Authors

Alice Jane Klugherz

Alice Klugherz has been part of the Downtown dance and performance scene since the 80’s. Her docu-whimsey (talk/move) work has been part of PS 122's Avant-Garde-Arama, Dance Theatre Workshop's FRESH TRACKS, LaMama Club, Wet and Performance Mix. She also appears in the work of others, most recently in Mark Dendy’s NEWYORKnewyork@Astor Place performed at Joe’s Pub. She is a regular reader at Cornelia St Cafe, Big Irv's and Stacy's Salon.

Allan Hunter

A prolific writer and eclectic social activist, Allan Hunter has created a rich collection of feminist theory papers: "Same Door, Different Closet: A Heterosexual Sissy's Coming-Out Party" was published in the journal FEMINISM and PSYCHOLOGY 2. His current work-in-progress is a memoir, FROM A DIFFERENTLY GENDERED CLOSET: THE STORY OF Q, a genderqueer coming-of-age and coming-out story. He is in the process of seeking a publisher.

Ann Firestone Ungar

Ann Firestone Ungar has a B.A. in theater from Chatham University and an M.A. in theater history and criticism from the University of Massachusetts, Amherst. As an actress she performed leading roles in a wide variety of plays such as As You Like It, Macbeth, The Balcony, Play, Private Lives, Stop the World I Want To Get Off!, South Pacific, Pal Joey and Fiddler on the Roof. Ann was a member of the Broadway company of Annie, understudying and performing for Tony Award winning actress Dorothy Loudon in the role of the wicked Miss Hannigan. She’s a produced playwright, a published poet, and makes her living as an executive assistant in a global law firm.

Austin Yang

Austin Yang’s love for theater takes him all the way from his home in Taiwan to New York City, where he indulges it to his heart’s delight. In addition to watching, reviewing, and being involved in productions, Austin is also an undergraduate theatre minor at Fordham University (Rose Hill). He hopes to, through his writing, give back to theatre a little of the life it has given him.

Brian Wu

Brittany Crowell

Brittany Crowell has worked in theater production for over a decade. She spent 6 years as production manager at immersive theater company, Third Rail Projects, where she developed over 13 new pieces and oversaw the long-running Then She Fell. She oversaw Crashbox Theater Company as the Managing Director, leading the team in the development of new work by emerging playwrights from 2013-2019. She has assisted Broadway producers Jill Furman and Jed Bernstein, aiding in the reopening of the Bucks County Playhouse, and production managed opera and musical theater (during COVID!) at Manhattan School of Music. She currently works as a senior event producer for Makeout LLC supporting their experiential marketing and event productions.

C.C. Garson

Carey Lovelace

Casey Curtis

Constance Rodgers

Constance Rodgers was an original member of Alec Rubin's avant-garde theatre group, The Theatre of Encounter. She studied acting with Elizabeth Dillion of HB Studios and singing with Dr. Barry Harris and Marion Cowings. Constance was a professional film editor. She has a MST and developed and taught film theory and video production courses in NYC public high schools. Her one woman show, The Bombshell and The Diplomat, was presented at Dixon Place NYC. Other Credits include: Acting: Igor and the Lunatics (B horror movie), Oakdale Indiana ( Lesbian Soap Opera WBAI), Voice-overs; Film Editing: Tying the Knot (Dir: Jim De Seve), The Beauty Brothers (Dir: Bruce Weber), Commercials

Daniel Dunlow

Daniel Dunlow began his theatrical career at the age of 10 and hasn’t stopped since. Since then he has acted, directed, choreographed, designed, and musically directed for over 75 productions across the country. He holds a Lifetime Achievement Award from Lakeland Theatre Company. He has served on the Board of Directors for Lakeland Theatre Company in North Carolina and is the founder and artistic director of both Talked About Theatre Company and the new Louisburg Summer Theatre. As a writer, his work has received several performances at NYC’s Don’t Tell Mama Cabaret. His training includes New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts studying at the New Studio on Broadway for Musical Theatre. As a producer he has worked with Chad Kimball, Anthony Rapp, Richard H. Blake and many more. He is a standing member of The American Guild of Variety Artists. Follow him on twitter: @danieldunlow or check out his website: www.danieldunlow.com

