BRETT SCOTT
Director & Co-Artistic Director

Brett Scott is an award-winning and accomplished theatre educator, director, and performer who grew up in New York City before moving to Florida. He holds a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Performance from the University of Miami and a Master of Fine Arts from the National Theatre Conservatory at the Denver Center for the Performing Arts.

Six years ago, Scott co-founded the non-profit Purple Summer Theatre with Daniel Bates, dedicated to giving high school and college students a space to create, perform, play in the pit orchestra, and gain hands-on experience in tech and crew. This summer, the company will present Parade by Jason Robert Brown.

Scott is currently in his fifth year as the Head of High School Theatre at the American Heritage School, Broward Campus, where he teaches and directs. His dedication to fostering high-caliber student theatre has resulted in his productions being selected three times to perform at the Florida State Thespian Festival. For two years, he also served as the Head of Acting for the prestigious Broadway Theatre Project, founded by Ann Reinking and Deborah McWaters. He has taught acting, directing, and theatre at numerous esteemed institutions across the country, including Denver Center Theatre Company Academy, Metropolitan State College of Denver, Red Rocks Community College, North Broward Preparatory School, The Denver School of the Arts, The Duke Ellington School of the Arts, The Shakespeare Theatre Company, and the International Thespian Festival.

Professionally, Scott has directed and performed across the country in Los Angeles, Miami, Denver, Texas, and Arizona. His extensive directing credits include Checking In, Bonnie and Clyde, The Wild Party, Crimes Of The Heart, The Drowsy Chaperone, Blithe Spirit, After The Fall, Twelve Angry Jurors, Spring Awakening, Cabaret, Side Show, The Crucible, Bring It On, 9 to 5, City of Angels, Company, A Little Night Music, A Flea in Her Ear, Orpheus Descending, The Miser, and the Los Angeles world premiere of Hello Bob by Tony Award-winning playwright Robert Patrick. As an actor, his stage work includes Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom, The Crucible, The Fantastic, The Three Sisters, John Brown’s Body, A Christmas Carol, On The Town, The Skin Of Our Teeth, Endgame, and Much Ado About Nothing. He has also appeared on television in shows such as All My Children, The Guiding Light, and Lois & Clark: The New Adventures of Superman.

DANIEL BATES
Music Director & Co-Artistic Director

Daniel Bates is a Grammy Award-nominated tenor and Performing Artist committed to arts education. Since 2023, he has served as the Director of Choirs and Musical Director at American Heritage School, where he has music directed productions including Mamma Mia, The Drowsy Chaperone, Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat, Into the Woods, and Footloose.

Previously, Daniel taught at North Broward Preparatory School beginning in 2016, where he directed the opera program and taught voice lessons after debuting there as Rinuccio in Gianni Schicchi. He has also been a member of the Voice Faculty at the Summer Music Academy at Ithaca College for six years and served as a voice teacher, coach, and instructor of opera and music history for the Young Artist Learning Academy (YALA) with Florida Grand Opera.

Daniel is the Artistic Director of the Florida Singing Sons, a historic boys’ choir in Broward County, with whom he tours nationally and internationally. He will be featured in an upcoming publication about boy choirs. A sought-after Guest Practitioner, he has led vocal performance workshops at Ithaca College, Notre Dame High School, and Broadway Middle School, and has conducted music education workshops for Broward County elementary teachers. In 2022, Daniel was the All County Clinician for the Broward County Elementary Honor Choirs.

In 2022, Daniel co-founded Purple Summer Theatre with Brett Scott, a company dedicated to producing daring and emotionally resonant musical theatre. Since its founding, Purple Summer Theatre has presented critically acclaimed productions of Spring Awakening, The Wild Party, Carrie, and now Bonnie and Clyde. Through this venture, Daniel continues to champion innovative storytelling and provide opportunities for emerging and established artists to collaborate in a creatively rich environment.

Daniel holds a Bachelor of Music in Vocal Performance from Ithaca College and a Master of Music in Vocal Performance from the San Francisco Conservatory of Music. His students have gone on to study Vocal Performance and Musical Theater at top programs such as the Berklee College of Music, Boston Conservatory, NYU Tisch, Florida State University, USC, Ithaca College, and Stetson University.

