JUDITH SHUBOW STEIR
Book, Music & Lyrics

Judith Shubow Steir has been a composer and writer all her life. Her first musical, FAR ABOVE RUBIES, although it has yet to be produced (some songs have been performed in concert), brought her to the attention of Robert Kuss who suggested the subject of the Duke and Duchess of Windsor as worthy of a musical. Judy agreed and embarked on a great deal of research including interviewing people who knew the legendary couple intimately. ONLY A KINGDOM has a strong development history and has acquired a flourishing fan base. Steir has also composed many other songs and musical pieces, including compositions for a musical in progress, CASANOVA, HIS LIFE AND LOVES and DEMONS IN THE GOLDEN SAND, a play about Edgar Allan Poe, setting some of Poe’s poems to music. She has also written industrial sketches, is a member of ASCAP and raised three children who have blessed her and her husband, Bert Steir, with eleven grandchildren.

Read Judith Shubow Steir's Author Notes on ONLY A KINGDOM >

DAVID GLENN ARMSTRONG
Director

David Glenn Armstrong has staged over 150 productions, workshops and readings seen in 49 states at theatres including the New York Shakespeare Festival, Goodspeed Opera, Walnut Street Theatre, Long Wharf, Manhattan Theatre Club, Library of Congress, Amas, York Theatre, Arkansas Rep, NYMF, Chicago Humanities Festival, Anchorage Opera, HERE, Iowa Shakespeare Festival, Pacific Repertory Opera, Mason Street Warehouse, Riverside Theatre, Lyceum Theatre, Raw Impressions, New Dramatists, Aaron Davis Hall, Circle Rep Lab and the New York Fringe Festival. Career highlights include the first revival of Harold Arlen’s LIFE BEGINS AT 8:40 with Maestro Aaron Gandy, Kate Baldwin, Philip Chafin, Christopher Fitzgerald, Montego Glover, Rebecca Luker, Faith Prince, Graham Rowat and Jessica Stone; the first-ever revival of Jerry Bock, Sheldon Harnick and Joe Stein’s THE BODY BEAUTIFUL with Maestro John Bell, Brad Oscar, Megan Lawrence, Mike McGowan and Laura Marie Duncan (also cast recording); the revival of Joe Stein’s PLAIN AND FANCY with Cady Huffman, Charlotte Rae, and Nancy Anderson; the first-ever revival of Lerner & Loewe’s THE DAY BEFORE SPRING with Hunter Bell, Amanda Watkins and Janine DaVita; the first post-Broadway production of his college classmate Jonathan Larson’s RENT; Joan Ross Sorkin’s (MIS)UNDERSTANDING MAMMY: THE HATTIE McDANIEL STORY which earned Capathia Jenkins a Drama Desk nomination; the first sailing of Pam Tate and Erv Raible’s SHIP OF FOOLS with Karen Akers, Linda Balgord, Rita Gardner, Mark Jacoby, and Sean McDermott; the premiere of Ed Dixon’s SCENERY with Dixon and Lynne Wintersteller. His widely varied repertory includes ROMEO & JULIET, DREAMGIRLS, DON GIOVANNI, A CHORUS LINE, TARTUFFE, HAIR, and LA TRAVIATA.

PETER MANSFIELD
Music Supervisor, Arranger, Orchestrator

Conductor, composer, arranger, pianist, Peter Mansfield is a native Bostonian, having majored in music at Harvard College where he arranged for, and directed the world famous Harvard Krokodiloes, and where he later embarked on a 20-year tenure as Music Director and Supervisor of the renowned Hasty Pudding Theatricals. It was during this time that he met and apprenticed under acclaimed conductor and Boston Pops arranger Eric Knight, and studied with James Yannatos, chairman of Harvard's conducting faculty. In 1981 he began an ongoing affiliation with John Williams, Keith Lockhart and The Boston Pops Orchestra, where he has worked as pianist, arranger, and orchestrator, and music coordinator of several Evening at Pops P.B.S. television specials. Recent Boston Pops seasons have featured several Mansfield arrangements, including an original work for narrator and orchestra, CASEY AT THE BAT, and Peter now coordinates the annual collaboration between the Pops and Boston Conservatory.