David Walters

57 years of lovingly working on the craft of theater, what it is, what it means to create it, as well as the diligent process involved in its birthing, has led me to act, write, produce, work every job on crew, and watch from the audience a multitudinous array of offerings that loosely define the word theater. I'm still enthralled by its gifts and process. I will endeavor to let you know whether I feel you should spend your time and money, acknowledging and rejoicing in artistic level and effort as a consideration. Thus, I may give a higher mark to the heart and soul of a college production than a Broadway show, holding each to a different standard. As always, just one man's opinion in a world filled with them.

Donna Herman

Donna Herman is a native New Yorker and a self-confessed theater addict. It all started in her childhood, which was spent on movie and television sets and in dark empty theaters while her mother, an actress, and her father, a make-up artist and playwright/screenwriter, worked. She knew she wanted to be an actress at 4 years old while on location with her father who was working on the movie “West Side Story.” They were filming the “Officer Krupke” number on the street and Donna was inside the police barricades being helpful and pressing the lever on the coffee urn for the crew. Meanwhile, the kids from the neighborhood were pressed against the sawhorses looking in. She knew then she always wanted to be on the inside. But it wasn’t until her 8th birthday when she saw her first Broadway show, “My Fair Lady,” that she fell prey to her addiction. Donna went on to act throughout her school career and attended Boston University’s School of Fine Arts Theater Program where she studied Acting and Directing. After graduation, she returned to NYC and began the life of a struggling actress. She was fortunate enough to originate the role of Chang in John Jesurun’s downtown cult serial classic play “Chang In A Void Moon” which performed a new episode at The Pyramid Club on Avenue A every Monday night for almost a year in the 80’s. Many downtown notables were in the cast including Steve Buscemi, Black-Eyed Susan, David Cale, Greg Mehrten, and Anna Kohler. While pursuing acting, Donna made money by working in recording studios and eventually got hired full time to manage Spyro Gyra’s new recording studio when Julian Lennon was recording his first album there. From there she became the Production Coordinator on the film of his concert tour for his production company. This led her to a job with the award winning audio post production facility where she stayed for 12 years and was the Controller. From there she went to Charlex, Inc. an award winning special effects and design company for the advertising industry, where she was the CFO and stayed for 17 years. But her love for the theater has never waned and living in New York, she has always been able to indulge it. She has even been called to revise her role as Chang occasionally over the years, the latest for episodes 59 to 61 in 2015. She is now looking to get back to a more creative life and reviewing theater and designing jewelry.

Edward Kliszus

Edward Kliszus is a member of the American Theatre Critics Association, the International Association of Theatre Critics, The Players Club in Manhattan, the American Society of Composers, Authors, and Publishers, and the American Federation of Musicians Local 802. He studied trumpet performance and music education at the Manhattan School of Music and was a student of Mel Broiles, principal trumpet of the New York Metropolitan Opera Orchestra. He is the former music director and conductor of the New Jersey-based Union Symphony Orchestra. He currently focuses his artistic and creative endeavors on writing, music composition, piano jazz, and as a critic for TheFrontRowCenter.com, and OpeningNight.Online. Ph.D. New York University, M.M. Manhattan School of Music, and B.M. Nyack College.

Elise Marenson

Elizabeth Ann Foster

Harvard-educated journalist and native New Yorker, Elizabeth Ann Foster is a master chef and founder of the Natural Epicurean Culinary School based in Austin Texas. She managed and trained natural foods' chefs at Casa De Luz community macrobiotic center serving downtown Austin and is a certified Chef from the Kushi Institute and Vega Center in holistic healing and vegetarian-based culinary cuisine. A world traveler with an international perspective and diverse interests, for nearly a decade she has written reviews of Broadway and Off-Broadway theatre for The Front Row Center and New York Theatre Guide, and currently resides in both Manhattan and beautiful Southwestern Florida.

