Michael Berresse

Michael Berresse
Born	August 15, 1964 Holyoke, Massachusetts

Michael Berresse (born August 15, 1964) is an American actor, dancer, choreographer, and director. The son of artist and author Cynthia Berresse Ploski, he has appeared on Broadway in many shows including: Kiss Me, Kate, Chicago, Fiddler on the Roof, Carousel and Damn Yankees, and The Light in the Piazza as Giuseppe Naccarelli. Berresse was recently seen on Broadway as Zach in the revival of the musical A Chorus Line and more recently in an L.A. production of Jason Robert Brown's "Parade" at the Mark Taper Forum.

Reared primarily in Chicago, Berresse's father was an engineer and his mother was an artist and writer. In the early 80's, he deferred his admission to college to accept a job dancing at a Walt Disney World theme park in Orlando, Florida. That fall, he was offered a year-long contract with Disney and accepted it, putting off college indefinitely. He spent several years touring with Disney, dancing in shows around the world. In 1992, he appeared on Star Search in a dance group called "The Boys Back East", winning the title of Best New Dance Group and a shared prize of $100,000. In 1996, he appeared in the sixth annual Broadway Bares, a show put on by Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS to raise money to support AIDS research.

He was the director and choreographer of the Broadway musical, [title of show] for which he was nominated for a Lucille Lortel Award and a recipient of off-Broadway's Obie Award. He reprised his duties for the Broadway mounting of the show, which starred and was co-created by his partner Jeff Bowen.^[1]

Berresse made his film debut as the Stage Manager in Spielberg's A.I. Artificial Intelligence, but most recently played an assassin in State of Play, directed by Kevin Macdonald and starring Russell Crowe, which opened in theaters on April 17, 2009. He also appears as himself in the documentary film Every Little Step, which follows the casting process of the production of A Chorus Line in which he starred. At a Broadway talk-back event in 2009, Berresse discussed his interest in focusing more on directing, but did not discuss details of any imminent projects. While working on "Parade", Berresse gave an interview in October 2009 in which he revealed that a permanent relocation to L.A. "isn't out of the question" given that the TV show that he and collaborators have pitched to ABC takes off.^[2]

Berresse plays the cello, saxophone and piano and is of French descent. In the program for the London run of Kiss Me Kate, which ran from October 2001 to August 2002, Michael revealed that he has accidentally "tumbled into the orchestra pit" on two separate occasions while working on two separate shows.^{[citation needed]} He resides in Brooklyn, New York.

References

1. ^ Portantiere, Michael (17 October 2008), Review of "All My Sons" and saying goodbye to "[title of show"], http://www.afterelton.com/blog/michaelportantiere/blogging-broadway-all-my-son-title-of-show, retrieved 5 December 2008 
2. ^ http://205.209.52.72/x-4402-LA-Stage-Scene-Examiner~y2009m10d6-Berresse-back-on-the-boards

External links

• Michael Berresse at the Internet Movie Database

Persondata
Name	Berresse, Michael
Alternative names
Short description
Date of birth	August 15, 1964
Place of birth	Holyoke, Massachusetts
Date of death
Place of death