STAGECENTER

Emily Mwakitawa | Gary Coleman

For Stage Center: Elton John & Tim Rice's Aida (Aida). Stage credits include Joanne Jefferson in SLT's RENT, Sister Amnesia in East Bank's Nunsense, The Dining Room and Hairspray. Emily is a 2011 graduate of the B.A. Theater program at Centenary College of Louisiana. During her years at school, she was involved in a number of great projects from big musicals like Children of Eden to classics like Antigone to epic plays like Metamorphoses. In 2010, she received the MLP Best Supporting Actress Award for Lisa in A New Brain. She is the proud student of Larry Silverberg, Susan Messing, Mary Thoma, Emily Heugatter, Jodie Glorioso and Stephanie Samaras! Emily has taught several workshops in improvisation, music and movement. She recently joined Harry O'Reilly's prestigious acting studio, The Actor's Alliance and is prepping for season 1 of the web series DayDreaming. She currently lives in New York City.

Corey Shadd | Rod

For Stage Center: Evita (Ensemble). Mr. Shadd graduated from Centenary College in 2009 with a degree in Business Administration and a minor in Music. He also graduated from Grand Canyon University in 2011 with a Masters in Business Administration. Mr. Shadd has been singing and playing piano for over 15 years. While in college, he was a member of the Centenary College Choir, Camerata and Chorale. Mr. Shadd has performed in musicals such as Godspell, with First Methodist of Shreveport and several variety musicals with Centenary's Musical Theater Group. 

Wallace Rakoczy | Christmas Eve

Stage Center: Debut. Ms. Rakoczy is a senior at Caddo Magnet High School. She has been seen on many stages in Shreveport, most recently stage managing Academy of Chidren’s Theatre’s production of Pollyanna, and performing in Dog Sees God (Marcy) at the LSUS Black Box. Ms. Rakoczy has performed twice in Legally Blonde, playing Vivienne at the Savannah Summer Theatre Institute in Savannah, Georgia, and Brooke Wyndham with Shreveport Little Theatre Academy. Last year she performed in Caddo Magnet High School’s The Royal Family (Della), and in The Laramie Project (Romaine Patterson). Ms. Rakoczy is President of the Drama Club at Magnet and she placed at State Competition last year for Individual Events in Solo Music. She is “so excited to be involved in such a fun show with amazing people and to be performing in my first show with Stage Center!”

Cody Griffin | Princeton

For Stage Center: Evita (Ensemble, U/S Magaldi). Mr. Griffin is a senior at CE Byrd High School. Previous roles include Singin’ in the Rain (Don Lockwood), Legally Blonde the musical (Warner), Little Women the musical (Laurie), and Hairspray (Brad).

Chelsea Hockaday | Kate Monster

Stage Center: Debut. Ms. Hockaday is thrilled to make her first appearance in a Stage Center production. She holds an Associate Degree in Art from Bossier Parish Community College and is currently attending Centenary College of Louisiana where she recently had the opportunity to appear in Next Fall (Arlene), receiving an Irene Ryan Award Nomination from the Kennedy Center College Theater Festival. She will next be seen on the Centenary stage this March as Madge in Picnic. Prior to Centenary, Ms. Hockaday spent four summers at Canterbury Summer Theater in Michigan City, Indiana, where she had the opportunity to stage manage, direct, perform and construct. Some of her recent performance credits include: The Foreigner (Catherine), Born Yesterday (Billie Dawn), The Spitfire Grill (Shelby), The Rocky Horror Picture Show (Columbia), and The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee (Marcy Park). Outside of theater Chelsea enjoys playing her ukulele and traveling. She is "humbled with the opportunity to continue rounding herself and her career with such a lovely company and show. Many thanks to those who contributed in her growth as an artist! With regard to Q, I would like to let everyone know that the puppets you see became a part of us. The bond that a puppeteer and puppet share is something to be valued. Although this is my first experience in puppetry, I hope it won't be the last, for I fell in love with Kate Monster. " 

