CONTACT BROADWAYWORLD WASHINGTON, DC

Elliot Lanes has been working in theatre for over 30 years as a PSM, Sound Designer, Board Op....you get the idea. He has had the pleasure of working with some of DC's finest artists at venues such as Theater J, Studio Theatre, and Round House Theatre. Other DC area credits include many productions at Capital Fringe, and "Two Trains Running" and "Circle Mirror Transformation" at Prince Georges Community College. He also has been the lighting designer for the past 13 for Momentum Dance Company. Prior to moving to DC, he was the Resident PSM for Negro Ensemble Company and White Horse Theatre Company in NYC for five years each. He also had the pleasure of working with Liza Minnelli, Betty Buckley and Marilyn Maye at the Backstage Bistro Awards as PSM for that event. Elliot previously covered the DC Metro Area theatre scene for Maryland Theatre Guide, and wrote the successful "A Quick 5" column. 

Aidan O’Connor is a lifelong theatre aficionado who loves diving into the intricacies of live performance. An experienced writer in many facets, Aidan works full time in copyright policy directly protecting the creative industries that she adores. Her passion for live performance propels her involvement in the community and her goal of making theatre feel more accessible to all through her writing. She is based in Washington, D.C. and hopes her reviews expose more audiences to the incredible regional theatre scene in the DMV!

Audrey Cahak is a writer and photographer originally from Houston, Texas, and she grew up watching touring theater shows at the Hobby Center for the Performing Arts. She graduated from St. Edward’s University in Austin, Texas, where she studied creative writing and journalism. As an undergraduate, she worked as a writer and editor for publications such as the campus’s newspaper and literary journal, and she is now freelancing and immersing herself in the arts in Washington, DC.

David has always had a passionate interest in the arts from acting in professional dinner theatre and community theatre to reviewing film and local theatre in college.  He is thrilled to be working with Broadway World as a reviewer.   

An enthusiastic interest in writing has shown itself in a BA in English/Education and an MA with honors in English Literature. He also studied Theology at the Catholic University of America and taught English in elementary and middle schools for several years.

David has recently retired from a very challenging thirty-year career at the National Science Foundation as a Technical Information Specialist in the Office of the Polar Programs.  Duties included the opportunity to go to Antarctica twice and Greenland once in support of the research community.   

David lives in Bethesda, MD and has taken courses at the Writer’s Center of Bethesda.  He has served on committees at his condominium community. 

David enjoys swimming, traveling and reading. David’s primary interest, however, is the arts and all it encompasses including opera, symphony, dance, cabaret, concerts, plays and musicals.  He counts meeting Lillian Gish, Glenda Jackson, Liv Ullmann, Liza Minnelli, Lily Tomlin, Sophia Loren, Maureen Stapleton, Alan Cumming, Geraldine Page and Sandy Dennis as some of the more exciting encounters of his life. 

David is a member of the American Theatre Critics Association.

Doug is a longtime theater fan and has written theater reviews for multiple theater websites in the DC area. He is thrilled to be working with Broadway World as a reviewer.

Doug has a BS Commerce and JD from the University of Virginia and an MBA from George Washington University. Doug has worked for decades as a tax attorney, including for KPMG LLP and the US Treasury Department, specializing in international tax. He has authored numerous articles for several tax publications.

Doug lives in Arlington, Virginia and has taken courses at the Writer’s Center of Bethesda and at local universities. Doug regularly travels and enjoys theater wherever he visits, including New York and London.

Emily Berger is based in Washington, D.C. and is thrilled to return to reviewing dance after many years away. She graduated from Northwestern with a double major in History and Dance, where her honors thesis evaluated the impact of performance arts service organizations in major US cities on the financial security and artistic output of local companies. She worked in arts fundraising for many years, including for Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater, before getting her MBA from Yale. While at Yale she co-authored a case study on the historic merger of the Bill T. Jones / Arnie Zane Dance Company and Dance Theater Workshop. As a result of her early training under the Royal Academy of Dance ballet syllabus, Emily is passionate about classical ballet, especially work by contemporary choreographers, as well as dance ranging from post-modern to kathak to flamenco and more. 

Jackson grew up around the performing arts in the Washington, DC area. Over the past two decades, he has been able to witness the region’s theatre grow and evolve, particularly children’s theatre, local productions, and premieres. He is a graduate of American University.

Jake Bridges first stepped on a stage in the summer of 1995, where he broke hearts and thrilled audiences with his rendition of “Duke of Earl” at the ripe age of 8. He has never been able to leave a life in the performing arts since. Years after his storied performance of the famous doo-wop tune, Jake spent nearly a decade in New York City as an actor, teaching artist, and director. As an actor, he had the pleasure of touring the country with Beauty and the Beast and South Pacific and spent a year aboard Disney Cruise Lines’ Fantasy ship as well. Regional credits included stops at Ogunquit Playhouse, North Shore Music Theatre, Theatre By The Sea, Weathervane, Barnstormers Theatre, Westchester Broadway Theatre, Red Mountain Theatre Company and several others. Jake relocated to DC in 2019 to pursue a graduate degree in Arts Management from American University, and he has called the DMV home since. His favorite thing about the DC theatre scene is that companies are willing to take bold artistic risks - arguably more so than any other American city outside of New York! 

Laurie Sara Oliver is a writer, journalist, and critic based in the Washington D.C. area. An arts enthusiast from the start, Laurie Sara grew up training in classical ballet. She then went on to study the intersection of arts, language, and culture at Eastern University. Now, Laurie Sara advises corporations, non-profits, and individuals on effective communication and teaches dance on the side. She believes in the power of art as a way to explore ideas, ask big questions, and bring people together.

Specializing in cultural criticism and profile writing, Lora is dance critic and features writer for BroadwayWorld.com. Her work has appeared in The Atlantic Magazine, the PBS NewsHour, Washington City Paper, PhillyVoice, Politics PA, the Army News Service and more. 

Pam came to Washington for the politics but instead found a home in its cultural community. For more than 20 years, Pam worked behind the scenes in DC’s non-profit theatres as a grant writer and fundraiser. She has been writing for BroadwayWorld since 2014. Pam earned a graduate certificate in arts management from American University and is a graduate of the Medill School of Journalism at Northwestern University and The George Washington University.

Rachael is a native New Yorker and life-long theatre devotee. She saw her first Broadway show, Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat, at age five, and has been hooked ever since. The summer she was supposed to work on her master’s thesis, she saw roughly ten shows in three months, including two camp-outs for standing room tickets for Book of Mormon. Sadly, her acting skills are severely lacking (just ask anyone who had to suffer through her performance as Marty in Grease), so she leaves the acting to the professionals and sticks to another type of drama: politics.

Roger Catlin, a member of the American Theatre Critics Association, is a Washington D.C.-based arts writer whose work appears regularly in SmithsonianMagazine.com. and AARP the Magazine. He has also written for The Washington Post, Entertainment Weekly, TV Guide and Salon and was a staff writer for The Hartford Courant in Connecticut for 25 years.