Our Team
Colleen Francis
Music and Lyrics
Colleen Francis is a multi-genre songwriter, producer, and performer based out of Nashville, TN. Colleen is a graduate of Belmont University with a degree in Audio Engineering and Music Business. She writes and records country and pop, and has worked with up-and-coming country artists such as Dani Stacy (The Voice), Sofie Lynn, and Macy Dot (Dolly Parton up-and-coming songwriter of the year). Colleen also works as a producer, recording demos and vocals for writers and artists alike in her home studio.
Colleen writes hip-hop and rap for TV and Film shows under the alias Franky C. She authentically combines hair-flipping vocals with hard-hitting beats and has landed larger than life placements on common shows like Selling Sunset, All-American, The 4400, The Young and the Restless, and Challengers. Her songs have been heard as advertisements for brands such as American Eagle, ESPN, Target, and the NFL films network.
Dandelion is her first foray as a composer into the world of musical theater.
Jessica Francis Fichter
Story and Book, Director
Jessica Francis Fichter is a South Carolina based director, playwright, and teaching artist. She has had the opportunity to work in South Carolina, North Carolina, New Jersey, and New York City in varying capacities. Jessica is the current Executive Director of Trustus Theatre in Columbia, SC, she is a SDC associate member, and has worked at Food of Love NYC, Flat Rock Playhouse, Ensemble Atria, The Edge Theatre, The Connelly Theater, The Tank, The Kraine Theatre, Townstages, ASDS Rep Theatre, Feinstein's/54Below, Chapin Theatre Company, and multiple private and public school educational settings as a teaching artist and director. Before moving to NYC, she served as the Artistic Director for Chapin Theatre Company. She is the founder/artistic director of the New York/Columbia, SC based, Evolving Door Theatre Company.
She is a proud acting finalist of the prestigious Actors Studio in NYC. She received an honorable mention for best direction of Pouf at SheFest NYC. She holds a MFA in directing from the Actors Studio Drama School, a B.A. in theatre education from Winthrop University, and a M.Ed in Divergent Learning from Columbia College. She has had the distinct honor of working with established acting coaches, Susan Aston and Jacqueline Knapp, and actors Irina Dnorovenko (American Ballet Theatre), Shaun J. Brown (True Blood), Emily Carding (Shakespeare’s Globe), Tashs Magigi (RSC), Nanya-Akuki Goodrich (The Public Theatre), and Broadway’s Miguel Perez, Janine DiVita, John Arthur Green, and Becky Gulsvig. Recent directing credits include: Twelfth Night: Welcome to Our Table (New York Shakespeare Best Comedy for 2020 award) Dandelion: A New Musical (Feinstein's/54 Below new musical series, NYMF finalist 2019), Shadows: A Dance Musical (AD to Tony Award Nominee, Joey McNeely), The Eleventh Hour (Townstages, Smugbug), If Women Rose Rooted (The Tank), John and Jen, Universe Without Him (Co-Lab), 1MPF (Mile Square), Road to Nirvana (ASDS), The Hallelujah Girls (CTC). She has published a YA novel, entitled Yellow Bird which can be purchased on Amazon.
Hailee Beltzhoover Zuniga
Story and Book, Additional Music and Lyrics
Hailee Beltzhoover Zuniga is an Atlanta based theatre artist and the concierge of the renowned Woodruff Arts Center, home to the Tony Award winning Alliance Theatre, Grammy Award winning Symphony Hall, and the High Museum of Art, the largest visual arts museum in the Southeast. She graduated from Winthrop University in Rock Hill, SC in 2019 with a Bachelors in Performance and has been heavily involved in the Atlanta theatre community since her relocation in 2022. Her most recent projects have been directing Sarah Ruhl's Eurydice with ACT1 Theatre and performing as Mal in Disney's Descendants at OnStage Atlanta.
Hailee would like to shoutout her husband, Dallas, for his relentless support and dedicates all of her success to her late father, David Beltzhoover, who continues to be her motivation in everything she does.
Sean Riehm
Book
Sean Riehm is a writer and actor currently based in New York City.
Originally from Columbia, SC, Sean is a graduate of Winthrop University, and has been featured in numerous productions across stage and screen. He co-wrote and performed in Circus, a theatrical fashion presentation in collaboration with the artists Rebecca Bailey and Taylor Lombardino, which debuted at Never Say Soft in February 2023. His screenplay, The Sunny Express, was a 2021 Semifinalist for the TITAN Awards, and remains in the top 19% of all discoverable scripts on Coverfly. He was formerly a Managing Editor and the Originals section editor for Cinésque, a digital culture magazine that celebrated life in the style of film.
Dandelion is his debut as a writer for musical theater.
Bill Zeffiro
Additional Music and Lyrics
Bill Zeffiro is the winner of seven Manhattan Association of Cabaret (MAC) Awards and the 2014 Midtown International Theatre Festival award for Outstanding Cabaret Performance. In 2012 and 2013 he was honored by MAC for Best Special Material Song. He also received the MAC for Piano Bar/ Singing Instrumentalist four years in a row. Appearances include the Café Carlyle, Town Hall, The Oak Room at the Algonquin Hotel and Lincoln Center.
He played Richard Nixon at the York Theatre in the Musical Drama ‘Jack’ for which he has also composed additional music. His play “Frame 313” aka ‘The Backseat Of The Lincoln’ was produced by Ensemble Atria in the Midtown International Theater Festival and his songs have been recorded and performed by Tony Award Winner George S. Irving, along with Emily Bergl, Ann Morrison, Terese Genecco, and Marissa Mulder. Bill wrote book, music, and lyrics for The Road To Ruin which played the York Theatre and was directed by Broadway legend Pat Birch. It was also on the Talkin’ Broadway Top Ten Best Cast Albums.
His CD “Better Than Nothing” a collection of his original songs was just released. He is completing book, music lyrics on his new musical ‘Mommie Deadest” and composing a one act opera. He appears regularly playing and singing at La Rivista in Manhattan. He is regarded as an expert on the music of Kay Swift, and produced the legendary Merkin Hall concert in 1986. Other writing projects include scripts for USA Television Network’s UP ALL NIGHT.
Steven Gross
Orchestrations
Steven has worked on Broadway, Off-Broadway, the West End and internationally as a music director, conductor, pianist, sub and vacation conductor. He is a Lortel Award nominee for Best Musical for his adaption of The Pirates of Penzance at the South Street Seaport. He has conducted the European premieres of The Life, Urinetown, Falsettos, Beehive, Forever Plaid, Closer Than Ever, Flora the Red Menace and other works. He also works extensively as a classical conductor and has appeared with many national and international opera companies, symphony orchestras and festivals. He is as an orchestrator and arranger for many symphony orchestras, theatrical, digital and online productions. His musical Nijinsky has been performed in Berlin, Zurich and Monte Carlo.
Steven has collaborated on new musicals with Award-winning composers and lyricists including Benny Andersson & Bjorn Ulvaeus, Sam Carner & Derek Gregor, Douglas Cohen and Zoe Samuel, Cy Coleman, David Friedman, Zina Goldrich & Marcy Heisler, Mark Hollmann & Greg Kotis, Brett Macias, Lauren Taslitz & Danny Ursetti. Steven holds a Doctor of Musical Arts in Conducting from Yale University and is a Fulbright and Rotary Scholar. He has extensive experience working in academia as a clinician, guest artist and professor. He is currently the program head of The Abbott MFA in Musical Theater Collaboration Program at Temple University.