Our Stars
(Our Songstress)
Mary Donnelly Haskell is the heart and soul – and voice – of My Songs.® Her warm, sweet singing is what makes My Songs® so special.
Born in Beaumont, Texas, Mary is a former Miss America contestant representing the state of Mississippi, where she now lives with her husband and two children.
She is a working actress (represented by the prestigious William Morris Agency) and has appeared in many television programs and stage productions.
Professional Credits
Mary sang regularly in the Kids of the Kingdom review both at Disneyland and on tour. Also, she performed in lead roles in musicals such as South Pacific, Barnum, Annie Get Your Gun and Into the Woods. Her performance as "Millie" in Seven Brides for Seven Brothers at the San Diego Civic Light Opera won her the Los Angeles Critics DramaLogue Award.
Mary was a featured performer on the 64th Annual Academy AwardsTM show and landed the recurring role of "Fern Neuswanger" on the acclaimed NBC-TV series, Sisters. Subsequently, she has been featured in numerous television productions, including the NBC mini-series The Secrets of Lake Success, the NBC movies of the week One Woman's Courage starring Patty Duke, Her Hidden Truth starring Kellie Martin, Seduced by Madness starring Ann-Margret and the BET feature film, Out of Sync, directed by Debbie Allen and co-starring L.L. Cool J.
Most recently, she played Sidney Wells in the short-lived CBS series Four Corners, guest-starred in episodes of Touched By An Angel and Diagnosis Murder, co-starred in The Secret World of Alex Mack on Nickelodeon and appeared in two Lifetime Original Movies, Blue Valley Songbird starring Dolly Parton and Life of the Party: The Pamela Harriman Story starring Ann-Margret. She will soon co-star with Kathy Ireland and Touched By An Angel's John Dye in a new movie for the Family Channel.
| TV / Film | ||
|---|---|---|
| Superior Court | USA | Dr. Samantha Fletcher |
| Lily For President | CBS | Featured Performer |
| Funny | ABC | Co-Host |
| Sisters | NBC | Fern Neuswanger |
| Academy Awards | ABC | Featured Performer |
| Secrets of Lake Success | NBC | Mavis Peters |
| One Woman's Courage | NBC | Judge Alicia Spradlin |
| Out of Sync | Feature Film | Featured |
| The Martin Short Series | TV | Co-Star |
| Days Of Our Lives | TV | Co-Star |
| Her Hidden Truth | TV | Co-Star |
| Seduced By Madness | TV | Co-Star |
| Secret World of Alice Mack | Nickelodeon | Recurring |
| Dr. Quinn | TV | Recurring |
| Stage | ||
|---|---|---|
| South Pacific | Nellie Forbush | San Diego Civic Light Opera |
| Barnum | Charity | San Jose Civic Light Opera |
| Annie Get Your Gun | Annie Oakley | University of Mississippi |
| Into the Woods | The Baker's Wife | University of Mississippi |
| Seven Brides For Seven Brothers |
Millie * | San Diego Civic Light Opera * L.A. Critics DramaLogue Award |
Music has always been a large part of Mary's life and career.
"I looked around for recordings to buy for my children and found the choices severely limited, so I got together with my friend and colleague Michael Reno. We created songs we felt were attractive to children and that parents wouldn't mind hearing over and over again."
Mary and Michael have collaborated on four personalized children's song collections to date: My Songs,® More My Songs,® the Hello Dreamland "tuck-me-in" songs, and Happy Boogie Birthday are available on CD both on this web site and from retailers around the country.
Her singing ability is a gift she has been blessed with since childhood – so who better to sing for kids today? With over 100,000 copies of My Songs and More My Songs already sold, it's obvious that kids connect with the warm, nurturing sound of Mary's voice.
Mary also has two albums of her own: "Inspired," which is a collection of songs she finds uplifting (as well as fun!), and a Christian music album, "The Power of the Cross." More information about these albums can be found at www.MaryDonnellyHaskell.com.
(Our Composer)
With all the things he's accomplished, one that Michael Reno is most proud of is the fact that he never really grew up (just ask his three granddaughters!) Instead, he's maintained a close connection to childhood that lets his imagination continue to grow and change – and allows him to communicate directly with kids of all ages. (This is evident in each of the My Songs® music lines!)
Michael's background and home is the musical theatre. He is the composer and lyricist of several musicals and musical revues which have been performed across the US. He composed the film score for "North Cross Jordan", as well as the television productions "Time On Their Hands" and "Coming to Ametrica", a children's program aimed at teaching the metric system to children in the US. He has also contributed music to the Hallmark annual Christmas movie "Twice Upon a Christmas" and the Miss America Pageant.
Currently Michael has been given the blessing of the Rodgers and Hammerstein estate to re-conceive the music for a new version of the Broadway musical classic "Pal Joey." He has also been selected as part of an American team to work in Romania in 2012 to bring the American Musical Theatre to that country, which up to this point, has had no stage musical tradition. For the majority of the most recent years, he worked as producer of a musical stage version of the film "Sister Act" which was a smash hit in the Palladium Theater in London's West End, and is currently running at the Broadway Theater in New York. "Sister Act" will be soon touring the US. For this production, Michael worked with Alan Menken, the songwriter behind such musical hits as "Little Shop of Horrors," "Beauty and the Beast," and "The Little Mermaid."
Michael's career as a director and musical director has taken him all over the world, to venues ranging from Montreal's Place des Artes and the Vienna Concert House, to New York's Madison Square Garden, L.A.'s Universal Amphitheatre, the White House, and practically every major hotel in Las Vegas. The nearly 100 musical productions that he has worked on include musical theatre classics such as "Fiddler on the Roof,""Mame," "Cabaret," "Man of La Mancha," "My Fair Lady," "Peter Pan," "West Side Story," "Grease," "Camelot," "Applause," "Annie," "Anything Goes," "Guys and Dolls," "Gypsy," and "Hello, Dolly" as well more diverse works such as Leonard Bernstein's "Mass," "Candide," the original San Francisco production of "The Rocky Horror Show," and the summer stock premieres of "Jesus Christ Superstar" and "Hair."
In the Los Angeles area, where Michael now makes his home, he has worked on various TV projects for NBC, on film projects such as Disney's "The Lion King," and on stage productions for the Los Angeles Civic Light Opera workshop, the Pasadena Playhouse, Lawrence Welk, the Celebrity Theatre, and the Coronet Theatre. His work in the L.A. area has earned him numerous Drama-Logue Awards, as well as the L.A. Drama Critic's Circle Award for the West Coast premiere of "Working."
Michael received his MA in Theatre (with distinction) in the Spring of 1998 from California State University, Northridge, where he has directed their productions of "Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat," "Return to the Forbidden Planet," "Little Shop of Horrors," and "Working," which toured to China in June of 1999 as the beginning of a cultural arts exchange with the Shanghai Theatre Academy.
He is also currently occupied as co-founder and owner of two businesses: My Songs® (which produces the best music for children!) and Music for Conventions, which provides musical services to corporate America. That website can be found at www.michaelrenomusic.com