Photo Coverage: Don't Quit Your Night Job Celebrates 2nd Anniversary 2008/06/30

Photo Coverage: Don't Quit Your Night Job Celebrates 2nd Anniversary

Monday, June 30, 2008; Posted: 01:06 PM - by Peter James Zielinski

On Thursday, June 26th, DON'T QUIT proudly celebrated its 2nd anniversary. The show began as a one-off benefit on June 26, 2006 at Joe's Pub, which grew into 10 sellout months. In the spring of 2007, a commercial production played off-Broadway at the HA! Comedy Club in Times Square.By 2008, the show was firmly planted at The Zipper Factory, playing to oversold houses for six months straight. All along, DON'T QUIT has contributed a percentage of its profits to Open Doors, raising over $20,000 for TDF's program over the course of the show's 2-year run.

DON'T QUIT YOUR NIGHT JOB is where Broadway goes to let its hair down. The late night happening of improv, music, sketches and stories was created by its stars: industry mainstays Steve Rosen (The Farnsworth Invention, Monty Python's Spamalot), David Rossmer (Fiddler on the Roof, Titanic), Sarah Saltzberg (The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee) and music director Dan Lipton (Paris Commune, The Coast of Utopia).

The 2^nd anniversary show featured a number of returning favorites from the DON'T QUIT stable of performers. Tony nominees Kelli O'Hara and John Ellison Conlee have both appeared in many DQYNJ shows. First-time guests included Ashley Brown (Mary Poppins herself), musical guest Lea Delaria, and the Tony winning conductor of South Pacific, Ted Sperling.

DON'T QUIT YOUR NIGHT JOB has launched its official website: dontquitnyc.com.

Open Doors is the Theatre Development Fund's theatre arts mentoring program for high school students, started in 1998 by TDF with playwright Wendy Wasserstein. Its goal is to explore the relevance of theatre in the lives of today's youth. The program matches distinguished theatre and dance professionals with students who have no prior exposure to theatre for an entire school year. Mentors accompany students to performances on and off Broadway, introducing them to the artists who create and perform NYC theatre.DON'T QUIT is proud to have raised over $20,000 for Open Doors since June 2006.

Photos by Peter James Zielinski

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David Ross mer, Sarah Saltzberg, and Steve Rosen wax nostalgic about the last 2 years of 'Don't Quit Your Night Job'