Allan Knee (Author)
is the author of the play, THE MAN WHO WAS PETER PAN, which was the basis for the film FINDING NEVERLAND (starring Johnny Depp and Kate Winslett). He is currently working on a musical adaptation of the film (music by Scott Frankel, lyrics by Michael Korie) for the Weinstein Company. He wrote the book for the Broadway musical, LITTLE WOMEN (music by Jason Howland, lyrics by Mindi Dickstein), starring Sutton Foster and Maureen McGovern. Among his other works are the romantic dance drama, SYNCOPATION, which won an American critics theater award, and is currently touring Australia; SHMULNIK’S WALTZ (music by David Shire), SANTA ANITA ’42, and A DREAM WITHIN A DREAM, about the life of Edgar Allan Poe. For PBS he wrote the four-part adaptation of THE SCARLET LETTER. In independent film, he has written, ESTHER’S DIARY, for Bright Shining City Productions, and is currently working on FILM NOIR, for FilmNoir Productions. Allan is a graduate of the Yale Drama School.
Jana Robbins (Producer)
founded BETTER WORLD PRODUCTIONS to "present theater and film entertainment that inspires us to create a Better World". She made her Broadway producing debut with Allan Knee's LITTLE WOMEN - The Musical starring Sutton Foster and Maureen McGovern. She was also one of the producers of the Off-Broadway musical I LOVE YOU BECAUSE. Ms. Robbins has been helping to develop THE JAZZ AGE, serving as Executive Producer in its first production at the 59E59 Street Theater, and producing its next developmental production in Association with The Blank Theater Company in Los Angeles starring Luke McFarlane of "Brothers and Sisters". Other future projects include THE GREAT GAME by D. Tucker Smith, and MANAGING MAXINE by Janece Shaffer which will open the 2012/2013 season at The Human Race Theater Company in Dayton, Ohio. Jana is very proud to be a Drama Desk and Tony nominated producer, having joined Kevin McCollum and Manny Azenberg in transferring last season's highly acclaimed Kennedy Center production of RAGTIME to Broadway.
Jana also helped to develop and produce the films "The Last Days of Frankie The Fly" with Keifer Sutherland, Dennis Hopper and Daryl Hannah, and "Executive Target" with Roy Schieder and Michael Madsen.
An actress as well, Jana's theater credits include leading roles on Broadway in GOOD NEWS, I LOVE MY WIFE, ROMANCE/ROMANCE, CRIMES OF THE HEART, GYPSY(standby for Tyne Daly); THE TALE OF THE ALLERGIST'S WIFE (Standby for Linda Lavin & Michele Lee) and starred opposite Valerie Harper when ALLERGIST'S WIFE went on National Tour and recently played the title role in the World Premiere of MANAGING MAXINE at The Alliance Theater in Atlanta.
Her television credits include guest starring roles on CHEERS, ROSEANNE, JAG, LAW AND ORDER, SVU, & CRIMINAL INTENT among others, and THE FEATURE FILM OF THE WOMEN starring Meg Ryan, Eva Mendez and Annette Benning.
A director as well as a producer, Jana directed CRIMES OF THE HEART at Gettysburg College, and LITTLE WOMEN at her Alma Mater and Women's College – Stephens College. Upcoming directing projects include directing LITTLE WOMEN again for Cal State Fullterton this spring, and is very proud to have been named the Artistic Director of The Okoboji Summer Theater celebrating its 55th season under the operation of her alma mater, Stephens College. For more information: www.janarobbins.com
Craig Haffner (Producer)
is a Tony nominated Broadway Producer (RAGTIME 2010), an Emmy award winning television writer/producer and an Eisner Award winning comic book editor. Craig's writing career launched in situation comedies for CBS and ABC and progressed into studio and television network marketing. The “business” part of “Show-“ was next with executive and producing jobs for the ABC Network and the ABC station group. As cable television dawned Craig founded Greystone Films & Television (1987-2007) which produced thousands of hours of factual, scripted and live event programming.
