Board of DirectorsThe following dedicated individuals comprise the Broadway Dreams Foundation's Board of Directors, bring their talents and expertise to advise and assist with the development of the organization:
Annette Tanner
Executive Director - Originally from New Zealand , Annette opened her first film and television casting agency in 1985. After just 2 years as an agent she made the move to casting consultant then casting director on several movies, television and commercials. She moved to Australia and returned to working as an agent again, this time for Richard Kent Management in Sydney . In 1991 she decided to pursue her other passion, photography, becoming the Director of Training & Operations for the largest photography studio in Australia and later became General Manager for the company's UK division. In 2000 Tanner Photography a full service photography studio was born. Tanner specializes in portraiture, fashion,commercial, headshots, theater, weddings and music industry imagery. They have won numerous awards including the L'Oreal Look of The Year, numerous international hair fashion photographic awards and was recently nominated for best portrait photographer for the Nickelodean Parents Choice Awards. Annette has photographed many Broadway performers including Matt Bogart, Paige Price, Shoshana Bean, Donnie Kehr, Billy Porter, Paul Canaan and Christian Campbell, to name a few. They have photographed many live theatrical productions including the 15th Anniversary of The Who's TOMMY benefit on Broadway, several productions for Theater of the Stars including 'Dreamgirls' with Jennifer Holiday, as well as a number of off-Broadway shows.
In 2006 Annette co-founded the Broadway Company with friends Farah Chapes, Dave Barrus & Adam Hunter. It quickly became clear that BDF's goal was to help bring this program to everyone, regardless of their financial status. So from this, the Broadway Dreams Foundation became a reality. Annette is proud to work as the full time Executive Director of BDF. She has also maintained her work in casting, working as an associate and as a PA for several NY projects including Altar Boys, Metropolis and Mary Poppins. Annette is regularly asked to submit BDF alumni for casting projects nationwide.
Paul Canaan
Artistic Director - Paul is an actor, educator and producer. As an actor he most recently worked on the upcoming Broadway show Catch Me If You Can. His other Broadway credits include Legally Blonde, Miss Saigon, Thoroughly Modern Millie, La Cage Aux Folles and Chitty Chitty Bang Bang. Paul traveled in the First National Tour of Annie Get Your Gun and performed in the New York Radio City Christmas Spectacular. Regionally he's been a dance captain at Paper Mill Playhouse, Robert Redford's Sundance Theater, Fords Theater, and many more.
Paul was seen in the MTV series Legally Blonde: The Search For Elle Woods, where he served as a judge along side Bernie Telsey and Heather Hach. Paul's appeared in the film Across the Universe, directed by Julie Taymor, performed at the 2005 Tony awards (‘La Cage’ winner: Best Choreography) and is the annual announcer for Logo Network's ‘New Now Next Awards’. He will also be featured in the upcoming "Sex In The City" sequel.
His passion for arts education has ignited many important and fulfilling projects. In addition to his role as the artistic director of Broadway Dreams Foundation, Paul also directs education elements for ‘Kids Night On Broadway’ through the Broadway League of Producers. He and partner Laura Bell Bundy also work to put arts back in the schools through their company "Take It From The Top". Paul's thoughts about the theatre and arts education can be seen in his reoccuring column for BroadwaySpace.com.
Jeff Becherer
Chairperson, Board of Directors - Jeff is an attorney and career counselor. Jeff received his J.D. from the University of California , Berkeley in 2001 and was employed as a litigator with the law firm of Dickstein Shapiro LLP for nearly eight years. Recently, Jeff took the position as the Assistant Director of the Office of Career Services at the Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law in Manhattan . Jeff is a frequent speaker on issues of diversity within the legal profession and has worked in a pro bono capacity with many civil rights and arts organizations. Jeff first became a Broadway Dreamer on the stages of his high school, and it is there where he learned the value and importance of arts education, as well as began to appreciate the magical effects of the theatre.
Erica Lynn Schwartz
Director - Erica is a Theatrical Producer, Manager and Marketing Director. She is currently a Production Manager at Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts overseeing all productions at the newly renovated Alice Tully Hall and recently produced Neil LaBute’s reasons to be pretty on Broadway (Tony Award nomination – Best Play, Drama Desk nomination – Best Play, Outer Critics Circle Nomination – Best Play). Past credits include: Striking 12 (associate producer) nominated for Best Musical, Lucille Lortel Awards – 2007 and 1001 (producer). Erica spent over three years with 321 Theatrical Management as a Management Associate, working on such shows as Wicked, The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee and I Love You, You're Perfect, Now Change. Prior to 321, she was an Account Manager with TMG - The Marketing Group where she developed promotions, events and sponsorships for Movin' Out, Doubt, Manhattan Theatre Club, Hairspray, amongst others. She is very proud to have begun her career as the Artistic Services Associate for The Chicago Shakespeare Theater, winner of the 2008 Tony Award for Best Regional Theatre. Erica is a graduate of Northwestern University where she frequently guest lectures and holds the honor of being named a Distinguished Alumni in 2008. As a professional who focuses on new audiences and new work, she is thrilled to be a part of BDF and bringing theatre education with top quality talent to the nation.
