Staff Bios

Brandt Blocker
Artistic Director and General Manager

Prior to arriving in Atlanta, Blocker was Producing Director of Brandt Blocker Presents, LLC, a full-scale production company that presents large scale, award-winning theatrical entertainments in the south Louisiana area.

Before starting his own production company, Blocker was Director of Development and Marketing of Le Petit Theatre du Vieux Carre and also served as a stage and musical director for the New Orleans Company’s main stage musicals and children’s shows.

He is a recipient of five Big Easy Entertainment Awards, New Orleans’ premier event honoring the musical and theatrical talent of a city world renowned for its outstanding performing arts. Blocker has also been recognized for his work with Le Petit Theatre, The Jefferson Performing Arts Society, The Rivertown Repertory Theatre and Southeastern Louisiana University.

For The Lyric, Blocker directed Little Shop of Horrors (nominated for 9 Suzi Bass Awards including Best Musical), Peter Pan, Anything Goes, Disney’s Beauty and the Beast and Smokey Joe’s Cafe.

In New Orleans, Blocker produced and directed critically acclaimed, productions of The Musical of Musicals: The Musical! (Winner of 3 Big Easy Entertainment Awards), The All Night Strut, Schoolhouse Rock Live!, A Year With Frog and Toad, Some Enchanted Evening: The Songs of Rodgers & Hammerstein (2005 Marquee Award for Best Musical), Seussical the Musical, and Little Shop of Horrors (Winner of Five Big Easy Entertainment Awards).

He was stage and music director for Le Petit Theatre’s main stage productions of And The World Goes ‘Round, Grease!, Five Guys Named Moe, Leader of the Pack (2002 Marquee Award for Best Musical, Best Director of a Musical and Best Music Direction), and The Sound of Music, and was also stage and music director for the critically acclaimed Big Easy, Storer Boone and Marquee Award-winner for Best Musical 2004, Smokey Joe’s Café for the Jefferson Performing Arts Society.

As director of Le Petit’s Corner Theatre, Blocker directed sold-out productions of Snoopy!!!, Bye, Bye Birdie, Free To Be…You And Me, Honk! (2002 Storer Boone Award for Best Children’s Show), Rodgers and Hammerstein’s Cinderella, Schoolhouse Rock, Live! and
You’re a Good Man, Charlie Brown (2001 Storer Boone Award for Best Children’s Show and a Marquee Award for Best Musical Direction).

He has staged the New Orleans Opera Association’s Metropolitan Opera Hansel and Gretel and Too Many Sopranos and Peter Pan for Southeastern Louisiana University’s department of music and dramatic arts.

Previously, Blocker was the resident musical director at the Rivertown Repertory Theatre from 1994-1998, where he served as both vocal director and/or conductor for Evita, Nunsense, The Will Rogers Follies, I Do, I Do!, Oliver, Romance/Romance, Into the Woods, George M!, My Fair Lady and Baby.

He was the Big Easy Entertainment Award winner as Best Musical Director of 1997 and 2004 as well as Best Director of a Musical 2004 and 2006. Blocker is also a five-time Storer Boone Theatre Award winner as Musical Director of the Year for 1994, 1995, 1996, 2004 and 2007.

Additionally, his work has been seen at New Orleans’ Louise S. McGehee School, Mount Carmel Academy, Jesuit High School, Destrehan High School, and Immaculata High School as Director of Music and Theatre from 1994-1998. For the Jefferson Parish Public School System, Blocker worked as vocal music clinician alongside choreographer Dee Dee Wood, actress Anita Gillette and Broadway legend Chita Rivera. More recently, Blocker was music director and conductor for the 2009 Shuler Hensley Awards for Excellence in High School Musical Theatre at The Cobb Energy Performing Arts Centre.

Paul Holly
Administrative Manager

Paul served as Director/Choreographer of last season’s production of Some Enchanted Evening and co-directed this season’s Disney’s Beauty and the Beast. He also serves as the Administrative Manager for the theatre. As a founding and current Board of Directors member of the Suzi Bass Awards, a not-for-profit service organization dedicated to recognizing and fostering theatrical excellence in the Atlanta professional theatre community, he serves as Treasurer of the organization and Event Coordinator. Atlanta credits include Into the Woods (Direction/Choreography) and Little Shop of Horrors (Musical Staging) for Georgia Perimeter College’s Theatre Arts Guild.  As an actor and graduate of the Florida State University School of Theatre, he has performed in summer stock, regional and community theatres across the South, with appearances in an industrial film, feature film and a network daytime drama. He toured the US and Canada for three years in the 4th international and 1st national companies of Sesame Street Live as Big Bird.  Paul founded the Marshall County Community Theatre in Lewisburg, TN, where he has served as a performer, director and choreographer for many productions. He served as assistant director and associate choreographer for the Academy of Performing Art’s English language production of Jesus Christ Superstar in Niigata, Japan. Paul is a proud member of Actor’s Equity Association and the Atlanta Coalition of Performing Arts. In his spare time, Paul also serves as a color guard judge for fall marching band season and during winter guard season, serves as a General Effects judge for the Gulf Coast Judges Association, judging competitions in Georgia, Tennessee, Alabama, Florida, Louisiana and Mississippi.

