ABIGIAL NESSEN BENGSON (Inducted 2011)

SHAUN MCCLAIN BENGSON (Inducted 2011)

DREW BOWEN (Inducted 2012)  is a musical theatre major at Wright State from Cincinatti, OH who was previously seen in the Festival Playhouse productions of Jekyll & Hyde and 42nd St. He was also seen in the Jubilee Directing Lab Theatre Production Premier of Stillborn County Justice. His Professional credits include Little Shop of Horrors and RENT. Other credits include Aida, Honk!, The Last Days of Judas Iscariot, The Wiz, Footloose and Grease. Drew most recently performed with ETC in the role of “Matthew” in their production of Altar Boyz. He sends his unconditional love to his supportive and loving family, friends and all those that fall in between.

CORINNE DERSUHA (Inducted 2011) is happily returning for her third season with Encore Theater Co. Her previous ETC credits include The Big Fat Concert Series [vol. 1 and 2], RENT (Ensemble) Jacob's Pillow (Kaye), 20Something: The Songs of Kerrigan and Lowdermilk (director) and Pump Up The Volume (Nora). She has also been involved in various community productions, including Dayton Playhouse's 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee (Rona Lisa Peretti) Middletown Lyric's Fat Pig (Helen) and Sinclair Theatre's Once On This Island (Asaka). She is proud to be a part of such a phenomenal company, and ever urging forward the development of new musical theatre and promoting local creative spirits.

JOHN FAAS (Inducted 2012)

JACKSON GALLAGHER (Inducted 2011) is returning for his third season with Encore and his second as a resident artist with ETC. His previous Encore credits include: [title of show], Next Thing you Know, Hot Mess in Manhattan, Altar Boyz and Pump up the Volume. Jackson is studying Lighting and Media design at Carnegie Mellon University. Last Summer her worked on The Rap Guide to Evolution and the revival of RENT both off-Broadway. Jackson has worked in the Dayton area with Dayton Playhouse, Town Hall Theatre, Centerville High School and Beavercreek High School. He received four Daytony awards for his work at Centerville High School in 2009 and 2010.

TOMMI HARSCH (Inducted 2012) is a junior Musical Theatre major at Wright State University. Originally from Cincinnati, Ohio, Tommi has most recently been seen in ETC’s production of In My Blood and tapping her toes in WSU's Festival Playhouse production of 42nd Street. Other recent productions include Stuck In Between: The Songs of Alex Horton, Children of Eden, and RENT. You can also spot her in Walk The Moon's music video for their hit "Anna Sun." Tommi would like to give a big shout out to her family, as well as to Drew for being such great support.

SHAWN HOOKS (Inducted 2012)

ZACH KING (Inducted 2012) is a Theater Studies major at Wright State University from Dayton, Ohio. He was an intern for ETC this past year beginning in the spring, and is now very excited to be an official company member! Zach started out with ETC doing the first Big Fat Concert series; then in the summer he was seen in Altar Boyz (Araham), In My Blood (Vladimir), and Pump Up the Volume (Ricky) partnering with the Human Race. Other recent credits include Once On This Island, La Cage Aux Folles, The Producers, and RENT.

AMY LEIGH (Inducted 2011) is a Dayton native, recently returned to Dayton after working as a musician and songwriter in Nashville, TN.  She appeared as Jessa in Carve, the audience favorite at Dayton Playhouse’s Futurefest last summer.  Other favorite roles include Virginia in Do Black Patent Leather Shoes Really Reflect Up?, Peggy in Godspell, and Sara Jane Moore in Assassins.  Professional credits include The King and I, The Wizard of Oz, Cabaret, and Annie Get Your Gun.  She earned a BFA in Musical Theatre and a BA in Creative Writing from Ohio Northern University.  Amy also recently won “Best in Show” in the Dayton Daily News/Antioch Writers’ Workshop Writing Contest. For ETC, she has starred in RENT and as director and arranger of ETC's Big Fat Concert Series.

