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About Us – Staff

Sandi Durell is Publisher/Editor of TheaterPizzazz.com an entertainment website featuring a variety of writer voices. Sandi has been writing, reviewing, producing and having a voice in theater, cabaret and the entertainment community for over 30+ years. She is a Voting Member of the Drama Desk and Outer Critics Circle Awards and member of the American Theatre Critics Association.

Sandi is a producer of Broadway & Hollywood Live! Revues (ShaRell Productions), has produced the popular Songwriter Showcase for the American Popular Song Society (APSSinc.org) for 19 years; the benefit CD “Our Heart Sings,” and is a producer on the Award winning film “Broadway the Golden Age” (with Rick McKay), and continues to produce various musical events. She is a member of the League of Professional Theatre Women, on the Board of American Popular Song Society, Theater Resources Unlimited (TRU – Advisory Board), member of 100+ year old Dutch Treat Club, The Lambs; an occasional theater angel and has had a career as a vocalist-performer. Sandi’s columns can also be found at: www.thethreetomatoes.com (see NYC Life) and www.theaterlife.comhttps://facebook.com/theaterpizzazz   https://twitter.com/theaterpizzazz   Instagram.com/TheaterPizzazz

CONTRIBUTING WRITERS-REVIEWERS-INTERVIEWERS, PHOTOGRAPHERS, VIDEOGRAPHERS:

Elizabeth Ahlfors was born and raised in New York, graduated from NYU with a degree in Journalism. She has lived in Italy, Kentucky, Pennsylvania, Delaware, and now she and her family are back in New York. Over the years, she has written articles on the women’s movement, women in American history, medicine, childcare, and a weekly column in Pennsylvania called  Woman Today . She published three books on women in American history: A Housewife’s Guide to Women’s Liberation, Twelve American Women, and  Heroines of ’76  (for children).  Her first love was always for music, cabaret, and theater – in the audience, not performing.  Previously a Philadelphia correspondent for Theatre.Com and InTheatre Magazine, she has reviewed theater and cabaret for the Philadelphia Inquirer, Philadelphia City News and  Spotlight Magazine.  She now writes regularly for Cabaret Scenes, Curtain Up, Curtain Up’s Cabaret Nights, Total Theater and nytheatre-wire.  She was previously a judge for the Bistro Awards and is a voting member of Drama Desk and Outer Critics Circle.

Linda Amiel Burns is the creator and director of The Singing Experience, Award Winning workshops in musical theater and cabaret since 1977, (featured in The NY Times, The Today Show, CBS Sunday Morning and others), directed, written and booked hundreds of acts and revues. President of American Popular Song Society (APSS), formerly The New York Sheet Music Society, since 1998, Linda produces and hosts several of their monthly programs. She is a member of SAG-AFTRA and has been writing and reviewing since 2002.

Adam Cohen is a life-long theater fan and writer.  He has a Bachelor’s Degree from Bennington College in Creative Writing.  Once upon a time, he was an English teacher for college and high school students.  Someday, his novel(s) will be published.  In the meantime, he and his daughter enjoy all sorts of performances and run triathlons.

Myra Chanin, aka as Mother Wonderful, has been called a cross between Julia Child and Woody Allen–unfortunately not by either one of them yet.  Actually she’s funnier than Julia Child, — now in butterfat heaven, and she cooks better than Woody Allen, alive or dead, ever did or will. She’s also the author of several Mother Wonderful Books, the name a former suitor dubbed her Philadelphia cheesecake business which produced a cookbook which produced appearances on Oprah, Charlie Rose, Maury Povich and Hour Magazine. In New York, after a few stints on the Joey Reynolds all night radio show, she became his talent booker, part time sidekick, surrogate mother as well as the manipulative Bubby of Joey’s dysfunctional Friday Night Jewish Hour family.  She now writes for several web publications and is working on a novel about her husband’s family, which Alvin is praying will be published posthumously.

Glen Charlow is a graphic designer in the performing arts, He’s worked on many cabaret and off-Broadway shows, and for many prestigious theaters and production companies in the United States. His advertising designs have been in every production house and agency in New York. Experience with editing, design, color and typography, has been applied to many award-winning publications. He combines a passion for design, usability, and innovation with a drive to develop products that enrich peoples’ lives. Glen creates websites and graphics for individuals, universities, and small businesses. He uses good old HTML, CSS, and PHP, with QUARK and Photoshop.

JK Clarke is Photo Editor and Assistant Editor at Theater Pizzazz, a Drama Desk Voter and a freelance writer living in NYC. He has ghost written one very successful novel (can’t tell you which one…hence the “ghost” part) and also contributes jokes pseudonymously to US Weekly and InTouch Magazine. He has previously written reviews and the iCanine pet column for other publications. JK also created the blog “The Curmudgeon’s Guide to Ethical Dog Ownership.” He spent his formative years studying Shakespeare with The Great Books Society starting at the age of seven. JK grew up attending theater regularly at the Oregon Shakespeare Festival in Ashland, Oregon where he had studied the entire canon by his 18th birthday. He spends his daylight hours and pays his rent as a dog care expert and owner of a dog care service, The Leash We Can Do.

