3 Tammy Fayes

In this two-act musical, there are three Tammy Fayes, left to right, the young Tammy Faye, played by Emma Parks, the Tammy Faye who rose to fame as a televangelist, played by Samantha B. Northart, and today's Tammy Faye, played by Becky Barrett-Jones. At times in "The Gospel According to Tammy Faye," all three Tammy Fayes are on the stage at the same time.   

         Jamie Barlow                   Elizabeth Byland                    Kate Dietrich

            as Mama                        as Church Lady                   as Church Lady

JAMIE BARLOW (Mother, Reporter) is very excited to be originating this role for the world premiere. Jamie's favorite roles include Jan in Grease, Fruma-Sarah in Fiddler on the Roof, Mrs. Sowerberry in Oliver, and Ethel Toffelmier in The Music Man. She has her B.A. in Video Production from Bowling Green State University. She wants to dedicate her performance to Digger, who has taught her the confidence to "Belt for Jesus!"

BECKY BARRETT-JONES (Present-Day Tammy Faye, Assistant Musical Director) is the choir director at Colonel White High School for the Arts, the music director on staff at Town Hall Theatre in Centerville, Ohio and a beauty consultant with Mary Kay Cosmetics. Becky has held roles in Show Boat at LaComedia Dinner Theatre, Bubbly Black Girl, 42nd Street, Guys and Dolls, Bye, Bye Birdie, and Elijah and she has been a performer at Dollywood Theme Park in Pigeon Forge, Tenn..  She has also been a member of the contemporary Christian trio, Merea. Becky is proud to be the wife of the amazing director and professional actor Alan Bomar Jones and she is excited to be a part of TGATTF. 

ELIZABETH BYLAND (Church Lady, Congregation Member, Spectator 2) is pursing a B.F.A in Acting at Northern Kentucky University. Her production credits include Ensemble member for Romeo and Juliet, and she has been most recently seen in several roles in student productions, including Mayben in Falling Hearts, Martha in Lanford Wilson's Abstinance, and She in Wondering, David Mamet/M.C. in Speed the Play, Zombie in Welcome to Moronville and Ensemble in Observations.  She thanks John, JT, and Fernando for giving her this wonderful opportunity!

          Edwin Large                         Leo Northart                     Kasmira Oar

        as Jim Bakker                     as Jerry Falwell               as Jessica Hahn

EDWIN LARGE (Jim Bakker, Congregation Member, Drag Queen) is making his Fringe debut with this production.  Ed spent six years with the Pittsburgh Opera where he was seen in numerous productions including Tosca, La Traviata, Don Carlo, Romeo et Juliette, and Mefistofeles.  In Cincinnati, Ed has been seen in Jesus Christ Superstar (Pilate) and A Christmas Carol (Fred/Young Scrooge) at the Covedale Center for the Performing Arts, and South Pacific (Cmdr. Harbison) and Radio Gals (O.B. Abbott) at the Showboat Majestic. 

LEO NORTHART (Jerry Falwell, Congregation Member, Drag Queen), attended IU in Bloomington as a Voice Major where he had the opportunity to do a USO tour of the Orient as a Varsity Singing Hoosier.  He has been seen locally on Showboat Majestic as Psedulous in ...Forum, Charlie Anderson in Shenandoah, Sir Francis Chesney in Where's Charley, and Fagin in Oliver! He has also been seen at the Covedale Center as Daddy Warbucks in Annie! and most recently Tevye in Fiddler... and as Christmas Present & Fezziwig (the roles he originated) in Christmas Carol. Favorite roles include Lamar in Godspell, The Fantasticks three times (ElGallo, Bellamy, and Henrys), The King in Cinderella, and King Arthur in Camelot.

SAMANTHA B. NORTHART (Tammy Faye 1990s) is a graduate of the School for Creative and Performing Arts, where she majored in Musical Theater, Vocal Music, and was a founding member of the ROAR company. She recently returned from her position as Company Manager and Lead Vocalist on the MV Century doing a tour of the Baltic, Europe, the Mediterranean.  Some of her favorite roles include: Yonah in Children of Eden, Philia in Forum, and Mary Arena in Human Comedy. Samantha was also part of the opening cast of Walt Disney's ENCORE! (a musical revue) in Tokyo Disney Sea in Japan and was also seen touring nationally with Theatre IV and Mad River Theater Works.

