Creators

Dolly Parton

Music and Lyrics

Dolly Parton’s life and career are a rags-to-rhinestones story. Born the fourth child of 12, Dolly grew up in Locust Ridge, Tennessee, nestled against the Great Smoky Mountains. Her songs have captured the hearts of generations. Her trademark style is recognized around the globe.

Dolly’s prolific writing and recording career span 50-plus years. Her self-penned hits include Jolene, Coat of Many Colors andI Will Always Love You. She holds the Guinness World Record for the Most Decades with a Top 20 hit on Billboard’s Hot Country Chart and for the most hits on Billboard’s Hot Country Chart by a female artist.

Dolly starred in numerous movies for the large and small screen, including the hit movie 9 to 5which became a hit Broadway musical for which she wrote the music and lyrics.

Dolly is one of an elite group of individuals to receive at least one nomination from all four major annual American entertainment award organizations; Emmy, Grammy, Oscar, and Tony. In 2004 she received the U.S. Library of Congress Living Legend award and in 2006, the prestigious Kennedy Center Honors. In 2011, she was awarded a Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award. She is a member of the Country Music Hall of Fame.

Stories from Dolly’s life have been the subject of two NBC movies: Dolly Parton’s Coat of Many Colors and Dolly Parton’s Christmas of Many Colors: Circle of Life.

Recently, Dolly’s love and generosity for her Tennessee mountain home was heroically demonstrated in her efforts to help the victims of the 2016 Smoky Mountain wildfires. Her Emmy-winning Smoky Mountains Rise telethon raised $9 million. Her philanthropy also extends to children around the world through her Imagination Library, which inspires a love of reading by providing a book a month to more than one million children age five and under in the U.S., U.K., Canada and Australia.

“My dream was to make as many people happy as I could in this life.”

David Bell

Book and Adaptation

David Bell has served as Artistic Director of the Ford’s Theatre in Washington, DC, and Associate Artistic Director to Kenny Leon at the Alliance Theatre in Atlanta, Georgia. He is currently the Artistic Director of the American Music Theatre Project and Director of the Music Theatre Program at Northwestern University. As director, choreographer, or author, David has received 45 of Chicago’s Joseph Jefferson Award nominations (winning 11), five Carbonell nominations (Florida), as well as the Dramalogue Award (LA), the Helen Hayes Award (DC.), and numerous awards in Atlanta. His musical, Hot Mikado (book, additional lyrics) was nominated for the Olivier award (London’s West End). David has written and directed Cowboys and Lawyers (Goodspeed Opera House) and The Good War (Northlight Theatre), both with Craig Carnelia; Fanny Brice (Maltz Jupiter, Asolo Rep); Matador (Coconut Grove Playhouse); The Bowery Boys (Marriott Theatre); Don’t Stop the Carnival (Coconut Grove Playhouse); Hot Mikado (Ford’s Theatre); A Christmas Carol (Pittsburgh CLO, Alliance Theatre); The Theatre of Dreams (Bridgewater Hall, Manchester, England); and Die Schone und das Biest (European Tour). He directed the world premieres of Murder for Two(Chicago Shakespeare Theatre), HERO (Marriott Theatre, and Asolo Rep), Elmer Gantry (Ford’s Theatre), Peggy Sue Got Married (Marriott Theatre), and many others. He has worked on original musicals with Cy Coleman, Dolly Parton, Jimmy Buffett, Herman Wouk, Joe Kinosian, Kellen Blair, Russell Baker, George Stiles, and Daniel Green. David collaborated with Northwestern University and the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland presenting a pair of new musicals in 2017 titled ATLANTIC for the Edinburgh Fringe Festival and a second pair in 2018 called LEGACY.

Curt Wollan

Original Director and Adaptation

Executive Producer and Director of Troupe America Inc., a Minneapolis based production company producing national theatrical tours and convention entertainment.  For forty years, Troupe America ran The Plymouth Playhouse in the Minneapolis/ St Paul area, premiering such hits as How to Talk Minnesotan The Musical, The Lovely Liebowitz Sisters, and the entire Church Basement Ladies series of nine musical comedies based on the book, Growing Up Lutheran. From 1992 to 2023, Curt also produced and directed the famous Medora Musical in Theodore Roosevelt National Park, which during his tenure, was featured on NBC Nightly News; The Travel Channel, MSNBC, and received a two page spread in the Sunday New York Times. Curt has produced and directed many National Tours including Steel Magnolias, Driving Miss Daisy, The 1940’s Radio Hour, Hank Williams - Lost Highway starring Jason Petty, and Stephen King’s Ghost Stories. He has also co-produced three National Tours of Forbidden Broadway, directed M*A*S*H*’s Jamie Farr and William Christopher in the National Tour of The Odd Couple, and directed the National Tours of Moon Over Buffalo starring Gavin MacLeod, The Sunshine Boys starring Dick Van Patten and Frank Gorshin, and Same Time, Next Year, starring Mackenzie Phillips and Adrian Zmed. As a free-lance director, his work has been seen at Nashville’s Ryman Auditorium, Theatre Under The Stars in Houston, The Barter Theatre, Kansas City’s New Theatre Restaurant,  Garry Marshall’s Falcon Theatre in LA, and at Dollywood where he directed several productions with Dolly Parton. Curt is the recipient of the Twin Cities “Kudos” Award for his direction of Diamond Studs, Indianapolis’s “Mitty” Award for Best Musical Ring of Fire, AARP’S “50 OVER 50” Award, and Luther College’s Distinguished Service Award.

PAUL T. COUCH

Executive Producer and Adaptation

Paul T. Couch is one of the theme park industry’s most award-winning entertainment producers, having won over 20 IAAPA Brass Ring Awards and 6 Amusement Today Golden Ticket Awards during his tenure (2003-2014) as Dollywood’s Director of Entertainment and Executive Producer. It was there that Paul and Dolly began their creative partnership that included several major musical productions and a TV special for the Hallmark Channel. Prior to that he was General Manager of Nashville’s famed Ryman Auditorium where he produced the musicals Always, Patsy Cline, Lost Highway: The Music and Legend of Hank Williams, and Bye, Bye, Love—The Everly Brothers Musical, as well as award-winning productions of Pump Boys and Dinettes and Cotton Patch Gospel starring Gary Sandy. More recently, Paul served as Executive Producer for Dolly’s first-ever children’s album, I Believe In You. He currently helms his own production company where he serves as Creative Producer. Paul is also on the faculty of Middle Tennessee State University teaching in the Music Business program of the school’s renowned Recording Industry Management Department.