Contact BroadwayWorld Los Angeles

Amanda currently writes as a drama critic for Broadway World and Discover Hollywood Magazine, covering live theatre in Los Angeles. Her focus is on connecting arts and culture with the vibrant local community. She is a passionate theatre evangelist, hoping to inspire everyone to discover the kind of intimate, indispensable storytelling and luminous magic that can take place in person. 

An award-winning writer, Amanda’s work on arts, culture, music, travel, and parenthood has been published on many platforms including Hollywood Revealed, The Tour Guy, Parenthood Adventures, and Lickhouse Worldwide. She has worked as a storyteller in film, podcasts, books, and by engaging diverse digital audiences.

Amanda’s films have played, and won awards, in Vienna, Lisbon, Belfast, Iran, Scotland, Mexico, Australia, Bolivia, Capri, Palm Beach, and Los Angeles. She has done science writing for NASA, reconstructed Egyptian papyri, worked as a sushi chef, and played a nervous elf bride on a sitcom.

Drawing from her literary and film background Amanda brings an eye for cultural criticism and relevance to her discussion of theatre and its unique and vital pleasures. She is particularly interested in engaging children and new audiences in the connection of immersive live storytelling, exploring theatre for the first time, digging into the rich, elevating pleasures of the classics, and discovering a bold new work they never thought they would enjoy. Amanda has a B.A. from UC San Diego and an M.Phil from the University of Cambridge in classical literature, art, philosophy, and drama.

Andrew is a multimedia artist who has worked regularly as a director, animator, performer, and designer. His writing focuses on the complete arts ecosystem. He has been a guest artist at Emerson College, New England Conservatory, New York University, Clark University, Massassoit Community College, and more, and has been quoted in the New York Times, Chicago Tribune, LA Times, Boston Globe, and others. You can hear him on the Broadway Podcast Network interviewing acclaimed artists, scholars, and historians for 50 Key Stage Musicals: The Podcast, or you can read his chapter on The Merry Widow in Routledge Press' 50 Key Stage Musicals.

Edmund J Whelan is a theatre critic for Broadway World, covering the Los Angeles and Central Valley regions of California. With an M.A. in Linguistics, he approaches theatre with questions about performance and expression, stylistics, and communication. He takes particular interest in how musical theatre lyricists accomplish storytelling through song, and especially sonic wordplay. When he is not reviewing shows, he is teaching middle and high school-level classes on language and linguistics, coordinating events for his local LGBTQ+ organization, and writing his own musicals and poetry. 

Evan Henerson is a longtime arts and features writer who lives in Southern California. He is the former theater critic for the Los Angeles Daily News and has written for such publications as American Theatre, Playbill Online, Stage Directions and Backstage.

Gavin Glynn is a freelance writer and father of five residing in Historic West Adams of Los Angeles. He studied formally at University of Illinois @ Chicao, United States International University in SD, A.C.T. in SF with Anna Deveare Smith and the UCLA Extension film school. A former actor/director who was the artistic director of the 20th Century Fox Actors Studio. Gavin studied playwriting at the inaugural David Henry Hwang Playwriting program at the prestigious East West Players.  He writes reviews for the International Documentary Association (IDA) and is an Academy Award winning producer for Outstanding Short Documentary.  While at Walt Disney International (WDI), he oversaw the writing division of new acts for the Disneyland Resorts while converting Walt Disney Animated  Features into 3D live stage productions. Gavin currently serves as the New Works Coordinator for the Alliance of Los Angeles Playwrights (ALAP). He is very pleased to write for Broadway World LA to help promote and build up strong theater audiences within Los Angeles County. 

Harker Jones is the author of three award-winning books: the best-selling love story “Until September,” the young-adult thriller “Never Have I Ever” and the children’s picture book “The Bird Who Was Afraid to Fly.” His short thrillers “Cole & Colette” and “One-Hit Wonder” have been accepted into more than 60 film festivals combined, garnering several awards. He was managing editor of “Out” magazine for seven years and is a member of the Los Angeles Drama Critics Circle, the Dramatists Guild of America, the Horror Writers Association, the Society of Composers & Lyricists, the International Society for Philosophical Enquiry and Mensa. He loves cats and carbs and would like to be a pop star but would settle for being killed in a slasher movie.

Melissa Heckscher is a freelance writer and mother of three living in Los Angeles. A former daily news and features reporter, she is the author of eight nonfiction books and has written for newspapers, magazines, and television stations across the country including The Los Angeles Daily News, the Orange County Register, and NY1 News (New York City). She wishes she could sing, dance and act—even karaoke-caliber would do—but is fine watching the professionals do it on stage.  

A So. Cal. Contributing Editor since 2009, Michael Lawrence Quintos is a talented, mild-mannered Senior Designer by day. But as night falls, he regularly performs on various stages everywhere as a Countertenor soloist, actor, and dancer for MenAlive Chorus since 2002. He sings everything from Broadway, Jazz, R&B, Classical, Gospel and Pop, and has shared the stage with Bernadette Peters, Debbie Reynolds, Michael Feinstein, and Liza Minnelli. In June 2019, Michael made his soloist debut at the world-famous Hollywood Bowl in front of 17,000 concertgoers (he returned for a second solo in Sept. 2026). His musical theater roots started as a very young child, performing in various stage productions and a couple of nationally-televised competition shows. The performing bug eventually brought him a brief championship run in the Philippines' popular reality TV singing competition program "Bagong Kampeon" ("New Champion") before eventually moving to Las Vegas soon after. College brought him out to Orange County, CA, where he earned a BFA in Graphic Design and a BA in Film Screenwriting. He has spent more than two decades as a lead designer and art director for various media companies while spending his free time going to Disneyland, binge-watching shows, or performing/watching live theater. Follow Michael's adventures on Socials -- @cre8iveMLQ.

Shari Barrett, a Los Angeles native, has been active in the theater world since the age of six - acting, singing, and dancing her way across the boards all over town. After teaching in secondary schools, working in marketing for several studios, writing, directing, producing, and performing in productions for several non-profit theaters, Shari now dedicates her time and focuses her skills as a theater reviewer, entertainment columnist, and publicist to "get the word out" about theaters of all sizes throughout the Los Angeles area.

As a 20-year member of the Board of Directors for Kentwood Players at the Westchester Playhouse, one of the thriving community theater groups in Los Angeles, as well as writing for Broadway World LA, Stage and Cineme, and as the Stage Page columnist with Lan Newspapers, Shari is dedicated to promoting theaters of all sizes in the city. Shari has received recognition from the City of Los Angeles for her dedication of heart and hand to the needs of friends, neighbors and fellow members of society for her devotion of service to the people of Los Angeles, and is honored to serve the theater world in her hometown.