Artistic Staff
Dennis Coleman
Artistic Director
Flying House Productions
Eric Lane Barnes
Assistant Artistic Director,
Flying House Productions
Director - Captain Smartypants,
Seattle Men’s Chorus
Rhonda Juliano
Assistant Conductor,
Seattle Women’s Chorus
Evan Stults
Principal Accompanist,
Seattle Men’s Chorus
Nancy Otness Bent
Principal Accompanist,
Seattle Women’s Chorus
Kevin G. Gallagher
ASL Interpreter,
Seattle Men’s Chorus
Jody Mayer
ASL Interpreter,
Seattle Women’s Chorus
Eric Lane Barnes
Assistant Artistic Director,
Flying House Productions
Director - Captain Smartypants,
Seattle Men’s Chorus
Member since 2000
Eric Lane Barnes is the author of the critically acclaimed Fairy Tales, which received numerous awards in Chicago, New York, and London. His scores and scripts for Chicago’s Lifeline Theatre include Tuck Everlasting, The Amazing Bone, Simple Jim and His Four Fabulous Friends, and Mike Mulligan and his Steam Shovel, the latter of which has toured the USA and has enjoyed many successful regional productions. His musical The Stops, a show about the lives of three lady organists, was awarded Best Musical at the 2006 National Gay and Lesbian Theatre Festival and opens at San Francisco’s New Conservatory Theatre in June of 2011. Eric’s most recent show Rapture of the Deep was written with the help of a grant from the City of Seattle Office of Arts and Cultural Affairs, and was the first show of Balagan Theatre’s current season.
Since their inception in 2000, Barnes’ ensemble Captain Smartypants has performed with Margaret Cho, Jennifer Holliday, Kristin Chenoweth, American Idol finalist Blake Lewis and many others. Captain Smartypants has toured the Northwest and beyond with their shows Sticks and Stones, Undercover, Trousers of Terror, PowerPants, Cirque du Slaque and Air Smarty. ‘Fruit of the Month Club’ and ‘Undercover,’ Smartypants’ two CDs, are available online through iTunes, CD Baby or flyinghouse.org. Their video performance of ‘Kislev Cowboys’ (aka ‘Brokeback Dreidel’) has received over half a million hits on YouTube since it posted in 2008. Their 10-year anniversary show ‘Captain Smartypants: the First 100 Years’ broke all previous Smartypants box office records in its run at Seattle’s Town Hall in May of 2010.
Barnes’ list of choral commissioners includes The Esoterics; The Gay Men’s Chorus of Washington DC; The New York City Gay Men’s Chorus; One Voice Charlotte; The Quire; Sound Circle; The Turtle Creek Chorale; and The Windy City Gay Chorus. Several of his pieces are published through Shawnee Press, including “Lambscapes” “It’s Our Christmas Cheer” and “Glee.”
Recently Eric wrote songs and underscoring for the independent films In-laws and Outlaws, Waxie Moon, Seattle to Ghana and the upcoming Fallen Jewel.