Emma Bird

Emma made her theatrical debut as a lost boy in her sixth grade production of Peter Pan and hasn't been seen on stage since. Nevertheless, theater has remained her biggest passion and continues to inspire her every day! As a college student in NYC, seeing new shows eats up all of her time (and wallet) and she wouldn't have it any other way.

Flash Rosenberg

Gabrielle Maisels

George Crowley

Holli Harms

Holli Harms - Holli is a playwright and screenwriter. She is a Dramatists Guild Fellow recipient, Terence G Hall Fellowship recipient and EST/Sloan Foundation recipient for her play about the first death in space. She is a member of Dramatist Guild, Ensemble Studio Theatre,on the board of Women In the Arts and Media Coalition and a contributing writer with Verbal Supply Company - http://www.verbalsupplycompany.com. She lives in Manhattan's West Village with her husband, daughter and dog, Arlo Guthrie Marshmallow.

Jean Sidden

Jervelle Frederick

Jervelle Frederick is a graduate of the Fame School (LaGuardia High School) where he studied music and took part in performances such as Hairspray as well as numerous Choral Concerts. At the age of fifteen Frederick made his Carnegie Hall debut with one of New York’s elite choirs Collegiate Choral. In October of 2010 Frederick returned to the Carnegie Hall stage to perform the New York premier of Rock Concerto by Alexander Markov.Carnegie Hall once again welcomed Frederick and the Collegiate Choral in April 2012 to perform The Mikado. In May 2011 he worked with Grammy Award winning jazz musician Arturo O’Farrill as a chorus member and gospel soloist featured in the premier of his piece “Still Small Voice” at Symphony Space. In 2011 Frederick started and finished his first novel and screen play. He has since been a mentee of Michael Mejias (Front Desk Administrator at Writers House/Playwright) and is working towards his debut novel. In the summer of 2013 he aided Mejias as the production intern of his play Ghetto Babylon at 59E59 Theaters. Frederick currently studies journalism at Long Island University and writes for Seawanhaka (The school paper). He recently earned an interning position at Ebony Magazine.

Jessica N. Mastronardi

Joy Notoma

Joy Notoma is a freelance journalist and performer in NYC.

Kathleen Campion

Kathleen Campion is a nationally recognized financial journalist with a gift for making the opaque in markets reporting transparent. At Bloomberg News she was one of three managers who created Bloomberg’s broadcast and cable media. She recently returned to an early specialty – arts reporting and reviewing for Front Row Center.

Kathryn Adisman

Lee Sachs

Margret Echeverria

In the summer of 1978, while watching a performance of A Murder is Announced on the London stage, Margret fell in love with the theatre. Born and raised in Cedar Falls, Iowa, Margret came to New York City in 1994. She was admitted to Newmyn’s Nose Limitless Theatre Limited, an innovative and award winning improvisational company, in the summer of 1995 and eventually became a member of the company’s board. Margret starred in the critically acclaimed short film Jigsaw Venus by Dean Capsalis in 2000 (Best Actress, Buenos Aires International Independent Film Festival) and her film career was begun. She played the adorable Fag Hag (GenX does not find this term offensive at all), Audrey, in both A Four Letter Word (2007) as well as Violet Tendencies (2010), films by Casper Andreas and Jesse Archer. She has a co-starring role in Max Emerson's film, Hooked. Always sentimental about performing for a live audience, Margret penned and performed Orangerie, a one-woman show exploring the subject of finding love while traveling non-traditional avenues, which premiered at the Bowery Poetry Club in November of 2005 and ran through the spring of 2006 to critical acclaim. After Margret’s family survived the death of their son, Gavin, to SIDS in 2011, she penned her last one woman show, Finding Gavin, which premiered in New York City in 2015. Margret has appeared in sketch comedy scenes as Nurse Margret in P. Diddy’s television series, Making the Band; she says Puffy is a marvelous partner in improvisational comedy. She was on the season finale of Law & Order SVU in 2021. Margret studied Acting at Regent’s College in London, Classical Voice and Opera at the Royal Academy of Music in London, and Acting at Sally Johnson Studio here in New York City. She has a BFA in Acting from Rockford University. Margret is also a published poet. She lives in Yonkers, NY with her daughter, Alyson.

