TEAM
Co-Executive Producers
Bob Klein, Co-Founder, is a musical theatre aficionado with exceptional experience in entertainment marketing. Bob contributed significantly to marketing films like Close Encounters of the Third Kind, to launching cable networks NICKELODEON, SHOWTIME, and FX, and to guiding arts organizations like the LA Philharmonic. In 1996 he co-founded Reprise! with Marcia Seligson reviving major musicals for southern California audiences. In 2005 they founded the Festival of New American Musicals to showcase new works, creators, and performers. Shortly thereafter, Bob co-founded FNAM with a mission to educate, mentor, and showcase the creators of musicals for stage, screen, and new platforms.
Marcia Seligson has theatre in her blood. In 1996 she co-founded REPRISE! Broadway’s Best, and served as the Producing Artistic Director presenting more than forty events. In 2008 she was a co-executive producer of the Festival of New American Musicals presenting multiple events from Santa Barbara to San Diego to thousands. Marcia has co-produced shows which have been both off and on Broadway. Her Broadway show, Six Dance Lessons in Six Weeks, became a film starring Gena Rowlands.
Linda Shusett has experience in developing and producing for motion pictures, but her heart has always been with musical theatre. She serves as Co-Executive Producer for FNAM including co-producing past joint workshops with ASCAP. Linda currently produces the bimonthly MUSI-CAL showcase at Rockwell Table & Stage. Linda co-produced Ovation Award nominated Hoboken to Hollywood as well as other live musical events/concerts. Her love for all styles of music is evident: she has performed in musical theatre, cabaret and as a member of the Canaligators, a Venice rock n’ roll band.
Co-Executive Producers Bob Klein, Linda Shusett, and Marcia Seligson, with Norman Lear.
FNAM BOARD
Kevin Bailey is an LA-based actor, producer and general manager. His company, MB Artists, produced the Broadway play Ann, at Lincoln Center, earning its author and star, Holland Taylor, a Tony nomination for Best Actress. He produced the four play Greater Tuna cycle, and represents Tuna playwright, Jaston Williams. Bailey starred in the original Broadway and LA productions of The Lion King and the revival of Annie Get Your Gun with Bernadette Peters. He’s starred in touring and regional productions including: Phantom, Miss Saigon, Jesus Christ Superstar, The Grinch Who Stole Christmas, 42nd Street, Elf, Amadeus and The Fantasticks.
Hunter Bird is a director and developer of new plays and musicals. He’s worked at Ars Nova, Roundabout Theatre Company, Chicago Shakespeare Theater, The McKittrick Hotel, Signature Theatre with Columbia University, The Getty Villa, Skylight Theater, Village Theatre, 59E59, Lincoln Center Education, Edinburgh Fringe Festival and MTF. Awards/Affiliations: MTC’s Jonathan Alper Directing Fellow, Civilians R&D Group, MTC’s Samuel J. Friedman Assistantship, The UCLA Emerging Director Award, Gilbert Cates Fellowship. BA in Directing and Musical Theater, UCLA. www.hunter-bird.com
Mina Bloom (UCLA BA in Theatre, 2017) is an award-winning pianist, composer, flautist, music director and music teacher. Mina first connected with FNAM as a finalist in ShowSearch. She is the music lead for FNAM’s Pathway. Mina founded Dually Noted Theatre Company which workshops and produces new musicals. She is a Music Director with the Miracle Project. Mina composed the song cycle We Three Sisters based on Chekhov’s play. She is currently working on the full-length musical, Formosa Girls, loosely based on the experiences of her grandmother and great aunts as bride price immigrants to the United States.
