UK. In 2024 he was named Best Music Director of the festival.

Peter Hilliard studied with Ellen Southard and Richard Allen Fiske in his teens, and then with English baritone John Shirley Quirk at the Peabody Conservatory. He holds a Bachelor of Music Degree in Composition from the San Francisco Conservatory, where he studied with David Conte and a Master’s Degree in Musical Theatre Writing from New York University, where he studied with Mel Marvin and Phillip Johnston.

Matt Boresi serves as Director of Special Initiatives at the Music Institute of Chicago, overseeing initiatives such as our One Composer One Community Initiative and the Martin Luther King Community Celebration. Matt has previously overseen our classroom outreach and musical theatre programs. His teaching and directing experience includes music theatre at the University of Chicago Laboratory School, Lake Forest Academy, Carthage College, North Central College, and Northwestern University. Matt is an award-winning opera librettist whose work has been produced at such institutions as Pittsburgh Opera, Opera Memphis, Charlottesville Opera, Carnegie Mellon University, and Lyric Theatre @ Illinois. Matt lives in Evanston with his wife, NU voice professor Melissa Foster, and their daughter, actress Viva Boresi.

Education

Master of Fine Arts Degree in Musical Theatre Writing, New York University
Bachelor's Degree in Theatre performance, North Central College

Additional Studies / Recent Awards / Recordings

Teaching philosophy and areas of expertise:

Matt is a firm believer that Musical Theatre is a cultural cornerstone of our country, firmly rooted in the American spirit and experience, and that all forms of lyric theatre, from Opera to Broadway, represent a glorious intersection of the arts. There some of humanities most enduring myths, stories, and characters can be brought to life in a manner that only music, drama, and dance can provide.
Matt's personal favorite interest is seeing a performer, young or old, create a new role on stage — using the grand theatrical tradition to tell new stories to a world longing to better understand itself.

Jenny Lord, who studied at Yale, has directed Juilliard productions of Measure for Measure, All My Sons, and As You Like It. Her other directing credits include Of Mice and Men at the Serenbe Playhouse (which received Suzi Bass nominations for best play, best ensemble, and best director), Shakespeare Theatre’s Free-for-All productions of Much Ado About Nothing and All’s Well That Ends Well; A Christmas Carol at the Dallas Theater Center; Bee-luther-hatchee at the New Century Theatre; By Jupiter at the 42nd Street Moon; and several operas. She directed King Lear at the University of Texas, El Paso; The Cherry Orchard and Angels in America: Perestroika at New York University/Stella Adler Conservatory; and Street Scene at San Francisco State University. She has assisted many distinguished directors including Michael Kahn, Christopher Bayes, Mary Zimmerman, Daniel Fish, and Rebecca Taichman. She was the associate director for the Broadway productions of Twelfth Night and Richard III, featuring Mark Rylance and directed by Tim Carroll.

Stacie Bono was born on 9 July 1982 in St. Louis, Missouri, USA. She is an actress, known for When a Man Falls (2007), Less Than or Equal To (2021) and Billions (2016).

Tom Deckman is an American stage and screen actor. He is a member of Actors' Equity Association. He played The Historian, Not Dead Fred, French Guard, Minstrel, and Prince Herbert in the Broadway production of Monty Python's Spamalot.

George McDaniel was born on 30 June 1942 in St. Louis, Missouri, USA. He was an actor, known for The Last Starfighter (1984), Lionheart (1990) and This Is Spinal Tap (1984). He died on 24 March 2023 in Ventura, California, USA.

Meredith Patterson is a Broadway actress, singer, dancer, writer, producer, holistic & mindset coach, and keynote speaker whose career spans Broadway, television, film, and beyond. Recognized as a true triple-threat performer, she has been praised by critics as “exquisite,” possessing a “lit-from-within radiance” as a dancer and a “rich, glowing voice” that captivates audiences. Whether starring on Broadway, appearing on network television, recording jazz music, writing her memoirs, or hosting her own podcast, Patterson’s journey is one of resilience, reinvention, and unwavering passion for storytelling.

Hardy Rawls is a character actor. In 2003, Adweek and Ad Age described Rawls's best-known role as that of the father on Nickelodeon's The Adventures of Pete & Pete. For Maytag's 2004 marketing campaign, Rawls became the third actor to portray Ol' Lonely, replacing the retiring Gordon Jump;Rawls was, in turn, replaced by Richmond, Virginia real estate broker Clay Jackson on April 2, 2007. Rawls also performed in NBC's 1987 television film Bates Motel

Marla Schaffel is an American actress, especially in musical theatre, noted for her award winning performance in the title role in the musical adaptation of Jane Eyre.