Dave Barrus
Dave iis an actor and educator working in the Los Angeles area. Dave began his career in the arts as an accompanist for his father, the world renowned violist, Clyn Barrus, and toured with him extensively before going on to a career as an actor. He received his BFA from Brigham Young University in Music Theater and did acting work at the University of Connecticut specializing in the Suzuki method of acting under Eric Hill.
Broadway credits include 'Les Miserables' and 'Chess' with Josh Groban and Adam Pascal. Dave also performed in the National Tour of 'Les Miserables'. In Los Angeles he has acted in many prestigious productions including the West Coast premiere of 'Songs From An Unmade Bed' and the world premiere of 'Great Expectations'. Other regional productions include 'The Boys Next Door' which won the coveted Connecticut Critics Circle Award for best ensemble, 'Drift' at the Kennedy Theater in North Carolina directed by Lauren Kennedy and Demetrius in Robert Redfords Sundance theater production of 'A Midsummer Nights Dream'. Dave has has an extensive recording career, recording three solo CDs for Shadow Mountain records for which he won the Pearl awards for Best New Artist and Best Male Vocalist and was the voice of the title role in the animated feature, 'The Scarecrow' as well as many other national commercials and recordings.
As an educator, Dave works with many high profile actors and singers in the Los Angeles area. He was part of the voice faculty at Brigham Young University and teaches musical theater for the Seth Riggs Vocal Camp (Speech Level Singing).
Dave originally co founded the Broadway Dreams Foundation with Annette Tanner, Farah Chapes and Adam Hunter out of a desire to bring the focusing and esteem building elements of the theater that have impacted his life to others. He believes that there is a direct correlation between who we are as actors and who we are as individuals and recognizes the power that theater has to impact others for good.
Kate Guyton
Director - Kate is a performer, educator and college administrator. Most recently, her acting tv/film credits include “Rescue Me” (FX series with Denis Leary), “Fringe” (Fox), “Cashmere Mafia” (ABC, playing Lucy Liu’s assistant), “Law & Order” (with Jesse Martin), “Law & Order, Criminal Intent” (with Chris Noth), “Kidnapped” (with Timothy Hutton and Dana Delaney), and “Head of State” (directed by Chris Rock, acting with Bernie Mac). Her stage credits include Cyrano de Bergerac (Broadway production with Kevin Kline and Jennifer Garner, aired on PBS),Entertaining Mr. Sloane (at Roundabout, starring opposite Alec Baldwin), and Three Penny Opera (Pre-Broadway workshop with Alan Cumming and Edie Falco).
Kate received a BFA in musical theater from the University of Michigan , and an MFA from the graduate acting program at NYU. Having started her career as a musical theater performer, Kate Guyton is passionate about the great value of strong musical theater training. She is a full-time faculty member at Collaborative Arts Project 21 (CAP21), teaching acting and business of theater to undergraduate musical theater students for NYU/ Tisch School of the Arts. Kate is thrilled that BDF students are exposed to hard-working, highly-trained working professionals; because she believes that when BDF students are trained well, they understand the hard work it takes to be a professional actor, and they learn life skills that translate to any career.
Ryan Donohue
Director - Ryan is an attorney with the law firm of Akin Gump Straus Hauer and Feld, LLP, where his practice focuses on litigation. Mr. Donohue’s experience includes a variety of complex commercial litigation, securities litigation and white collar criminal litigation matters in federal and state courts. Before joining Akin Gump, Mr. Donohue was a litigation associate at Dickstein Shaprio, LLP, another major New York law firm. Prior to his legal career, he worked in marketing and business development for a global commercial real estate services firm. Ryan received his B.A. magna cum laude in communications, concentrating in journalism and media theory studies, in 2001 from New York University . He received his J.D. in 2006 from the Emory University School of Law.
