A Note From the Director

Thank you for coming to Beechmont Players second ever Cabaret. Your presence here is a testament to the incredible theatre and arts community we have in this area, and I know you're in for a treat with the Measure a Year Cabaret. Sometimes the best themes and concepts spring from something small. In this case, when we decided to follow our Young Voices Cabaret from September with a show featuring adults, I knew that I wanted to add some group songs to the program. The first two songs I thought of were "Seasons of Love" from Rent, and "Song of Purple Summer" from Spring Awakening. They're both these iconic, beautiful musical theatre songs, and I wanted to feature them ... So then I just had to decide what theme can I carve out to justify using these two songs? Both are about periods of time. Years and Seasons.... so that's where we started with Measure a Year. It's just goes to show how rich and deep the musical theatre catalog is that we were able to find so many songs that fit this theme of ways to measure time... Whether that's something as straightforward as a season, a month, an hour... or something a little more fleeting... like memory or futures that may never be. Theatre groups measure their time by seasons as well, and this season for Beechmont Players has been hugely challenging, and hugely rewarding, and we could not continue to do great shows without you.. our incredible audience. A special thanks should go to Epiphany United Methodist Church, our co-producers and hosts for weekend one of the show, and Footlighters Inc, our hosts for weekend two. There's no doubt that the show wouldn't have happened without them. Enjoy the show, and thank you again for your support. Dan Cohen Cabaret Director, and President of Beechmont Players

Meet The Cast

Savannah Boyd

Savannah is excited to be a part of this cabaret! Her recent credits include The Match Game (Nora) at Ensemble Theatre Cincinnati, Freaky Friday (Ellie), and Kiss Me, Kate (Lois Lane/Bianca) at the Covedale Center for the Performing Arts. Love to Mom, Dad, Elena, Katie, Luke, Leia, and Penny. @savannahboyd123

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Laurie Schneider Brinkman

Laurie has been active in the Cincinnati Community Theater scene since moving to Cincinnati in the late 1980s and has been in over 30 productions with many wonderful theater groups, including Beechmont Players. Laurie has won numerous theater awards and will be performing two of her favorite songs from past roles from Sunset Blvd and Little shop of Horrors. She thanks Dan for the opportunity and looks forward to future endeavors!

Mollie Bryson

Mollie is so excited to be a part of this performance tonight! Let’s celebrate spending some of our time together!

Lane Cohen

Lane studied musical theater at the UC College Conservatory of Music and has appeared locally in many productions. Favorite roles include Archibald Craven in Secret Garden, Reverend Shaw Moore in Footloose, Nick Arnstein in Funny Girl, Elliot Garfield in Goodbye Girl, Sid Sorokin in Pajama Game, Union Captain Emmett Lochran in The Civil War, Utterson in Jekyll & Hyde, Ensemble in Cole, and Hildy Johnson in Windy City. Lane recently moved back to Ohio and hopes to become active within the local theater community again.

Sarah D. Cohen

Sarah is thrilled to be part of this bevvy of wickedly talented artists. Her most recent roles include Helen in Fun Home (Beechmont Players) and Katherine in Freaky Friday (Landmark Productions). She would like to thank her parents and siblings for putting up with all the musicals over the years (like they had a choice). She would also like to send her love to Lane and Coen, and her husband Dan. "Dan, thank you for casting me in the cabaret! It would have been really awkward at home if you picked someone else."

Justin Glaser

Justin is a local actor who has appeared in productions with Cincinnati Landmark Productions, The Carnegie, Cincinnati Opera, Cincinnati Fringe Festival, and The Children's Theatre of Cincinnati. A proud graduate of Northern Kentucky University, he is excited to be making his debut with Beechmont Players!

Helen Goers

With credits as an actor, director, scenic designer, costume designer, stage manager, technician, and charge artist, Helen's work runs a theatrical gamut. At the Carnegie in Covington, you might have seen her costume designs for END OF THE RAINBOW, DREAMGIRLS, or TENDERLY, THE ROSEMARY CLOONEY MUSICAL , or you may have seen her onstage as The Mothers in INTO THE WOODS, or Mother Abbess in THE SOUND OF MUSIC. Elsewhere, she has performed as Donna in MAMMA MIA, Fraulein Schneider in CABARET, Doatsey Mae in THE BEST LITTLE WHOREHOUSE IN TEXAS, and more. During the day, Helen is a theatre teacher, director, technical director, and sometimes designer at Walnut Hills High School where she also mentors student designers, technicians, and stage managers through their busy 4 show theatrical season.

