The artists behind The Porch on Windy Hill bring together storytelling, music, and performance to create a powerful theatrical experience. Meet the performers and creators who bring the production to life.
The artists behind The Porch on Windy Hill bring together storytelling, music, and performance to create a powerful theatrical experience. Meet the performers and creators who bring the production to life.
SHERRY STREGACK LUTKEN (Co-writer/ Director) directed the world premiere of The Porch on Windy Hill at the Ivoryton Playhouse. Her Off-Broadway and regional directing and choreography credits include The Bourgeois Gentleman, The Million Dollar Quartet, Almost Heaven, Hank Williams: Lost Highway, Stand By Your Man, Stars in Your Eyes, Pump Boys and Dinettes, Hopscotch, and Anything Goes. In 2009, she directed the first regional theater production of Ring of Fire: The Music of Johnny Cash at North Carolina’s Flat Rock Playhouse, and has since staged many productions of the show across the U.S. and abroad, including at Vienna’s English Theatre and Munich’s Deutsches Theater. As Associate Director of Woody Sez: The Life and Music of Woody Guthrie, she has set productions in Chicago (Joseph Jefferson Award nomination), Washington D.C. (Helen Hayes Award nomination), Florida, Pennsylvania, and the show’s first national U.K. tour.
LISA HELMI JOHANSON (Co-writer) is a multi-hyphenate who has a passion for developing new works and pursuing intentionality in representation to further the work of racial justice and social equity. Broadway: POTUS Select Off-Broadway/NYC: DRAG: The Musical, Avenue Q, Einstein’s Dreams (OC), The Drowning Girls, Rescue Rue (OC). Tours: Fiasco’s Into the Woods, Avenue Q. Select Regional: Anything Goes (Arena Stage), Vietgone (Denver Center), The Chinese Lady (Milwaukee Rep; Best Actress award — Milwaukee Broadwayworld), Amadeus (Syracuse Stage), Once (Cape Playhouse), Waterfall (5th Avenue Theatre & Pasadena Playhouse), A Christmas Carol (McCarter Theatre), 4,000 Miles (St. Louis Rep.). Film/TV: “Law & Order,” “A Holiday Spectacular” (Hallmark Channel), “Law & Order: SVU.” As a playwright, Lisa has co-written Kim Loo Gets a Redo, The Porch on Windy Hill, and was a semi-finalist with the O’Neill Musical Theater Conference with a new musical in development called Zitkala Sa’s Astonishing Wild West with collaborator Lizzie Hagstedt. Also in development with collaborator Drayton Alexander is: Aygo, Jinja / Oh my God, Really? Lisa’s the mother to a charismatically chaotic toddler which is the most challenging role no one prepared her for but it’s the best one. Dedicated to Jake, the BTS superstar. Proud child of an immigrant.
@hurricanhelmi
MORGAN MORSE (Co-writer/ performer) is an actor, musician, and writer originally from Connecticut. Theatre credits include Southern Comfort (The Public Theater), Once (Cape Playhouse, Ivoryton Playhouse, Maltz Jupiter Theatre), Bright Star (Arrow Rock Lyceum), Hank Williams: Lost Highway (Ivoryton Playhouse), Almost Heaven: John Denver’s America (Weston Playhouse, Riverside Theatre), Hester Street (Theater J), and Ring of Fire (venues from Houston, TX to Vienna, Austria). In 2020, he began creating music and comedy content online, gaining a following on TikTok and Instagram (@themorsecoda on both). He also writes and performs original non-comedy music. More info at morganmorse.com
DAVID M. LUTKEN (Co-writer, performer, and music director) is an award-winning actor and musician whose Broadway credits include Inherit the Wind, Ring of Fire, The Civil War, and The Will Rogers Follies. He performed the role of The Balladeer in Benjamin Britten’s opera Paul Bunyan at Lincoln Center, and has appeared Off-Broadway in Woody Sez, Southern Comfort, Stars in Your Eyes, Winter Man, and The Portable Pioneer and Prairie Show. He has performed at Carnegie Hall, Cooper Union, 92nd Street Y, the Ryman Auditorium, and has been featured on “NPR,” “Voice of America,” “BBC,” “ORF” (Austria), “Polskie Radio Troika” (Warsaw), and “The Louisiana Hayride.” David devised the critically acclaimed Woody Sez: The Life & Music of Woody Guthrie, which has toured extensively throughout the U.S., the U.K., Europe, the Middle East, and China, earning numerous accolades including the Edinburgh Fringe Critic’s Pick, Brighton Festival Argus Angel Award (Best Musical), Joseph Jefferson and Helen Hayes Awards (Best Actor), and nominations from the London Evening Standard, Off-Broadway Alliance, Outer Critics Circle, and Drama League.
Lisa Dozier Shacket (Executive Producer) founded the theatrical general management firm LDK Productions in 2007. Select current/recent projects include Pen Pals, Mama I’m A Big Girl Now! (Drama Desk Nom), The Life and Slimes of Marc Summers, Anthony Rapp’s Without You (Outer Critics Circle Nom; Off Broadway, US Tour, Japan Tour), Be More Chill (Broadway, Off Broadway, West End, Japan), Not Ready for Prime Time, A Guide for the Homesick, Cellino v. Barnes, The Night of the Iguana (2023 revival), Eisenhower, Little Girl Blue, Katsura Sunshine’s Rakugo. Lisa served as the general manager of the National Alliance for Musical Theatre’s Festival of New Musicals for 11 years and was the founding producing director of the regional theatre, Miami New Drama. She is currently a professor of theatre management at the University of Florida. www.LDKProductions.com
Joe Trentacosta (Producer) is a New York–based producer and public relations executive with more than 25 years in the theatre industry. He is the founder of JT Public Relations and has produced and co-produced numerous Off-Broadway productions, including Pen Pals, Mama, I’m A Big Girl Now (Drama Desk Award nominee), and the upcoming musical Six Triple Eight. He serves as Executive Producer of Katsura Sunshine’s Rakugo, which has played New York and London. His projects have included The Life and Slimes of Marc Summers and Anthony Rapp’s Without You. Recent Projects include: The Gazillion Bubble Show, The House of McQueen. Theatre Companies include LaFemme Theatre Productions, Houses on the Moon, Urban Stages, NJ Rep. Argyle Theatre and Royal Family Theatre.