OUR TEAM

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SARAH AZCARATE | Founder & Artistic Director

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Sarah was born and raised in Southern California with an early love for music and local theatre. Her participation in musical theatre began a lifelong devotion to songwriting. At the age of 16, Sarah began recording professionally in Nashville, TN. Sarah’s latest releases were recorded in Los Angeles, along with her most recent single "Room For Love".

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Having founded the Altadena Music Theatre after moving to Altadena during the height of the pandemic, Sarah hopes to bring the community together, and inspire each other with a love and appreciation for the arts. www.sarahpetrella.com

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Past Creative Team Includes:​

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OLIVER AZCARATE | Director, HAIR and Cabaret

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Oliver Ixora Azcarate, ‘Aquarius’, is a screenwriter, playwright, and director who fondly calls Altadena, California home. He first fell in love with Hair at 12 years old, watching his mother perform in community theater and university productions of Hair in the San Francisco Bay Area, and now gets to realize a lifelong dream of producing and directing the musical himself.
Oliver is of Jewish and Colombian descent and is presently writing and producing a tv series that follows two families from 1986 to present day affected by the war on drugs and narcotrafficking. He’d like to thank theater director Sharon Boucher for her past and present mentorship, his wife Sarah Petrella-Azcarate for bringing her vision of the arts and live theatre
to all of us in the community, and the amazing freedom of expression-loving revolutionaries who dedicated their time, talent, sweat and soul to bring this beautiful show to life! Yip-yip-yippie!!!

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CHRIS WADE | Musical Director, HAIR, Cabaret, and Guys & Dolls. 

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Chris Wade is tripping his ass off that he’s doing HAIR with a groovy new theater right in his backyard! A resident of Pasadena, Chris is a music writer, producer, arranger, accompanist, music director, singer, and business owner in LA and NYC. Vocal Producer/Arranger: (via RAISE) REVIVE LA (current) AGT’s Game of Talents 2021, Oprah Tour & Daybreaker 2020, BMG Music, CW’s Christmas Caroler Challenge 2020. 

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TV/Commercials: Miracle Workers, Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade (Toys R Us), GEICO, LinkedIn, Comedy Central (all via #TheAccidentals), Letterman, 30 Rock, KFC, Mazda. Music Director/Accompanist: Curtis Theater, Sierra Rep, Children’s Acting Academy, RUSD, Valley Opera Performing Arts. 

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Original Musicals: www.29livestheseries.com (airing!), 29LIVES (13th St Rep, Arthur Seelen Theater - NYC, The Lex Hollywood), Such Sweet Sorrow (Fox Theater Riverside/Live Nation/RUSD, Theater for the New City NYC) 

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Cruise ships: HAL & Carnival (lead singer), P&O & NCL (pianobar). 

Education: , BMI Musical Theatre Workshop (Composer), Wagner College, CLU, LACHSA 

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www.chriswademusic.com IG @chriswademusicproductions @cw29lives 

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MELISSA SCHADE | Choreographer, HAIR and Cabaret

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Melissa Schade is a Los Angeles based choreographer. With work ranging from stage to screen, her movement tells stories, excites audiences, and brings music to life. Schade choreographs for the masses, and enjoys working with performers of any age, size, shape, color, gender or ability.  Some of her favorite projects include choreographing for Nike, Arcade Fire, Cover Girl, Benjamin Booker, Comedy Central, Fiat, and Vivienne Westwood just to name a few. Melissa also assists her mentor Ryan Heffington and recently flew to New Orleans to set 3 drag numbers for the reboot of Queer as Folk.

 

Schade is also a movement director. She collaborates with creative teams, working closely alongside directors and performers to realize the physical life of a work or production.  Some of her favorite jobs include Vogue, Vogue Italia, Vogue China, Harper's Bazaar, Vanity Fair, Apple Music, Samsung, and Abercrombie and Fitch working alongside world renowned photographers like Ryan McGinley and Tommy Dorfman. 

