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OFF BROADWAY SHARK TANK – or HOW TO PITCH A PRODUCER will feature EDMUND GAYNES (owner of St Lukes Theater and The Actors Temple Theater and producer of Black Angels Over Tuskegee, Cougar The Musical, Zero Hour) and BARBARA WHITMAN (Fun Home, Hedwig and the Angry Inch, If/Then). HUGH HYSELL, National Broadway and Live Arts Lead for Groupon and producer of Vanya and Sonia and Masha and Spike and Peter and the Starcatcher, will moderate the discussion.
DATE: Sunday, January 25, 2015
TIME: 12:00pm – 1:30pm (Doors open at 11:30am for complimentary coffee & bagels)
LOCATION: Snapple Theater Center, 210 West 50th Street (between Broadway and 8th Avenue), 3rd Floor
HOW IT WORKS: The seminar will discuss the process of pitching a producer and the audience will observe three pre-selected teams pitch their shows to the team of theater “Sharks” (in a SHARK TANK format) in the hopes of making a deal. In addition, questions from the audience will be asked live at the seminar (as time permits).
COST: FREE! (reservations are a must)
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ABOUT THE PANELISTS:
EDMUND GAYNES (Panelist)
As a theatre producer, Mr. Gaynes’ Off-Broadway productions include the current hitBlack Angels Over Tuskegee, as well as recent long-running productions of Zero Hour(Drama Desk Award), Cougar The Musical, The Devil’s Music: The Life and Blues of Bessie Smith (Drama Desk & Lortel nominee), Danny and Sylvia: The Danny Kaye Musical, Picon Pie and Bein’ With Behan, which was nominated for an Outer Critics Circle Award. He produced the West Coast premieres of Marry Me a Little and Starting Here, Starting Now and was nominated for four Ovation Awards, Los Angeles’ highest theatre honors, for his productions of The Taffetas and Songs the Girls Sang. Mr. Gaynes also produced the National Tour of Gilligan’s Island: The Musical, playing coast to coast. He owns two Off-Broadway theatres in New York City: St. Luke’s Theatre and Actors Temple Theatre, as well as the Whitmore-Lindley Theatre Center, the Avery Schreiber Playhouse and the BrickHouse Theatre in Los Angeles. He has also appeared as an actor in 13 Broadway and Off-Broadway shows includingGreenwillow with Anthony Perkins, The Body Beautiful with Jack Warden, Promenade with Madeline Kahn, Edward Albee’s Bartleby and Best Foot Forward, in which he co-starred with Christopher Walken and Liza Minnelli and sang “Buckle Down, Winsocki” on the original cast album. Directors he has worked with include Elia Kazan, Stella Adler, Herb Ross, George Abbott, George Roy Hill, Bobby Lewis, Peter Hunt, George Schaeffer, Robert Moore, Alan Schneider, Joe Layton, Gene Saks, Martin Charnin and Jerome Robbins. TV credits range from Mary Martin’s “Peter Pan” to “Cheers”, “Kojak”, a recurring role on “The Patty Duke Show”, “N.Y.P.D.”, “The Sid Caesar Hour”, “Playhouse 90”, “The Ed Sullivan Show”, among many others, as well as a two-year run as Paul Stewart on “As the World Turns”.
BARBARA WHITMAN (Panelist)
Current productions include Hedwig and the Angry Inch starring Michael C. Hall (Tony and Drama Desk Award, Best Musical Revival), If/Then starring Idina Menzel,, and on tour, Murder for Two. This spring she will also be represented by Fun Home. Other credits include Hands on a Hardbody, Red (Tony and Drama Desk Award, Best Play),Next to Normal (Pulitzer), Hamlet starring Jude Law, 33 Variations starring Jane Fonda, Mary Stuart, Legally Blonde – The Musical, … Spelling Bee, Dirty Rotten Scoundrels and A Raisin in the Sun. A native New Yorker, Barbara attended NYU’s Gallatin School and received an MFA in Theatre Management and Producing from Columbia University. She’s on the Board of the Tectonic Theater Project and the Leadership Council of Broadway Cares/ Equity Fights Aids. Her proudest productions are her sons, Daniel and Will.
HUGH HYSELL (Moderator)
Tony Award ® winning Broadway producer and award winning marketer. His Broadway producing projects include Vanya and Sonia and Masha and Spike (2013 Tony Award ® and Off Broadway Alliance Award for Best Play), Peter and the Starcatcher (winner of 5 Tony Awards), and Impressionism. Off Broadway, he has produced, conceived and directed The All-Male Importance of Being Earnest, Y-2-Gay The Musical and Seamen The Sailor Musical. Hugh served as Director of Marketing and Development for NYU Skirball and ran HHC Marketing where he has served as marketing director of over 200 Broadway and Off Broadway shows. He serves on the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s Multicultural Diversity Action Committee and is an Associate Professor at Columbia University. He currently plays “Maurizio” in the Off Broadway companies of My Big Gay Italian Wedding and My Big Gay Italian Funeral(just celebrated his one year anniversary in both shows). He has provided pro bono services to Broadway Cares Equity Fights Aids, HRC, GLAAD and The Commercial Theatre Institute. He is a founding member of The Off Broadway Alliance and currently serves as a Nominator for the Off Broadway Alliance Awards.