Bruce Apar
Bruce Apar is principal of boutique marketing agency APAR PR. His career in media spans publishing, acting, writing, marketing, digital production, Hollywood, home entertainment, event production, and television hosting.
As a weekly columnist, he regularly reviews local theater, and also posts them online under “Bruce The Blog Beyond Broadway” (at BruceTheBlog.com). He is listed as a local “mayor” on community news platform Patch.com.
As an actor, Bruce has appeared in local commercials, indie films, web series, and stage plays.
He has launched consumer and business periodicals, including a home entertainment monthly for 7-Eleven, and was editor and publisher of an award-winning suburban weekly newspaper.
Currently, Bruce is secretary of the board of Peekskill Arts Center (under construction, due to open 2020), chairs the Yorktown Arts Council for the Yorktown Chamber of Commerce, and manages PR for the Art Industry Media (AIM) Committee of the Hudson Valley Gateway Chamber of Commerce. Bruce sits on the President’s Council of Northern Westchester Hospital. He serves as an occasional MC, including American Cancer Society’s Relay for Life and cabaret venue The Winery at St. George.
He is the “ghostwriter” for a non-fiction book being published in August 2019 by ForbesBooks, “Fisch Tales: The Making of a Millennial Baby Boomer” by Bob Fisch. It focuses on life and career advice through “mutual mentoring,” based on the author’s experiences as CEO of a major apparel specialty retail chain.
With wife Elyse and daughter Elissa, he runs a community charity, Harrison Apar Field of Dreams Foundation, in memory of their son, who passed in 2003 at 15. Says Bruce of his son, “Born with a rare dwarfism, very similar to Fantasy Island actor Herve Villechaize, Harrison stood three feet tall, but when he performed on stage, he felt 10 feet tall.” The Foundation is an ardent supporter of local performing arts students and organizations.
BWW Review: OFF PEAK Finds Hudson Stage in Peak Form
BWW Review: Jukebox Musical MILLION DOLLAR QUARTET at Chappaqua Performing Arts Center
BWW Review: I AND YOU at Penguin Rep Theatre Climaxes in a Surreal Reveal
All the World's a Stage, Including Central Park for this Acting Class
BWW Review: THE OCTOBER STORM Lights Up Hudson Stage
at Whippoorwill Theatre
BWW Review: AN EVENING OF ONE ACTS Joyously Welcomes Audiences Back to Ridgefield Theater Barn
BWW Review: DINERS, DIVES, AND DREAMERS at Westchester Collaborative Theater
BWW Review: Livin' La Vida DIVAS at Ridgefield Theater BarnMay 11, 2022
Gunderson’s characters are two high school seniors who could not be more unlike each other. Yet, as we find out, they end up soulmates in the most surreal way imaginable.
BWW Review: Jukebox Musical MILLION DOLLAR QUARTET at Chappaqua Performing Arts Center
May 4, 2022
Apart from the infectious, wall-to-wall music, which is rousingly played live on stage by all the actors, what makes Million Dollar Quartet a crowd-pleaser is the interpersonal dramas driven by the egos of four pop music pioneers.
BWW Review: OFF PEAK Finds Hudson Stage in Peak Form
April 27, 2022
After 23 years and 37 productions, Hudson Stage producers Denise Bessette and Olivia Sklar have decided it’s time they gave themselves some well-deserved R&R.
BWW Review: Livin' La Vida DIVAS at Ridgefield Theater Barn
February 15, 2022
There are no weighty messages here. No high drama. Just fun stuff, listening to a couple of 60ish female actors, virtually joined at the hip, tease and tolerate each other with all manner of jokey repartee, acid-laced with rapier ripostes that cut to the quick.
BWW Review: DINERS, DIVES, AND DREAMERS at Westchester Collaborative Theater
December 7, 2021
Authored by five writers of diverse voices, styles and skillsets, tying the eclectic tales together is a uniform fascination with the meaning of existence, notably the randomness and revelations inherent in human interaction.
BWW Review: THE OCTOBER STORM Lights Up Hudson Stage at Whippoorwill Theatre
October 14, 2021
Mr. Allen has serious issues here to litigate -- children abandoned by a parent, Veterans abandoned by their government, wives abandoned by unfaithful spouses -- but the inevitable downers of life are entertainingly leavened by graceful, easy-flowing humor that springs not from punchy one-liners, but from the personality of the characters.