In 2007 Craig became a founding partner of New Comic Company, raising funding and purchasing all rights to the Warren Publications graphic comic novel titles CREEPY Magazine, EERIE Magazine. That material is being developed as feature films, scripted television series-both live action and animated, internet as well as print.
Other
theatre projects for Broadway include John Berendt's MIDNIGHT IN
THE GARDEN OF GOOD AND EVIL and AFRAID OF THE DARK for Off Broadway.
Steve Orich (Music Supervisor)
has worked as a successful Orchestrator, Composer and Musical Director in NY and LA for over thirty years, receiving a Tony nomination for Best Orchestrations for the 2006 Best Musical, Jersey Boys, with the album winning the Grammy as well.
As a composer, he has scored many television series & specials including ACE award-winning documentaries Mo' Funny for HBO and All About Bette Davis for TNT, Bob Hope . . . Laughing with the Presidents for NBC, and the award-winning PBS/Lifetime documentary Jackie Onassis: An Intimate Portrait.
He has orchestrated albums for artists including Helen Reddy, Judy Kaye, Debbie Gravitte, Petula Clark and Deborah Gibson.
Off-Broadway and in Regional Theatres, he has orchestrated Snapshots, Personals, Hamelin, Potholes, A Good Swift Kick, Paint Your Wagon, You Never Know and Can-Can. Other Los Angeles productions include orchestrating and conducting Michael Feinstein’s Great American Songbook at the Mark Taper Forum and Vocal Directing Bernstein’s Mass at the Hollywood Bowl. Most recently he orchestrated Turn of the Century for Tommy Tune at the Goodman Theatre. His orchestrations have been performed by the Boston Pops, at Carnegie Hall, the Kennedy Center, the White House and around the world.
Mark Stuart
(Movement Consultant)
Lauded by the Chicago Sun Times as “brilliant... steel-cut perfection,” Mark Stuart is a rising star of the entertainment scene in
Stuart most recently served as Choreographer on the Diesel: Fuel for Life television ad campaign. He also currently appears in a Revlon commercial, was recently featured in an exclusive performance for Madonna, and was the Assistant Choreographer for the world-premiere Broadway musical WOMEN ON THE VERGE OF A NERVOUS BREAKDOWN. Stuart also won the 2011 BroadwayWorld Award for Choreography for THE WIZ, hailed as “a work of art.”
A two-time Joseph Jefferson Award winner for Choreography (SWING!, THE ALL NIGHT STRUT), Mark is also an LA Ovation Award nominee for Featured Actor in a Musical (SWING!). Choreography credits include Broadway: WOMEN ON THE VERGE OF A NERVOUS BREAKDOWN, CHANCE AND CHEMISTRY, BROADWAY BARES XXI, GYPSY OF THE YEAR. Regional: LINCOLN CENTER SPRING GALA, BABALU, EROTIC BROADWAY, THE WIZ, JESUS CHRIST SUPERSTAR and LIFE COULD BE A DREAM among others. Performance credits include CATS, WEST SIDE STORY, LES MISERABLES, SWING! and MISS SAIGON. While film credits are as diverse as Idlewild, Bolden, and The Great Observer, Mark Stuart has also appeared in and choreographed several music videos. A two-time American Lindy Hop Champion, Stuart has enjoyed international celebrity for his role in SWING!, appearing in numerous TV specials and concerts worldwide.
La Vie Productions
(General Manager)
is dedicated to developing, producing and managing new works, fostering new talent and attracting new audiences. Current projects include: PSYCHO THERAPY (Cherry Lane), LIBERTY A MONUMENTAL NEW MUSICAL, ACADEMY, 100 YEARS INTO THE HEART, TAKING STEP THREE13 (rock-musical adaptation of Dostoevsky's "Crime and Punishment") and a new Korean musical in development with the OD Musical Company. Recent: JANE AUSTEN'S PRIDE AND PREJUDICE, THE KID WHO WOULD BE POPE, THE SPHINX WINX, IN THE HEIGHTS, and the independent feature film HOW WE GOT AWAY WITH IT. www.lavieproductions.com