Caren Minniti Harrison

Caren is thrilled to be stepping back onto the stage after years of musical theater hiatus. She currently lends her voice to weddings and funerals, but her past novelty performances include composing a solo number for her college’s production of The Vagina Monologues, singing the National Anthem for New York-based polo matches, and as an anthem soloist for the Cincinnati Reds’ games in 2001 and 2002. Caren’s return to performing has been inspired by her daughter's love of musical theater, and she was last seen with them at LSC in this year’s Crushin’ It Variety Show. She is honored to be part of this fundraiser supporting local creative arts, as they remain an integral part of her life. When she’s not singing or driving, you’ll find Caren at her dream jobs of teaching yoga and poetry and as a Summer farm hand! She extends her heartfelt gratitude to Stella, Ana and John for their love and support—and to Amanda for her help as her “adopted” musical theater teacher.

Jon Scheiding

In keeping with the theme of the show, Jon ran out of time to write a decent bio. He's done some shows before and will do some again, including music directing The Toxic Avenger at Loveland Stage Company coming up in May. Thanks for taking the time to come see this cabaret! Jon appreciates your support and hopes you have a good time. He'd like to thank his beautiful wife Kaleigh and his chaos monkey children Luca and Logan for supporting him time after time.

Monica Tenhover

Monica is overjoyed to make her debut with Beechmont Players! She extends heartfelt thanks to Mary Jo and Dan for this incredible opportunity to collaborate. Measure a Year marks her eighth production since returning to the stage in Summer 2024. Her revival credits include TheatreLab Dayton (Lizzie), Lumos Players (Snapshots), Greater Hamilton Civic Theatre (Jekyll & Hyde), The Story Collective (Urinetown, 12 Angry Jurors), and Middletown Lyric Theatre (Into the Woods). What a year it’s been! Tonight, she sings in memory of her mother, whose love continues to inspire her to chase her dreams. Monica is truly grateful to share the stage with some of Cincinnati’s most talented artists in celebration of Beechmont Players and the magic that community brings to theatre. Up next, she’ll appear in The Full Monty with TheatreLab Dayton and Once Upon a Mattress with The Story Collective. Enjoy the show!

Josh Toth

Collaborative Pianist

Josh is excited to make his Beechmont Players debut! The singers could probably do this a cappella, but he's honored they let him provide some background noise. He's recently played for Legally Blonde at Footlighters (Keyboard 2) and The Prom at CMT (Music Director/Keyboard 1). Next year, he’ll be music directing Witchcraft and RENT at CMT, where he will continue pressing keys and hoping it helps.

Meet The Crew

Dan Cohen

Director

Dan is delighted to have had the opportunity to direct the Measure a Year Cabaret. Dan is the current President of Beechmont Players, and is so grateful to everyone who has taken their time to make the Cabaret happen, and is especially appreciative to the audience for attending the show, and helping Beechmont Players continue to do more amazing theatre in the future. This small show will always have a special spot in his heart for allowing Dan to work with old friends and new, his amazingly talented wife Sarah, and his Uncle Lane, who just returned to the Cincinnati area. Dan would like to personally extend special thanks in particular to Mary Jo Bissmeyer for her tireless dedication, Mary Stone, Cathy Lutts, and Footlighters for their friendship. They truly embody the fundamentally best part of community theatre...the community. And lastly, Epiphany United Methodist Church and Michael Yarick. They continue to wow us with their partnership and support. We're extremely lucky.

Mary Jo Bissmeyer

Producer

Mary Jo has enjoyed being part of this exciting and talent-fueled fundraising production! She serves on the board at Beechmont Players, and has participated on and off stage in multiple capacities over the last 4 years. It has been an honor to watch people and community theatre companies from across the city show up to support BPI. A massive thank you to everyone who said yes when we asked for help, and to the cast and crew for all their hard work. We are excited to share these incredible performances with as many people as possible, so thank you to our audience for their support as well. Enjoy the show!

Kiya Fix

Lighting Design

Kiya is honored to be working with such an immensely talented group for this cabaret! Most recently she appeared onstage in Loveland Stage Company's production of Godspell and currently serves as the VP of Marketing for Beechmont Players. Endless thanks to EUMC, Footlighters Inc., and the cast for making this show possible!

Michael Yarick

Producer/ Technical Director

Michael is a multidisciplinary creative based in Cincinnati. He holds an MFA in Theatre Arts with concentrations in Performance & Pedagogy, and a BA in English/Drama. Recent credits include coaching the Kennedy Center’s National winning Irene Ryan’s Acting Scholarship, and the creation of Spectral Sights & Sounds: An Evening of Music & Theatre on the Spectrum.

Special Thanks

The Beechmont Players would like to thank the following patrons for their generous contributions:

Bert Bethany

Ray Lebowski

David Levy

Sharon Shelton

Tom Shelton