As a performer, Daniel has enjoyed a broad range of roles in opera and concert work. He made his international debut in 2019 with Israeli Opera in Weinberg’s The Passenger, and was nominated for a Grammy Award for his role in the world premiere of Jennifer Higdon’s Cold Mountain with The Santa Fe Opera, where he originated the roles of Junior and Charlie. He also performed as an Apprentice Artist at Santa Fe Opera in the 2014 and 2015 seasons.

His acclaimed roles include the title role in Candide with Anchorage Opera, Ernesto in Don Pasquale (Anchorage Opera, Florida Grand Opera, and Vero Beach Opera), Rinuccio (Gianni Schicchi) with Opera Ithaca and Imperial Symphony Orchestra, Nadir in The Pearl Fishers, Ferrando in Così fan tutte (Florida Grand Opera), Don Ottavio in Don Giovanni (Syracuse Opera), and Pedrillo in Die Entführung aus dem Serail (Opera Ithaca).

Recognized for his talent, Daniel has won numerous awards, including a Career Development Grant from the Sullivan Foundation, First Place in the National Society of Arts and Letters Voice Competition (Florida East Coast Chapter), and a Grant Award from the Giulio Gari International Vocal Competition. He was also a District Winner and Regional Finalist in the Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions, First Place winner of the East Bay Opera League Competition, and prizewinner of the Henry and Maria Holt Competition.

HERMAN PAYNE
Choreographer  

Juilliard graduate, Herman Payne has appeared in a number of theatrical productions.  A few of such include: the Aspen Ballet Company; the Second National tour and the International tours of Ann Reinking’s Tony Award winning show “Fosse”, choreographed and directed by Debra McWaters;  the International tour of West Side Story, under the Direction of Joey McKneely; 9 to 5 on Broadway, choreographed by Tony Award winning Andy Blankenbuehler; The New York City Center Encore's productions of The Wiz, choreographed by Tony Award winning, Andy Blankenbuehler; House of Flowers choreographed by Tony award winning Kathleen Marshall; Pajama Game, choreographed By Tony Award winning JOHN CARRAFA; DANCE Double (Marci X) Choreographed by Jerry Mitchell. THE ID of BOB, directed by HINTON BATTLE, and the Radio City Christmas Spectacular, choreographed by LINDA HABERMAN, from (2000 – 2013). 

In addition to Herman’s copious theatrical work on Broadway, internationally and with the Rockettes, he has spent many hours working in a completely different language of dance.  He has performed in; Michael Jackson’s 30th Anniversary Special; with Mariah Carey, Usher, Mya, Destiny’s Child, Whitney Houston, Deborah Cox, Thalia, Tony Moran, Lisa Lisa, Kevin Aviance, Love INC., and Camp LO, among others.

Herman has choreographed various industrials, and corporate events and has worked for a number of summer intensives, such as The Broadway Theatre Project, where he is now the Co-Artistic Director with Debra McWaters, the Miami City Ballet, the Springfield Ballet, Performance Edge 1 and 2, The Theatre Arts and Minds, and The New World School of the Arts. Industrials Herman has choreographed and directed include such events as: LANA MARKS; Herbal Life; and The International Hustle and Salsa Competition Corporation. 

Herman’s extensive and formal education in dance, other than Juilliard, is rounded out by his studies at; Interlochen School of the Arts, The Pacific Northwest Ballet, The Houston Ballet, Alvin Ailey, The Boston Ballet, and Jacobs Pillow. He is an ARTS winner, (Recognition and Talent Search which is sponsored by the National Endowment for the Arts), where he won the 2nd award level in Modern Dance and an Honorable Mention In Jazz Dance.  He also received a 4 year partial scholarship to attend The Julliard School where he received his Bachelors in Fine Arts. 

 He is an Adjunct Professor at the New World School of the Arts, University of Florida and Miami-Dade Colleges, and a Resident Faculty member at the world-renowned Miami City Ballet school.