Desire for Artistic Directors: Insider Conversations

Mark Danni – is the Founding Artistic Director of TheatreZone, Naples’ professional Equity theatre company, where he has directed and produced over 100 musicals and plays. He also created and runs the theatre program at The Community School of Naples, and has directed and collaborated on joint productions with Opera Naples, Gulfshore Opera, and Florida Gulf Coast University. After starting his career as a drummer/percussionist on Broadway for Chicago, Grand Hotel, Miss Saigon, Les Misérables, Joseph…Dreamcoat, Annie Get Your Gun and Nunsense, he moved up to conduct the national tours of Les Misérables and Barnum. He also toured with The Phantom Of The Opera, 42nd Street, Hair, Evita, Les Misérables and Fame. As a director, Mark’s Off-Broadway directing credits include Aggravation, and What Would Esther Williams Do In A Situation Like This? He has directed many Broadway veterans and celebrities such as Gary Sandy (WKRP In Cincinnati), Andrea McArdle (Broadway’s original Annie), Donna McKechnie (A Chorus Line), and Georgia Engel (Mary Tyler Moore & Everybody Loves Raymond). In addition, Mark directed productions of The Medium and The Telephone at Artis-Naples, West Side Story (starring Grammy Award winner Isabel Leonard) at Opera Naples, Brigadoon at Gulfshore Opera, and Sweeney Todd at Opera Roanoke. Originally from Buffalo, NY, Mark attended Baldwin-Wallace University in Cleveland, Ohio, and is a member of The Society of Directors and Choreographers, and the American Federation of Musicians.

Born in Pennsylvania to a large working class family, GARY POWERS
loved performing from an early age. His father took him around the
state singing in talent shows; Gary usually won. Obsessed with L.
Frank Baum’s THE WIZARD OF OZ, Gary wrote a show when he was
eight-years-old, ten years before he’d see his first Broadway musical.
After two years studying journalism at Penn State, he transferred to
Boston’s Emerson College to study acting and directing. For 35 years,
Gary worked in box offices on Broadway (and Off-BW) when not acting
in shows. While working at Boston’s Colonial Theatre in 1981 during
the pre-Broadway tryout of WOMAN OF THE YEAR, he developed a
close relationship with composer John Kander (CABARET), receiving a
‘master class’ in the development of new musicals from a theatre legend.
After moving to NYC in 1990, Gary studied playwriting with the Circle
Rep’s Milan Stitt (THE RUNNER STUMBLES), further developing his
craft. In 2015, he retired as a Box Office treasurer at Broadway’s
Ambassador Theatre (home to Kander’s CHICAGO), moving to sunny
Southern California to continue writing and performing. Gary has
written three musicals, countless plays and numerous songs. Last year,
he founded the Revolution Stage Company in Palm Springs with
producing partner, James Owens, opening the theatre by starring in the
world premier of his one-person musical, NOT IN FRONT OF THE
CHILDREN. During its first seven months, the Revolution has
presented over 160 performances on its stage. Still in its first season,
the RSC has been heralded as ‘Palm Springs’ newest, most-innovative
theater company’ by the Coachella Valley Independent. Gary is happily
married and a ‘Dog Dad’ to three loving rescues.

Evelyn Rudie grew up as a child star - receiving an Emmy nomination at age 6 and a star on the Hollywood Boulevard Walk of Fame at age 9! She guest-starred on television for many years (Wagon Train, 77 Sunset Strip, Alfred Hitchcock Presents, the Dinah Shore Show, The Red Skelton Show, and 50 + more) and made her film debut in The Gift of Love. She has performed for the US Treasury and was invited to the White House where she received the golden key to the city and an honorary membership to the Secret Service. This year, Evelyn celebrates 51 years of Co-Artistic Director leadership (together with Chris DeCarlo) of Santa Monica Playhouse and is Co-Founder of Actors’ Repertory Theatre, the Young Professional’s Company, the Mobile Touring Project, the Schools Theatre Excursion Project, the American Cultural Youth Ambassadors and the BFF Free Festival of Theatre, the only free fringe festival on the West Coast. She has performed and directed on three continents and 11 countries. Her original musicals have performed globally for more than a quarter of a million people to date.