Meet the Dukes!

You may vote for any of the Duke by hitting the VOTE NOW button.

It will first ask for amount, then you proceed to choose your Duke.

Matt All

Matt All is a fifth-generation native Kansan. Raised in Augusta, Kansas, he received his bachelor’s degree from the University of Kansas and his law degree from Yale Law School. After working in private legal practice in Kansas City and Lawrence, he spent eight years in state government—first as Assistant Insurance Commissioner, and then as Chief Counsel to Governor Kathleen Sebelius. He left state government in 2007 to work at Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Kansas. Today, he serves as BCBSKS’s Senior Vice President and General Counsel.
Matt is also actively involved in the community. He has served on many community boards. Since 2002, he has been a lecturer at the University of Kansas School of Law. From 2007 until 2010, he was the Governor’s appointee and chairman of the Kansas Lottery Gaming Facility Review Board. He has also coached little league baseball and soccer in Lawrence.
Matt lives in Lawrence his wife and five children. He used to sing extensively, in music theater productions throughout high school and college, in KU’s Chamber Choir, in the Topeka Festival Singers, in weddings (not his own), funerals (definitely not his own), and other significant life events, and at karaoke bars across the nation. In recent years, however, he has sung exclusively in the shower. In fact, this will be the first time in eight years that he has sung both dry and fully clothed. So if he appears to be lathering himself during the performance, just go with it.

Michael Dieker

Michael Dieker is an actor, singer, songwriter, father to a beagle/pointer named Monkey, runner, and also the Recruitment and Retention Specialist at Community Living Opportunities. He’s been singing and acting for as long as he can remember, with his first role being his one man version of Mary Poppins, which he starred in at age three until his parents eventually hid the VHS as well as his umbrella. He has performed in many Theatre Lawrence productions over the past ten years, most recently being seen as Prince Eric in The Little Mermaid. Other notable roles include Seymour in last year's Little Shop of Horrors, Prince Christopher in Cinderella, and Dennis in All Shook Up. In 2012 he staged an original musical at the Lawrence Arts Center as part of a new play festival, and he is currently working on another. In addition to performing at TL and other local theatres, Michael enjoys singing and playing guitar at open mic nights and intimate gatherings of friends and dogs.

 

 

 

Jason Edmonds

Jason Edmonds is a founder and partner in Edmonds Duncan Registered Investment Advisors. He and his wife Machaela are 1991 graduates of the University of Kansas, where they met during rehearsals for Rock Chalk Review. A 3rd generation Lawrence native, Jason was active in music and theater at Central Junior High and Lawrence High School and was a member of the KU Jazz Singers. Jason is an active community volunteer, presently serving as Chair Elect of The Lawrence Chamber, and as a Trustee of Bishop Seabury Academy and the Corpus Christi Catholic Church Foundation. He is a past Board Chair of the The Lawrence Arts Center, Friends of the Lied Center, the Lawrence Convention and Visitors Bureau, and the Douglas County Estate Planning Council, and has served as a board member of VanGo, Leadership Lawrence and Bert Nash CMHC. Jason and Machaela have 3 children who are each considerably more musically talented than their father.

 

 

 

Patrick Kelly

Patrick Kelly is a father, step-father, husband, amateur basketball player, juggler, balloon-animal expert, video gamer, community volunteer, and in his spare time, the Director of Career and Technical Education for the Lawrence Public Schools. He is the 2015 Champion of the Inept Fantasy Football League. He grew up with Snoop Dogg in Long Beach, California and is a graduate of the University of Kansas, where he sang with KU Jazz Singers. He also has performed at Theatre Lawrence, Helen Hocker Theater, Crown Center, Washburn University, Topeka Civic Theatre, The Lawrence Arts Center, McKerrs Theatre Pub, USD 497 Foundation Follies, and around the piano with his extended family. #ineversaidyes

 

 

 

 

 

Curtis Marsh

Curtis Marsh is a twenty year employee of the University of Kansas. Five years in technology transfer with the Office of Research, five years with Continuing Education, where he helped create the Osher Lifelong Learning Institute, and most recently, ten years as Director of KU Info while teaching courses in Leadership Studies. His love for KU and the Lawrence community is often expressed through his work with the Lawrence Rotary Club and Leadership Lawrence. Curtis came to KU on a small vocal music scholarship and played trumpet with the KU Marching Jayhawks. He has enjoyed lead roles in three Theatre Lawrence productions: Something’s Afoot, Forever Plaid and Kiss Me Kate. His true love is his family: wife Rochelle and sons Conner and Carson.

