BroadwayWorld Expands Tri-State Coverage

BroadwayWorld.com, the #1 theater site on the net, announces its expansion of coverage in the tri-state area. We have you covered from NYC to New Jersey to Philadelphia to Connecticut and beyond, providing you the latest, up-to-date breaking news and information on all the local happenings in the area. New additions to the BroadwayWorld team have added to multimedia (photo + video) production along with expanded news, reviews and feature coverage. Also, we've launched an upgrade to the site's regional show listings making both free and sponsored listings and targeted show advertising even easier to post and enhance.

Meet the New Jersey Team.

Senior Editor, Marina P. Kennedy writes articles and reviews for Broadwayworld.com on performance venues in New York and New Jersey. She is the Editor in Chief of BWW's Food & Wine World.com and the Senior New Jersey Editor. She also has a regular column in Fitnessworld.com, "Fit Food Finds," which discusses healthy eating. Her interest in fitness, dance, and theatre stem from the many years she owned and operated a dance school, "Dance Unlimited" in New Jersey. She enjoys a very active journalism career and loves writing for Broadwayworld.com.

Sarah Maraniss Vander Schaaff is a freelance writer and blogger. Her work has appeared in many national outlets including The Washington Post, HuffPost, and Getting Smart. With a background in theatre and journalism, she loves creative endeavors, artistic people, and Early Grey tea. She lives near Princeton, New Jersey with her husband and two children and has just finished her first novel.

Sean Quinn is an award-winning newspaper reporter from New Jersey. He has extensive experience covering the arts in addition to government, development, education and a wide range of other subjects. Through this work, he has had the pleasure of interviewing everyone from Zach Braff to Henry Winkler to former New Jersey governors Brendan Byrne and Richard Codey. As a lifelong lover of theater, movies, television and books, he is thrilled to write about some of his favorite subjects for BroadwayWorld.com.

Leigh Scheps. Leigh Scheps is an award winning journalist. As a Broadway Buff, Leigh is elated to join the Broadway World team as a contributor. Leigh is currently a digital reporter for Inside Edition. Her stories ranging from Broadway, viral, trending, hard news and pop culture, can be seen on national platforms including AOL, MSN and Yahoo. Prior to this position, Leigh's reported for Fox News, Buzz60 and news stations in Philadelphia, Fort Myers, Binghamton, Bronx and Brooklyn.

Jennifer Vazquez. Majoring in Journalism and Media Studies as well as in Spanish Literary and Cultural Studies from Rutgers University in New Brunswick, N.J., Jennifer Vázquez has always possessed an extreme passion and reverence for the performing and visual arts. Born and raised a hop and a skip away from New York City, in the great state of New Jersey, she was introduced to the grand world of musicals and theater at a very young age...and never looked back! Jennifer is an avid fan of art galleries and museums, Theater Productions, musicals, operas, ballets, fashion, sports, movies, music and traveling. Currently, she is a news editor for various publications. She is also a regular anchor and reporter for a local television station where she has produced and edited various shows - including entertainment and art-themed segments.

Courtney Marie Savoia is a New Jersey native who first fell in love with the performing arts after seeing the Rockettes as a young girl. She has a degree in journalism from Marist College and currently works in media. In addition to devouring all the theater that both NJ and NYC has to offer, Courtney also takes to the stage with AfterWork Theater, and has performed in productions of Hairspray and Anything Goes. She is very grateful for the chance to share her experiences with friends and family.

Adam Cohen lives in New Jersey and races in marathons and triathlons. He has a bachelor's from Bennington College and a Master's from New York University.

Meet the Connecticut Team.

Senior Editor, Joseph Harrison has been involved with the theatre in some form or fashion all his life. He holds a Journalism degree from the University of Georgia, but his true love is the theatre which he has been involved in as a spectator as well as an actor for the last 25+ years. He has performed in a variety of musicals over the years including PIPPIN, CITY OF ANGELS, 1776, WORKING, LITTLE WOMEN, WORKING, GODSPELL (Jesus) and JOSEPH..DREAMCOAT (Joseph) just to name a few. He currently resides in West Hartford, CT with his wife, Shannon and their two children.