Massimo Iacoboni

Massimo Iacoboni, a native of Italy, is a veteran of Rome’s Teatro Immagine, an experimental theatre movement of the 1970s. He debuted on the New York stage in 1977 at La MaMa, appearing in Locus Solus, a production based on Raymond Roussel’s novel by the same title. In 1978 he directed the absurdist play ‘The difficulty of being homosexual in Siberia’, a rewriting of ‘L’Homosexuel ou la difficulté de s’exprimer’ by the French-Argentine humorist Raul Damonte Botana (known as Copi). More recently, he appeared at the Whitney Museum of American Art in New York City in ‘Collecting Injustices, Unnecessary Suffering’ by Jill Kroesen, part of the Whitney Museum Performance Program. He is also featured in video artist Terri Hanlon’s experimental documentary Meringue Diplomacy, based on the life of 18th century French celebrity chef Marie-Antoine Caréme. Massimo has lived in New York City since 1980. 

Michael Hillyer

Michael Hillyer was an Associate Director at the 29th Street Rep, Blue Heron Arts Center and the Wings Theatre Company, and has directed elsewhere in New York at Playhouse 91, Theatre For The New City, the William Redfield Theatre, Douglas Fairbanks Theatre, the Nat Horne Theatre and the Irish Arts Center. His long-running horror-movie send-up at the American Renaissance Theatre, SLASHER, THE SPLATTER ROCK MUSICAL, was revived Off-Broadway at the Perry Street Theatre, choreographed by Susan Stroman. He has also directed at the John Drew Theatre, Millbrook Summer Playhouse (Morning's At Seven), Thomaston Opera House (Born Yesterday), the Palace Theatre in Stamford, CT (The Boy Who Cried Elvis), the Palace Theatre in Manchester, NH (Shenandoah, Man Of La Mancha), as well as at Cornell, Columbia and Seton Hall Universities. A former long-time member of SDC, he has written articles about the New York theatre scene for Backstage and The Village Voice, and is currently a member of the American Theatre Critics Association.

Natalie Allen

Nishka Jain

Nishka Jain is a playwright and an actor from India currently based in New York. She works for a fortune 500 company as a creative writer. She has been involved in performing arts since a very young age. She also loves yoga and fusion cooking.

