Urie, Marans & More Set For NEW DIRECTIONS FOR GAY THEATER Panel 4/11

The Off Broadway Alliance, the organization of Off Broadway producers, general managers, venue owners, press agents and marketing personnel, will hold the second in a series of seminars focused on the culture, business and history of Off Broadway theater. The seminar, titled "New Directions for Gay Theater", will feature Christopher Sieber and Michael Zam (star and book writer of The New Group's The Kid), Michael Urie and Jon Marans (star and author of The Temperamentals at New World Stages), Leslie Jordan (author and star of Leslie Jordan's My Trip Down the Pink Carpet at The Midtown Theater) and Joseph Zellnik (composer of Yank! at The York Theater).

Patrick Healy, theater reporter for The New York Times, will moderate the discussion.

The panel will be held at The Snapple Theater Center's Jerry Orbach Theater on Sunday, April 11, 2010. Doors will open at Noon for networking and complimentary continental breakfast and coffee. The panel will take place from 12:30pm - 2:00pm. The Snapple Theater Center is located at 210 West 50th Street (at Broadway).

Admission for the seminar is free, however reservations are a must. To RSVP for the event, visit http://april11obaseminar.eventbrite.com/ before April 9.

About The Off Broadway Alliance

The Off Broadway Alliance is an organization of Off Broadway producers, general managers, venue owners, press agents and marketing firms who meet monthly to promote and support Off Broadway theatre, encourage and assist new producers and plan for the future of the industry. Membership is open to everyone in the Off Broadway theater community.

The Alliance created and administers 20 at 20, the biannual event where you can purchase $20 tickets to participating Off Broadway shows 20 minutes prior to curtain. This past June, The Alliance released the first ever Off Broadway Economic Impact Report, which detailed Off Broadway's $461 million impact on the City of New York during the 2008 theater season.

For more information visit www.offbroadwayalliance.com

About Patrick Healy

Patrick Healy is the theater reporter for the New York Times, covering Broadway/Off Broadway/national theater news and writing features, profiles, and idea-driven articles.

Before becoming the theater reporter in December 2008, he covered the 2008 presidential campaign for the Times. For sixteen months, he was the paper's lead reporter on Hillary Rodham Clinton's presidential campaign; after Barack Obama won the Democratic nomination, he joined the team of reporters covering the general election. Before the campaign, Mr. Healy was the political correspondent in the Times Metro section. In that role, he covered Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg's re-election in 2005 and the Eliot Spitzer for Governor, Andrew M. Cuomo for Attorney General and Hillary Clinton for Senate races in 2006.

Mr. Healy was a reporter for The Boston Globe from 2000 until late 2004. While at The Globe, he covered the presidential campaigns of Senator John Kerry and Senator John Edwards; several foreign assignments that brought him to Iraq and Afghanistan; and higher education in Boston, Cambridge, and the region.

From 1994 until 2000, Mr. Healy worked for The Chronicle of Higher Education, first as a reporter for government and politics and later as political editor. Mr. Healy began his career as a reporter at Foster's Daily Democrat in New Hampshire.

He studied playwriting at New York University and received his B.A. in English from Tufts University in 1993. In 2002, he was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize for beat reporting on higher education. In 2001, he received the Livingston Award for his Globe series on Harvard honors and grade inflation, the Grand Prize for Distinguished Education Reporting from the Education Writers Association and the First Place Award for Investigative Reporting from the EWA. Mr. Healy lives in Manhattan.

About The Panelists

Leslie Jordan stepped off a Greyhound bus in 1982 from the hills of Tennessee, said "hello" to Hollywood and has never looked back. With hundreds of television shows, films and commercials to his credit, he has become a familiar face on the entertainment scene. Leslie is the 2006 Emmy Award Winner for Outstanding Guest Actor in a Comedy Series for his delicious portrayal of "Beverley Leslie" on "Will and Grace." Feature film audiences will recognize Leslie from his performance as "Brother Boy" in Del Shores' adaptation of his play Sordid Lives with Olivia Newton-John, Delta Burke and Beau Bridges. He reprises the role in the television series based on the play and film for the cable network Logo. Recent feature film appearances include "Love Ranch" in a wonderful scene with Helen Mirren directed by Taylor Hackford, and "Wanted: Undead or Alive" with Chris Kattan. Television audiences will remember Leslie in recurring roles on "Ugly Betty," "Boston Legal," "Hidden Palms," and "Reba." On stage, Mr. Jordan won the Ovation Award, The Garland Award and The Los Angeles Drama Critics Circle Award for his portrayal of "Preston Leroy," the aging, sodden barfly in Del Shores hit play Southern Baptist Sissies. Leslie's autobiographical one-man show Like a Dog on Linoleum performed to sold-out audiences at the Elephant Asylum Theater in Los Angeles, the Annenberg Theater in Palm Springs, the Bailiwick Theater in Chicago, the 14th Street Playhouse in Atlanta, and the Lorraine Hansberry Theater in San Francisco. Mr. Jordan has also enjoyed considerable success as a writer. His play Hysterical Blindness and Other Southern Tragedies That Have Plagued My Life Thus Far ran to sold-out houses in Los Angeles and had a successful seven-month run Off-Broadway at The Playhouse on Van Dam in New York City. His screenplay "Lost in the Pershing Point Hotel" won the Los Angeles Independent Film Festival's Production Grant Award, winning the competition over 600 other scripts. Subsequently, it was made into an independent feature film distributed by Northern Arts Entertainment.

