Things as They Are

John has had a career as a professional Director / Choreographer that has spanned over 25 years. This includes a 17 year relationship with Radio City Entertainment, where he was a Director / Choreographer for the world-famous Rockettes, Rockette Special Events, as well as for the Radio City Christmas Spectacular. Other work includes hundreds of shows in a vast range of entertainment genres; from television to Off-Broadway & regional theatre, from industrial shows to ice shows. He has written for Walt Disney Entertainment, as well as for Dolly Parton & Dollywood Entertainment.

He received his Masters degree from New York University, studying Musical Theatre structure & Directing theory. He also holds a Bachelor of Music degree from the University of Wisconsin. He continues to freelance as a Director / Choreographer & Writer while maintaining a position as a Creative Director/Writer for Niles Creative Group, a film production company specializing in large scale theatrically based video productions, based in lower Manhattan.

Jonathan Comisar began his music career in his native Rochester, N.Y., where he studied piano in the preparatory department of the Eastman School of Music.  At the age of 17, he won first prize in the Eastman Young Artists Award and performed as soloist with the Rochester Philharmonic Orchestra. He continued to study piano and music theory at the Oberlin Conservatory and after graduation, studied composition with Pulitzer Prize winning composer David Del Tredici.

Jonathan Comisar is an invested Cantor with a Masters in Sacred Music from the Hebrew Union College School of Sacred Music.  He is a noted composer of Jewish liturgical music and has received commissions and artist residencies from synagogues across North America.  Many of his compositions have been published by Transcontinental Music Publishing.  Comisar also has been appointed to the faculty of Hebrew Union College, where he teaches courses on arranging, orchestration, and composition.

Jonathan Comisar is a composer/lyricist in the prestigious BMI Lehman Engel Musical Theater Workshop.  His musical theater piece “Things As They Are,” a musical about the life of American photographer Dorothea Lange has been selected as one of five finalists for the Fred Ebb Foundation Award.  His musical comedy “Cynthia and the Dreadful Kite” was premiered at the Public Theater as part of the Labyrinth Barn Series.

Ariadne Villarreal recently left her position of Senior Vice President/Global Managing Director of Production at EventQuest. She was responsible for leading, organizing and training the EventQuest production teams both here in the USA and the Middle East for the office based in Abu Dhabi. She ensured events were produced with the highest level of professionalism and that client’s expectations were met in every capacity.

Prior to EventQuest, Ariadne spent ten years as the Associate Director of Special Projects At Broadway Cares.  She produced many high profile events including shows by Jennifer Holliday and Patti Lupone at Lincoln Center, as well as five annual Nothing Like a Dame performances featuring women on Broadway, including Meryl Streep, Hilary Swank, and Whoopi Goldberg and three ABC Daytime Salutes Broadway Cares featuring Susan Lucci, Cameron Mathison, John-Paul Lavoisier, Kassie Wesley DePaiva and Tony Geary.

Previously, she worked on three continents and in many aspects of the performing arts and event management. Prior to moving back to NYC, Ariadne owned an entertainment production agency based in London. In Tokyo, Japan, she produced and choreographed shows for Paul Anka, Christopher Cross, and Diana Ross.

She lives in Brooklyn with her supportive husband, lovely son and labradoodle.

Broadway: original production of A Chorus Line, Sophisticated Ladies,  Woman of the Year,  The Wind in the Willows,  5678-Dance,  It’s so nice to be Civilized and the original production of  The 1940s Radio Hour. 

Awards: an Emmy nomination, 4 Drama Desk Nominations, A Mac Award Nomination and a Theatre World Award.

She choreographed Catherine Zeta Jones for the American Film Institute Awards and currently running Off-Broadway she directed a new children’s show; John Tartaglia’s Imaginocean.

TV credits: The New Fangled Variety Show, Disney’s Johnny & the Sprites,  ABC TV’s Dear Alex & Annie,  One life to live  and The Edge of Night.

Regional credits:  The Wizard of Oz, starring Mickey Rooney & Eartha Kitt; Romance In The Dark, starring Jennifer Holliday; Nothing Like A Dame, BC/EFA 2004-06,  All the world is a Stage at Carnegie Hall.  A Chorus Line,  AIDA, Chicago,  Hairspray,  Rent, Tommy, Damn Yankees, NEWSicle,  Annie,  Love Always, Patsy Cline, Smokey Joes Café,  Sweet Charity, Honk!, Beauty & the Beast, Chess. National tour & documentary  for Varla Jean Merman,  BOOBS! The musical,  Christmas with the Crawfords

Alexander Rovang is a graduate of the Oberlin Conservatory.  Recent credits include the Chinese Tour of “Fame”, “Sawdust Palace” w/ Susan Marshall & Co., and “Monkey: Journey to the West” at the Spoleto Festival (USA). A native Nebraskan, and lifelong fan of Garrison Keillor, Mr.Rovang hopes someday to get a real job like his mother (a cardiologist) or really throw in the towel and race motorcycles like his dad.  He will probably be survived by everybody.  www.luckbedamned.biz

