Way Off Broadway Launches WOB Entertainment

The Way Off Broadway Dinner Theatre has been one of the most unique entertainment venues in the region since it first opened. Offering a fantastic dinner combined with a Broadway-style show, the Way Off Broadway experience is a full evening of leisure and entertainment. But the dinner theatre is only on piece of what makes up Way Off Broadway. In 1996, the theatre opened, what has become, it's wildly popular Children's Theatre. To this day, the Way Off Broadway Children's Theatre is the only children's lunch matinee offered in the area.

When Way Off Broadway was purchased by the Kiska Family in 2002, it was done with a desire and plan to expand the theatre and its operations. As the years have gone on, productions have become more elaborate, and the theatre has become known for producing regional premieres of some of the biggest name shows that have made their way to the stage including Neil Simon's The Goodbye Girl - The Musical, Jerry Herman's La Cage aux Folles, the musical comedy The Wedding Singer, Mel Brooks' The Producers, and Dirty Rotten Scoundrels.

To continue the company's expansion and operations outside of the theatre itself, Bill Kiska, Way Off Broadway's CEO, has announced the formation of WOB Entertainment.

WOB Entertainment will serve as the multi-faceted division of Way Off Broadway that will manage and develop all of the company's activities outside of the dinner theatre. Designed to develop, produce, and present stage productions at venues throughout the area, it will also offer theatrical consulting and operation services, both creative and managerial, to other arts and commercial organizations and companies. WOB Entertainment will also be the agent and representative for all of the original works first produced at The Way Off Broadway Dinner Theatre, including its interactive murder mystery, holiday productions, and the wildly popular Children's Theatre Collection.

To head the new division, Kiska has named Way Off Broadway's President and Managing Director, Justin M. Kiska, Chairman of WOB Entertainment, saying, "Justin has been working for quite some time on putting all of the pieces together so we can start doing more outside of the Way Off Broadway itself and expanding the Way Off Broadway name and brand so it was only natural for him to take the lead and head up WOB Entertainment."

In turn, (Justin) Kiska tapped as his chief deputies Betsey Whitmore Brannen as the divisions General Manager and Jordan Stocksdale as its Creative Director, saying.

WOB Entertainment's first project is acting as media representative for Other Voices Productions' upcoming staging of the musical Footloose at the Performing Arts Factory in Frederick, Maryland; and has also taken on the role of general press representative for Stock•ing Productions. WOB Entertainment's first producing venture is aiming for spring 2011, with several other productions in discussions for further into the 2011 theatre season.

WOB Entertainment is a part of The Way Off Broadway Dinner Theatre, which has been a leader in the region's performing arts community since it first opened in 1995. Under the direction of the Kiska Family since 2002, WOB has produced such productions as A Funny Thing . . . Forum, Guys & Dolls, Steel Magnolias, Oklahoma!, Grease, Fiddler on the Roof, The Odd Couple, A Chorus Line, The Sound of Music, Thoroughly Modern Millie, Evita, and Cats, as well as the regional and area premieres of Neil Simon's The Goodbye Girl - The Musical, Jerry Herman's La Cage aux Folles, the musical comedy The Wedding Singer, Mel Brooks' The Producers, and Dirty Rotten Scoundrels. Located along Route 40 West, the Golden Mile in Frederick, the theatre, in addition to its Mainstage and Children's Theatre, produces a variety of special events throughout the year. Way Off Broadway's 2011 Mainstage Season features The Drowsy Chaperone, Rodgers and Hammerstein's South Pacific, Hairspray, Chicago, and Christmas Tidings.

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