Four Seasons Theatre - Company Staff

FST Company Staff

Sarah Marty
Managing Director

Marja Barger
Administrative Associate

FST Company Staff

Sarah, as featured, in Madison Magazine. Photo by David Caruso.

Sarah Marty, Managing Director, is the 2008 recipient of the Bartell Award for Excellence in the Arts. She has a Master's Degree in Business from the Bolz Center for Arts Administration, an MS in Curriculum & Instruction, and a Bachelor of Music Education degree from UW-Madison. Sarah is the Program Director for the following UW-Madison Division of Continuing Studies programs: Wisconsin Wright New Play Project, Wisconsin High School Theatre Festival, and Wisconsin Theatre Auditions and Technical Interviews, among others.

In addition to maintaining a private music studio, she has taught in both the Middleton-Cross Plains Area School District and the Madison Metropolitan School District.

Sarah works with a variety of arts organizations in the Madison area. The Managing Director of Four Seasons Theatre she serves as the Production Manager and heads up grantwriting, marketing, finance, and educational outreach. The Production Manager for the UW Varsity Band Spring Concert she also designs, recruits talent for, and directs the Act 1 and Act 2 finales each year. A longtime Advisory Board Member, she also served as the Marketing Manager for the Madison Early Music Festival. For Madison Opera she worked as supertitles cuemaster, Assistant Production Manager, and an Event Coordinator. In addition she is the General Manager for Forward Theater Company and a former board member for Madison Theatre Guild.

Marja at rehearsals for RENT, which she directed. Photo by Jordan PetersonMarja Barger, Administrative Associate, has appeared in numerous local productions with such groups as Madison Savoyards (The Mikado, Yeoman of the Guard); CTM Madison Family Theatre Company (Sound of Music, South Pacific, Anne of Green Gables, King and I, Pinnochio), Verona Area Community Theater (My Fair Lady, Unsinkable Molly Brown, Oklahoma, Crazy for You, A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum), Ovine Productions (Two Rooms) and Four Seasons Theatre Company (Ragtime, Aspects of Love, Sweeney Todd, Miss Saigon, Grand Night for Singing).

She starred as Phyllis opposite a 2-time Tony nominee Tom Wopat in Four Seasons Theatre's February 2008 staged concert version of Follies. She has appeared with Kenny Rogers and Sarah Brightman, and been a cast member for the UW Varsity Band Spring Concert.

She is a past Board Member of Madison Savoyards and past FST Advisory Council member. She was assistant stage manager/assistant director of VACT's Beauty & the Beast and has worked backstage for FST on The Last Five Years and West Side Story. By day, Marja is a legal assistant at Lathrop & Clark LLP.

Tamara in "The Cole Porter Songbook." Photo by Mike BrownTamara Norden Brognano, Outreach Coordinator, has performed with such groups as the Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra, the UW Varsity Band, Windfall Theatre, and the Gilbert and Sullivan Very Light Opera Company. A singer and actress, favorite Four Seasons Theatre appearances include Sally in Follies and Mother in Ragtime. A former member of the Four Seasons Theatre Advisory Council, Tamara served on the artistic committee and has organized our community outreach concerts for the past two seasons. By day, Ms. Brognano is a technical writer and localization coordinator with Philips Healthcare.

Founders

Four Seasons Theatre was founded in 2005 by Andrew Abrams, Erin Burke, Chris Lange, Sarah Marty, Jamie Pitt, and Amanda Poulson.

Andrew Abrams has worked Off-Broadway, regionally and on tour as a professional director, musical director, conductor, composer and performer. Off-Bway: Pirates of Penzance (New York Gilbert and Sullivan Players). Tours: Cinderella (with Eartha Kitt), State Fair (with John Davidson), Cabaret (with Andrea McCardle), Kiss of the Spider Woman, Fiddler on the Roof (with Theodore Bikel); Regional: Between the Lines (Luna Stage), Masterclass (with Rosemary Prinz), Mikado (Theatre Virginia) and numerous others. He has directed, musical directed, and conducted the majority of Four Seasons Theatre's productions including Thoroughly Modern Mille, Sweeney Todd, West Side Story, Follies (with Tom Wopat), and Evita and also directed Sweeney Todd at the Armory Dinner Theatre in 2008. Andrew is in the advanced year of the BMI Musical Theatre Writing Workshop in NYC where he wrote the music for the musical but I'm a Cheerleader, which headlined the New York Musical Theatre Festival in September 2005. Andrew has also worked as a vocal coach and voice teacher at NYU, Pace University, AMDA, and privately in NYC and Madison and served as chorus master for Madison Opera for two seasons.

Jamie Pitt, a founding member of FST, received her Bachelor's degree in Music Education from UW-Madison and is currently in her tenth year teaching vocal and general music at James Madison Memorial High School. She most recently was the musical director for Four Seasons Youth Theatre's Les Misérables and Once On This Island, and is co-director of the Summer Musical Theatre Workshop Series. In addition, she is the music director for the annual musicals at Memorial, and she recently led the High School Musical Theater session at the 2004 and 2006 UW-Madison Summer Music Clinics.

Previously, Jamie directed the Boychoir for the Madison Youth Choirs organization and the Wisconsin Dells High School Show Choir, taught vocal and general music at Cherokee Heights Middle School (Madison), and conducted the youth choirs at Bethel Lutheran Church and Bashford United Methodist Church. In association with UW-Madison, she toured for two years with the Wisconsin Singers and sang for six years with the UW Madrigal Singers. Other Madison performance credits include the roles of the Young Sally in Follies (Four Seasons Theatre), the Guardian Angel in Everyman (E.M. Productions) and Sandy in Grease (Madison Theater Guild).

Amanda Poulson is proud to be a founding member of Four Seasons Theatre. She received her Bachelors of Music in Vocal Performance from the University of Wisconsin at Madison where she spent three years on tour with the Wisconsin Singers and performed in numerous University operas, concerts and recitals. She is also a former board member for the School of Music Alumni Association.

Amanda was most recently seen on stage in Madison as Young Phyllis in Follies, Maria in West Side Story, Ellen in Miss Saigon and Cathy in The Last Five Years for Four Seasons Theatre and the Fireside Dinner Theatre's production of Anything Goes. Other favorite roles include Lois/Bianca in Kiss Me Kate (Saxton's River Playhouse), Reno Sweeny in Anything Goes (Saxton's River Playhouse), and Rizzo in Grease (Madison Theatre Guild). She was recently a Featured Singer for Royal Caribbean International, performing aboard the Independence of the Seas.

As a choreographer, Amanda has worked with high schools through out the state of Wisconsin and has choreographed the last eight musicals at Madison's Memorial High School including 42nd Street, West Side Story and most recently Little Shop of Horrors. Other recent projects include: Loose Lips Sink Ships for Madison Family Theatre (CTM); Bat Boy for StageQ; Ragtime for Four Seasons Theatre and most recently she directed and choreographed Once On This Island for Four Seasons Youth Theatre.