KASMIRA OAR (Church Lady, Congregation Member, Jessica Hahn, Drag Queen) is new to the Fringe Festival and somewhat new to Cincinnati.  This former Marine rediscovered theater while stationed in Japan.  She joined the Pacific Okinawa Players in Scrooge: The Musical and Annie.  After moving to Cincinnati in July 2004, she performed in A Christmas Carol, Oliver, and Fiddler on the Roof.  Her all-time favorite role is from way back in 1992, as Kathy in The Hound of the Baskervilles.

       Jonathon Pernisek                Helen Raymond

               as Angel                        as Church Lady 

EMMA PARKS (Tammy Faye 1950s, Nurse) is from Hebron, Kentucky, and has been active in theater since the age of 8.  She has appeared in the Cincinnati area in The Covedale Theatre’s A Christmas Carol (Children’s Chorus, Want) and most recently with The Greater Hamilton Civic Theatre in The Sound of Music (Marta Von Trapp).  Her favorite role to date has been Annie in Beavercreek Community Theatre’s production of Annie in 2005.  Emma will be spending the summer in New York City as she pursues her dream of being cast in a Broadway show.

JONATHON PERNISEK (Angel, Minister, Judge) is making his debut with the Cincinnati Fringe Festival. He is a student at Northern KY University where he’ll be appearing in The 1940’s Radio Hour later this summer. Past credits include The Elephant Man, the Rising Phoenix production of The 1940’s Radio Hour, Stone Heart, Alissa Through the Glass and Into Terezin, Bridge Over Troubled Water and The Visit. Along with acting and singing, Jonathon is an active playwright and member of NKU’s This Side Up Improvisation Tour Troupe.

HELEN ANNELIESA RAYMOND (Church Lady, Congregation Member, Peggy, Prosecutor, Drag Queen, Prop Manager, Costumes) has performed most recently as Gladys Fritts in Radio Gals, Mme. de la Grand Bouche in Beauty and the Beast, and Widow Corney in Oliver!, and various others along the way.  Equally as comfortable back stage as on stage, Helen has designed, painted, propped, built, sewed, and carpentered throughout the Cincinnati-Dayton area.  Helen looks forward to the time when theatre will be her full-time gig, but for now supports her theatre habit working for Advanced Background Check in Dayton.

            Ken Renner                     Charles Roetting                 Patrick Thernes

       as Roe Messner                  as  Pat Robertson                     as Daddy

KEN RENNER (Roe Messner, Congregation Member, Deputy) is excited to be making his Fringe debut with this production team and amazing cast. As a Cincinnati native, Ken has been involved with anything from the Ruth Lyon's Christmas show to the Cincinnati May Festival. Most recently he appeared as a featured soloist in the concert version of The Who's Tommy. Favorite credits include Rutter's Magnificat at Carnegie Hall, NYC (King Herod); Superstar--C.C.P.A (featured soloist); and Tommy concert version--C.C.P.A. Thanks always to God, my parents, the CREW, my friends at Covedale Center for the Performing Arts and always to my Love Jennifer, Tony Stewart#1 and WHO-DEY!!!

JT Buck, left, and Fernando Dovalina

The Writers

JT BUCK (Co-Writer, Producer, Music Director) holds a BA in Theatre with a Music Minor from The University of Akron, and is an MFA in Directing candidate at the University of Houston. Last year, he completed an internship with Elizabeth I. McCann (Managing Producer of the Tony Awards and the recent B'way revival of Whose Afraid of Virginia Woolf). He comes to the Cincy Fringe fresh off directing a hit production of Forever Plaid at The Player’s Guild in Canton, OH.  Other recent projects as director were a new musical version of Lady Windermere’s Fan at The Hobby Center in Houston, Prostheseus Unbound, a multimedia performance piece for Houston's Mitchell Center for the Arts and imaginative stagings of such fare as State Fair, The Laramie Project, and Christopher Durang's satire Titanic.