Nicole Pryor Dernersesian is the founder of Firestarter Entertainment, a talent agency that represents over 1000 actors for television, film, commercials, print, and theatre. Before FSE, Nicole performed in the The Phantom of the Opera for 6 ½ years, becoming the first African American to play the role of The Confidante. Nicole taught vocal lessons for over 14 years, including a two-year stint as an Adjunct Professor at her alma mater, Pepperdine University. In 2019, Nicole launched the non-profit, Inclusion Media Group: Striving to make a more inclusive world by creating content that tells diverse stories. Please visit: www.nicolepryor.com
Michael Donovan, President, is a critically-acclaimed casting director based in Los Angeles. He is the recipient of 9 Artios Awards presented by the Casting Society of America for Outstanding Achievement in Casting. Michael has cast over 1,000 theatre productions, including shows produced at the Hollywood Bowl, the Ahmanson, Pasadena Playhouse, Laguna Playhouse, ICT, La Jolla Playhouse and many more. In addition, he has numerous film, television and commercial credits. Michael also teaches at Pepperdine University.
Noelle L. Hicks, Vice President, has had a life-long passion for the arts. Noelle has been a board member with the Foundation since its initial incarnation as the Festival of New American Musicals and is delighted to support the next generation of musical theatre creators. Most recently she has been a Broadway angel for Dangerous Liaisons and Dear Evan Hansen. Noelle is proud to serve on the advisory board of the USC School of Dramatic Arts Musical Theatre BFA.
Marty Iker, Treasurer, is a renowned entertainment marketing/branding expert. After twelve years at broadcast stations and nine as VP/Creative Director at Warner Bros., now President/Creative Director at MI Creative Group, Marty develops award-winning brand identities, promos and commercials for major studios and networks. Iker has created iconic marketing campaigns featuring The Four Tops, Little Richard and Will Smith, among others. Marty has a B.A. in Theatre from Grinnell College, and an M.S. in Telecommunications from Indiana University. He is particularly interested in encouraging the use of new technology, new forms and new media in the creation of the next generation of musicals.
Richard Israel is an award-winning theatre director and recipient of an L.A. Drama Critics Circle Career Achievement Award for Directing. Recent credits include Violet (LA Stage Alliance Ovation Award for Best Direction), Mamma Mia for 5-Star Theatricals, The World Goes Round for Reprise!, West Side Story for McCoy/Rigby Entertainment and Floyd Collins (LA Stage Alliance Ovation Award for Best Direction). He currently has multiple original musicals in development, including A Very Brady Musical and the solo show American Whore Story. In addition to his theatre work, he served as the theatrical coordinator for the multiple Emmy-award winning HBO series BIG LITTLE LIES.
Anthony Lucca is an award-winning music director, arranger and orchestrator. World premieres include: Bronco Billy (Skylight Theatre Company, LA Drama Critics Award for Best Musical Direction), Mutt House (Kirk Douglas Theater), Cult of Love (IAMA Theatre Company). In 2016-2017 he was resident music director and accompanist at the O’Neill Theatre Center. Additional credits include: Sideways: In Concert (BV Productions), Mamma Mia! (5 Star Theatricals), Evita: In Concert (Palos Verdes Performing Arts), She Loves Me (Actors Co-Op), Calvin Berger (SRO Productions), Honeymoon in Vegas (Musical Theatre Guild). He performs at Feinstein’s 54 Below, Birdland, the Blue Whale, the Hollywood Bowl and others.
Ryan M. Luévano (he/him) is an award-winning playwright, screenwriter, composer, conductor, professor of music and theatre critic. Ryan is a regular teaching artist at A Noise Within Theatre Company in Pasadena and a proud member of the Dramatists Guild of America. Most recently he was accepted as Artist-in-Residence at Chateau d’Orquevaux in France for summer 2021; awarded the Denis Diderot Grant for his work on the musical 57 Bus; and won the Full Circle Players’ New Works Play Festival in 2021 for his play La Lavadora.
Deirdre Marlowe, Secretary, devotes much of her FNAM time to The Pathway as a Teaching Artist, program administrator and grant writer. Marlowe was a 10-year member of the BMI Lehman Engel Musical Theatre Workshop. While she has written lyrics and music, her expertise is in book writing. She has collaborated on six musicals, three of which have been produced.
