Heathers The Musical Creative

Director/CEO

Kyle Vasquez

Kyle is the proud founder and Artistic Director of Renegade Theater Co.! Kyle has been performing theater since the age of three, directing since age 16 and has worked extensively in many theater realms including costume design, stage makeup, stage managing, prop fabrication and more. She is deeply passionate about the performing arts and is specifically dedicated to building systems that prioritize mental health within the often stressful art form that is theater. Kyle has Directed numerous shows in the Santa Cruz area including The Crucible, Be More Chill, Puffs, Into The Woods, Trap!, Newsies, Grease, The Children's Hour, Legally Blonde, The Breakfast Club and more. Some of her favorite roles as a performer include Audrey in Little Shop of Horrors, Cassie in A Chorus Line, Rizzo in Grease & Blanche DuBois in A Streetcar Named Desire. Kyle has been working with children for over twenty years in a wide variety of formats including: Art teacher, nature educator, dance instructor and mindfulness instructor. She has an Associates Degree in Early Childhood Education with specialization certificates in Anti-Bias Education, Literacy Development, Working with Children with Special Needs & Curriculum Development. Kyle is also the Owner/Director of Seven Directions Creative Learning Center which regularly partners with Renegade, offering acting classes and artistic collaboration on many levels.

Music Director/Conductor

Mickey McGushin

Michael is a professor of music at Cabrillo College and the coach/accompanist for the Music Department at the University of California, Santa Cruz where he also serves as a lecturer in music (conducting the UCSC Chamber Singers). He is the conductor of Cabrillo’s Westside Choir and retired from his position conducting the chamber choir Ariose in 2015. From 2002-2004 he served as the director of the Full Spectrum Chorus of Santa Cruz. He has served as music director for a number of theater and opera productions in the Santa Cruz area. Some of these include Shakespeare Santa Cruz’s productions of Princess and the Pea, Cinderella and Sleeping Beauty; Cabrillo Stage’s productions of The Addams Family, Putting It Together (for which he also served as stage director), Urinetown, Anything Goes, Cabaret, Little Shop of Horrors, The Fantasticks and The Music Man; The Threepenny Opera and The Who’s Tommy for the Cabrillo College Drama Department; Berlin to Broadway with Kurt Weill and Mozart’s The Marriage of Figaro (assistant Music Director) for UCSC Opera Theater; Angels in America (composer and music director), A…My Name is Alice, and Oh Coward! for Santa Cruz Actors’ Theater.

Vocal Director

Zina Uruqhart

Vocal Director

Jordan Best

Choreographer

Star Wiesner

Star grew up dancing at Tannery World Dance and Cultural Center for 13 years. They were trained in many styles but their favorites include Modern, Ballet, Contemporary and Hip Hop. Star continues their dance training and is currently attending San Diego State University with a major in dance. Learning new styles such as Dancemaking, Musical Theatre Dance, West African, Pedagogy, Horton Technique, Breaking, and more! Star is thrilled to be back choreographing for musicals after choreographing Into the Woods in 2022.

Production Manager

Ana Bogren

Technical Director

Wyatt Troxell

Original Creative Team

Laurence O'Keefe. - Author

Larry was a producer of the original LA and NY productions of Heathers (Drama Desk nom for music). With his wife Nell Benjamin, he won the Olivier Award (London’s Tony) for co-writing Legally Blonde: The Musical, which ran 2 1/2 years on the West End and has toured the UK. Blonde received seven Tony Award nominations, two US national tours and several international productions, winning Australia’s Helpmann Award for Best Musical. Larry wrote the Off-Broadway smash Bat Boy: The Musical, which won the Lucille Lortel Award, two Richard Rodgers Awards and the New York Outer Critics Circle Award for Best Musical, and has received 500+ productions worldwide, including the West End, Tokyo, Seoul, Berlin and Edinburgh. Larry has composed music and/or lyrics for The Daily Show, SyFy’s Defiance, the Disney Channel, PBS and Cirque du Soleil. A graduate of Harvard and USC, Larry teaches master classes at Harvard, Yale, NYU, and elsewhere.

Kevin Murphy - Author

Kevin was a producer of the original LA and NY productions of Heathers (Drama Desk nom for music). He also provided lyrics and co-wrote the book for the stage musical Reefer Madness and was a producer on both the original Los Angeles and Off-Broadway productions. Reefer swept the three major Los Angeles theatre awards which included triple wins for Best Musical and Best Score. In New York, Kevin’s lyrics were nominated for a Drama Desk Award. Kevin co-adapted Reefer into a Showtime Original movie which premiered at the 2005 Sundance Film Festival and screened in competition at the 2005 Deauville Film Festival, winning the Premiere Audience Award. The movie received three Emmy noms, winning for Outstanding Music & Lyrics. Kevin is currently showrunner for the AMC historical drama series The Son starring Pierce Brosnan. Other TV credits include Desperate Housewives (Golden Globe winner, two-time WGA Award nom, Emmy nom), Defiance, Ed, Reaper, Caprica and Hellcats. Kevin has co-written many songs for these shows, most recently “Across the Storm Divide” (recorded by Trace Adkins) and “Teach This Boy to Fly” (co-written with Laurence O’Keefe), both of which were featured on Defiance.