About the People -
Production Staff
(Meet
the Cast)
John Dietrich (Book Writer /
Lyricist)
John has had a career as
a professional Director / Choreographer that has
spanned over 25 years. This includes a 17 year
relationship with Radio City Entertainment,
where he was a Director / Choreographer for the
world-famous Rockettes, Rockette Special Events,
as well as for the Radio City Christmas
Spectacular. Other work includes hundreds of
shows in a vast range of entertainment genres;
from television to Off-Broadway & regional
theatre, from industrial shows to ice shows. He
has written for Walt Disney Entertainment, as
well as for Dolly Parton & Dollywood
Entertainment.
He received his Masters degree from New York
University, studying Musical Theatre structure &
Directing theory. He also holds a Bachelor of
Music degree from the University of Wisconsin.
He continues to freelance as a Director /
Choreographer & Writer while maintaining a
position as a Creative Director/Writer for Niles
Creative Group, a film production company
specializing in large scale theatrically based
video productions, based in lower Manhattan.
Jonathan Comisar (Composer)
Jonathan Comisar
began his music career in his native Rochester,
N.Y., where he studied piano in the preparatory
department of the Eastman School of Music. At
the age of 17, he won first prize in the Eastman
Young Artists Award and performed as soloist
with the Rochester Philharmonic Orchestra. He
continued to study piano and music theory at the
Oberlin Conservatory and after graduation,
studied composition with Pulitzer Prize winning
composer David Del Tredici.
Jonathan Comisar is an invested Cantor with a
Masters in Sacred Music from the Hebrew Union
College School of Sacred Music. He is a noted
composer of Jewish liturgical music and has
received commissions and artist residencies from
synagogues across North America. Many of his
compositions have been published by
Transcontinental Music Publishing. Comisar also
has been appointed to the faculty of Hebrew
Union College, where he teaches courses on
arranging, orchestration, and composition.
Jonathan Comisar is a composer/lyricist in the
prestigious BMI Lehman Engel Musical Theater
Workshop. His musical theater piece “Things As
They Are,” a musical about the life of American
photographer Dorothea Lange has been selected as
one of five finalists for the Fred Ebb
Foundation Award. His musical comedy “Cynthia
and the Dreadful Kite” was premiered at the
Public Theater as part of the Labyrinth Barn
Series.
Ariadne Villarreal (Producer)
Ariadne Villarreal
recently left her position of Senior Vice
President/Global Managing Director of Production
at EventQuest. She was responsible for leading,
organizing and training the EventQuest
production teams both here in the USA and the
Middle East for the office based in Abu Dhabi.
She ensured events were produced with the
highest level of professionalism and that
client’s expectations were met in every
capacity.
Prior to EventQuest, Ariadne spent ten years as
the Associate Director of Special Projects At
Broadway Cares. She produced many high profile
events including shows by Jennifer Holliday and
Patti Lupone at Lincoln Center, as well as five
annual Nothing Like a Dame performances
featuring women on Broadway, including Meryl
Streep, Hilary Swank, and Whoopi Goldberg and
three ABC Daytime Salutes Broadway Cares
featuring Susan Lucci, Cameron Mathison,
John-Paul Lavoisier, Kassie Wesley DePaiva and
Tony Geary.
Previously, she worked on three continents and
in many aspects of the performing arts and event
management. Prior to moving back to NYC, Ariadne
owned an entertainment production agency based
in London. In Tokyo, Japan, she produced and
choreographed shows for Paul Anka, Christopher
Cross, and Diana Ross.
She lives in Brooklyn with her supportive
husband, lovely son and labradoodle.
Donna Drake (Director)
Broadway: original
production of A Chorus Line, Sophisticated
Ladies, Woman of the Year, The Wind in the
Willows, 5678-Dance, It’s so nice to be
Civilized and the original production
of The 1940s Radio Hour.
Awards: an Emmy nomination, 4 Drama Desk
Nominations, A Mac Award Nomination and a
Theatre World Award.
She choreographed Catherine Zeta Jones for the
American Film Institute Awards and currently
running Off-Broadway she directed a new
children’s show; John Tartaglia’s Imaginocean.
TV credits: The New Fangled Variety
Show, Disney’s Johnny & the Sprites, ABC TV’s
Dear Alex & Annie, One life to live and The
Edge of Night.
Regional credits: The Wizard of Oz, starring
Mickey Rooney & Eartha Kitt; Romance In The
Dark, starring Jennifer Holliday; Nothing Like A
Dame, BC/EFA 2004-06, All the world is a
Stage at Carnegie Hall. A Chorus Line, AIDA,
Chicago, Hairspray, Rent, Tommy, Damn Yankees,
NEWSicle, Annie, Love Always, Patsy Cline,
Smokey Joes Café, Sweet Charity, Honk!, Beauty
& the Beast, Chess. National tour &
documentary for Varla Jean Merman, BOOBS! The
musical, Christmas with the Crawfords
Alexander Rovang (Musical Director)
Alexander Rovang is a
graduate of the Oberlin Conservatory. Recent
credits include the Chinese Tour of “Fame”,
“Sawdust Palace” w/ Susan Marshall & Co., and
“Monkey: Journey to the West” at the Spoleto
Festival (USA). A native Nebraskan, and lifelong
fan of Garrison Keillor, Mr.Rovang hopes someday
to get a real job like his mother (a
cardiologist) or really throw in the towel and
race motorcycles like his dad. He will probably
be survived by everybody.
