Algonquin Theater Productions Announces Staff Changes

Algonquin Theater Productions, producers of the Off Broadway shows Sessions, The Devil and Billy Markham and An Evening at the Carlyle announces a change in staff. Beginning immediately, Merry Beamer and Debra Whitfield join the current Artistic Director, Tony Sportiello, to form a triumvirate, as the company heads into its eighth year.

Debra Whitfield is an award-winning actress, director and writer. She has worked at The Mint Theater, Virginia Stage Company, Bristol Riverside Theatre, Dorset Theatre Festival, Two River Theater Company and the Depot Theatre, among others. Debra won Best Actress Awards for How I Learned to Drive and Relatively Speaking. Her production of In the Belly of the Beast, at Florida Studio Theatre, won the Sarasota Magazine Award for Best Play. She recently directed The Banana Monologues, which is slated for an Off-Broadway production in 2013.

Merry Beamer served as Artistic Director for the Bridge Theater Company of Washington Heights in New York from 1995 to 2001. She was part of The A Train series where she both acted and directed in pieces that were conceived and performed within 24 hours. She has acted and directed in California, Raleigh, North Carolina and co-directed the 1st New York revival of Balm in Gilead. She began her theater career in California before coming to New York where she studied at The Neighborhood Playhouse under the legendary Sanford Meisner and Richard Pinter.

Tony Sportiello began Algonquin Theater Productions in 2004. He is the author of several plays which have been produced in New York, nationwide and overseas. He is published in Sam French and is a member of the Baseball Hall of Fame for his plays, Contract Time and National Pastime. He is the producer of the Off Broadway musical Sessions, which ran for 300 performances and was named Best Musical of Guadalajara in 2011.

Algonquin Theater Productions is gearing up for its production of the musical National Pastime, which will run in August at the Peter Jay Sharp Theater. The production, which has already performed in Washington, D.C. and the National Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, is seeking a Broadway run in 2013. The show has a book by Tony Sportiello, with music and lyrics by Al Tapper. Nancy Robillard directs, with David Wolfson providing the musical direction.