Dianne Butler
Director of Marketing and Development

Dianne has been in her current position at The Lyric since July 2008, overseeing all aspects of Publicity, Marketing and Community relations involving the move to our new performance venue, The Earl Smith Strand Theatre, and is charged with all Development and fund-raising responsibilities for the company.

Previous work from 2003-07, was as the Director of Development and Communications for EarthCraft House, a 501(c) (3) nationally-awarded program for homebuilders of Environmentally sustainable homes, run by Southface Energy Institute and the Greater Atlanta Homebuilders Association. Prior to that, she was National Sales and Marketing Manager for 7 years with Construction Market Data Group (CMDG). Additional professional experience has been 8 years as the Southeast Bureau Chief of In Motion Film and Video Production Magazine. Dianne moved to Atlanta in 1984 as Director of Sales and Marketing for Residence Inn and Embassy Suites Hotels, in charge of new development.

Elizabeth Neidel
Director of Education

EDUCATION
Bachelor of Arts in Theatre and Performance Studies, Minor in Dance, Kennesaw State University, Kennesaw, Georgia.
*Certified Alliance Theatre and Georgia Council for the Arts Teaching Artist

EXPERIENCE
Theatre for Youth/Institute for Educators and Teaching Artists Assistant, Alliance Theatre Company
Atlanta, GA, August 2007-Present

Alliance Theatre Teaching Artist, Alliance Theatre Institute for Educators and Teaching Artists
Atlanta, GA, September 2007- Present

Acting Program Teacher, Alliance Theatre Acting Program
Atlanta, GA, December 2007- Present

Choreographer and Assistant, Blake Cooper Productions
Marietta, GA, December 2006- Present

Education Intern, Alliance Theatre Institute for Educators and Teaching Artists
Atlanta, GA, January 2005 – July 2007

After School Program Teacher, Blackwell Elementary School
Marietta, GA, August 2002 – May 2007

WORKSHOP EXPERIENCE

• Goodnight Moon Workshop, Alliance Theatre Institute for Educators and Teaching Artists, 2008
• Alliance Theatre Institute for Educators and Teaching Artists, Summer Seminar 2008
• Seussical the Musical Workshop, Alliance Theatre Company, 2008
• Degas’ Little Dancer Workshop, Alliance Theatre Company, 2007
• Alliance Theatre Institute for Educators and Teaching Artists, Summer Seminar 2007
• Go, Dog, Go! Workshop, Alliance Theatre Company, 2007
• Aladdin Workshop, Alliance Theatre Company, 2006
• Alliance Theatre Institute for Educators and Teaching Artists, Summer Seminar 2006
• Alliance Theatre Institute for Educators and Teaching Artists, Summer Seminar 2005
• Little Baby Snoogle Fleeger Workshop, Alliance Theatre Company, 2005

BJ Garmon
Technical Director

BJ Garmon joined the Atlanta Lyric Theatre as the Technical Director during their 30th season, just in time to put together Cinderella Enchanted.  BJ has worked around the Atlanta area as the TD for a couple of different companies, including The Aurora Theatre and Synchronicity Performance Group.  An Alpharetta native, BJ received his BFA in Technical Theatre from Valdosta State University in 2005.  He went on to work with Virginia Stage Company, which is where he met his lovely wife.  After working for several theatres, and some production shops, BJ is thrilled to be back in the Metro Atlanta area near his friends and family again.

