La Cage aux Folles

Diane Lala is Professor Emerita of Musical Theatre at the University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music. At CCM, she directed and choreographed productions including 42^nd Street, Carousel, Legally Blonde, and Singin’ in the Rain. Many of her students have gone on to successful Broadway careers. Diane is a Certified Pilates Instructor and an associate member of SDC. She has directed and choreographed for SLT for the past 25 years. First production with SLT was in 1983.

C. Leonard Raybon is Artistic Director of Summer Lyric Theatre, Associate Professor of Music, and Director of Choirs at Tulane University. Raybon is the founder of Sacred Nine Project, where he engages with music, texts, and events from an earlier America in order to help shape a future one. Sacred Nine events take the form of what he calls “Amerimusicals,” for which he writes the music and much of the libretto. Most recently, he created a cantata for Swarthmore College, inspired by Murder in a Mill Town, by Bruce Dorsey, and in June will provide non-traditional salon at Pittsburgh’s The Woods House, frequented by Stephen Foster. The presentation grapples with the troubled legacy of Foster in the American theatre scene. Raybon’s “The Busy Bee” is published by Santa Barbara, and he has a piece upcoming with GIA Publications this fall. Raybon also hosts the Sacred Nine Project Podcast. First production with SLT was in 1996.