Marisa Kirby (she/her)

EIGHTH SEASON

Marisa is back choreographing on the Mainstage for Season 60 after directing and choreographing last season’s The Wedding Singer! Previously, she has choreographed Weathervane productions of Dirty Rotten Scoundrels, White Christmas, Hello Dolly, American Idiot, Spring Awakening, Sister Act, Jesus Christ Superstar, and A Gentleman’s Guide to Love and Murder. Marisa also co-directed and choreographed Weathervane’s Nice Work If You Can Get It. Other regional choreography favorites include Elf, Chicago, Singin’ In The Rain, Mamma Mia, and The Addams Family. Throughout Marisa’s career, she has had the privilege of choreographing for many theaters, dance studios, and universities nationwide and has been recognized for her national award-winning choreography. She is a choreographer and instructor for Dance Dynamics in Little Rock, Arkansas. She also travels across the US as a dance adjudicator and masterclass instructor.

Gibbs Murray (he/him)

SIXTIETH SEASON

Gibbs co-founded Weathervane Theatre back in 1966 and is still Weathervane’s resident designer for sets, posters, and illustrations. Favorite roles: Elwood P. Dowd, Captain Hook, Bottom. 

Warren Casey (Author, Composer and Lyricist)

WARREN CASEY was born in Yonkers, New York, and attended Syracuse University. During the late ‘50s, he learned all about “greasers” while working as an art teacher in upstate New York. He moved to Chicago in 1962, where he hoped to pursue an acting career. He appeared in dozens of productions, including creating the role of Bernie Litko in David Mamet’s Sexual Perversity in Chicago. He supported himself with jobs in retail, including working as an assistant manager of a chain of apparel stores, and as a record salesman. In the meantime, he taught himself how to play the guitar and began writing songs. Mr. Casey acted with the Chicago Stage Guild (where he met Jim Jacobs), the Old Town Players, and the Kingston Mines Theatre. The latter company staged the original production of GREASE which he wrote with Jim Jacobs. After the incredible success of both the musical and the movie, the two collaborated on Island of Lost Coeds, a musical satire of the B-movies of the 1950s. Mr. Casey died in 1988.

JIM JACOBS (Book, Music and Lyrics)

Jacobs, who created Grease (in 1970) with Warren Casey, was born and raised on the mean streets of Chicago’s far northwest side. During the golden era of rock ‘n’ roll (1956-1960) he was a guitar-playing “greaser” student at Taft High School. In 1963, Jacobs met Warren Casey when they were both cast in a local theatre production of A Shot in the Dark. Seven years later they wrote what was to become one of the greatest musicals of all time. Grease opened in 1971 in a former trolley barn called the Kingston Mines Theatre in Chicago. A year later, Grease made it to Broadway and “Greasemania” took off, resulting in one of the longest running shows in Broadway history. The 1978 movie became and remains the highest grossing movie musical of all time. Originally an actor, Jacobs has been seen on television, in motion pictures, regional theatre, national tours, and on Broadway. He is the co-author of several other plays and musicals including Island of Lost Coeds, a musical spoof of the low budget sci-fi/horror/jungle movies of the 1950s, which he wrote with Warren Casey. In May 2014, Mr. Jacobs was presented with an honorary doctorate degree from Columbia College in Chicago. He currently resides in Southern California and remains active in the theatre, especially with the American Theatre Company of Chicago.

Concord Theatricals

CONCORD THEATRICALS is the world’s most significant theatrical company, comprising the catalogs of R&H Theatricals, Samuel French, Tams-Witmark and The Andrew Lloyd Webber Collection, plus dozens of new signings each year. Its unparalleled roster includes the work of Irving Berlin, Agatha Christie, George & Ira Gershwin, Marvin Hamlisch, Lorraine Hansberry, Kander & Ebb, Tom Kitt, Ken Ludwig, Marlow & Moss, Lin-Manuel Miranda, Anaïs Mitchell, Dominique Morisseau, Cole Porter, Rodgers & Hammerstein, Thornton Wilder and August Wilson.  As a producer and record label, the company has won three Tony Awards and two GRAMMY Awards in the past five years.