Since 1981, Mr. Mansfield's symphonic arrangements have been performed by many major U.S. orchestras, and his arrangements are represented in the catalog of G. Schirmer, Inc. in New York. In September of 1988, he became Conductor and Music Director of Concert On Ice, the first-ever international tour featuring Olympic and World Champion figure skaters in concert with major U.S. and Canadian orchestras, for which he has conducted the orchestras of Atlanta, Dallas, Omaha, Pasadena, San Diego, Seattle, Spokane and Vancouver, as well as the American Symphony Orchestra, the Kennedy Center Opera House Orchestra, the Philadelphia Pops, the National Symphony Orchestra, and in a special national television production in 1995, the Houston Symphony. He served as Pops conductor of the Kansas City Symphony during the 1997-98 season, and more recently, conducted and arranged several programs for the Hartford Symphony during the 2003-2004 season. He has also guest-conducted Pops programs for The Milwaukee, New Hampshire and Vancouver Symphony Orchestras, as well as The Hudson Valley Philharmonic.

In 2005, he began an ongoing affiliation as arranger/ orchestrator for singer/songwriter Elisabeth Von Trapp, granddaughter of the legendary Captain Von Trapp of SOUND OF MUSIC fame, and he continues to compose, arrange and conduct music for Jacques D’Amboise and The National Dance Institute in New York, Boston and New Hampshire, an affiliation that started in 1985.

In the theater world, Peter Mansfield has served as Music Director/Conductor and Arranger for several regional and New York equity productions, including the Broadway-bound new musical ONLY A KINGDOM, as well as the legendary MUNY summer theater in St. Louis. A faculty member of The Boston Conservatory Theater Division since 2005, he served as Music Director/Arranger and Orchestrator for the 2007 BoCo world premiere of the new musical HEAVEN AND HELL.

MILTON GRANGER
Music Director

Milton Granger is currently assistant conductor at MARY POPPINS on Broadway. Earlier Broadway shows include THE WOMAN IN WHITE, CHITTY CHITTY BANG BANG, CYRANO THE MUSICAL and CAMELOT, plus national tours of PHANTOM OF THE OPERA, SUNSET BOULEVARD, and BIG. At the York he was M.D. for FERMAT'S LAST TANGO and A FINE AND PRIVATE PLACE. He conducted WEST SIDE STORY in Germany and France, and has conducted dozens of regional productions with Debby Boone, Loretta Swit, Vic Damone, Andrea McArdle, and others. Samples of his original work (operas and musical plays) can be found on miltongranger.com.

DANIEL HALEY
Associate Director

New York theater includes : THE BODY BEAUTIFUL, THE DAY BEFORE SPRING, PLAIN & FANCY (York Theater Company), (MIS)UNDERSTANDING MAMMY (Emerging Artists Theatre Company), MISS PELL IS MISSING (MITF), IN THE AIR (Stageplays Theatre Company), GOLDILOCKS (Opening Doors Theatre Company), THE PURPLE LADY LIVES IN MY HEAD (Roy Arias Theatre) and WALK WITH ME (Where Eagles Dare Theater). Regional theaters include: Provincetown Theater, Cortland Repertory Theatre, and Merry-Go-Round Playhouse. Daniel is a proud member of The Stage Directors and Choreographers Society.

ADAM LAIRD
Associate Music Director

Assistant Musical Direction: SWEENEY TODD, CAROUSEL (Barrington Stage Company); 42ND STREET, FUNNY GIRL, and SUGAR (Westchester Broadway Theatre); THE HUDSUCKER PROXY (Hilton Theatre Studios). Musical Direction: THE LAST FIVE YEARS (CCM Conservatory), NAB-A-DATE: THE WORLD’S FIRST DATING MUSICAL (The Reprise Room). Special Thanks to David, Tara Rubin’s office, my wonderful family and beautiful friends.