Jon Marans Old Wicked Songs, 1996 Pulitzer Prize Finalist for Drama, winner of New York Drama League, L.A. Drama Logue Award, included in Otis Guernsey's Best Plays of 1996-97. Premiered in NYC at the Barrow Group; then transferred by Daryl Roth to the Promenade Theater. Produced in over a dozen countries including England in London's West End with Bob Hoskins and James Callis. Some other shows include: A Strange and Separate People, Penguin Rep. Jumping For Joy, Laguna Playhouse and Independent Theater for the International Adelaide Theater Festival in Australia. Legacy of the Dragonslayers, based on Studs Terkel's "Coming of Age" (book by Jon Marans, San Jose Repertory Theatre. The musical Irrationals (book & lyrics Jon Marans, music by Edward Thomas) at the Village Theater in Seattle and ATA, NYC. In television, writer/lyricist for the 1991 New Carol Burnett Show. In film , Jon Marans and Yuri Sivo have written the screenplay Chasing The Dragon for Universal Pictures/Tribeca. Mr. Marans is a graduate of Duke University in mathematics and a minor in music.

Christopher Sieber Broadway: Shrek (Tony, Drama Desk, Outer Critics Circle, Drama League Nominations), Spamalot (New York and West End, Tony Nomination), Chicago, Thoroughly Modern Millie, Into the Woods, Beauty and the Beast, Triumph of Love, A Christmas Carol. NYC Opera: Cinderella, Eric Idle's Not the Messiah, a comic oratorio (Toronto Symphony). Off-Broadway: Avow, The Boys in the Band. Regional: Company, The Boys from Syracuse (Reprise!). TV: "Pushing Daisies," "Johnny and the Sprites", "It's All Relative", "Two of a Kind", "Sex and the City", "Ed", "Guiding Light", "All My Children", "Another World". Mr. Sieber has not appeared on "Law & Order".

Michael Urie played three roles in the world premiere of Dickie and Babe at The Blank Theatre in LA. Regional credits include Horatio in Dan Sullivan's Hamlet at SCR, The Old Globe, Seattle Rep, DC's Folger Theatre, Barrington Stage, and Austin's Hyde Park Theatre. In New York, Michael has worked with The Nerve Ensemble at HERE, The Foundry, HB Playwrights, and in WTC VIEW during the Fringe Festival, which went on to become a film from director/writer Brian Sloan. Michael has appeared at The Triad Theatre as Miley Cyrus, David Cassidy, Kenny Loggins, Tommy Lee and sometimes Lance Bass in the hilarious Celebrity Autobiography. With producing partner Glenn Meehan, he is co-founder of UR-MEE productions. Michael can also be heard as the voice of Sebastian in Beverly Hills Chihuahua, and seen on ABC as Marc on Ugly Betty. Training: Juilliard.

Michael Zam is currently penning a stage adaptation of novel Selfish & Perverse by Bob Smith for director Jerry Mitchell. Screenplays include (with co-writer, Jaffe Cohen) Best Actress (Black List of Best New Screenplays, 2009) to be produced by Plan B Entertainment and directed by Ryan Murphy; and just completed Wife Vs. Ninja for DreamWorks Pictures. Along with his collaborators, honored with BMI's Jerry Bock Award for Outstanding Achievement in Musical Theatre for The Kid. He continues teaching screenwriting at NYU (Award for Teaching Excellence, 1998 and 2007) and Modern British Drama every August at NYU in London.

Joseph Zellnik's previous musicals include First in Flight: The Wright Brothers for TheaterworksUSA, which toured the country to raves in 2004-05, and City of Dreams, which was performed at the first International Music Theatre Festival (Cardiff, Wales 2002), the Midtown InterNational Theatre Festival (New York, 2002), and which won the National Music Theatre Network competition in 2003. Two songs from City of Dreams appear on Alison Fraser's album Men In My Life. In addition to composing, Joe has collaborated with his sister on the historical mysteries Murder at the Portland Variety and A Death at the Rose Paperworks (both from Midnight Ink). For more, check out www.LibbySeale.com. He is currently at work on his first solo novelistic effort

Photo Credit: Amy Shaughnessy

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