LAUREN MORGAN (Inducted 2011) is thrilled to return as an ETC member this year after adding Director/Choreographer of Altar Boyz to her list of credits with the company. She also choreographed and assistant directed RENT.  Lauren is a 2010 graduate of Wright State University with a BFA in Dance having directed and choreographed a number of local musicals including Footloose, Seussical, The Wedding Singer, and Willy Wonka. She has been seen on the La Comedia stage as Dorcas in Seven Brides for Seven Brothers, Lou  Ann in Hairspray, Lenore in Dirty Rotten Scoundrels, and Vicki in A Chorus Line to name a few. Lauren has worked at King's Island and this holiday season she'll join Beef and Boards as a dancer and singer.  Many thanks and love to the ETC family, her family, and Josh.

JJ PARKEY (Inducted 2011)

ZACHARY JORDAN STEELE (Inducted 2012)   is a Cincinnati native who has been exploring the incredible opportunities that the Ohio theatre community has to offer. In Cincinnati, he was fortunate enough to be cast in his first professional production as Huck Finn in The Carnegie Visual & Performing Arts Center production of "Big River." Last year, Steele moved to Dayton to pursue a B.F.A. in Acting with a Musical Theatre emphasis at Wright State University. Having just begun his sophomore year of study, Steele has participated in two main-stage productions at the collegiate level, including Jekyll & Hyde (Utterson), and the Dayton Philharmonic collaborative production of Leonard Bernstein's: "MASS" ("Non Credo/"Easy" Street Chorus Soloist). Outside of school, Steele has had the privilege of crossing paths with some of the great theatre companies that Dayton has to offer; the first of which was Encore Theatre Company. Since first auditioning for the gang, Steele has participated in numerous productions with ETC, including: "The Big Fat Concert Series, Vol. 2," "Altar Boyz" (Juan), and "In My Blood" (Gray). He was incredibly flattered and pleased to accept a company membership this Fall. Steele was also overjoyed to be given the opportunity to perform on the Loft Theater stage in the jazz sensation "Play It Cool" (Will) this past summer, as a part of The Human Race 2010 Festival of New Musicals. In October, Steele will be featured as Young Ben, in the brand new Short North Stage production of "Follies" at The Garden Theatre in Columbus. Without a doubt, these past few years have been full of possibility and potential and Steele looks forward to continuing this trend and working along side these great Ohio theatre companies to make sure theatre is alive and well for the future!

ALLY WETZ (Inducted 2011) is an alumna of Sinclair having graduated spring of ’09 with an AA in both theatre performance and technical. While at Sinclair she played the roles of Maria in An Experiment with an Air Pump and the indecisive dancer Elizabeth in Taking Steps.  Out of the spotlight, she stage managed the ”Scottish Play” and was also asked back to SM the winter ‘10 production of Antigone. Last summer, Ally served as Stage Manager for both [title of show] and Next Thing You Know on ETC’s 2010 season and ETC Festival manager for the 2011 Festival of New Musicals.  Currently she resides in Chicago and is pursuing her BA in Acting at Columbia College as well as working as Stage Manager for Hell in a Handbag Productions’ TROGG! The  Musical, a brand new musical written by David Cerda. 

RAY ZUPP (Inducted 2011) is a graduate from the theater program at the University of Evansville. He studied British politics and trained in theater arts in Grantham and London, England, where he also appeared in Much Ado About Nothing (Claudio) and I Hate Hamlet (Andrew Rally). Recently finishing his run of Hairspray as Link Larkin at LaComedia his other various stage credits include 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee (Leaf Coneybear), Dark of the Moon (Floyd Allen), Jesus Christ Superstar (Judas), Sideshow (Buddy), among others. Television and film credits include various works for the Oxygen Network and the HUB as well as GLBT Film Festivals selection 'Bloomington'. He sends a huge thank you to Beth Truitt and his family.