Alex Dinelaris, Charlie Rosen & More Round Out TEDxBroadway Speakers Lineup

Today, the organizers of the fifth annual TEDxBroadway announced the final line up of speakers and performers who will be taking the stage on Monday, February 22, 2016 at New World Stages in New York City.

TEDxBroadway co-organizers, Damian Bazadona and Jim McCarthy, have sought out a wide variety of speakers to contribute to the cornerstone question of the day: "What is the BEST Broadway Can Be?" The newest additions to the speaker line up include:

· Alex Dinelaris is an Academy Award and Golden Globe winner for the screenplay of Birdman (or The Unexpected Virtue of Ignorance). He is the co-creator and executive producer of the upcoming series, The One Percent, for the Starz network, starring Ed Helms, Hilary Swank and Ed Harris Dinelaris is also the author of Gloria and Emilio Estefan's Broadway musical On Your Feet.

· Lindsey Croop is a performance artist with the critically-acclaimed ballet company Dance Theatre of Harlem where she has toured the world with a message of hope.

· Derrick Wang is a composer, lyricist, and librettist, creating dramatic music for an interdisciplinary world. He is the creator of the opera Scalia/Ginsburg, which was introduced at the U.S. Supreme Court, published in the Columbia Journal of Law & the Arts, and premiered at Lorin Maazel's Castleton Festival to international attention from both the musical and legal worlds.

· Miral Kotb combined her passion for dance and technology to create iLuminate, the entertainment company that combines its patented wirelessly controlled light-suits with exhilarating performers to create the ultimate dance-in-the-dark audience experience.

· Mark McEwen was named one of the "Ten Most Trusted News Personalities" in a TV Guide survey. A long-time CBS journalist, he was an anchor on "CBS This Morning" and served as weather and entertainment reporter for "The Early Show." He is the author of Change in the Weather, about his experience with recovery.

· Essam Abadir, CEO of Aspire Ventures, is an inventor, investor, and international expert in technology foundational to the Internet of Things (IoT). His passion lies in applying technology toward basic human needs. An MIT graduate and IP attorney, he founded several of the earliest and fastest-growing technologies and companies in digital advertising, cloud storage, video on demand, music streaming, and mobile app platforms, most recently appMobi, which exited its tools division to Intel in 2013.

· Beth Clayton is a soul-centered health coach. She has helped hundreds of people to ditch the shame, dieting and deprivation and step into a respectful and loving relationship with their bodies and themselves.

· Donald Schupak acting as attorney and managing partner negotiated the "sports deal of the century" for the Spirits of St. Louis during the ABA-NBA merger in '76. The deal gave the Spirits' owners, among other things, a share of the NBA's TV rights fees going forward, which has earned as reported in the NYT and various other reports approximately $800MM to date.

· Charlie Rosen is a Music Director, Composer, Arranger/Orchestrator, and Performer with a highly regarded record of success in a wide variety of musical environments. Recent Broadway credits include: "American Psycho" (AMD/Ableton/Bass) "The Visit" (Guitar, Mandolin, Zither), "Honeymoon in Vegas" (Orchestrations), One Man Two Guv'nors (MD, Bass), "Cyrano de Bergerac" (Original music).

· Marcus Monroe is a juggler and comedian with a production of his new one-man show opening at the end of this year in New York City. Marcus is the recipient of the prestigious Andy Kaufman Award. Most recently, Marcus completed a project residency at Ars Nova, which included a sold-out run and a New York Times and Time Out NY Critics' Pick.

They join previously announced speakers:

· DJ Kurs, artistic director of Deaf West Theatre since 2012. Kurs shepherded the production of Spring Awakening from its beginnings in a 99-seat theater in Los Angeles to its current revival on Broadway.

· Wesley Whatley, who's served for the last decade as a member of the Macy's Parade & Entertainment Group's creative team. Whatley is responsible for developing and producing musical scores, creating original music and overseeing performance programs for the company's iconic national events, including Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade and Macy's 4th of July Fireworks.

· Erin Lavik, professor of chemical, biochemical and environmental engineering at the University of Maryland, Baltimore County (UMBC). Dr. Lavik's research focuses on engineering polymers to protect and repair the nervous system and treat trauma more broadly.

· Kelly Leonard (president & CEO of Kelly Leonard Productions/creative advisor for The Second City), who's worked at The Second City for nearly three decades in various creative and leadership positions. His book, Yes, And: Lessons From The Second City, was published by HarperCollins in 2015.

· Meredith (Max) Hodges, who joined Boston Ballet as executive director in 2014, and leads the company in partnership with Artistic Director Mikko Nissinen. Boston Ballet boasts a 52-year history of internationally acclaimed performances, world-class school programs, and groundbreaking community outreach.

· Jennifer Ashley Tepper is the Director of Programming at 54 Below, and the author of The Untold Stories of Broadway book series.

· Randy Weiner is a producer, venue owner, and playwright. He has been hailed as "the leading impresario of nontraditional theater in New York" by the New York Times, and "a mad genius of nightlife" by The Wall Street Journal. He is the recipient of two Drama Desk Awards ("Sleep No More" and "Queen of the Night"). Randy made his TEDxBroadway debut in February 2012 with his talk, "The Future of Show Content".

· Katie Sweeney is the Founder and Chief Strategy Officer at OutsideIn Strategies. She is a senior strategic thought leader with over 25 years of experience. As a seasoned qualitative researcher, she probes for insights at the highest order and then leverages them to drive actionable recommendations for growth.

· James Lecesne is a writer, storyteller and actor. He most recently did his Off Broadway solo show The Absolute Brightness of Leonard Pelkey. Word of Mouth, an earlier solo show, was produced by Mike Nichols and won the Drama Desk and Outer Critics Circle Award. He wrote the Academy Award winning short film TREVOR, which inspired the founding of The Trevor Project, the only nationwide 24-hour suicide prevention Lifeline for LGBTQ youth.

Additional details are available at www.TEDxBroadway.com

Interested attendees can purchase tickets at https://www.eventbrite.com/e/tedxbroadway-2016-tickets-17781528029.

Photo Credit: Mike Runner