Patrick Sciarratta

Patrick Sciarratta has been honored as the creator and director of the longstanding, internationally recognized, theatre ensemble, Bond Street Theatre (NYC): recipient of the first MacArthur (Genius) award ever presented to a theatre ensemble. He was a featured La Mama Theatre actor and director under the late Ellen Stewart; Artistic Director of the Palenville Interarts Colony (recreated the home of America’s first arts colony; he directed and was featured actor in 3 major works there); and was Theatre Director, Actor and Co-Producer of the 1984 Israel Festival, the premiere year solely in Jerusalem – all for Bond Street Theatre, where Mr. Sciarratta now enjoys Emeritus Board status. Patrick currently produces arts events at the UN, such as the ongoing Rhythms of One World, Day of Happiness, Humanicy, Ebola Relief, and other major arts events and exhibits, through the Office of the UN Secretary General and its Permanent Missions. Patrick appeared on the TV soap opera “Search For Tomorrow” and was featured on PBS Great Performances “The Orchestra,” (the first-ever High Definition television presentation on air in the USA, in 1991, and recipient of an EMMY and more awards than any other TV show in the world that year). Mr. Sciarratta had Male Principle Lead in “The Orchestra” and “Kafka,” both directed by mentor and acting coach, Emmy and Oscar-award winner, Zibignew Rybczynski. One of Mr. Sciarratta’s original plays, “The Hunger Artist,” was crafted during Mr. Sciarratta’s MA studies at New York University, from which he later received the first Gallatin Alumni Achievement Award (with Isabella Rossellini). “The Hunger Artist” is mentioned in the Burns Mantle Theatre Yearbook, Best Plays, 1976-77. Throughout his career, Patrick taught Acting, Body Movement, Mask-Making, Commedia dell’ arte, and Theatre Management to BFA students at Adelphi, LIU/CW Post, and New York universities. Mr. Sciarratta was Director for the Performing Arts at Hunter College (CUNY) during the redevelopment of the Hunter Playhouse into the Sylvia Fine and Danny Kaye Theatre. Hunter also named Patrick Artistic Director of the Barondess Theatre Lab and, along with the former film and theatre icon, Barbara Barondess, nurtured and produced new theatre works, until her 2000 passing. Other notable arts projects include four years of national service, directing art therapy for families of 9/11 and Katrina victims (2002-06, featured by Charles Osgood on CBS Sunday Morning in 2002 and honored by the US Senate in 2006) and acting as Flagship Partner in UNESCOs Decade for the Culture of Peace (1999-2009, aimed at peace building near the end of the Balkan Wars). During the Decade, Patrick directed Shakespeare’s Tempest in Timisoara, Romania, as well as other productions, created in Budapest, Hungary and Plovdiv, Bulgaria. From 1982-84, Patrick was theatre critic for Show Business magazine. Patrick received acting scholarships to Adelphi and New York universities, along with The Valley Studio (WI), Institutet For Scenkonst (Sweden), Jerzy Grotowski’s Polish Lab Theatre, Eugenio Barba’s Odin Teatret, and other training centres. Mr. Sciarratta often utilizes the Vakhtangov Method for role preparation, taught during his residence at the Polish State Theatre. He has led ensembles of actors and other artists to festivals throughout the world, while performing, directing, producing and managing administrative staffs on international tours.

Paul Michael Fontana

Raphael Badagliacca

Sarah Downs

Sarah Downs is a writer and performer who escaped the suburbs of Boston to pursue a career in the arts. In her theatrical incarnation she has worked both in New York and regional theater, and performed with local opera companies. She has sung arias to the stars, musical theater in barns and torch songs in cabaret. Sarah also toured the U.S. as Marian in The Music Man, and toured the U.S. and Canada as Marie Osmond’s understudy in the national tour of The Sound of Music. In recent years Sarah has focused more on writing, including articles on feminism and politics. She is President of the Professional Women Singers Association and on the board of the Women In the Arts and Media Coalition. Sarah holds an B.A. from Harvard University.

Sarah Tuft

Sarah is a writer for stage, TV and film. Her play 110 Stories has been performed at The Public Theater, Geffen Playhouse, Vineyard Theatre, Skirball Center for the Performing Arts and Nate Holden Performing Arts Center by actors including Ed Asner, Billy Crudup, the late Ossie Davis, Ruby Dee, Edie Falco, the late James Gandolfini, Neil Patrick Harris, John Hawkes, Katie Holmes, Samuel L. Jackson, Melissa Leo, Cynthia Nixon, Jeremy Piven, Susan Sarandon, John Turturro, Kathleen Turner and many others. Additional plays and one-acts include Awesome Big Somebody, Shoot Me, Laundry Day, True Hero and Me Tarzan with readings and workshops at 24 Hour Plays Readings at BAM, EST at Lexington, Naked Angels’ Tuesdays@9 and Makor Theatre. Her directing credits include The Eggnog Talking (Cherry Lane Theatre) Drama at the Point (Emerging Artists Theatre) and Mistress Syntax (Atlantic Theatre.) She’s written and directed short films Tide with Laurel Holloman (IFC, Hamptons Film Festival, LA Shorts Fest, Lake Placid) and Closing Time with Callie Thorne (Clermont-Ferrand) as well as music videos (Kirtsy MacColl, Chris Whitley), TV promos and interstitials featuring Blythe Danner, Peter Bogdanovich, Parker Posey and others. Sarah is a member of Dramatists Guild, the founding member of DnA – a lab for directing actors - and a New York Foundation for the Arts Fellowship recipient. 110 Stories is published by Playscripts. Sarah’s work is also included in the collection, Actor's Choice: Monologues for Women, Volume 2.