Hazen Cuyler is an award-winning actor, director and Founding Artistic Director of The Greenhouse Ensemble; a theatre, film, art and music company in Manhattan. Greenhouse cultivates a positive, judgment free environment where artists of any discipline create fully realized work. He is the host of Greenhouse’s podcast, “Portrait of an Artist”, highlighting independent artists of all disciplines and featuring new music. He is an outspoken advocate for uniting Independent Theatre artists and companies. Although primarily an actor and director, he also enjoys painting and photography (Instagram: @hazencuycuy) and writes theatre criticism for The Indypendent. www.hazencuyler.com

Ron Fassler is an actor and the author of the recent UP IN THE CHEAP SEATS: A HISTORICAL MEMOIR OF BROADWAY, which features the tales of his teenage theatregoing in the 1970s (“Well worth the price of admission,” quotes Nathan Lane). Ron is a voting member of the Drama Desk Awards. You can also read about many pivotal Broadway shows and the people behind them in his “Theatre Yesterday and Today” blog at www.ronfassler.org.

Melissa Griegel is an avid theater-goer and loves all things Broadway. A graduate of Cornell University, she went on to study photography at the School of Visual Arts in Manhattan. In addition to owning her own portrait studio, Melissa writes and photographs for five magazines. “I love being able to interview people and write reviews and articles in addition to doing the photography,” she says. “I feel like I get the complete story that way.” One of her favorite annual events is BroadwayCon. “There is so much energy and you are completely surrounded by people who love theater as much as you do.” You can view her work at www.griegelphoto.zenfolio.com

Magda Katz has been in the entertainment world for most of her life as a child actress, assistant to the head publicist of Avco Embassy Pictures, theatrical print agent. She went on to manage the show business career of her 2 children for over 15 years. For the last five years Magda has been filming and editing video trailers of live performances as well as celebrity interviews.  Broadway After Dark was the first website to feature her video trailers.  She contributed in creating a star studded 90th birthday party for Mickey Rooney at Feinstein’s at the Regency Hotel. Her video trailers have a large international following. Videos are featured at: www.theaterpizzazz.com. All of Magda’s videos can be viewed at http://www.youtube.com/user/MagdaCorrespondent

Samuel L. Leiter,PhD is Distinguished Professor Emeritus of Brooklyn College and the Graduate Center, CUNY. An award-winning author and editor, he has published twenty-six books, most recently Kabuki at the Crossroads: Years of Crisis, 1952-1965 and Rising from the Flames: The Rebirth of Theater in Occupied Japan, 1945-52. Among his other books are Ten Seasons: New York Theatre in the Seventies; the multivolume Encyclopedia of the New York Stage; The Great Stage Directors: 100 Distinguished Careers of the Theatre ; and the multivolume Kabuki Plays on Stage series. From 1992 to 2004 he was editor-in-chief of Asian Theatre Journal. His many honors include a Fulbright Research Fellowship and an Andrew W. Mellon Foundation Emeritus Fellowship. Sam is a voting member of the Drama Desk Awards and from 2012-2014 he was a nominator for the Drama Desk Awards. Since 2012, he has reviewed nearly 600 New York productions on his blog, Theatre’s Leiter Side (slleiter@blogspot.com).

Marilyn Lester is a playwright, producer, scriptwriter, dialogue consultant, and dramaturge. Additionally, Marilyn is a communications specialist with experience in journalism, market research, advertising,public relations, new media, and publishing. In television, Marilyn worked in development with the late producer, Alvin Cooperman, and in film with Big Bear Films. She is a member of The League of Professional Theater Women, The New York Coalition of Professional Women in the Arts & Media, the Dramatists Guild, The Actors Fund, The Episcopal Actors Guild, and The Authors Guild and Tin Pan Alley American Popular Music Project.

Brian Scott Lipton was Editor in Chief of TheaterMania.com for seven years, and has been Managing editor of DNR, Accent, and Encore. In addition, Brian currently covers theater for IN New York,Where, Edgeonthenet.com, TDF Stages, and Cititour.com. He has also written for such prestigious publications as Forbes, The Wall Street Journal, W, Art & Auction, and The New York Post. Brian is currently a member of the New York Drama Critics Circle, Drama Desk, and Outer Critics Circle, and a voter for the Tony Awards. He is a graduate of NYU Law School and Tufts University.

Andrew Poretz – “The Boulevardier of Broadway,” is an entertainer (singer, guitarist, ukulele player and storyteller), producer, and a reviewer of jazz and cabaret shows.  An early podcaster, his “Coaches’ Corner on BlogTalkRadio” segments are still available on iTunes.  Andrew has performed in prominent venues throughout New York and the Bay Area.  He is also a board member of The American Popular Song Society (APSS). His blog, “The Boulevardier,” can be found at www.andrewporetz.com.

