Meet the grown up cast members of Oliver!

If you think you’ve seen Robert Rossman (Fagin) before but you can’t quite place where, it might be because he once was a street performer of mime and pantomime in San Francisco, Portland, and Los Angeles back in the late 1970s. It’s more likely, however, that you’ve seen him right here on the Willows Theatre stage in such productions as our award-winning 1776 (Benjamin Franklin), Jekyll & Hyde (Sir Danvers Carew), or Here’s Love (Kris Kringle).

Mr. Rossman’s regional acting credits include the TheatreWorks productions of Ragtime (J.P. Morgan) and You Can’t Take It With You (Mr. Kirby), and he has also appeared throughout the Bay Area in such shows as Damn Yankees (Mr. Applegate), Fiddler on the Roof (Tevye), Oliver! (Fagin), Lend Me a Tenor (Saunders), Rain (Rev. Davidson), Diary of Anne Frank (Otto Frank), Moon Over Buffalo (George Hay), and Noises Off (Selsdon). Other theatre companies with which he has performed include 42nd Street Moon, California Conservatory Theatre, American Musical Theatre of San Jose, and Marin Theatre Company.

A graduate of San Francisco State University with a degree in TV Broadcasting and Production, Mr. Rossman is also a stage director with Diary of Anne Frank, The Odd Couple, The Prisoner of Second Avenue, Ladies in Retirement, and Play On among his credits. Most recently, he helmed Crimes of the Heart at Alameda’s Altarena Theater just this year.

A resident of Montclair, Bob is an art director and animator for Electronic Arts, a computer game company located in Redwood City. He specializes in marketing art, animation, and illustrations for The Sims products. You can see his illustrations on the front and back of the Sims2 game boxes.

His daughter Emily is an established actor, working all over the California region, including an episode of the television series ER. Completing the circle of creative people in his life, his fiancée is Janet Oliphant is a very talented and well-known singer and musical director in the East Bay.

Coincidentally, their pet dog is a black lab named Oliver … and predictably he’s constantly asking for “more.”

You have definitely seen Gina Green (Nancy) at the Willows before. She graced our stage in 2003, when she appeared as Nellie Forbush in South Pacific.

Gina was most recently seen in the extended run of I Love You, You’re Perfect, Now Change in Sacramento. Her other Bay Area credits include Me and My Girl (Mrs. Brown) at Marin Theatre Company; The Last Five Years (Cathy u/s) at Playhouse West; Promises, Promises (Miss Olsen) at Pacific Alliance Stage Co.; and the World Premiere of Just Two Words (Carol).

Gina was in the national tour of Mame (Gloria) and toured throughout Russia with the dance ensemble Orlyata.

She is a graduate of Rutgers University’s Mason Gross School of the Arts, where she majored in Modern Dance and Russian. She is also a graduate of the American Musical and Dramatic Academy in New York City. Her New York credits include My Fair Lady, Lady Be Good, and West Side Story.

Steven Durflinger returns to the Willows to play Bill Sikes, having last appeared with us 23 years ago in 1982’s The Sound of Music, where he was seen in the role of Rolf.
Steven’s first exposure to theatre was in the fourth grade at Monte Gardens Elementary in Concord, where he was cast in The Case of the Missing Parts of Speech. He also participated in the Mt. Diablo School District’s Fine Arts Summer School programs every summer thereafter. In 1978, when the Fine Arts program was discontinued, he was cast in the City of Concord’s new Youth Theatre Program, where he performed in Hello, Dolly at the Concord Pavilion.

Steven’s regional theater debut was also here at the Willows in our 1979 production of Fiddler of the Roof, in which he played the Innkeeper and a Bottle Dancer. He was also involved with the Willows Youth Conservatory during the summer of 1979, co-producing the shows Enter Laughing, Once Upon a Mattress, and Godspell. He received his B.A. in drama with a lyric theatre emphasis from San Francisco State University.

Other Bay Area theatrical credits include leading or supporting roles in George M!, Best Little Whorehouse in Texas (Shellie Winner), Oklahoma, Guys & Dolls, Sugar, and My Fair Lady for CCMT; Fiddler on the Roof, Li’l Abner, and Promises, Promises, at the Willows; and numerous Bay Area productions at Diablo Valley College, Solano College, Onstage, and the Woodminster Amphitheatre.

During a recent 10-year period in Los Angeles, Steven had lead roles in the independent feature film Red Herring (where he played the role of General Amos, Chief Security Officer to the President) and the three-part children’s videos Magic Power Scouts, where he played the wacky warlock Brandon Twinkleflash. He also co-produced Magic Power Scouts with partner David Harris under their production company banner Blue Giraffe Productions (www.bluegiraffe.com). Steven can also be seen in a brief moment of the film Catch Me If You Can.