Schaffel's first major acting job was in 1991 with the original Broadway production of Les Misérables, as a swing and understudying the role of Fantine. She performed opposite Natalie Toro (as Eponine) and J. Mark McVey (as Valjean). She left the theatre after turning down the coveted role of Christine Daaé in Andrew Lloyd Webber's The Phantom of the Opera. She had a small role in the television series Kung Fu: The Legend Continues, as Tyler Smith, Peter Caine's girlfriend in season 1.

In 1995, she won over several competitors for the title role in the Manhattan Theatre Club workshop of Jane Eyre - The Musical. She was featured alongside Anthony Crivello as Edward Rochester and Mary Stout as Mrs. Fairfax. Later that year, she was featured in the world première of the musical, starring these two as well, in Wichita, Kansas at the Center for Arts. In 1996, the musical had its Canadian premiere at The Royal Alexandra Theatre in Toronto. The show released a cast recording.

In 1995, she starred in the title role of Evita, as part of the national tour in order to promote the film. In 1997, she starred as Maria in West Side Story at the Westchester Broadway Theatre in New York

She starred in Julie Davis' first film I Love You, Don't Touch Me!, which premiered at the Sundance Film Festival in 1997.

She played her second Broadway role in Titanic, as a replacement for the role of Caroline Neville, from April 14, 1998 until March 28, 1999.

Following Titanic, Jane Eyre received its Broadway try-out at the La Jolla Playhouse in San Diego from July to September 1999. Schaffel was cast once more as Jane, with former castmates Mary Stout, Elizabeth DeGrazia and Don Richard; joining as Rochester was James Stacy Barbour. Jane Eyre opened on Broadway at the Brooks Atkinson Theatre on December 10, 2000. The show received mixed notices, several of which claimed Marla was too pretty to play a "Plain Jane". The show announced a closing for May 20, but Alanis Morissette (a Canadian herself, as was the composer and many of the cast including DeGrazia) supported the show to last out through the Tony Awards, for which was nominated as Best Leading Actress. Jane Eyre closed on June 10, 2001.

Before Jane Eyre opened on Broadway, she originated and created the role of Judith in the play Glimmerglass at the Goodspeed Opera House for the world première in 1999

Schaffel appeared in the York Theatre Company's production of Enter Laughing as Angela. The show opened in January 2009 and closed in March

Schaffel has been Artist-in-Residence at The Mirror Theater Ltd’s GAAR in Greensboro, Vermont since 2012 and has performed in numerous productions to universally positive reviews. In 2005, Schaffel made a brief appearance on season 6 of NBC’s “Law and Order SVU.” She was credited as “Girl,” in episode 20 named “Night.”

Christopher Shyer (sometimes credited as Chris Shyer) is a Canadian-American actor who has appeared in over 100 film and television roles.

Shyer has appeared in multiple guest roles on television since 1994, including: Viper, The New Outer Limits, Smallville, Monk, JAG, CSI: Miami, CSI: Crime Scene Investigation, and a critically acclaimed recurring role as the Hannibal Lecter-like character "Lawrence O'Malley" in The Practice. He more recently appeared in a supporting role on ABC-TV's re-imagined V series as "Marcus," second-in-command to the V high commander, Anna (Morena Baccarin).

His varied film roles have included The Falling (1998, as "Lars"), The Invitation (2003, as "Joel Gellman"), The Lazarus Child (2004, as "John Boyd"), Fierce People (2005, as "Dr. Leffler"), and Big Bad Wolf (2006, as "Charlie Cowley").

He has also starred on Broadway as Sam Carmichael in Mamma Mia and Dean Newhouse in Going Down Swingin’, following successful stints in the Canadian productions of Miss Saigon, Les Misérables (as Joly & understudy Marius Pontmercy), The Phantom of the Opera (as Raoul, Vicomte de Chagny), Assassins (as John Wilkes Booth), and Sunset Boulevard (as Artie Green). He also played four supporting roles in the US tour of The Book of Mormon and Governor John Slaton in the 2025 US tour of Parade.

James Herbert Stovall, Jr. (May 16, 1958 – September 25, 2010) was an American actor best known for his work in Broadway and regional theater, appearing in productions of Once on This Island, The Life and Ragtime, and The Rocky Horror Show, having made his Broadway debut in the short-lived production of Bob Fosse's musical Big Deal. He also created and directed Nativity: A Life Story, an African American-themed musical intended to become an annual Christmas season performance.