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Open Road Productions is an Olympia, Washington based production company, dedicated to production and marketing of original theatrical and audio drama works.  Partner artists include:

Andrew Gordon

Principal, Creative Partner

Adapter, co-lyricist, The Wind in the Willows; co-director, The Wind in the Willows Audio Adaptation; Playwright, Murder of the Year, Murder Most Fowl, Till Murder do us Part, A Murder for Old Time’s Sake, Murder Beyond the Stars (with Amy Shephard).

Andrew is an Olympia, Washington based playwright, director and actor.  Other works include A Song for Amy and Here we go a-Wassailing (with Michael Butterworth).  Andrew is a member of the Dramatists Guild of America.

Amy Shepard

Creative Partner, Choreographer, Marketing and Outreach

Voice Talent, Wind in the Willows Audio Adaptation. Actor, Murder of the Year, Murder Most Fowl, A Murder for Old Time’s Sake. Co-playwright, Murder Beyond the Stars. Playwright, 13 lives. 

Amy has worked as a professional actor, playwright and educator since 2005.  She is a founding company member of the Open Road Murder Mysteries Players and now serves as choreographer, as well as a playwright and marketing and outreach assistant.  Amy is based in Olympia Washington, where she regularly performs with professional theater companies including Harlequin Productions, Olympia Family Theater and Animal Fire Theater.  In addition to acting and playwriting, Amy also serves as an educator for Olympia Family Theater, teaching the performing arts to children between the ages of 6-14.  She is a proud member of the Tiffany Talent agency since 2014.

Miriam Sterlin

Creative Partner

Composer & Lyricist,  Cinder Edna

Miriam has a long history of composing music and performing in music and theatre for children and adults. She has been writing stories and songs since childhood; as an adult she starred in The Evergreen State College’s production of Kurt Vonnegut’s Fortitude, composed songs for two albums worth of children’s music, and is currently one of two music directors for the Community for Interfaith Celebration in Olympia, WA. Cinder Edna is her first foray into writing and composing for a children’s musical. She performs locally and plans to continue writing and recording music alongside writing for Cinder Edna, volunteering as a child advocate, and raising a family.

Ted Ryle

Creative Partner

Book, music and lyrics, Cinder Edna 

Ted has been involved in theater and performing arts since the late 80’s when he travelled to the Soviet Union as part of a musical review group committed to building bridges with the Soviet people at the height of Peristoika.  He also has a passionate interest in the power of interactive theater such as Theater of the Oppressed and Playback.  He was the founding board president of Olympia Family Theater and has been involved in each of OFT’s seasons as a performer, director or stage manager.  Cinder Edna is his first work as a playwright/composer/lyricist, but is the product of many years of love for the work, having first read it to his daughters over 15 years ago.

John Manini

John has spent the last 20 years working to dispel the “angry sound guy” image ingrained in our culture. His tastes run the gamut; he ran “Speed Limit 35”, a punk venue out of his living room in Olympia, WA., worked with A-list celebrities and C-Level executives, and once found himself in the unfortunate position of being caught between a bathroom and a full-bladdered Steven Tyler, whom he considers neither a punk nor an A-list celebrity. This earned him a yelling.

John’s work has led him into the realm of video and event production and he enjoys solving problems and prefers being thought of as a Swiss Army knife as opposed to a Renaissance Man.

John came to be a part of Open Road Productions when he was snookered into recording and mastering The Wind in the Willows Audio Adaptation by a fiendishly clever Andy Gordon, whose grip to this day John cannot escape.

John continues to work around the Pacific Northwest as a freelance A/V guy and on the rare occasions he wears pants, he is flying by their seat.

Jenny Heddin

Production Director

Jenny Heddin has been involved in all aspects of theater, on and off the stage, since 1992.

In addition to directing the Open Road Murder Mysteries A Murder for Old Time’s Sake, Murder Most Fowl and Till Murder do us Part, she directed Charlotte’s Web, A Year with Frog and Toad, and The Wind in the Willows for Olympia Family Theater, and Julius Caesar for Animal Fire Theatre.  Technical and acting credits include The Tempest, Blood Relations, James and the Giant Peach, Reefer Madness, Murder in the Cathederal, and Sylvia.

Scot Whitney

Creative Partner

Lyricist, Murder Most Fowl, Till Murder do us Part, A Murder for Old Time’s Sake

Scot was the artistic director of Harlequin Productions, and the accomplished director of numerous stage productions (over 80 at last count.)

Scot is also the acclaimed lyricist of A Rock ‘n’ Roll Twelfth Night and The Incredible Undersea Trial Of Joseph P. Lawnboy. Many thanks to Scot and Bruce for allowing Open Road Productions to borrow songs from A Rock ‘n’ Roll Twelfth Night for our murder mysteries (really, we did ask first!)

Bruce Whitney

Creative Partner

Music, co-lyricist, The Wind in the Willows, The Wind in the Willows Audio Adaptation; Music, Murder Most Fowl, Till Murder do us Part, A Murder for Old Time’s Sake.

Bruce has been writing music for theater since 1988. He has written scores and songs for three musicals – The Wind in the Willows, A Rock ‘n’ Roll Twelfth Night (songs from which are used in Murder Most Fowl, Till Murder do us Part and A Murder for Old Time’s Sake), and The Incredible Undersea Trial Of Joseph P. Lawnboy. He has also written numerous scores and songs for other plays, including Waiting For Godot, Cyrano de Bergerac, Hamlet, Macbeth, Elephant Man, and Long Day’s Journey Into Night.

Daven Tillinghast

Creative Partner, Music Director

Lyricist,The Wind in the Willows, The Wind in the Willows Audio Adaptation, Lyricist/Composer, Murder of the Year.

Daven earned a BA in Creative Writing at Western Washington University and was a fixture on the jazz scene in Bellingham, Washington before moving to Olympia in 2006. Since then he has performed with a long list of local acts, including: The Johnny Lewis Band, The Lakewood Community Jazz Band, Steve Munger, Jessica Blinn, Vince Brown, The Northern Lights Orchestra, Brad Schrandt, The Olympia Jazz Tentet, Go Go Typhoon 7, Audiosattva, Hover Conversion Kit, Windham Hill recording artist Scott Cossu, and as lead guitar in the house band for Harlequin Productions.  You can listen to some of Daven’s music on his Soundcloud page.

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