JUSTIN BOCCITTO (Theatre Dance) is an international dance instructor and an award-winning director/choreographer who recently appeared on the front cover of Dance Informa Magazine. He is a current faculty member at Broadway Dance Center, Peridance, Marymount Manhattan College, Circle in the Square Theatre School, Cap 21 and guest faculty at The Juilliard School.  Some of his students have included Adam Chanler-Berat (Peter and the Starcatcher, Amelie), Sophia Anne Caruso (Lazarus, NBC’s Sound of Music), Oona Laurence (Matilda, Southpaw), Jennifer Damiano (Next To Normal, Spider-Man: Turn Off The Dark), Brian Falduto (School of Rock), as well as Sean Fosse (Bob Fosse’s grandson) and pop-icon Lady Gaga. Justin appeared on television as a coach for MTV’s Made and has choreographed several Off-Broadway productions as well as Gypsy Of The Year on Broadway. He received the Kennedy Center Best Director Award for his production of Hairspray in Nashville and two New York Musical Festival awards for What Do Critics Know? and Errol and Fidel.  He has worked at the Metropolitan Opera, Papermill Playhouse and for fifteen years he served as Executive Producer of The Group Theatre Too, a theatre collective in Manhattan producing musicals, plays and dance projects throughout the country. www.justinboccitto.com

TERRI KLAUSNER (Musical Theatre, Vocal Technique) starred on Broadway in A Chorus Line, Sophisticated Ladies and as Eva Peron in Evita. Her Off-Broadway credits include Goblin Market, Bed & Sofa, Lies and Legends, New Tunes, The Cole Porter Review and Oh! Coward! garnering two Drama Desk Award nominations, A New York Drama League award and an Obie Award. She has had nominations from the National Academy of Concerts and Cabaret Arts and received the Bistro Award for her performance in This Life; The Songs of Portia Nelson. She has performed at Carnegie Hall and at the White House, and has appeared at the 92nd St Y in their Lyrics and Lyricists Series and in the Celebrity Series What Makes It Great?, The Songs of Stephen Sondheim. Terri’s voice adds support to the Rockettes for their Christmas Spectacular at Radio City Music Hall and she can be heard on numerous cast albums. She has also invited Coupé’s Musical Theatre Performance Ensemble to perform with her at Carnegie Hall and the New World Stages in NYC. She performed and was the Vocal Coach in 2007 -08 at Jacob’s Pillow in the Jazz/Musical Theatre Program. Terri has appeared at the Laurie Beechman Theatre, The Duplex, The Metropolitan Room, Birdland and was a featured performer in The Town Hall Broadway by the Year series. Recently, Terri joined other members of the original cast of Sophisticated Ladies for the 30th Anniversary with the Duke Ellington Orchestra at Birdland in NY. She created “The Ellington Project” for RYDE’s Arts in Ed program receiving an ACoR grant in 2008 and 2010. She has done extensive voice-over work and is one of the main vocalists on Steve Marzullo’s CD “Show Some Beauty.” Terri has created work for Musical Theatre and RYDE students in Spring Showcase for the past eight years.

LAURIE McDERMOTT (Acting) is a graduate of UCLA earning her Bachelor’s Degree in Theater. She worked in Los Angeles in television (“The Young and the Restless,” “Gary Shandling Show,” “Promised Land,”) commercials and film. She interned with the improvisation group, The Groundlings. She also began teaching drama with the Lee Strasberg Theatre Institute. She received her MFA at the American Conservatory Theatre in San Francisco (Hamlet, Charley’s Aunt, A Christmas Carol, Cat on a Hot Tin Roof and Good) and taught in their Young Conservatory program. She joined the American Conservatory Theatre acting company in San Francisco working with William Hurt, Ed Hastings, Jack Fletcher and Katherine Crosby during the season, until moving to New York where she continued acting (Shenandoah/ Candlewood Playhouse, and Lady, Be Good/92nd St. Y), producing, teaching, writing and performing.  Laurie found her calling at AMDA and the American Academy of Dramatic Arts in New York teaching the craft of acting. In 2013, she founded the Clarkstown Theatre Company in New City, New York, where she and her husband Rick Poulin produce original shows and teach the craft.