Guest Artist - Joan Hess

Joan Hess most recently had the great fortune to play the plum role of Billie Dawn in Garson Kanin's classic play Born Yesterday. Prior to that she was featured on Broadway in Dirty Rotten Scoundrels as Sophia , where she also understudied the lead roles of Christine and Muriel. She appeared at Lincoln Center in the lead role in the powerful new Lynn Ahrens/Stephen Flaherty piece, Dessa Rose, directed by the 10 time Tony Award nominee, Graciela Daniele. Her other Broadway credits include Bridgette in Bells are Ringing , where she understudied Faith Prince in the lead role, Edie and Hattie in Kiss Me Kate and Patsy in Crazy for You.

She appeared as Betty in the First National Tour of Sunset Boulevard, Polly in the First National Tour of Crazy for You, and toured with 42nd Street and Beehive, as well.

Regional theater audiences have enjoyed her in the title role in Gypsy at the Repertory Theatre of St. Louis and Cincinnati Playhouse in the Park, as Picasso’s first love, Fernande Olivier, in the World Premier of La Vie en Bleu, at Philadelphia’s Walnut Street Theater, as Ann in The 1940's Radio Hour for which she received a Best Actress Nomination, in the lead role of Maddy in the Australian import Hot Shoe Shuffle, Lilly McBain in Swingtime Canteen, Irene Molloy in Hello Dolly with Avery Schreiber, Peggy in The Taffetas, Irene in Crazy for You, Grand Hotel, Closer than Ever, Sweet Charity, and the lead role in the World Premiere of Noel Coward and Jeffry Hatcher's Bon Voyage at the Denver Center for the Performing Arts, among others. Her Non-Musical Regional credits would include the plays Steel Magnolias (Shelby), Six Characters in Search of an Author (the Actress), The Dining Room (Second Actress), and Shakespeare's The Winter's Tale in the lead role of Queen Hermione.

Ms Hess was featured in the PBS Great Performances series My Favorite Broadway: The Love Songs, hosted by Julie Andrews. She has performed with many symphonies across the country from the Detroit Symphony, North Carolina Symphony and the Des Moines Symphony to the Pacific Symphony and the Florida Sunshine Pops in Boca Raton. In 2002, she had the privilege of singing for the World Economic Forum following Mayor Bloomberg's address.

Last summer, Joan served as script supervisor on the independent short film entitled Down in the Mouth. She also hosted and produced live television for three seasons, acted in over thirty commercials, modeled for years and is a Colorado native. She is blissfully married to actor and powerhouse tenor, David Hess, with whom she recently toured South Africa, England and Italy for the Travel Channel’s Fantasy Rails for Millionaires.