Michael Putman Estwanik ( President) is a graduate of Boston College with a degree in Theatre Arts and Psychology. He lived in San Francisco for many years where he served as Director of Public Relations for several dance and theatre companies. He was Dean of Admissions at Lone Mountain College (formerly San Francisco College for Women), a school which specialized in the creative and performing arts, and presented the very first staged version of the Who's rock opera, "Tommy", which under his publicity direction enjoyed a sold-out run of two years.
Michael moved to Lake Tahoe where he skied every winter and founded a summer musical theatre repertory company, for which he served as Vice President of the Board as well as Artistic Director for five years. As a performer there, he appeared as Snoopy in "You're a Good Man, Charlie Brown", and authored and appeared in "A Tribute to Gershwin and Porter".
Michael was a producer of the off-Broadway musical "Swingtime Canteen" by Charles Busch, Julie Halston's "A Lifetime of Comedy" in Los Angeles, and the Mitchell Parrish musical, "Stardust", starring Gloria Loring in San Francisco. He is a graduate of the Commercial Theatre Institute's Advanced Seminar for Producing.
He served for seven years on the Board of Directors of MAC (The Manhattan Association of Cabarets & Clubs), five years as President.
Michael is President of Searchlights, an event planning and exclusive group travel company ( www.searchlightsnyc.com)
He is a Global Account Manager for HelmsBriscoe which arranges hotel accommodations and meeting facilities for corporations, social groups, and Broadway tours around the world. He also serves on the Board of Trustees of the Westside Community Garden.
James Darrah learned his first time step from his dad, a baseball player. Formal dance training began in his home town of Boston in summer sessions at the Walnut Hill School with The Concert Dance Company and Pilobolus. Tap training followed in many forms with many skilled t eachers and choreographers, among them Henry LaTang, Danny Daniels, Germaine Salsberg, Randy Skinner, Phil Black, Chuck Kelly, Lorene Yarnell, Gregory and Maurice Hines. Still an active performer with numerous credits ranging from Broadway and Off Broadway theatres to nightclubs of Paris and concert halls from Warsaw to Hong Kong to Carnegie Hall and a few years with Ringling Bros. Barnum & Bailey Circus. He has appeared on stage and on television opposite Dick Van Dyke, Carol Channing, Chita Rivera, Madeline Kahn, Tony Curtis, Mickey Rooney, Jerry Orbach, Bea Arthur and Donald O'Connor, to name a few. He has taught tap classes all around the country and in Tokyo, London and Seoul. James is a faculty emeritus of RBBB Circus Clown College and did a brief stint on the dance faculty at AMDA.
Jamie deRoy ( Vice President) was one of the first women to join the famed New York Friars Club. She also sits on the Board of The Friars Foundation, and is on the Honorary Boards of CAP21,The Humane Society of New York and The Theater World Awards.
Jamie has appeared as Joan Rivers' opening act, and headlined at major clubs across the country. Since 1990, Jamie has hosted and produced the critically acclaimed variety show, Jamie deRoy & friends, which also serves as the basis for her cable television show. The show has earned nine Telly Awards and won the Northeast Video Festival. She has produced eight CDs in the Jamie deRoy & friends series, which are available on Harbinger Records and PS CLASSIC labels. The Child in Me: Volume 1, ‘Tis the Season and Animal Tracks each earned Jamie MAC Awards for Recording of the Year and her last CD “If I Sing” was nominated for a 2007 MAC Award.
