Spring Showcase Music Directors

Music Directors will be working with casts and choreographers during the first week of rehearsals, teaching the music and helping create the best cuts of music for the showcase. Then, they will lead our live band during the performance weekend, ensuring that music and choreography work in collaboration.

We are so grateful to our Spring Showcase Musical Directors for working in collaboration with the showcase choreographers to create an engaging series of musical numbers.

  • Donna Rendely Peeler (Music Director) is a performing and teaching artist. MD credits include: Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown, Sunday in the Park with George, Next to Normal, Rock of Ages, Nunsense, Matilda, Jersey Boys, The Christmas Schooner, BKLYN the Musical, Little Shop of Horrors, Beauty & the Beast, The Hello Girls. Regional acting credits include: Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat, Nunsense, School of Rock, Jersey Boys, She Loves Me, Sweeney Todd. Theme park: director of The Jinglettes for JMMD at Six Flags Great Adventure, singer/pianist in Busch Gardens Williamsburg’s Believe, Unto Us, Emerald Ensemble, Nightbeats Revamped. Before working as a freelance performing arts professional, Donna taught middle and high school choir and earned two music degrees from UNCG: Masters in Conducting, Bachelors in Music Education. When she’s not working on a production, Donna teaches private music lessons (online and in person), creates custom piano tracks for actors and productions, coaches as WCSU adjunct, plays collaborative piano at the college of William & Mary, and enjoys life in Virginia with her spouse, John. @donna.r.peeler

  • Kenneth Gartman is a New York City based Singer, Pianist, Vocal Coach, Music Director, Director and Producer.  As an actor and singer Gartman toured with the Broadway national tour of “The Music Man”, internationally on the Live BBC Broadcast of “Simply Sondheim”, and throughout Ireland in “A New York Songbook: Way Off Broadway”. He released his debut solo album “We Need a Little Christmas” in 2020.  As a Music Director his passion is new musical theatre works, concerts and cabarets - Inner Voices III: Arlington (Off-Broadway); Madame Clicquot (PCLO 2025, Studio Cast Recording); The White City, Broadcast and The ToyMaker (Eugene O’Neill National Music Theatre Conference); Numerous readings, cast recordings, demos, cabaret workshops, cabaret shows, benefits, awards presentations and concerts.  KennethGartman.com @Kenneth_Gartman @GottaSingKGNYC

PAST DIRECTORS

  • Devon Perry (she/they) is a NYC-based actor, musician, and vocal coach and is thrilled to be joining forces with the amazing Blackbox Movers team! Most recently, Devon has played Carole King in several productions of Beautiful: The Carole King Musical around the country and is the first person to play Carole and play piano for the entire show. They can be seen in NYC playing music with their band Retro Baby. Devon is currently pursuing a Master's in Speech-Language Pathology at Lehman College. IG:@_devonperry_

  • George Luton is a musical theatre composer, arranger, orchestrator, and conductor based in New York City, where their original scores have been heard off-Broadway at the York Theatre (More Than This World), at Theatre Now (The Moon Illusion, Roommate Horror Story), at the Tank NYC (Alice, Of Sleepless Nights), and at Lincoln Center (Helen & Cassandra: Gifts of the Gods, Face to Face), at which they were awarded the Across a Crowded Room artistic fellowship through the NYPL Library of the Performing Arts. Favorite regional premieres include productions at Stage 284 (Earhart, Stiltskin), Moonlight Productions (Nottingham: The Legend of Robin Hood), ACTMV (Boots, The Untold Story of Treasure Island), and In Vivo Productions (The Conditions of Readiness, Face Work). George is a two-time recipient of the Jean-Slater Edson Prize in Composition and a member of the advanced BMI Lehman Engel Musical Theatre Writing Workshop.

    As a music director, George has accompanied shows and conducted orchestras across the city at Prospect Musicals (Move Meant), 54 Below (Grace and the Ghost),  Off the Lane (Ghost Quartet, Truth Dare or Lesbian, Hootenanny Tonight, Open Stay), Balance Arts Center (PreScripted), and Green Room 42 (On a Wing and a Chair), as well as throughout the broader northeast at Purple Summer Productions (Hair, The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee, Spring Awakening), Island Theatre Workshop (Mary Poppins, Once Upon a Mattress), Theatre On the Go! (Mean Girls), the Powerhouse Theatre (The Spitfire Grill, Melancholy Play: A Chamber Musical), the Susan Stein-Shiva Theatre (The Rocky Horror Show, Formerly Known), and Punctuate 4 (The Abolitionist's Refrain). George also music directs workshops for educational institutions such as Columbia University School for the Arts (The Visit, The Bakkhai, The Trojan Women) and the Vogelstein Center for Drama and Film (A Little Night Music, The Cherry Orchard, A Midsummer Night's Dream, Machinal, The Northern Skies).

    George currently serves as a musical arranger for the A24 animated show Hazbin Hotel now streaming on Amazon Prime. When not writing, arranging, music directing, or teaching, George tours as an improvisational pianist with the Broadway’s Next Hit Musical comedy show. Follow George @GeorgeLuton.music or learn more at www.GeorgeLuton.com