Amanda Watkins Guettel
Director - Amanda’s Broadway credits include SWEET CHARITY, CABARET, URINETOWN, CATS, BEAUTY AND THE BEAST, and GREASE. She toured nationally with SOUTH PACIFIC opposite Robert Goulet (National Theatre Best Actress nomination) and with SWEET CHARITY (Nickie). Her Off-Broadway credits include THE WILD PARTY, IMPERFECT CHEMISTRY, and I LOVE YOU, YOU’RE PERFECT, NOW CHANGE. Amanda’s regional credits include PALM BEACH (La Jolla Playhouse- San Diego Outer Critics Award), KISS ME KATE and SOUND OF MUSIC (Paper Mill Playhouse), MY FAIR LADY (Alliance Theatre), THEY ALL LAUGHED at Goodspeed Opera, THEY’RE PLAYING OUR SONG (opposite Chip Zien), and CABARET at Westchester Broadway Theatre. Amanda is currently the Director of Development at the Araca Group, a theatre production company in NYC- where she has produced 13, FAULT LINES, and the upcoming Broadway revival of LEND ME A TENOR. She has a BFA from FSU in Musical Theatre and a MA in Educational Theatre from NYU.
Jeremy Schonfeld
Musical Director - Jeremy is a singer/songwriter/composer/lyricist. A benefit concert version of his musical DRIFT was recently performed at BB Kings starring Adam Pascal, Julia Murney, Terrence Mann, Jarrod Emick, and Adam Kantor, among others, and will be remounted at North Carolina’s “Hot Summer Nights at the Kennedy,” September 2009. Upcoming theatrical projects include the development of a new musical with director and producer Daisy Prince (Jason Robert Brown’s 'The Last Five Years') and playwright Jonathan Marc Sherman. Other recent projects include: the album 37 Notebooks, which featured the vocal talents of Shoshana Bean, Tracie Thoms, Amy Spanger, Lauren Kennedy, Luther Creek , and Kate Shindle, among others; the feature film Clear Blue Tuesday; as well as the musicals HOME and innumerable a-train-plays. Schonfeld has also contributed original music for numerous benefit concerts including “Defying Inequality,” “Broadway in South Africa ,” “The Pink Campaign on Broadway,” and “Broadway for a New America,” among others. Jeremy’s recording, “Song for New Orleans ,” is currently being used as part of arecruitment video for the American Red Cross. Recent and upcoming performances in New York include Madison Square Garden, Birdland, Joe’s Pub, BB Kings, The Public Theatre, Symphony Space, and Lincoln Center; the 14th Street Playhouse in Atlanta; and in Boston as part of Boston University’s “BU on Broadway” series. Jeremy lives in Brooklyn with his Kiwi wife Sarah-Jane, sassy daughter Alexandra, and hyper dog Byron.
Jeff Juday
Director - Theatre and television actor turned financial planner, Jeff is married to Claci Miller and is the proud father of Neve Miller Juday (1 year old). Jeff and Claci are currently active members of the theatre community in Atlanta , where they now reside. Best known as "Flash" on the ABC sitcom Step by Step, Jeff has also recurred and guest starred on many television shows including Dark Skies, Lois and Clark , Full House, and VIP. In theatre, Jeff originated the role of "Nicky" in I Sing (Off Broadway) and was the Los Angeles "Buddy" in The Last Session. He also originated the role of Lewis in Bandido at the Mark Taper Forum in Los Angeles . Regionally, Jeff has played Huck in Big River at the Marriott Lincolnshire, Mordred in Camelot at the Sacramento Music Circus, Dickon in Secret Garden at the Fullerton CLO, etc. Jeff and Claci were nominated for Atlanta 's Suzi Award, for their work as Seymour and Audrey in Little Shop of Horrors at the Atlanta Lyric Theatre. They most recently starred in the Atlanta Lyric Theatre's productions of The "IT" Girl and Cabaret.
With a sincere desire to help others and having always been a "planner" at heart, Jeff started his "real job" at Fidelity Investments in 2002. He had been a day trader throughout his acting career and set out in his new career with a mission; to make investing less intimidating to people. Jeff is a licensed stock broker and investment advisor, and has his Chartered Retirement Planning Counselor designation from the College of Financial Planning . Jeff is currently the Senior Retirement Counselor for Fidelity Investments Tax Exempt Market in the Southeast. He holds a BA in Public speaking from California State University, Northridge.
Craig Burns
Director - Craig is a Casting Director at Telsey + Company in Manhattan. He has been with the office for over 10 years. His Broadway, Off-Broadway, and National Tour casting credits include 9 TO 5, WICKED, LEGALLY BLONDE, THE COLOR PURPLE, HAIRSPRAY, CRY-BABY, JERRY SPRINGER: THE OPERA, GREY GARDENS, TARZAN, SWEENEY TODD, ALL SHOOK UP, DIRTY ROTTEN SCOUNDRELS, TABOO, LITTLE SHOP OF HORRORS, THE ROCKY HORROR SHOW, AIDA, SATURDAY NIGHT FEVER, and Andrew Lippa's THE WILD PARTY. A Long Island native, he attended New York University's Tisch School of the Arts.