 

Melissa teaches contemporary, ballet, jazz, tap, and modern all over the United States to students whose experience ranges from beginner to professional. Over the past 22 years, some of her favorite faculty positions have included Ryan Heffington’s The Sweat Spot, Harvard-Westlake Middle School, and LA Contemporary Dance Company Summer Intensive. She holds a BFA in Dance from the University of Arizona.

 

Schade is also an entertainer, live events, shows at nightclubs, parties, variety shows, and immersive dance theatre experiences are some of the many ways Melissa loves to entertain. Melissa choreographs and curates some of the wildest and most well attended events in LA, chock-full of dance, theater, and music.  Recently she wrote and directed a quarantine film about the East LA dance community and beloved dance studio the Sweat Spot, called "Hey, it's me, Meliss! THE MOVIE."

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DOUG KREEGER | Director, Guys & Dolls

 

Doug Kreeger has been an award-winning theatre maker for over 30 years, first as an actor and singer on Broadway, and then as a director, writer, and educator in New York, Los Angeles, and his hometown, Honolulu. Doug earned his BFA in Drama from NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts and received an MFA in Performance Pedagogy from Loyola Marymount University. As a performer, Doug was in the Original Broadway Revival Company of Les Misérables and appeared alongside Chita Rivera in Kander & Ebb’s The Visit. Off-Broadway, Doug created the roles of Ian in Rooms: A Rock Romance (Original Cast Recording) and Richard Loeb in Thrill Me: The Leopold & Loeb Story (Original Cast Recording). Other NYC credits include leading roles at Carnegie Hall, Walt Disney Concert Hall, Public Theatre, Playwrights Horizons, American Theatre of Actors, Connelly Theater, NYMF, and NY Fringe. Doug’s regional performing credits include Signature Theatre, Yale Rep, Pittsburgh CLO, Walling Annenberg Center, Old Globe, Barrington Stage, Bay Street Theatre, Arkansas Rep, Flat Rock Playhouse, Geva Theatre, MetroStage, DBA, BreakRoom86, and Reagle Players. Doug has toured nationally with Peter Pan, and internationally with Hair (Original Cast Recording) and Grease. Please visit DougKreeger.com and follow @dougkreeger. 

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NICO O’CONNOR | Choreographer, Guys & Dolls

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Nico O'Connor is a bay area native with over 20 years of dancing, teaching,
and choreography experience. He specializes in jazz funk and hip hop, with training in folklorico, salsa, contemporary, and ballet. Favorite theatre credits: Nutcracker (CA Ballet Academy), Chino in West Side Story, Fleance in The Macbeth Project (African American Shakespeare). Nico has
danced with Finger 11, NLT, Kat Graham, Jessica Sutta, Bad Bunny (Grammys), Pink (AMAs). Lead choreo for TV: Showtime’s House of Lies with Kristen Bell and Don Cheadle, China’s vocal competition show Heroes of Remix. Choreo for stage: Brian Justin Crum, Todrick Hall, Katya Zamolodchikova, and Latin artist Noelia. Other choreo credits: DCP Creative, Bloomingdale’s, Disney, Boeing, Chevrolet, RuPaul’s Drag Con, Equinox, DanceOn, DancePlug, Turning Stone Casino, and Choreographers Carnival Ball. Nico has taught all over the world and is currently on faculty at Millennium Dance Complex. He is signed to Go2Talent Agency LA. His passion for dance has allowed him to follow his dreams, achieve many goals, and share experiences and knowledge with others with the same passion. This is Nico’s musical theatre choreography debut.

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HANNAH RAYMOND | Production Stage Manager, Cabaret, HAIR 2023, Guys & Dolls

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Hannah Raymond is a Texas native who enjoys game nights with friends and a glass of wine. She is an avid reader and baker, her current obsession has been sourdough bread. She believes there is power in storytelling and lives for the moments after shows when the audience is alive with conversation. Hannah previously stage managed Cabaret and Hair at Altadena Music Theatre, The lifespan of a Fact at Fountain Theater, Jersey Boys with Plan B Entertainment, SpongeBob The Musical and Legally Blonde The Musical at Firehouse Theatre. Shoutout to her husband, Braden, for always supporting her in everything she does. Insta @bananaslaymond 

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