Broadway Theatre Project to Welcome Guest Artist Chazz Palminteri for 2016 Season

Academy Award nominated actor, screenwriter and producer, Chazz Palminteri, will be joining Broadway Theatre Project's 2016 season for the first time as a guest artist. Gianna Palminteri, Chazz' wife, writer, actor, producer and vocal technique teacher, will also be joining Broadway Theatre Project.

Chazz Palminteri wrote the original script for A Bronx Tale, the story of his life as a young man and performed it onstage as a one-man show. The play was originally performed in Los Angeles when Robert DeNiro saw the show and moved the production to New York where it played for four sold-out months and earned Palminteri nominations for New York Outer Critics Circle.

While in New York, Chazz completed writing the screenplay of A Bronx Tale, and shortly thereafter, Robert DeNiro made his directorial debut with the big screen version that co-starred Palminteri.

Recently, with Chazz writing the book and Robert DeNiro along with Jerry Zaks directing, A Bronx Tale - The Musical was produced, a brilliant musical theatre piece. It recently closed at Paper Mill Playhouse and is in preparation for its move to Broadway. Music composed by Alan Menken, Lyrics by Glenn Slater, Choreography by Sergio Trujillo.

Chazz received an Academy award nomination for his performance in Woody Allen's 1994 film, Bullets Over Broadway. Other film credits include The Perez Family, Jade, Diabolique, Oscar, Analyze This and Down to Earth. Television credits include Modern Family, starring in the Vanilla Coke 'Reward their Curiosity' campaign as well as voice-over work in animated films including Hoodwinked.

Chazz received the 1996 Leadership in Entertainment Award from the Coalition of Italo-American Association, Inc. and was honored by President Clinton with a Special Achievement Award for the Performing Arts from the National Italian American Foundation in Washington, D.C.

The 26th Season of Broadway Theatre Project will take place on July 10-31, 2016. Chazz joins the ranks of Gregory Hines, Julie Andrews, Joel Grey, Jed Bernstein, and Patti Lupone, among many others as a guest faculty member at the Project.

Broadway Theatre Project (BTP), a nonprofit 501(c)(3) organization celebrating its 26th anniversary in 2016, is the renowned three-week musical theatre training program that provides its apprentices with critical training in the disciplines of acting, dancing and singing, taught by a faculty of accomplished educators and performers. As part of its mission, the program strives to engender students with the critical life skills necessary to prepare students to work in the professional world of performing arts. Broadway Theatre Projects endeavors to provide educational excellence and mold a creative, collaborative, well-rounded, mentally well-balanced, professional, musical theatre arts performer.

Sessions are held annually every July in Tampa on the campus of the University of South Florida. 2016 Co - Artistic Directors are Debra McWaters and Herman Payne. Project Directors are Debra McWaters and Steve Ray of Rei Entertainment.