Carol Rocamora is a critic, educator, playwright, translator and biographer. She has translated Chekhov’s complete dramatic works, published in three volumes by Smith & Kraus, and has written theatre biographies on Chekhov and Vaclav Havel. Her play “I take your hand in mine…” was originally directed by Peter Brook at his theatre in Paris, and has since been translated into 10 languages and performed all over the world. She teaches at NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts. Her new collection of adaptations – entitled Troika – will be published in 2016. She is a voting member of Outer Critics Circle and Drama Desk Awards.

Yani Perez, M.F.A, is a poet, playwright, translator and educator. Her plays have been presented in various theaters in the United States such as La Mama and Yale University as well as internationally in Bogotá, Colombia. She works at IATI Theater, one of the oldest Latinx theaters in NYC.  She is a contributor for Off Off Online and All About Solo. www.yaniperez.com 

Beatrice Williams Rude – a copy editor at Fairchild Publications, Broadcasting & Cable magazine, free-lanced at the (New York) Daily News and New York Post. She reviewed books for Variety. Her theater reviews first appeared in Friends Journal, a Quaker magazine. She was the New York assistant to playwright Dale Wasserman for the last seven years of his life —witnessing the creation of “Man of La Mancha” and “One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest.” Her observations and calls to conscience appear in The Constant Columnist.

Matt Smith is a writer and theatre enthusiast based in New York. In addition to his work for Theater Pizzazz, his writing has appeared on Playbill.com, BroadwayWorld.com, The HuffingtonPost blog, and in CityGuide Magazine. He also has experience in stage management, having SM-ed two productions with Shakespearian company, What Dreams May Co., and serves as a production assistant on Broadway Nosh, a cooking-based web-series, which streams monthly on Broadway.com. For more information or further inquiry, please visit www.mattsmiththeatre.com.

Martha Wade Steketee has worked as a court researcher, policy analyst, editor, theater critic, and dramaturg. She has been member of and nominator for theater awards committees (Jeff in Chicago, Drama Desk in New York); reviews scripts for theaters, festivals, and competitions; and is on the Boards of American Theatre Critics Association, Literary Managers and Dramaturgs of the Americas, and League of Professional Theatre Women. She contributes to a range of publications including HowlRound, TDF Stages, the Clyde Fitch Report, Dramatics, and Chance Magazine. Her blog Urban Excavations focuses on live performance and film. Steketee lives in New York City.

Michael Lee Stever is originally from Sacramento, Ca and has called New York City his home for over twenty years.  Having worked successfully for over fifteen years as an actor, singer & dancer and now works on both coasts as a full time freelance filmmaker, camera man, editor, writer. He had the supreme pleasure of meeting TheaterPizzazz editor-in-chief Sandi Durell while working as UPM on the documentary, ‘Broadway: The Golden Age’ and is elated to be working with her again in the internet arena. Stever’s mini-documentaries ‘Resurrecting Carrie’ featuring Academy Award nominee Piper Laurie and ‘Jan Broberg’s Guide To Thespians, Sociopaths & Scream Queens!’ featuring Elijah Wood have been official selections at several east coast film festivals, and can be viewed right here at TheaterPizzazz. To learn more, visit Michael at www.MichaelStever.net or http://about.me/michaelstever

Carole Di Tosti, Ph.D. is a published writer, a novelist and poet. She has been writing theater and film reviews and interviews for Blogcritics since June 2013. Blogcritics has a global readership of 1 1/2 million a month. She also writes articles on wine, food, cabaret shows and exhibits ( i.e. NYBG). She authors/manages three blogs: The Fat and the Skinny, All Along the NYC Skyline, A Christian Apologists’ Sonnets. As a free lance writer, she contributed articles for Technorati on various trending topics from August 2011 – June 2013. She has written for The Mobility Resource and New York Theatre Wire. As a free lance writer and blogger, she covers NYC trending events and writes articles promoting advocacy on health and wellness among others topics. Carole is a voting member of the Drama Desk Awards.

 Marcina Zaccaria has published reviews and profiles, including an article honoring the original dancers of “West Side Story.”Monologues from her plays are published in “InterJACtions: Monologues from the Heart of Human Nature (Vol. II)”, available on Amazon.com.  She has participated in the Soho Rep Writer/ Director Lab and was an Adjudicator for the New York International Fringe Festival. She completed a writer’s residency at chaNorth, part of Chashama, and wrote and directed “Revolution: An Artistic Explosion.” She is a member of the League of Professional Theatre Women, and a reader for the New York Musical Theatre Festival. Marcina is Administrative Assistant and writer at TheaterPizzazz.com     marcinazac.weebly.com.

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