LEADERSHIP

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GAYLE DAMIANO WAXENBERG

FOUNDING EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR

Gayle’s career began on Wall Street where she managed the marketing and corporate communications for a premiere investment bank. During her 11 years there, she won a multitude of awards for the creative and strategic campaigns she directed. She later started her own marketing consulting firm, Waxenberg & Associates, working with advertising, public relations and direct marketing firms servicing the financial industry.   A born advocate, she left the for-profit sector and committed her self to raising awareness for those less fortunate. Combining her extensive business experience and philanthropic work, she began giving “voice” to the different communities she served, and continues to serve; domestic abuse victims, hospice patients, substance abuse victims, immigrants, at-risk children and mental health patients. Gayle has been repeatedly honored for her service by the organizations she serves.

Recognizing the power of the stories she captured, she launched the Telling Company in 2012 as a forum for telling real-life stories influencing social change through art.  She has now brought The Telling Company to NewYorkRep.

Her first play, A Bitter Pill, premiered in 2016 at the Hudson Guild Theater, as part of the Venus/Adonis Theater Festival. Gayle also produced the mulit-award winning film Influence, and the London production of Stalking the Bogeyman, which received an Off-West End (Offie nomination) for best production and direction. Produced readings included Ben Elton’s Olivier award winning play, Popcorn, starring Sharon Stone and Stacey Keach. She is proud to have launched and produced a community based program of readings, Thought Bubbles, to bring new theatrical work free to people who may not otherwise have access.

Gayle is also a Founder/Past President and currently a Board Member of The Graham School Education Foundation, which serves New York City’s most at-risk, underserved children, a Board Member of Danza Espanza, The American Spanish Dance Theater, and was an elected official.   She is also a member of the Dramatists Guild of America, the Off Broadway Alliance, Theater Resources Unlimited and a member of the League of Professional Theater Women.

 

SARAH NORRIS

ARTISTIC DIRECTOR

Sarah is a theater artist (SDC, AEA) and producer based in New York. Her work has been seen in NYC, Los Angeles, Chicago, San Francisco, Las Vegas, and around the world in Scotland, Australia, England and Ireland.

Select producer and production credits: Playwrights Horizons (I Am My Own Wife Off-Broadway and Tony Winning Broadway transfer), Disney Theatrical Productions, Bisno Productions (Hughie on Broadway w/ Forest Whitaker; My Report to the World w/ David Strathairn). Currently, she is the Founding Artistic Director of New Light Theater Project (NYC) and the Summer Artistic Producer of Pendragon Theatre (Adirondacks).

As a theater director, select credits include: Everything is Super Great (TimeOut NY Critics Pick), This Wrestling Place (w/ Executive Producer Ben Folds), Picture Ourselves in Latvia (Best of Theater, The L Magazine), H*tler’s Tasters (TimeOut NY Critics Pick; Best of the Edinburgh Fringe, The Stage). Other highlights include: Guild Hall of East Hamptons, Pleasance Theatre (Edinburgh), Greenside Theatre (Edinburgh), Bottom Dog Theatre (Ireland), Adelaide Fringe Festival (Australia), 59E59 Theaters, LAByrinth Theatre, Working Theater, Electric Lodge (LA), Chicago Dramatists, North Shore Center for the Performing Arts, The Flea Theater, Zeiders American Dream Theater, Calliope Stage, Forestburgh Playhouse, and Pendragon Theatre.