She is a TONY Award winning Producer of The Norman Conquests. She is currently presenting on Broadway “Finian’s Rainbow”, "Ragtime" and “The Addams Family” opening in the spring. Other credits include: Impressionism, Blithe Spirit, Speed-the-Plow, All My Sons, The Seagull, Buffalo Gal, Marguerite (London), Thurgood, The Country Girl, November, Beebo Brinker Chronicles, Make Me a Song (Y and London), Dividing the Estate, Opus, Coram Boy, The Two and Only, Chita Rivera: The Dancer’s Life, Say Goodnight Gracie, Spalding Gray: Stories Left to Tell, Exits and Entrances, Adrift in Macao, Indian Blood, Dedication or The Stuff of Dreams, The Complete Works of Shakespeare (Abridged). TV: “Jamie deRoy& friends,” “CityArts.” Film: Broadway: The Golden Age. Numerous BackStage Bistro,Telly and MAC |
Carolyn Montgomery is a MAC, Nightlife and BackStage Bistro Award Winner for Outstanding Cabaret Vocalist, currently on hiatus from hercabaret career as she pursues other projects. She is the owner of Cafe Forant ( www.cafeforant.com) located in midtown west Manhattan, where she also resides with her partner, Chef Lea Forant, and their five-year-old son, Eli Forant. Carolyn continues to sing, but mostly in the studio, recording commercial jingles, and, most recently, the soundtrack to the short film Outward, music by Jim Swift. Carolyn is the Director of this country's only Free Veterinary Clinic, and President of the Board of the St. Clement's Church in New York City.
Amy Rivard's (Secretary) musical career all began when she received her Bachelor of Fine Arts Honors Degree in Musical Theatre from the University of Windsor. Here she developed not only her high coloratura soprano voice, but also learned how to belt out her favorite Broadway tunes. She learned what it takes to be an actor and learned a few good dance moves as well. She remembers what an honor it was to have industry professionals teach in her classes and that's one of the reasons she loves being a part of TSP.
Amy has been seen in Riverdance in both the Broadway and the North American touring companies. She has toured the musical Camelot and The Roy Orbison story, performed with Symphonies and can also be seen in a number of commercials & independent films. Amy also spent over a year living and eating sushi in Japan, when she performed at Tokyo Disney. Most recently, Amy was the only North American performer in Celtic Woman, Billboard Music Chart's No.1 Selling World Artist and has performed the national anthems at a number of NY Rangers Games at MSG and for a number of NASCAR races. She has travelled to over 500 cities in 30 countries and this is all thanks to her career as a performer.
Amy not only loves to perform but also enjoys being part of the creative process and has her cabaret show which she's performed worldwide on SilverSea 6 Star Cruiselines, at the prestigious Old Vic Theatre in London, England as well as the Cafe De Paris. If that wasn't enough, she then went on and co-produced her debut album Cashmere with the title track being her own. To learn more about Amy, please feel free to check out www.amyrivard.com and www.myspace.com/amyrivardmusic.
Robert Safron is a graduate of Brandeis University and of the New York University School of Law where he was a Pomeroy Scholar and a member of its Law Review. He is a commercial real estate lawyer representing many prominent New York City real estate families and national institutions in their acquisition, sale, development, financing and leasing of office and residential buildings, hotels, shopping centers and other commercial properties in the New York City/Metropolitan Area and elsewhere in the continental United States. He is presently a partner at Patterson Belknap Webb & Tyler and was previously a partner at Paskus, Gordon & Mandel, White & Case, Richards & O’Neil and Bingham McCutchen. He is a member of the American College of Real Estate Lawyers, the New York City Bar Association and the New York State Bar Association. He grew up in New York City and has been a devotee of musical theatre since his early years and has been singing the great American standards for decades in the privacy of his shower.
John Sterba ( Treasurer) holds an MBA from Harvard University, a JD from Duke University and two chemical engineering degrees from Cornell University.
John has for over 12 years been the Chairman of Investment Management Advisors, Inc., an investment management firm serving individuals, their retirement plans and smaller institutions. Previously he was a Vice President of Bank of America and a securities analyst at Kidder, Peabody & Co. John has practiced investment securities law with Sullivan & Cromwell; Morgan, Lewis & Bockius; Roberts, Sterba & Kensington; and as Vice President, Secretary and General Counsel of a NYSE-listed manufacturing firm and a publicly traded SBIC.
John is the author of Fundamentals of Personal Investing (American Bar Association) and editor of three editions of Legal Opinion Letters (Aspen Law & Business). He is a director of a publicly traded mutual fund and JAW Manufacturing Co., and an officer of the Harvard Business School Club of Greater New York. |