Where it all Started……

“Jellicles do and Jellicles can, Jellicles can and Jellicles do.” These are the words that put a little girl from Memphis, Tennessee, on the path to one day working at the most successful live entertainment show in the world. (Hint: It is French Canadian with circus performers.) When Jill was only 4 years old, she stayed up late watching the 1994 London recording of ‘Cats: The Musical.’ The next day, she was running around the house with a makeshift tail in her waistband, putting on her own personal show as she proceeded to watch the recording every day for three straight years. (I swear…ask her parents. This isn’t an exaggeration.)

Since graduating from the University of Memphis (where she met Danica) in 2015, Jill has had the pleasure of working at some extraordinary theaters. She has worked as an Assistant Scenic Charge, Scenic Artist, Props Master, Props Designer, Carpenter, and Scuba Diver. She has worked in Tennessee, California, Vermont, Utah, Arizona, and Nevada. Las Vegas is home for now! Some of her show credits include Cinderella, In the Heights, Beauty and the Beast, Newsies, Elf, West Side Story, Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat, and more Shakespeare then she can even name.

Her most notable work as of late includes painting a “funhouse” version of Shaquille O'Neal for Shaq’s Super Bowl party in Las Vegas, diving in the Bellagio Fountain for a commercial shoot, and working at Cirque du Soleil’s “O”.

Jill’s hobbies outside of theater mostly involve nature, hiking, and travel. She is currently trying to visit every National Park (34 out of 62!). She has traveled to Australia, New Zealand, Iceland, Canada, Mexico, the Bahamas, Amsterdam, London, Ireland, and more. She is an avid scuba diver and is most grateful for her time diving with the majestic whale shark in the crystal blue waters of Isla Mujeres.

Check out her theater portfolio website!

Danica (she/her) started performing at the age of 3, having been thrust into dance and singing classes far too early to appreciate that they would be helpful. As she grew as a performer, she began acting, and landed her first role as a Workhouse Boy in Oliver (every little girl's dream) at age 10. From there, she took more classes, and began learning piano and eventually guitar, to learn how to accompany herself while singing.

Her first sense that this might actually be worthwhile was at age 13 when she played Alice in one of those Wonderland-themed shows, and that same year saw her first show on Broadway, Bombay Dreams. "That's what I want to do", she thought.

But as she quickly learned, life had other plans. A ridiculous series of events would force a 17-year old Danica into her first Directing role, and she knew that was the right idea. When she ran out of directing classes on offer at University, she decided they should just give her credit hours for directing shows. And they did. And now, UNCG offers a concentration in Directing because of a greedy young director who hungered for more knowledge!

Danica has lived in Florida (where she spent her entire youth until college), North Carolina, California, Oregon, Seattle, -back to- Miami, Chicago, Memphis, Houston, and now, Raleigh.

These days, Danica is an award-winning director and teaching artist, currently serving as Assistant Director of Performance at North Carolina State University. To see her professional work and portfolios, please check out her website! She has become an over-educated (2 Masters Degrees) nerd, dog mom to two beautiful pups, lover of scotch, tattooed, pierced, theatre professional, and even celebrity interviewer at comic cons and on her former livestream, Talkulture. She has held nearly every job in theatre, ranging from carpenter, props master, sound designer, stage manager, dramaturg, and pretty much everything else except lighting or audio engineer (electricity is magic as far as she is concerned and best left to the professionals). Danica also considers herself a quasi-polyglot, in that she can pick up lots of parts of languages very easily, and knows a little bit of a lot of them, most notably French (semi-fluent), Swedish, German, Italian, Czech, and Scots Gaelic. She is also very likely undiagnosed with ADHD (did you notice the parentheticals?). Having been a performer/entertainer in a number of ways from a very young age, Danica still enjoys storytelling and bringing joy to others through any medium, but is widely acknowledged to be shy and modest (imposter syndrome is a bitch).