Credits include Always Patsy Cline, Chicago, Spamalot, Jesus Christ Superstar, Light in the Piazza, The Drowsy Chaperone at Maine State Music Theatre where he also serves as resident Wig Designer. Highlights include: All Shook Up, The Producers, Les Miz, Dirty Rotten Scoundrels, Hairspray!  Kurt serves as rentals manager for Maine State Costume Rentals. Elsewhere: RENT, Beauty and the Beast, The Rhelm of Chelm, The Fantastics, Follies, Oliver!, Melody Lingers On, Guys and Dolls, Blood Brothers, The Music Man, Drood, Forum, Reefer Madness, Rocky Horror, Take Flight, Waiting for the Moon, My Fair Lady, Inherit The Wind, Glimpses of the Moon, Jerry’s Girls, Dog Sees God, Broadway Bares, and Jerry Springer the Opera at Carnegie Hall. Previous NYMF: Caligula and work on Such Good Friends. Recently produced and designed the world premier of Born Blue directed by Anthony Rapp.

New York credits: In The Continuum (Primary Stages); Strom Thurmond, Cleansed (Immediate Theatre); The Tempest (Sonnet Rep); ABC Daytime Salutes Broadway Cares (Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS).

Regional: Pittsburgh Irish and Classical Theatre, City Theater Company, St. Louis Rep.  

Dance: Cedar Lake Contemporary Ballet, Twyla Tharp Dance, Richmond Ballet, Jennifer Muller/The Works, Chet Walker, Chitresh Das, Adele Myers and Dancers, Gabrielle Lansner, Jacob's Pillow Dance Festival.

http://web.me.com/jfrenchld

David Niles began his career in New York City migrating from architecture to theatre to audio recording and eventually to television. From 1972 through 1987, David was based in Paris, France, where he established a series of innovative studios and mobile production facilities. Aside from serving the European television market, David created programming for numerous clients to include: CBS, NBC, ABC, HBO, NHK and ESPN. His European work earned him the prestigious "Chevalier des Arts et Lettres" from French government.

In 1985, Niles created the first HDTV production facility in the world producing feature films, commercials and television programming in this emerging format. In 1987 Niles returned to New York to create America's first full production facility for HDTV. He acquired the famous Ed Sullivan Theater, and following complete renovation of the theater, he produced the premiere HDTV productions of many legendary artists including Tony Bennett, Mick Jagger, Aerosmith, Crosby, Stills & Nash, and Jackie Mason. He also produced the successful Broadway show, " Dreamtime.” This was the first time that HD imagery was integrated into a live performance.

Mr. Niles has received numerous awards for his contributions to the industry most notably an Astrolabium and numerous citations from the Montreux Electronic Cinema Festival, the "Chevalier des Arts et Lettres" and an Emmy nomination. He is also a member of the 200 person. Academy of Digital Television (DTV) Pioneers, The Academy of Motion Picture and Television and was a SMPTE Engineer. Presently, David and his company, NILES CREATIVE GROUP, produces, directs and edits original programming for numerous on air networks, consults for fortune 500 companies, develops new technologies and conceives, designs and executes large format projects from start to finish for companies including Comcast, Radio City Music Hall, Federated Department Stores, Panasonic, Walt Disney Imagineering and Madison Square Garden. 

Broadway: Avenue Q, Chitty Chitty Bang Bang, Hairspray, In The Heights, Jersey Boys, The Lion King, Tour: White Christmas (Orig. Co), The Lion King (Cheetah, Los Angeles), Xanadu Live! (Los Angeles, St. Louis)

Other: Elton John’s Goodbye Yellow Brick Road 35th Anniversary Concert, West Side Story 50th Anniversary Reunion Performance, Sunset Blvd. (Ogunquit), The Who’s Tommy 15th Anniversary Reunion Concert, The Best Little Whorehouse In Texas (Actor’s Fund), Miss Saigon, Evita, Peter Pan, Meet Me In St. Louis, Camelot, Scene It! New York,

Readings: The Nightingale, Slut, Breaking Up Is Hard To Do 

Film: The Diplomat, Freegan Love, Wilderness.

Bobby McGuire spent the 90's working in various production capacities on a host of Broadway shows and Natl. tours including DREAM, A CHRISTMAS CAROL (MSG), THE WIZARD OF OZ (MSG with Roseanne), STANLEY, THE CIVIL WAR and THE SOUND OF MUSIC (Natl Tour).

At the dawn of the millenium, Bobby left the bight lights of Broadway for the blinding fluorescents of Madison Avenue working in advertising, promotions and publishing. In his non-theatrical professional life he was part of the problem with IBM, Goldman Sachs and Aventis Pharmaceuticals.  For the past four years he has been proud to be part of the solution as head of marketing, media and promotions for Broadway Cares / Equity Fights AIDS.