Amy McGuire
Box Office Manager

Amy has been working with Atlanta Lyric Theatre for three years in a variety of capacities.  Before joining The Lyric staff, Amy worked for several other companies including, 14th Street Playhouse, Theatre Gail, Onstage Atlanta and Galaxy Music Theatre.  Amy helped with the 2007 renovation of The Byers Studio Theatre in our previous location, where she also ran lights and sound for our popular Summer Series and stage managed The Lyric productions of Little Shop of Horrors, 1940’s Radio Hour and Forever Plaid. Amy served as Stage Manager for Anything Goes and Peter Pan at The Ferst Center in our 2007-08 season and took charge as Box Office Manager for our 2008-09 season, when the move to our new venue, The Earl Smith Strand Theatre, opened that opportunity. Additionally, Amy has been Stage Manager of Smokey Joe’s Café and The Will Rogers Follies and stage crew for The IT Girl.

Jeff Macko
Orchestra Manager

Jeff Macko received his Bachelor’s Degree in Music Performance from Loyola University, New Orleans.  A native of Detroit, Jeff transplanted to Atlanta in 2000 after spending 26 years playing and teaching in New Orleans. He has been a member of or has played with the following:  the New Orleans Pops Orchestra, the New Orleans Civic Symphony, the New Orleans Ballet Orchestra, the Jefferson Symphony, the Louisiana Philharmonic Orchestra, and the Crescent City Wind Symphony.  A very active musician in theatre, Jeff has played for over 130 musicals and was the drummer/percussionist for the Jefferson Performing Arts Society Theatre Wing for seven seasons, for the Tulane Summer Lyric Theatre for seven years, for Le Petite Theatre du Vieux Carre for three years, and for Rivertown Repertory Theatre for five years.  Also, being the house percussionist for the Saenger Theatre in downtown New Orleans for six seasons gave Jeff the opportunity to play for many Broadway road shows, including “The Will Roger Follies,” “Crazy for You,” “Grease,” and Disney’s “Beauty and the Beast.”  On drum set, he has played with a very wide variety of groups in the Crescent City, most notably “Jubilation,” the New Orleans Saints Band, the 1984 Louisiana World Expo Band, the Jimmy Maxwell Band, and the Jerry Leonard Society Orchestra. Jeff has been teaching drums for the past 24 years, and was the drum set / percussion instructor at Tulane University where he taught for 15 years, from 1985 to 2000.

Some of the artists that Jeff has had the privilege of playing for include: Ray Charles, Regis and Kathy Lee, Steve Allen, Jodi Benson, Frank Gorshin, Robert Goulet, Marie Osmond, Jerry Lewis, Florence Henderson, the 5th Dimension, the Coasters, the Platters, and Tony Bennett.

Currently, Jeff is the drum / percussion instructor at Ken Stanton Music in Roswell and Atlanta Music Academy in Suwanee.  He has also taught at the following venues in the metro Atlanta area:  Cambridge Academy of Music (Alpharetta), Ken Stanton Music (Marietta), Music Dox (Marietta), McEachern Band Conservatory (Powder Springs), and Attina’s Music (Fayetteville).  Jeff has acted as a coach for the percussion sections of Crabapple Middle School and Ridgeview Middle School, and founded and directed a percussion ensemble at High Point Elementary School, which premiered pieces that he wrote in May 2001 and May 2002.

Since arriving in Atlanta, Jeff has played with The George Carre Band, the Atlanta Wind Symphony, Bob Martin’s Take Note Big Band, “Sparklett,” the Peach Trio, the Mount Paran Church of God Orchestra, the Stage Door Players, the Laigh Langley Band, “Group Therapy,” the Rehoboth Baptist Church Orchestra, “Inquiring Minds,” The Alan Knieter Orchestra, The Sugarloaf Community Church Band, “Mixed Company,” the John’s Creek Baptist Church Orchestra, and The Atlanta Lyric Theatre.

Amy Davis
Director of Development

Amy came to The Lyric in 2010 with more than 15 years of development experience.  She began her career at Agnes Scott College in 1993, and has since worked at the University of Northern Iowa, Bowling Green State University and most recently the American Cancer Society.  Amy has been recognized for her work in development with the American Cancer Society’s Excellence in Online Fundraising award (2009), the Council for the Advancement and Support of Education’s “Pride of CASE District V” Gold Award for Annual Giving Programs (2005), the Association of Women in Communication Toledo Chapter’s Crystal Award (2002, 2003) and the CASE Circle of Excellence Award for Philanthropy Programs (2001). In addition to her work as a professional fundraiser, Amy worked as an accompanist and musical director for several Atlanta theaters in the 1990’s, including Onstage Atlanta, Dramatech and Actor’s Express.

She currently serves on the YWCA of Northwest Georgia’s Tribute to Women committee and the Big Shanty Intermediate School PTA board.  Amy lives in Kennesaw with her husband Jim and their two sons.