Drama Desk Holds 'Talent Behind the Scenes' Panel Jan.31

The Drama Desk will shine the spotlight on some of New York theater's leading behind-the-scenes creative talents at the organization's first special Panel of the new year on Thursday, January 31 at 5:30-7:30PM at BMI (320 West 57th Street, 3rd Floor).

The Panel, entitled "The Talent Behind The Scenes," will feature Lighting Designer Peggy Eisenhauer, Set Designers David Korins and James Morgan and Costume Designer Mimi O'Donnell. The Panel discussion will be moderated by James Houghton, Artistic Director of the Drama Desk-winning Signature Theatre Company. The event is produced by Drama Desk members Elyse Sommer and Ellis Nassour.

Light Refreshments will be served at 5:30PM. The Panel will begin at 6PM followed by member Q/A. Admission is free and members wishing to attend should RSVP to esommer@curtainup.com. Space is limited. Non Drama Desk members wishing to attend should also send an email and will receive a response no later than Monday, January 28, letting them know whether they can be accommodated.

Peggy Eisenhauer, who created the lighting for the 2007 revival of The Ritz, won the Tony Award and Drama Desk Award in 2004 for her lighting design for Assassins and in 2001 she earned a Tony nomination for her lighting on Jane Eyre. She has also created lighting for Chita Rivera: The Dancer's Life (2005), Caroline or Change (2004), the 2003 revival of Gypsy, Elaine Stritch At Liberty (2002) and Ragtime (1998), among many others.

David Korins is co-founder and producer of Edge Theater Company, as well as a freelance scenic and production designer. He has received three Drama Desk Award nominations for his work as a set designer – Essential Self Defense and Jack Goes Boating, both in 2007, and for Orange Flower Water in 2005. He created the set designs for Bridge & Tunnel (2006) and is creating the sets for Passing Strange which opens in February 2008.

Scenic designer/producer James Morgan is Artistic Director of York Theatre Company which was awarded a Drama Desk Special Award in 2007 for its "vital contributions to theater by developing and presenting new musicals." In 2006, the company received Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Musical for its production of Thrill Me. Other York Theatre productions featuring set designs by Morgan include Souvenir (2005) and several productions in the 1990's, among them Anna Karenina, Getting Married, The Miser, Zoya's Apartment and Sweeney Todd.

Mimi O'Donnell began her costume designing career at the Williamstown Theatre Festival in the early 1990's. She has since designed for the LABrynth Theatre production of In Arabia We'd All Be Kings, staged by Philip Seymour Hoffman, John Patrick Shanley's Where's My Money? at the Manhattan Theatre Club, while working as a costume designer at NBC-TV's "Saturday Night Live."

The Drama Desk, organized in 1949, presented its first awards in 1955. It is the only theater organization whose awards are competitive equally in the same categories for Broadway, Off-Broadway, Off-Off Broadway and not-for-profit theater productions