Bill VanSant Biography

Bill VanSant made his stage debut in the chorus of "The Music Man" at age 6 in 1968. In the three-plus decades since, he has appeared as an actor on many New Jersey community theatre stages (including Plays-in-the-Park, Chatham Community Players and The Villagers), as well as professionally: Off-Off Broadway in "The Pretender," in regional theatre in "1776,' in the film "Turk 182," on Staten Island Cable as Pontius Pilate in "The Way," and singing the role of Bernardo in "'West Side Story' in Concert" at Liberty State Park. Here at home, his favorite work include Tito in "Lend Me a Tenor," the chorus in "Annie," Barnaby in "Hello, Dolly!," and Jasper in "Drood."

Having co-founded Carnival Productions in 1989 with Wendy Cinquanta, Bill has served in every performance, production, technical and administrative capacity, with the exception of sound design, otherwise known as "Wendy's Realm," and musical director.

As a director, his credits outside Carnival are "The Sound of Music" (Avy Award nomination), "The Yeomen of the Guard," "A Shayna Maidel" for Creative Voices Theatre Company in NYC, and "Ten Little Indians;" his choreography for "Scrambled Feet" at Studio Players also earned him an Avy nomination.

For Carnival Productions, Bill has staged the company's three musical revues, "Rumors," "The Lion in Winter" (A.C.T. Award), "Godspell" (A.C.T. Nomination), "Bell, Book and Candle," "Murder at the Vicarage," "The Fantasticks" (T.E.A.M. Award nomination, "All My Sons" (T.E.A.M. nomination), "A Shayna Maidel" (Perry Award nomination), "Veronica's Room," "A Voice of My Own" (Perry nomination), "Dangerous Corner.", and 'Suddenly Last Summer,' his all-time favorite project

Carnival audiences have seen Bill in "From Broadway … With Love!," "Broadway & Beyond," and as Ken Gorman in "Rumors," Leo in "Only You" (T.E.A.M. nomination, Featured Actor in a Play) and, his personal favorite, Chris Keller in "All My Sons" (T.E.A.M. nomination, Lead Actor in a Play). In addition, he has "gone on" as an understudy in "Café d'Amour" and "Godspell."

Bill was trained at Union College, HB Studios, the Acting Studio, the American Musical & Dramatic Academy in NYC (where he met Ms. Cinquantat) and at various dance studios in the NY/NJ area. He has studied voice with Anna Foti Ciano, Tom Head and Eileen Schauler of NYCO.

A lifelong Rahway resident, Bill is also the "co-founder" of Tori and Reid. By day, he is the Arts & Entertainment Editor for Worrall Community Newspapers, for which he has been honored with three New Jersey Press Association Awards.