Be Our Guest with Jesse J. Sanchez, Linedy Genao & Kris Carrasco (SUEÑOS: Our American Musical)

Musical Theatre Radio presents "Be Our Guest"

JESSE J. SANCHEZ is an award-winning composer-lyricist, writer, and music director. He is a highly sought-after collaborator in theatre, opera, TV, and film.
As composer, lyricist, arranger and librettist, his works include: musical arrangement, "Musicals Based on Shakespeare" (Broadway League's Jimmy Awards on Broadway), original music for W. Fran Astorga's Exhaustion Arroyo: Dancin' Trees In The Ravine (Cutting Ball Theater), co-librettist for desert in (Boston Lyric Opera, Long Beach Opera; finalist for 2022 Opera America's Digital Excellence in Opera Award), book, music, and lyrics for Black Friday! (Prospect Theater Company's Musical Theater Lab), music and co-lyricist for The Fezziwig Promise (The 24 Hour Plays), book for Clopening (Prop Thtr Small Hours Festival), and book, music, and lyrics for SUEÑOS: Our American Musical, which has been developed at The Johnny Mercer Foundation Writers Colony at Goodspeed Musicals, Barn on Fire Musical Residency (produced by Fire Island Pine Arts, Nicole La Fountaine, and NYTB), New York Theatre Barn, 2021 Frank Young NAMT Development Grant, Oregon Shakespeare Festival’s Black Swan Lab, and The Choreography Lab.

Linedy Genao - After receiving her bachelor’s degree in Business Administration at the University of Connecticut, she began a career in banking. However, after receiving a message encouraging her to audition for the first open call of Gloria & Emilio Estefan’s On Your Feet, her life changed forever. With only high school theater experience, Linedy landed her first Broadway-bound show, On Your Feet, and hasn’t stopped since!

Linedy has continued to rise through the ranks, most recently as the Alana/Zoe understudy on Dear Evan Hansen prior to its Broadway closing and on its first national tour. She was also recently named in Variety’s “10 Broadway Stars to Watch” list. Additional credits include Passing Through, West Side Story, Havana Music Hall, A Taste of Things to Come, and In the Heights. She is honored to be the first Latina/Dominican-American to originate an Andrew Lloyd Webber Broadway-bound musical.

Kris Carrasco is a genderqueer, Latino-American artist hailing from the Appalachian mountains of western North Carolina. Born to immigrant parents, his first taste of the stage was seeing Jennifer Lopez star in the hit movie Selena, and through the incredible power of representation, a flame was lit.

Kris' love of storytelling stems from the belief that as artists, we are the storytellers of the human experience and that it is our duty to record humanity (and our experiences with it) as diversely and specifically as possible with a 21st-century anti-racist lens on everything. Kris' greatest hope is that anyone that comes to a performance of theirs leaves with a greater sense of empathy for themselves, their community, and most importantly those who've lived experience is different. SUEÑOS tells the untold story of three generations of a Mexican-American family and their pursuit of the American Dream. The story primarily focuses on the viewpoint of protagonist, Ali Viramontes, and his journey to becoming a world renown composer. Juilliard is his one-way ticket and he won't let anything stop him, even if he has to sacrifice those close to him. Obstacles become too challenging to overcome and seems there's no other way, but to continue the cycle that tore down his family's dreams. This original, contemporary musical celebrates Latiné/Latinx people and cultures, and weaves their stories into the fabric of the American Musical Theatre.