 

 

 

 

 

John J. Monaghan Jr.

John J. Monaghan, Jr. is a retired Human Resource Executive with both domestic and international experience in Hospitality and Retail. He has been singing since he was seven years old. He has been a member of the Savio’s Boys Choir, the Piarist Boys Chorale, and the Canisius High School Glee Club in Buffalo, New York, and the Naperville Men’s Glee Club in Naperville, Illinois. He has appeared on stage in various dramatic and musical productions such as HMS Pinnafore, Hamlet, Everyman, Guys and Dolls, and The Boys From Syracuse with Buffalo, NY area University and Community Theater ensembles and in Oklahoma, Man of La Mancha, George M., Fiddler On The Roof, and Guys and Dolls with The Dee-Jay Players, a professional dinner theater troupe which performed at One M&T Plaza in Buffalo, New York. Most recently John came out of “retirement” in 2000 to perform in the LCT production of Big River.

 

 

 

 

Dennis Tyner

Dennis grew up in Boston, MA and earned his BS, MS and PhD degrees in electrical engineering from Northwest University. While pursuing his degrees he was employed by GTE as a member of the Radio Products Group of their Communication Systems division. He was a part of a team that developed the secure communications radios for the aircraft carrier USS Enterprise and the Nasa Space Shuttle. He spent 14 years as faculty of Norwich University and served as textbook reviewer for Prentice Hall and authored two solutions manuals for electric circuits textbooks. In addition to Theatre Lawrence, he has enjoyed performing in shows with OU Theatre, ACT Ottawa, BCCC, and the Lawrence Arts Center and he has more than 37 years experience as a DJ. Dennis recently transitioned to his new position as Dean of Applied Sciences at Ottawa University. and he enjoys serving as a Board member for the Ottawa Chamber of Commerce and for ACT Ottawa. He lives in Ottawa, KS with his beautiful wife, Patricia, and three of their eight children. In their spare time, he and his family are avid followers of the Boston Red Sox, the New England Patriots, and the Boston Bruins. They enjoy music, sports, traveling, and are particularly competitive with each other when playing board games and Rock Band.

Doug Weaver

Doug is a teacher, director, actor, writer, stage combat choreographer, golfer, avid reader, and lead singer for the band “Buried at Sea.” The Director of Theatrical Arts at Bishop Seabury Academy and previous Phoenix Award winner, he has directed many shows here at Theatre Lawrence – among them Shrek, Shout, Dixie Swim Club, Moonlight and Magnolias and Seussical the Musical. He is currently directing Theatre Lawrence's Girls' Weekend. Some of Doug’s favorite roles as an actor include the big three of Shakespearean clowns: Falstaff, Bottom and Sir Toby Belch, along with Edna in Hairspray. He is married to professional actress Cheryl Weaver, and the father of local film maker Ian Weaver.

 

 

 

 

 

 

2015 Diva: Teresa Kempf

Teresa Mulinazzi Kempf has worked in the financial services industry since graduating, in 1991, from the University of Kansas with a BS Degree in Business Administration. She is currently a Certified Financial Planner with Ameriprise Financial Services, Inc. When she's not researching Sharpe ratios and Betas of investment portfolios, she has been known to annoy her family while singing spontaneously in the car or in public. Her other notable claims to fame are LHS Summer Showtime 1985 and the KU Marching Band Tuba Bash Queen Runner-Up in 1987.

 

 

 

 

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