All the World's a Stage, Including Central Park for this Acting Class
July 19, 2021
'Just to be back in person doing theater again feels like such a gift after being on computers for a year or more.'
BWW Review: AN EVENING OF ONE ACTS Joyously Welcomes Audiences Back to Ridgefield Theater Barn
June 22, 2021
This smartly-curated collection of five short, lively, skillfully-mounted plays -- running without intermission for a fast-moving 90 or so minutes -- is a fine and fun way to become reacquainted with the kind of pleasures only live-audience theater can offer. (Zoom theater ably serves its purpose as a stop-gap -- not a substitute -- for in-the-room theater.)
BWW Previews: LIBERTY SPEAKS Performs on Pop-Up Patio at Philipstown Depot Theatre June 11-12
May 18, 2021
Six short plays and monologues explore diversity, equity and inclusion in our homes, neighborhoods and theatres in live performances June 11-12 as part of Philipstown Depot Theatre Pop-Up Patio Series
BWW Review: VIRTUAL LIVING ART EVENT at Westchester Collaborative Theater: 7 Playwrights Paint Pictures With Words
March 22, 2021
In VIRTUAL LIVING ART EVENT at Westchester Collaborative Theater, 7 Playwrights Paint Pictures With Words
BWW Review: One Actor, 25 Characters Bring Alive A CHRISTMAS CAROL at Ridgefield Theater Barn
December 7, 2020
When the ghost of Scrooge’s deceased partner Jacob Marley shows up to apprise him of the three visitations coming his way, if you close your eyes, Mr. Spaddacino would have you believing there were two actors on stage. It’s a lot of fun to watch -- and hear.
BWW Review: At Westchester Broadway Theatre, FIVE GUYS NAMED MOE Got Mucho Mojo
February 4, 2020
I don't remember a show moving with such energy, grace, Moe-mentum, musicality and sheer fun. From the moment the Moes materialize until the moment they Moe-sey off stage, this musical is magical, with just the right mix of mayhem, mugging and music.
BWW Review: LEND ME A TENOR at Westchester Broadway Theatre Sends In the Clowns
January 12, 2020
While Lend Me a Tenor's tenor is typically farcical -- breakneck pace, mistaken identities, misunderstandings, overactive hormones, sexual wordplay, frenetic and improbable physicality, and a panoply of slamming doors -- what sets it apart from others of its ilk is the musical conceit that drives the nutty plot.
BWW Review: THE MARVELOUS WONDERETTES at Ridgefield Theater Barn Sings the Phrases of AM Radio and 45s
December 19, 2019
The Marvelous Wonderettes tugs at the memories of audiences who remember the days when AM radio ruled the airwaves and 45-rpm records were stacked, like hotcakes, on a phonograph spindle.
BWW Review: BACK TO THE GARDEN at Axial Theatre Follows Adam + Eve's Eviction from Eden
November 5, 2019
Mr. Gorn's distinctive voice vibrates with wry humor, a supple command of language, and fascination with the insoluble puzzle of our being. Mordant musings about the wonder and woes of earthly existence are leavened by playful shtick that, far from disrupting the story, puts a shine on it.
BWW Review: AN AMERICAN IN PARIS at Westchester Broadway Theatre Is the Champagne of Jukebox Musicals
October 27, 2019
The show's resplendent color palette, anchored by a stage floor covered in dappled brush strokes, pays homage to the French impressionist school of painting, notably that of Claude Monet.
BWW Review: Nora! Nora! Nora! A DOLL'S HOUSE PART 2 at Hudson Stage Fires Away at Marriage
October 25, 2019
The 90-minute play flew by in what seemed like half that time, a credit to director Margarett Perry and the very skillful cast of Denise Bessette, Kurt Rhoades, Mary Stout and Rachel Kent.
BWW Review: Ike Holter's SENDER at Denizen Theatre Sends Up Millennials
October 17, 2019
Things are messy for our fine, fettered friends in Sender, a reminder that, even for the most grounded among us, life is messy by default, whether or not it's not our fault.
BWW Review: A Powerful & Poignant MR. PARKER at Penguin Rep Theatre
September 22, 2019
BWW Review: Laughing Along with the LAST OF THE RED HOT LOVERS at Ridgefield Theater Barn
September 20, 2019
Middle-aged nebish Barney Cashman borrows his working mother's apartment during the late afternoon so he can play the playboy, a role for which he is laughably unsuited.