Patty Onagan has over 25 years of experience in performing arts marketing, publicity, special events, and production. She launched numerous world premieres including the Broadway productions of Disney’s Beauty and the Beast, The Lion King, and Aida. Her agency represents/has represented many arts organizations including Ebony Repertory Theatre, Gay Men’s Chorus of Los Angeles, Greenway Arts Alliance, Numi Opera, The Old Globe, Canon Theatricals, Geffen Playhouse, Pasadena Playhouse, REPRISE II, among others, and countless independent productions. Patty produced bare: a pop opera (World Premiere); Terence McNally’s Corpus Christi (Los Angeles Premiere); Lythgoe Family Panto holiday productions (associate producer); benefit concerts for the Clinton Bush Relief Fund, UNICEF and American Red Cross.
Christopher Sepulveda is a film, theatre and XR producer specializing in new work development and production. Recent credits include the new live virtual reality musical Winter Lights with Apples and Oranges Studios, the hit You Can't Stop the Beat fundraising video for The Actor's Fund, the Edinburgh Festival Fringe premiere of Sleeping Giant by Steve Yockey, Be A Good Little Widow by Bekah Brunstetter at The Odyssey Theatre and world premiere musical Mutt House at the Kirk Douglas Theatre. Other work includes the Tony award-winning Broadway production, First National Tour and West End premiere of An American in Paris with Apples and Oranges and the acclaimed revival of Spring Awakening with Deaf West Theatre.
Tegan Summer is the worldwide theatrical rights holder for the properties of James Dean, Bettie Page, the Nicholas Brothers, and Amelia Earhart. He is an Ovation and NAACP award recipient. Current and Credited Projects: producer, book writer, and lyricist on: Steve Aoki’s Mozart² The New Musical, Carnegie Hall; Marilyn! The New Musical with Caesars Entertainment, Las Vegas and The Ogunquit Playhouse; James Dean – Rebel, the new rock musical; Bettie Page, Queen of Pin-Ups; Lucky Numbers, The Story of the Peerless Nicholas Brothers; Amelia, the Broadway musical about the pioneering aviatrix, and The Dolly Sisters: Icons of the Jazz Age. He is the President of the Board of AMAS Musical Theatre.
Rob Warner is an LA-based actor, writer, comedian, and singer. He has performed in the Second City Premium show Trump in Space for two years, the IO House Sketch Team Garden Party, the Rockwell & Dynasty Typewriter production of Bachelor the Musical where he originated the role of Chris Harrison (besides, like, the actual Chris Harrison), and the UCB production of The Unauthorized Real Housewives Musical Parody. He has published work in The Bold Italic and sung at Lincoln Center and Carnegie Hall.
FNAM ADVISORY BOARD
Jim Chabin President, The Advanced Imaging Society
Lowe Cunningham Director, Creative Development, Universal Theatrical Group, Universal Pictures
Gail Eichenthal Director of Community Engagement, KUSC Los Angeles and KDFC San Francisco
Sheldon Epps Artistic Director Emeritus, Pasadena Playhouse; Artistic Advisor, Ford's Theatre, Washington, D.C.
Gordon P. Firemark Entertainment Attorney
Hanay Geiogamah Playwright, Film/TV Producer; Professor of theater in the School of Theater, Film and Television, UCLA
Alicia Green Director of Education and Community Outreach, A Noise Within
Brian Kite Theatre Director and Interim Dean of the UCLA School of Theatre, Film and Television
Sophie Olsen Choreographer, Performing Arts Education Specialist
Chip Rosenbloom Composer and Filmmaker
Marc Shaiman Broadway Composer and Lyricist
Mark Slavkin Director of Education, Wallis Annenberg Center for the Performing Arts
Deborah Strichartz President and CEO of Big Hill Pictures
Annie Wareham Artistic Director of Laguna Playhouse
Pamela L. Weisberg, Esq. Entertainment and Business Attorney
David Zippel Lyricist and Director
Marlene Zuccaro Former Director of the Academy of Music and Performing Arts Magnet, Hamilton High School