Anne Nygren Doherty (Not Quite Opera Artistic Director)

Anne Nygren Doherty's unusual history as a theatre artist - performer, playwright, composer, lyricist, director makes her uniquely situated to be artistic director of Not Quite Opera Productions, San Francisco's only theatre company solely dedicated to the development of original musical theatre. As a professional actress, Anne has appeared in numerous plays, films and commercials. She was a member of Chicago's renowned Organic Theatre Company and an original company member of Tina Packer's Shakespeare and Company. She trained in theatre at Smith College and Northwestern University -- under Tony Award winner Frank Galati -- and holds a masters degree in Playwriting from UCLA where she studied musical theatre with the late musical theatre giant Bob Merrill. Her plays and music have been performed in Los Angeles, Chicago and New York. A performance art pioneer, for her one-woman musical "The Actress, When Not Playing Other People, Should Try to Play Herself," Chicago critic Bury St. Edmunds hailed Anne as "a character actress with real presence¬… and a writer with real promise." Her play "Lead Birds" won The American Theatre of Actor's One-Act Play festival and was subsequently produced off-Broadway. Most recently, her original musical comedy "Musical Genius" debuted at The Potrero Hill Neighborhood House to which 21st Century Music cautioned, "move over Mel Brooks." As a story analyst for RKO Pictures, London and Los Angeles, as well as an assistant to the dramaturg at the Mark Taper Forum, Anne became accomplished at coaching writers through the rewriting process - a skill she intends to bring continually into play during her tenure as Not Quite Opera's Artistic Director.

Dwight Okamura (Festival Music Director, Composer - "Burning Louise," Harmonies - "Writes and Rewrites," Music [with Richard Kogl] - "The Right to Fabulousness," Special arrangements - "Shoe")

Dwight Okamura has been the orchestral pianist for the Berkeley Symphony, the California Symphony, the Skywalker Symphony and the San Francisco Symphony. He has accompanied various Bay Area vocal ensembles including Chanticleer, the Bracebridge singers, The Choral Arts Society, The San Francisco Symphony Chorus, and the San Francisco Girls Chorus. Dwight has composed numerous commissioned works, as well as many commissioned arrangements for the Girls Chorus, published by Alliance Music. He is also the composer of two musicals: "Grow Up", produced in 1984 by the New Conservatory Children's Theater, and "Strikers," produced in 1995 by Doublemask Productions. He has been involved with a number of theater companies including Marin Theatre Company, American Conservatory Theater, Kaliyuga Arts, Theater Flamenco, and the New Music Theater Workshop. Dwight is also a keyboardist with the Best of Broadway series, and has played for "Mamma Mia!," "Baz Luhrman's La Boheme," "The Producers," and "Wicked."

John Doherty (Producer, Treasurer - NQO, Festival Graphic Artist, Lighting Designer, Sound Design, Set Design and Construction, Videography, Webmaster, Catering, Laundry and Janitorial)

This is John's second foray into producing live theatre, but he's "been around." Over the last way too many years, John has produced, directed and worked as jack-of-all-trades on hundreds of film, video and multimedia projects around the world. As a commercial producer/director his clients have included Bass Shoes, Marshall Field's, Ralph Lauren and The Chicago Tribune. He has also been affiliated, in various technical roles, with such feature films as "The Big Picture," "The Fabulous Baker Boys," and "Guilty By Suspicion." MTV buff? John produced some of the FIRST videos to appear there. For the '80's exploitation film fans in the audience, enjoy the lighting on such hits as "Tomboy," "Avenging Angel" and "A Nightmare on Elm Street." About 10 years ago, he suddenly went digital, a malady from which he has yet to recover. An innovative and creative business thinker, John has managed digital business transformations for interactive video game companies, broadcasters, corporations and educational enterprises like CNN, the BBC, Corbis Images and Stanford University. In his current daytime manifestation, he is a multimedia specialist with the Fuji-Xerox Palo Alto Research Laboratory.