MADE IN ROCKFORD. JUST FOR YOU. JUST FOR THIS HOLIDAY SEASON.

J. R. Sullivan has presented his popular Hometown Holiday show in downtown Rockford just about every year since 1994. A hometown director and producer with a national career, he is best remembered locally as the founder and producing director of the New American Theater (NAT), which began above Charlotte’s Web on First Avenue in 1972. He led NAT through 1994 - two years above the Web, a bridge season at the Rockford Women’s Club Theatre and a decade in the “Old Limestone Building” on South Main Street - then ultimately to its 1986 opening in what is now The Nordlof Center. The stage there, named the Sullivan Stage in his honor, remains a testament to his legacy. From 2009–2013, Jim was Artistic Director of the Pearl Theatre in New York City, whose resident company won the 2011 Drama Desk Award. His Pearl credits include Hard Times, Playboy of the Western World, Widowers’ Houses, Biography, Richard II, A Moon for the Misbegotten, and Wittenberg. He later directed an acclaimed Off-Broadway revival of Lillian Hellman’s Days to Come for the Mint Theatre Company. Earlier, Jim served as Associate Artistic Director of the Utah Shakespeare Festival (2002–2009). His Chicago production of Brian Friel’s Faith Healer had extended runs with Turnaround Theatre and at Steppenwolf. From 2018–2022, he was Interim Artistic Director of the Irish Theatre of Chicago, and in 2022 directed the premiere of the new musical Parcel from America in Dublin—slated for an Off-Broadway debut in 2026.

E. Faye Butler's career spans over 40 years in the entertainment industry. Faye performs in concert halls, club venues, cabarets and theatres across the country and internationally. A Rockford native and graduate of Auburn High School’s arts academy – not to mention her school years membership in New American Theater’s Young American Theater program – Faye has gone on to a career that has included appearances at The Kennedy Center, all the major Chicago theaters, ON-Broadway, and National Tours of such shows as Mamma Mia, Ain’t Misbehavin’, Dinah Was, Nunsense, and Nunsense II. E. Faye travels the country with her cabaret shows and concert series, singing American standards, jazz, blues, R&B, gospel, and musical theatre. Faye is the recipient of twelve Joseph JeNerson Awards for her excellence in Chicago theatre, two Helen Hayes Awards, a R.A.M.I., the John Barrymore Award in Philadelphia, Ovation Award, Sarah Siddons Leading Lady Award, and many more, including the 2024 League of Chicago Theatres Lifetime Achievement Award. E. Faye was inducted into the Women in the Arts Museum in Washington D.C. and in 2021 named Chicagoan of the Year.

As keyboardist and vocalist, Shawn Wallace has served luminaries like Common, Ice Cube, Bobby Brown, Johnny Gill, Jon B., Erykah Badu and the illustrious cast of Hometown Holliday for the past 23 years!

A native of Chicago's Beverly/Morgan Park neighborhood, Shawn currently teaches Vocal Technique and Repertoire and Keyboard Fundamentals at the Chicago High School for the Arts (ChiArts).

Marcella Rose Sciotto is overjoyed to be once again joining Hometown Holiday. Most recently, Marcella shared the stage with Daniel Patrick Sullivan and his big brother Jim at a special Investors presentation of the new Irish holiday musical, Parcel from America. Marcella spent several years acting for the Utah Shakespeare Festival where favorite roles included her Miranda in The Tempest, Celia in As You Like It, and the title role in Peg o’ My Heart. Marcella resides in Medford, Oregon with her brilliant husband and two beautiful daughters.

Jeff Christian is honored to join Jim and the cast for another season of Hometown Holiday, and is especially proud of the sketches he’s written in which Danny Sullivan is forced to make impossibly fast costume changes. He acted in many productions at New American Theater in the 1990s and 2000s, directed Driving Miss Daisy and Proof for the company and has also acted with Artists Ensemble. When not gallivanting around his adopted hometown of Rockford, his film and television credits include Batman Begins, The Poker House, Witches’ Night, Chicago Fire, Chicago PD and Shameless.

Holland Zander has been manning the mic in the Greater Rockford Area since 1998. Having spent the better part of her teenage years as a local chorus girl in various theatrical productions on various stages, she was invited to be a vocalist in a pet project put together by Mulligan Stus Kevin Mulligan called The Martha Quinn experience. MQE wasnt just an 80s cover band but also an avenue for Holland to familiarize herself the local music scene. In 1999 she and a few friends put together a project called The Snaggs, which would occupy most of her time for the next half a decade. Holland has been featured on Cheap Tricks Silver (Time Will Let You Know), Mulligan Stus Rock and Roll Band, The Pimps Fisher Sessions, Super Fish Als Friend to Some, Hero to Many, Nicholas Gunns A Christmas Classic, and Harmony Rileys Time. She has also had the privilege of singing lead on John Bishoffs RAMI award winning Fear and Desire along with the beautiful Jinger Christal.

Local favorite Stephen F. Vrtol was a leading player in the New American Theater acting company from 1979-1995, featured in a wide range of roles from comic to dramatic, and in such musicals as Sunday in the Park with George, Little Shop of Horrors, and Guys and Dolls. He has been featured in many productions as a member of Artists’ Ensemble, including such favorites as Rounding Third, The Lion in Winter, and God of Carnage. Stephen works with Stepping Stones of Rockford where he leads and directs “Stars of Light.”

Daniel Patrick (Danny) Sullivan always has been known for his comedic abilities at home and at work. He began his professional career with the New American Theater 1983-1989 with many Hometown Holiday visits since them. Living in Chicago, he pursues TV, film and theater work as well as serving as a communications coach for several US and UK consulting firms.

Chris Walz’s passion in discovering the music he now plays came from listening as a boy to the radio - including the “Bluegrass Ramble” on WCNY in upstate New York. Radio being the window into a new musical landscape broadened the young Walz’s desires, passions and aptitudes, resulting in him becoming the respected and multi-dimensional artist he is today. During his youth, excited by hearing various programs from bluegrass to blues, it was one particular night that ignited Chris to figure out how to play fingerstyle guitar: he heard an entire show of Mississippi John Hurt music, and that was the genesis of Chris’s style. In his music, listeners hear strains of others of his favorite artists such as Blind Willie McTell, Stefan Grossman and John Renbourn. Chris’s resonant vocals, his intuitive prowess on the guitar as his sole accompaniment, and a selection of songs that Chris puts his own unique stamp on, culminates in how these artists have helped shape Chris while honoring them all.

Zoe Lopez, 18, was born and raised in Chicago, Illinois. She is a freshman at Rockford University, where she is pursuing her BFA in Musical Theatre and performs with the university’s Vocal Collective. A graduate of The Chicago High School for the Arts, Zoe recently collaborated with Collaboraction Theatre Company, performing her original music at Kidzapalooza. She recently appeared in Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat and is thrilled to make her debut at the Nordlof Center with the Sullivan Theatre.