He produced the workshop of a new musical based on the novel The Lovely Bones and wrote the libretto for Bronx Bashert (based on Malamud’s The Magic Barrel) for Stuart Ostrow’s New Musical Theatre Lab at the University of Houston, and produced the 17th annual "Edward Albee New Plays Workshop" under the guidance of Pulitzer-winning playwright Lanford Wilson.

As a Musical Director, JT has helmed the pit for You're A Good Man Charlie Brown, Godspell, Joseph....Dreamcoat and many more.  Working often with young performers, he spent two summers as music director for the Children's Theatre School summer program in Vail, CO, and will return this June for a second season at The Columbia Gorge School of Theatre near Portland, OR.

Active as a composer/lyricist, he has scored adaptations of A Tale of Two Cities and Noah, as well as incidental music for numerous plays, pop and art songs, and more.  In the fall, JT will work with First Grace United Church of Christ in Akron to develop a multi-disciplinary, community-based fine arts program. 

FERNANDO DOVALINA (Co-Writer, Producer), who has a bachelor’s degree in journalism from the University of Texas at Austin, took early retirement in 2000 from the Houston Chronicle, where he was assistant managing editor in charge of the news and  international desks. He supervised two international news projects that earned the Chronicle finalist citations from the Pulitzers (the Pulitzer winner is selected from the three finalists). He won numerous awards as a writer, including a regional United Press International first prize for his first-person feature story, “Dad Was a Baseball Player.” He served as a Pulitzer juror four years.

After retirement, he did stints as a newsroom consultant and an adjunct professor at UT-Austin. And he followed one of his dreams, to write for the stage. He studied at Rice University under Sam Havens, drama department head at St. Thomas University. Then three-time Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright Edward Albee accepted him into his playwriting class at the University of Houston. Tony award-winning Broadway producer Stuart Ostrow twice selected him for his musical theater collaboration class at the University of Houston.

Dovalina’s staged works in Houston include, at Unhinged Productions, The Man in the Trunk, a two-act drama about a marriage on the rocks, Fernie and Friends, a collection of his short plays, which he produced, and Land of the Free, a short play that was part of  Unhinged, Uncut and Uncensored, which he also produced, and Lupita, a monologue performed as part of Our Journey; Lucy and Pattie the Cat, a one-act children’s play commissioned by Theatre LaB and performed at Houston libraries; Santos, Tonight’s the Night and Land of the Free (short plays produced as part of the annual Ten by Ten at Main Street Theatre/Chelsea and Stages Repertory Theatre by Scriptwriters/Houston); It Was Meant to Be, a short play staged as part of Squeeze Plays by The Fan Factory; and two musicals written in Ostrow’s class, Life of Pi and The Wonderful Ice Cream Suit, performed at the Hobby Center, for which he wrote the books and, in the latter, additional lyrics as well.

He has also written a political satire, Burning Bushes (yes, those Bushes), which has had a successful salon reading. His two-act drama, Caboose, has been work-shopped by Unhinged Productions. He has also combined his short plays about Hispanics into a production he calls Meskins. The Gospel According to Tammy Faye is the first time he has been produced outside of Texas, and he is right proud of that. He has served on the board of Unhinged Productions and has been its playwright-in-residence.

Director, Choreographer, Stage Manager

AARON CALLIES JR. (Choreographer) has choreographed more than 40 professional musical theater works. His credits include The Wiz, Peter Pan, Oliver, A Chorus Line, Pippin, West Side Story, Forever Plaid, Jesus Christ Superstar, The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas, Guys and Dolls, Grease, The Fantasticks, Chicago, Cabaret, Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat, Bye Bye Birdie, Sophisticated Ladies, Company, Mack and Mabel, The Mystery of Edwin Drood, H.M.S. Pinafore and Porgy and Bess. His choreography work was also seen in the 1994 NBC Bob Hope Special, Tops in Blue Air Force World Tour, Six Flags Over Texas, Sea World, The Great Caruso Dinner Theatre and Walt Disney Productions. Callies also choreographed for Selena, the late Tejano singer. Aaron is very happy to have worked seven years choreographing for the University of Houston’s Musical Theatre Lab under the direction of Tony award-winning producer Stuart Ostrow!