Kurt Alger (Costume Designer)
Credits include Always
Patsy Cline, Chicago, Spamalot, Jesus Christ
Superstar, Light in the Piazza, The Drowsy
Chaperone at Maine State Music Theatre where he
also serves as resident Wig Designer. Highlights
include: All Shook Up, The Producers, Les
Miz, Dirty Rotten Scoundrels, Hairspray! Kurt
serves as rentals manager for Maine State
Costume Rentals. Elsewhere: RENT, Beauty and the
Beast, The Rhelm of Chelm, The
Fantastics, Follies, Oliver!, Melody Lingers On,
Guys and Dolls, Blood Brothers, The Music Man,
Drood, Forum, Reefer Madness, Rocky Horror, Take
Flight,Waiting for the Moon, My Fair Lady,
Inherit The Wind, Glimpses of the Moon, Jerry’s
Girls, Dog Sees God, Broadway Bares, and Jerry
Springer the Opera at Carnegie Hall. Previous
NYMF: Caligula and work on Such Good Friends.
Recently produced and designed the world premier
of Born Blue directed by Anthony Rapp.
Jim French (Lighting Designer)
New York credits: In The
Continuum (Primary Stages); Strom Thurmond,
Cleansed (Immediate Theatre); The
Tempest (Sonnet Rep); ABC Daytime Salutes
Broadway Cares (Broadway Cares/Equity Fights
AIDS).
Regional: Pittsburgh Irish and Classical
Theatre, City Theater Company, St. Louis Rep.
Dance: Cedar Lake Contemporary Ballet, Twyla
Tharp Dance, Richmond Ballet, Jennifer
Muller/The Works, Chet Walker, Chitresh Das,
Adele Myers and Dancers, Gabrielle Lansner,
Jacob's Pillow Dance Festival.
David Niles (Projection Design &
Integration)
David Niles began his
career in New York City migrating from
architecture to theatre to audio recording and
eventually to television. From 1972 through
1987, David was based in Paris, France, where he
established a series of innovative studios and
mobile production facilities. Aside from serving
the European television market, David created
programming for numerous clients to include:
CBS, NBC, ABC, HBO, NHK and ESPN. His European
work earned him the prestigious "Chevalier des
Arts et Lettres" from French government.
In 1985, Niles created the first HDTV production
facility in the world producing feature films,
commercials and television programming in this
emerging format. In 1987 Niles returned to New
York to create America's first full production
facility for HDTV. He acquired the famous Ed
Sullivan Theater, and following complete
renovation of the theater, he produced the
premiere HDTV productions of many legendary
artists including Tony Bennett, Mick Jagger,
Aerosmith, Crosby, Stills & Nash, and Jackie
Mason. He also produced the successful Broadway
show, "Dreamtime.” This was the first time that
HD imagery was integrated into a live
performance.
Mr. Niles has received numerous awards for his
contributions to the industry most notably an
Astrolabium and numerous citations from the
Montreux Electronic Cinema Festival, the
"Chevalier des Arts et Lettres" and an Emmy
nomination. He is also a member of the 200
person. Academy of Digital Television (DTV)
Pioneers, The Academy of Motion Picture and
Television and was a SMPTE Engineer. Presently,
David and his company, NILES CREATIVE GROUP,
produces, directs and edits original programming
for numerous on air networks, consults for
fortune 500 companies, develops new technologies
and conceives, designs and executes large format
projects from start to finish for companies
including Comcast, Radio City Music Hall,
Federated Department Stores, Panasonic, Walt
Disney Imagineering and Madison Square Garden.
Michael Clarkston (Production Stage
Manager)
Broadway: Avenue Q,
Chitty Chitty Bang Bang, Hairspray, In The
Heights, Jersey Boys, The Lion King, Tour: White
Christmas (Orig. Co), The Lion King (Cheetah,
Los Angeles), Xanadu Live! (Los Angeles, St.
Louis)
Other: Elton John’s Goodbye Yellow Brick
Road 35th Anniversary Concert, West Side
Story 50th Anniversary Reunion
Performance, Sunset Blvd. (Ogunquit), The Who’s
Tommy 15th Anniversary Reunion Concert, The Best
Little Whorehouse In Texas(Actor’s Fund), Miss
Saigon, Evita, Peter Pan, Meet Me In St. Louis,
Camelot, Scene It! New York,
Readings: The Nightingale, Slut, Breaking Up Is
Hard To Do
Film: The Diplomat, Freegan Love, Wilderness.
Bobby McGuire (Press and Marketing)
Bobby McGuire spent the
90's working in various production capacities on
a host of Broadway shows and Natl. tours
including DREAM, A CHRISTMAS CAROL (MSG), THE
WIZARD OF OZ (MSG with Roseanne), STANLEY, THE
CIVIL WAR and THE SOUND OF MUSIC (Natl Tour).
At the dawn of the millenium, Bobby left the
bight lights of Broadway for the blinding
fluorescents of Madison Avenue working in
advertising, promotions and publishing. In his
non-theatrical professional life he was part of
the problem with IBM, Goldman Sachs and Aventis
Pharmaceuticals. For the past four years he has
been proud to be part of the solution as head of
marketing, media and promotions for Broadway
Cares / Equity Fights AIDS.
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