Molly Bell (Logaine Schwartzandgrubeniere) is delighted to be making her San Jose Rep debut! Ms. Bell has been seen in the Bay Area as Susan in Snapshots, Mary in Merrily We Roll Along, Amelia in The Little Princess and Shelley in Bat Boy: The Musical, all at TheatreWorks. Most recently, Ms. Bell co-wrote and starred in Becoming Britney, which made its debut at the New York International Fringe Festival this past summer, for which she won best performer. Ms. Bell teaches dance at various health clubs around the Bay and is the owner of CREATE in downtown Palo Alto, providing instruction in voice and theatre. She is the producer of the successful Divas For Life concert series, coming this June to the Bay Area. missmollybell.com

Marc de la Cruz (Chip Tolentino) is absolutely thrilled to return to the Rep since appearing as Frankie/David in Making Tracks. His tour credits include Disney’s High School Musical (first national) and the Asian tour of The Wedding Banquet. Recently, he performed in Cambodia as Dara in the world premiere of Where Elephants Weep (Amrita Performing Arts/Cambodian Living Arts). Regional credits include: Miss Saigon (Thuy, North Carolina Theatre); My Fair Lady, A Funny Thing…Forum (5th Avenue Theatre); The Secret Garden (Fakir, Village Theatre); and The Fantasticks (Matt, Northwest Asian Theatre). He also appeared as a guest performer on ABC’s “Dance War: Bruno vs. Carrie Ann.” Many thanks to the San Jose Rep staff and this show’s creative team for having him in the Bee!

Alison Ewing (Rona Lisa Pereti, Olive’s mom) is happy to be making her San Jose Rep debut! Ms. Ewing was in Cabaret on Broadway at Studio 54, the national tour and at the Folies Bergére in Paris (Lulu, Sally Bowles). Her regional credits include: It Ain’t Nothin’ But The Blues, Harold & Maude (Sunshine) and Emma (Mrs. Weston) at TheatreWorks; Jacques Brel Is Alive and Well at Marin Theatre Company; Irma La Douce at 42nd Street Moon (Irma); and The Last Five Years (Kathy), Proof (Claire), Honour (Claudia) and Baby (Pam) at Playhouse West. She has been seen on television shows including Ally McBeal and Six Feet Under. Ms. Ewing’s voice can be heard daily hosting “Life, Love and Health” on XM radio and Sirius stations. Ms. Ewing thanks Becky Bell for her endless hospitality.

Mark Farrell (William Barfee) returns to San Jose Rep having most recently appeared in Around the World in 80 Days (co-production with Laguna Playhouse) and prior to that in The Haunting of Winchester, both directed by Michael Butler. Other credits include The Reduced Shakespeare Company’s Completely Hollywood: Abridged (Belgium/Holland Tour); Loaded (by Scott Capurro, director Barbara Damashek), Ars Nova Theatre, NYC; Mousetrap
(director Timothy Near), The Musical of Musicals (The Musical!) (BATCC award, director Mindy Cooper), Laughter on the 23rd Floor and Noel & Gertie (BATCC award, director Barbara Damashek), Center Rep; The Fantasticks (BATCC award, director Dianna Shuster), SF Playhouse. Mr. Farrell has also appeared in two episodes of the History Channel’s Man, Moment, Machine.

Clifton Guterman (Leaf Coneybear) thinks being back in the Bee feels s-u-p-e-r-s-o-n-i-c, having spelled in 2008’s regional premiere co-production at Barrington Stage and North Shore Music Theatre, both in Massachusetts. Last year, he also made his New York City debut Off-Broadway in Deathbed. Favorite regional credits include: Nicholas Nickleby, California Shakespeare Theater; Finn in the Underworld and To the Lighthouse, Berkeley Rep.; Master Harold…and the boys, Weston Playhouse; She Loves Me, Arena Stage; A Christmas Carol, Alliance Theatre; The Goat and Beautiful Thing, Actor’s Express (Atlanta); Bat Boy: The Musical, Dad’s Garage (Atlanta) and The Velvet Rut, Eugene O’Neill Conference. Guterman is a proud member of the Actors’ Equity Association.

Berwick Haynes (Mitch Mahoney, Dan Dad, Olive’s Dad) is overjoyed to be making his San Jose Rep debut. He was last seen in American Musical Theatre San Jose’s production of The Full Monty. Mr. Haynes has performed at the California Shakespeare Festival (Julius Caesar, Love’s Labour’s Lost), San Jose Stage Company (Bariona), Stage One of Louisville, Kentucky (Diary of Anne Frank), Marriott Theatre at Lincolnshire (Ain’t Misbehavin’), Chicago Shakespeare Festival (Seussical the Musical), The Ravinia Festival (Anyone Can Whistle with Patti LuPone and Audra McDonald, directed by Lonny Price) and the Goodman Theatre (Pericles directed by Mary Zimmerman) amongst others. Mr. Haynes would like to thank Mark, Dee, Stephanie, Kim and Lonnie for their undying love and support. L’Chiam!

Steve Irish (Douglas Panch) was Froggy LeSueur in The Foreigner at San Jose Rep earlier this season. Other Bay Area credits include Sex at the Aurora Theater; Enchanted April and Nixon’s Nixon at Center Rep; and Man and Superman at California Shakespeare Theater. He also appeared at American Conservatory Theater in The Gamester and A Christmas Carol. Irish played Orson Welles in Orson’s Shadow at Marin Theater Company and starred in The Long Christmas Ride Home at Magic Theatre. Regional theater: Henry IV at Washington, D.C.’s Shakespeare Theatre; The Show-Off and Twelfth Night at Baltimore’s CenterStage; The Resistible Rise of Arturo Ui Off-Broadway at CSC Rep; and Fool for Love at Portland Stage Company. He appeared in the feature films Just Like Heaven and The Darwin Awards.

Dani Marcus (Olive Ostrovsky) is delighted to make her San Jose Rep debut. Her New York credits include The Pirates of Penzance (Mabel) with the National Yiddish Theatre and River’s End (Bessie Two) as a part of the New York Musical Theatre Festival. Marcus’ Bay Area credits include the world premiere of Emma (Harriet Smith) at TheatreWorks, The Musical of Musicals (The Musical!) (June) with Center Rep and Steve Silver’s Beach Blanket Babylon. Most recently she reprised her role of Harriet in a coproduction of Emma with Cincinnati Playhouse in the Park and Repertory Theatre of St. Louis, for which she received a Kevin Kline Award nomination. As always she thanks Tijuana and Jon Call, and she is grateful to have another chance to spell in public after an unfortunate, premature loss in her fifth grade Bee. The word: “cocoon.”

Sophie Oda (Marcy Park) is delighted to join the Bee at San Jose Rep. Credits include A Little Princess, Jane Eyre, Pacific Overtures and The Joy Luck Club at TheatreWorks; The Sound of Music and Annie at American Musical Theatre San Jose; A Midsummer Night’s Dream at California Shakespeare Theater; Annie at Stage One Repertory; South Pacific at Alameda Civic Light Opera; and The King and I at the Willows Theatre. She made her national T.V. debut on Star Search and can be frequently seen on Disney Channel’s The Suite Life of Zack and Cody as the character “Barbara Brownstein.” Oda is currently working on a comedy web series entitled Spaz Fu and has just completed her sophomore year in college.