TEDxBroadway Completes Speaker Lineup for 2017 Event at New World Stages

The sixth annual TEDxBroadway returns to New World Stages in New York City, on Tuesday, March 21, 2017, with a wide variety of speakers taking the stage.

"Our new focus of the day for 2017 is - 'Let's Talk,'" says Jim McCarthy, CEO of Goldstar. "We'll always be dedicated to the central question we asked the first five years, 'What is the BEST Broadway Can Be?' but now we really want everyone present to speak up and really engage in a meaningful dialogue."

"This new focus guided us in who we wanted to be on stage this year as well," adds Damian Bazadona, TEDxBroadway Co-Organizer and founder of Situation Interactive. "We're very excited to showcase this group of speakers and the topics they'll be sharing. It should provoke very thoughtful discussion and powerful ideas."

True to the TED tradition, each year TEDxBroadway organizers pull speakers from vast perspectives, varying expertise and some fields people may not even have heard of yet - all with "ideas worth spreading."

Newly announced speakers include:

- Gus Rogerson is Producing Director of The 52nd Street Project.

- Kanya Balakrishna is the co-founder and president of The Future Project, a national initiative to revolutionize education.

- Lance Weiler is a storyteller, entrepreneur and thought leader. An alumni of the Sundance Screenwriting Lab, he is recognized as a pioneer because of the way he mixes storytelling and technology.

- Gardiner Comfort is an actor, writer and teacher. His original solo show The Elephant in Every Room, created with director Kel Haney, is about his life with Tourette Syndrome and his visit to the 2014 TAA National Conference in Washington, D.C.

- Caroline Bragdon, MPH is Director of Neighborhood Interventions for the Pest Control Services Program at the New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene.

They join previously announced speakers:

- Tina Landau is a writer, director and teacher whose work includes directing/conceiving The Spongebob Musical.

- Alton Fitzgerald White, a singer, actor and dancer who broke Broadway records with 4,308 performances as King Mufasa in The Lion King.

- Dr. Desmond Upton Patton, an Assistant Professor at the Columbia School of Social Work and a Faculty Affiliate of the Social Intervention Group (SIG) and the Data Science Institute (DSI).

- Rachelle Pereira, the Co-Founder of EQUALibrium Group, a leadership and communication consulting firm dedicated to nurturing and building Powerful Modern Leaders.

- Lester Vrtiak, who manages The Sing for Hope Pianos program, the country's largest recurring public arts project of artist-designed pianos placed throughout the parks and public spaces of NYC's five boroughs each summer.

- Jon Albert, the Founder and President of Jack & Jill Late Stage Cancer Foundation.

Co-organizing sponsors for the event are Jujamcyn Theaters and Broadway.com. The TEDxBroadway Young Professional Program is being underwritten by the Nederlander Organization and The Shubert Organization. Tickets for the TEDxBroadway Student Program are underwritten by Disney Theatrical Group.

Additional details are available at www.TEDxBroadway.com. Interested attendees can purchase tickets at www.tedxbroadway.com/2017. Follow TEDxBroadway on Twitter: @TEDxBroadway. The conference will begin at 1pm on March 21, 2017. Tickets are $100.

In the spirit of ideas worth spreading, TEDx is a program of local, self-organized events that bring people together to share a TED-like experience. At a TEDx event, TED Talks video and live speakers combine to spark deep discussion and connection. These local, self-organized events are branded TEDx, where x = independently organized TED event. The TED Conference provides general guidance for the TEDx program, but individual TEDx events are self-organized. (Subject to certain rules and regulations.)

TED is a nonprofit organization devoted to Ideas Worth Spreading, usually in the form of short, powerful talks (18 minutes or fewer) delivered by today's leading thinkers and doers. Many of these talks are given at TED's annual conference in Vancouver, British Columbia, and made available, free, on TED.com. TED speakers have included Bill Gates, Jane Goodall, Elizabeth Gilbert, Sir Richard Branson, Nandan Nilekani, Philippe Starck, Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, Sal Khan and Daniel Kahneman.

TED's open and free initiatives for spreading ideas include TED.com, where new TED Talk videos are posted daily; the Open Translation Project, which provides subtitles and interactive transcripts as well as translations from thousands of volunteers worldwide; the educational initiative TED-Ed; the annual million-dollar TED Prize, which funds exceptional individuals with a "wish," or idea, to create change in the world; TEDx, which provides licenses to thousands of individuals and groups who host local, self-organized TED-style events around the world; and the TED Fellows program, which selects innovators from around the globe to amplify the impact of their remarkable projects and activities.

Follow TED on Twitter at twitter.com/TEDTalks, on Facebook at www.facebook.com/TED or Instagram at instagram.com/ted.