Midtown International Theatre Festival Annnounces New Staff

The Midtown InterNational Theatre Festival (MITF) announces new staff members for the 2011 season.  New additions include Jason Bruffy, co-artistic director; Michael Gnat, Festabill editor; Katrin Hilbe, artistic director of international relations; and Gerald vanHeerden, co-artistic director.
 
"Any seasonal enterprise is going to experience turnover, and our artistic staff has shrunk over the last couple of years. So we are determined to increase our artistic and production staff with the eye to bringing in a larger and more diverse group of shows, especially in the areas of international and dance productions," said John Chatterton, executive producer of the MITF.
 
JASON BRUFFY (Co-Artistic Director) has worked professionally in theatre all around the country for the past ten years.  The founding producer of the Cincinnati Fringe Festival, Bruffy has been recognized as Person of the Year in 2009 by Cincinnati CityBeat, as well as a Cincinnati's Theatre Entrepreneur and Arts Risk Taker (Cincinnati Enquirer), Arts Innovator (Cincinnati CityBeat), and Forty under 40 Business Leaders (Cincinnati Business Courier). Bruffy has directed over 35 productions professionally, winning numerous regional awards for direction, design, and extraordinary events. www.jasonbruffy.com
 
MICHAEL GNAT (Festabill Editor), actor and editor, starred as Broadway producer (and Wiccan High Priest) Julian Dewinter in Gene Ruffini's Process of Elimination (TNC, January 2011). An inaugural Innovative Theatre Award nominee, Michael starred as T.D. Rice in Henry Meyerson's Jump Jim Crow (MITF, 2008) and was a NYTheatre.com 2009 Person of the Year. Editorially, he has long worked on the scholarly biannual Theatre Survey, handled both editions of the Cambridge Guide to American Theatre, and recently edited a book of medieval French farces.
 
KATRIN HILBE (Artistic Director of International Relations) Katrin directs Opera, Operetta, Contemporary Music Theatre, Plays, both in Europe and in the U.S.  Katrin is a member of the Dramatists Guild of America, the League of Professional Theatre Women, the WorkShop Theater Company, Theatre Resources Unlimited and an alumnus of the Directors Lab West. Katrin works as a translator in the languages German, English, Italian and French.  She writes for reviewbroadway.com.  For more information, visit katrinhilbe.com and www.manytracks.org.
 
A graduate of The Boston Conservatory and emerging east coast director of musicals and plays, GERALD VANHEERDEN (Co-Artistic Director) has vast experience working with creative, musical theater endeavors as artistic director, conceptualist and stage director. Mr. vanHeerden has a long association with NMTN, the parent company of NYMF as evaluations associate and artistic administrator of the TAM award, endowed by the late, Mae Richard, Off.Broadway lyricist. Member of SDC. www.geraldvanheerden.com
 
Mr. Chatterton created the MITF in 2000, a Midtown alternative to other theatre festivals, as a way to present the finest off-off Broadway talent in convenience, comfort, and safety.  In 2008, the Festival added two 99-seat theatres and inaugurated the Commercial Division for upwardly mobile shows with commercial ambitions. 
 
The 2011 Festival will take place at the June Havoc Theatre, 312 W. 36th Street, 1st floor; the Dorothy Strelsin Theatre, 312 W. 36th Street, 1st floor; the TBG Theatre, 312 W. 36th Street, 3rd floor; the Main Stage Theater, 312 W. 36th Street, 4th floor; and the Jewel Box Theater, 312 W. 36th Street, 4th floor. 
 
Further information about MITF can be found in the "Festival Manual" at www.midtownfestival.org.