Stanford Friedman

With an MLS in Library Science from Rutgers and an MFA in Creative Writing from Columbia, Stan’s published works range from the technical to the abstract. He has written cover stories and reportage for Library Journal, obituaries for The Times of London, over 200 cookbook reviews for Publishers Weekly, and dozens of TV and theater reviews for New York Press. Prior to his current career, he worked a variety of theatrical odd jobs ranging from clerk at the Drama Book Shop to a roving Renaissance festival bloodletter to Special Effects Technician for the original Off-Broadway production of Little Shop of Horrors. Follow him on Twitter: <a href="https://twitter.com/BroadwayCrit">@BroadwayCrit</a> and <a href="http://www.show-score.com/member/stanford-friedman/">Show-Score.</a>

Stefie Gan

Stefie Gan recently received a BA from Barnard College. She has also taken courses in figure drawing, watercolor painting, and animation at SVA and the Art Students League. At Barnard, she finished her first animated short film titled A Day in Kuala Lumpur, a film documenting the lives of inhabitants of the city. She is currently writing a feature length screenplay. As a new reviewer for Front Row Center, she is craving for a good story and performance. A native New Yorker.

Steven Babyak

Steve Babyak is a native New Yorker and loves everything about New York (the museums, the restaurants, the theater, the extensive subway system, and all the treasures from the Bronx down to Staten Island.)

Taffy Jaffe

Taffy Jaffe has worked as a stand up comic, and monologist. She began her stage career performing original stand up and sketch comedy with "Hot Peaches", a political cabaret group, both in New York and London. She has also appeared in "The First Radical Humor Festival", "Women in Humor Conference", twice in Ensemble Studio Theater's "October Fest", "The Liar's Show", Tommy Pryor's "From Stoop to Nuts", The Metropolitan Room, "Ultra Vixen's" at Reno Sweeney's. She regularly appears at Cornelia Street Cafe's "Monologues and Madness", and the Duplex. She has produced and performed her own revues, featuring Joy Behar: "Rush Job", "Sanity Fare", "Party Line Revue" . These revues were also performed at benefits for "Association for Artist Therapists", The Marxist School, and the "Majority Report" newspaper. She also produced and performed several revues "Let's Talk Dirty" at the Cornelia Street Cafe. She has told her stories at The Moth, and her lines were broadcast on their radio program. She is thrilled to be writing theater reviews, her first love.

Tulis McCall

For my money, the theatre is up there in the ten top reasons to be human. I leave my home and go sit in a dark room with complete strangers and watch actors do their stuff because I want to be inspired. I’m asking to be involved. I’m volunteering to be led down any old path they choose as long as they don’t let go of my hand. And if I see a show, and it is NOT so very good – I will try to divert you, because I don’t want you to come to the temple when the preaching isn’t up to snuff. I will bar the door, I will swing from rafters, I will yell FIRE just to set your feet on a path that does not lead to disappointment. Do something different with your evening I will say. Save your money for dinner with a friend you haven’t seen in months because you are too frigging busy. Go take a walk with your dog or your child or your significant other. Go to bed early, I will say. Don’t come to the theatre when it is less than it can be. I’m an usher snob, and that’s all there is to it.

Victoria Dammer

Graduate of Harvard with a Master of Journalism, Victoria Dammer is a brilliant writer, world traveler, entrepreneur, sportswriter, and freelance photographer. She currently writes Broadway and Off-Broadway reviews for The Front Row Center and Openingnight.online. For five years, she has written the Jets Fan Chatter column for TapInto.net, an online franchised newspaper with over 15 million readers. Her travel pieces will transport you to exotic and exciting places. Her food articles will make you hungry, and her photography will inspire you. She enjoys reading and writing literature reviews. In addition, she is working on two books, one a women's adult fiction novel, and a children's book.

Victoria Weisfeld

Vicki Weisfeld is an avid theater-goer and reviewer of stage, screen, and books at her website, vweisfeld.com. She lives in Princeton, New Jersey, and writes short stories, mysteries, and thrillers.