The SpongeBob Musical: Youth Edition

DIRECTOR

Moses is a director and choreographer raised in Schenectady, where his love for storytelling was first sparked and nurtured by the late Bill Ziskin. Convinced early on that no other career could bring him the same personal fulfillment as the theatre, he committed himself to the arts. He went on to earn a B.A. in Theatre Arts from SUNY New Paltz in 2020, followed by an M.A. in Teaching from Clarkson University in 2024 (through its Siena College-based program).

Throughout his career, Moses has collaborated with several local theatre and film companies including Ursidae Parade, Proctors, and R’Ville Stage Creations, and has performed in over a dozen different roles.

Drawing on four years of experience teaching adolescents across various grade levels, Moses has developed a passion for education and currently serves as a theatre teacher in the Schenectady City School District. In this role, he loves helping his students navigate both the beauty and the challenges of growing up through the transformative power of storytelling. He firmly believes that acting is an extension of life, and that portraying life honestly on stage offers invaluable, lasting lessons for young minds.

As a director and choreographer, Moses past works include Once Upon A Mattress, School of Rock, The Phantom Tollbooth, Snowey Whitey, and Man In White, with additional stage credits on productions of Project Dance (Choreographer), Our Kingdom Come (Creative Director), Little Shop of Horrors (Choreographer), and The Addams Family (Assistant Director).

As an actor, he has been seen at Proctors in RENT (Benjamin Coffin lll), SUNY’s Love Labour’s Lost (King), Henry V, Servant of Two Masters (Porter), Into the Woods (Milky White), and at BRTC in To Kill A Mockingbird (Reverend), Freckleface Strawberry (Danny), and By The Way, Meet Very Stark (Leroy Barksdale/Herb Forrester).

This production marks debut with Fort Salem. He is absolutely thrilled to spend this summer living in the silliest pineapple under the sea!

MUSIC DIRECTOR

Benjamin make his his Fort Salem Theater debut with this production of The Spongebob Musical. He is a music teacher in Saratoga Springs and an active music director throughout the region. His recent credits include music directing "Newsies" and "Frozen," and his work has also been seen with Spa City Theatre and Saratoga Children’s Theatre, including productions of "Alice by Heart" and "The Theory of Relativity," among many others. Onstage, he recently appeared in "First Date" at SLOC, where he also understudied both The Waiter and Man 2.

CHOREOGRAPHER

SHE/HER | Susi made her professional debut at the age of 12 at Ashcroft Theater in the UK. She then went on to earn her BA in Dance from the University of Surrey, where she worked as a professional dancer and choreographer. Later, Susi set up her own Dance and Theatre company, Charlie's Works, in London and was always kept busy with product launches, fashion shows and reviews for renowned companies such as Tommy Hilfiger and British Airways. Since her arrival in the States she has choreographed and produced shows for the likes of Adirondack Childrens Troupe, Salem Central School, Salem Courthouse, Fort Salem Theater, Queensbury High School, Dorset Players, Long Trail School (Dorset Vermont) and Broadway Upstate (Glens Falls, NY).

In Salem, Susi is an active member of the Chamber of Commerce, and creator of The Susi Shoes Dancers, who are made up of a diverse crowd of enthusiasts who dance and perform for community events, whose goal is to touch the lives of young people and to get shoes and any necessary items gently and gracefully on the right hands and feet, and to always ensure that youth who cross their path stand tall with confidence and pride.

RESIDENT SCENIC DESIGNER

HE/HIM | Charles/Chuck is a well-rounded artist with experience in creative writing, HDR photography, graphic design and 3D rendering, improvisational piano, original song composition and scenic design for theater. While attending Southern Vermont College 2001-2005 (bachelor’s in liberal arts) he worked summers at Old Castle Theater in Bennington, VT (2000 to 2005) where he learned, by observation, the creative nuances of set design as he worked as a stagehand. Charles is currently the Resident Scenic Designer and an Artistic Associate for Fort Salem Theater where, in October 2021, he debuted a design for The Diary of Anne Frank. In the 2022 season, he went on to design: Little Shop of Horrors, Steel Magnolias, Pride and Prejudice, Grease, The Wizard of Oz: Youth Edition, Bright Star, I Love You Because, Spring Awakening, You’re A Good Man, Charlie Brown, Footloose,  The Little Mermaid Jr., The Pirates of Penzance, The Rocky Horror Slow, and A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Into the Woods, Beethoven, Godspell, Mary Poppins, The Drowsy Chaperone, Kinky Boots, and Tick, Tick…Boom!, along with designing Grant’s Ghost for Hubbard Hall on the side. Charles has also directed Shakespeare’s Titus Andronicus in 2004 at his then-former High School, and The Glass Menagerie at Southern Vermont College in 2009.

Prior to his work at Fort Salem Theater, Charles has over eight years of set design experience, artistic/stage directing, assistant directing and serving as a theatrical creative-solutions consultant (for a local high school drama club). Shows he has designed there include: The Diary of Anne Frank (2007), Once Upon a Mattress, Rumors, The Importance of Being Earnest, Beauty and the Beast, Into the Woods, Twelve Angry Jurors, Dirty Rotten Scoundrels, And Then There Were None, The Sound of Music, Noises Off, Shrek the Musical, and ended his run there with The Mousetrap (2015).

After taking some time away from theatrical design Charles feels truly thankful and honored to reignite his passion for design at Fort Salem Theater and is very honored to have helped design Grant’s Ghost for Hubbard Hall.