Seth Taylor | Nicky

For Stage Center: Elton John & Tim Rice's Aida (Radames), Sweeney Todd (Anthony). Mr. Taylor has been performing, teaching voice and producing shows in the Shreveport area for more than a year.  He is a co-founder and producer at Stage Center and is currently serving as Director of Education for Stage Center's School of Performing Arts.  He recently attended Hurley School of Music at Centenary College where he sang under the instruction of opera headliner Dr. Gale Odom and conducted with the renowned Dr. Julia Thorn.  Mr. Taylor has sung in over 20 states and 3 countries, including sessions in Dublin and Armagh, Ireland, where he was a featured soloist and head cantor.  There, he performed alongside the beautiful New York mezzo-soprano, Tynan Davis.  He has performed in several operas such as Bernstein's Trouble in Tahiti, and played the roles of Gherardo in Puccini's Gianni Schicchi and King Kaspar in Menotti's Amahl and the Night Visitors.  His musical theatre credits include RENT, Pippin, the role of Rolf in The Sound of Music, and Jean Valjean in Les Miserables.  Seth has served as musical director for Evita (SC) Dear Edwina, Jr. (SLTA), Disney's 101 Dalmatians Kids and Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (Peter Pan Players), and Disney's The Aristocats Kids (SC SOPA). He will next serve as musical director for our production of Disney's My Son Pinocchio this March and will Direct/Music Direct our first concert series presentation of The Civil War this summer.

Seth Dubois | Ensemble

For Stage Center: Evita (Ensemble). Mr. Dubois has been an active sponsor of the Captain Shreve High School Drama Club since 2009. There, he has served as director or assistant director for a variety of productions including South Pacific, Into the Woods, Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat, Doctor Horrible’s Sing-A-Long Blog, and Guys and Dolls. Avenue Q marks his second appearance on stage since he appeared in The Verdict in high school.

Cazes Verbois | Ensemble (Master Puppeteer)

Stage Center: Debut. Mr. Verbois is a graduate of Centenary College in Communications. He is notably recognized for being a part of The Fantastic Mr. Fox puppet show that ran at Artspace for 6 months. Mr. Verbois attended the Eugene O'Neill National Puppetry Conference in New York in the Summer of 2012, and he is in the early stages of making a commercial concept featuring puppets. He currently works as a web developer by day, but hopes to find more opportunities to work with puppets.

David Stifler | Brian

Stage Center: Debut. Mr. McCart likes to call himself, "Man of mystery. Man of Action. Lover of cheese pizza rolls." However, he is a bit more than that, he is the midday jock on K945 and production director for Townsquare Media. He started acting in high school at Caddo Magnet here in Shreveport. Over the past year and a half Mr. McCart has been in six plays most notably It's a Wonderful Life, Harvey, and Mircale on 34th St. 'Stifler' “would like to thank his beautiful fiancé, Holly, for her support and Erin Bristol for being the rock star that she is.”

Reagan Cassanova | Lucy, Mrs. T., & Others

Stage Center: Debut. Ms. Cassanova is a graduate of Centenary College where she earned a Masters in the Art of Teaching. She also has 22 years of theatrical experience in acting, directing, and writing. Professionally, she worked at Walt Disney World, Universal Studios at Nickelodeon Studios, and Titanic: The Exhibition. She is a member of The Company Repertory Theatre as a writer and actor. Directing credits include The Music Man, Harvey, The Pink Panther Strikes Again, It’s a Wonderful Life, Godspell, The Trial of Ebenezer Scrooge, The Snow Queen, and The Velveteen Rabbit. Favorite roles include the title role in Laura, Sister Robert Ann in Nunsense, Erma in Anything Goes and Beatrice in A View from the Bridge. When she is not acting or directing, scrapbooking or reading, she teaches gifted at Stockwell Place Elementary School.