Sherry Shameer Cohen is an award winning parachute journalist and blogger who is always looking for more challenging work. Her articles and photos have appeared in Connecticut Magazine, Greenwich Magazine, Stamford Plus, The Advocate, Greenwich Time, The Minuteman, Connecticut Jewish Ledger, The Jewish Chronicle, The Jewish Press, The New Jewish Voice, and various daytime magazines. She has stage managed, designed flyers, programs and props for community theatre and reviewed theatre for the Connecticut Jewish Ledger, Theater Inform and New England Entertainment Digest. She lives in Connecticut with her husband, Ken, and her two little drama kings, Alexander Seth Cohen and Jonathan Ross Cohen.

Lauren Yarger, a former newspaper editor, is a member of The Drama Desk, The Outer Critics Circle, The American Theater Critics Association, the CT Critics Circle, The League of Professional Theatre Women and the National Book Critics Circle. She offers script consulting and book event services for writers at The WritePros (www.thewritepros.com).

Carissa Chesanek is a professional writer with a Master's in Journalism. Her work has been seen in Zagat.com, Forbes Travel Guide, Food Network, SpoiledNYC, Dining Out Magazine, Miami Herald, Redbook and WritingRaw, where her dark short story, A Flawed Man was published. She is currently working toward her online Creative Writing Certificate with New York University while writing her first psychological thriller novel. Her work was recently nominated for the Freddie Award for Writing Excellence with the Mystery Writers of America. She was once a performing artist, mastering in ballet and jazz, and still continues to dabble art today with sketching and painting.

Meet the Philadelphia Team.

Marakay Rogers. America's most uncoordinated childhood ballet and tap student before discovering that her talents were music and writing, Marakay Rogers finally traded in her violin for law school when she realized that she might make more money in law than she did performing with the Potomac Symphony and in orchestra pits around the mid-Atlantic.

A graduate of Wilson College (PA) with additional studies in drama and literature from Open University (UK), Marakay is also a writer, film reviewer and interviewer as well as a guest lecturer at various colleges, and is listed in Marquis' "Who's Who in America". As of 2014, she serves as Vice-Chair of the Advisory Board of the Beaux Arts Society, Inc. of New York and a member of GALECA (Gay and Lesbian Entertainment Critics Association). Marakay is senior theatre critic for Central Pennsylvania and a senior editor for BWWBooksWorld as well as a classical music reviewer. In her free time, Marakay practices law and often gets it right.

Pati Buehler. Pati has been involved with various aspects of the theater from hosting large groups to Broadway shows in the early 90's to supporting various Broadway artists for charities such as the "Make A Wish Foundation", The Leukemia Society, and Gilda's Club, programs supporting fighting ovarian cancer. New York's Jane Ellisa's Shining Star Award for the Leukemia Society. In 2001, she began writing for various theater-based web sites from www.talkinbroadway.com, www.broadwayworld.com, and www.philly2philly.com.

Her passion is Arts and Education and Fundraising for Non Profit Organizations. In 2002 she teamed up with Broadway star Craig Schulman (Les Miserables/Phantom/Jekyll & Hyde) to put together a traveling Broadway in your school Workshop/Master Class program that has thrilled young artists and theater groups across the country.

She began producing live concert events as PB Entertainment in 2003 at various venues. From 2004-2006 she produced two seasons of professional events for Eastern High School Performing Arts Center, Voorhees, NJ including Neil Berg's "100 Years of Broadway", two Rockin' Oldies events, a Broadway cast Jazz Show and the Southern New Jersey Philharmonic Orchestra featuring Australian world class violinist Martin Lass and more. In 2013 Pati produced "Broadway Sings For Newtown" bringing 6 Broadway artists together to perform for the Newtown Conn. Community to benefit the "Healing Arts Foundation" and honoring all the families involved in the Sandy Hook School tragedy.

Donna Marie Nowak. Donna Marie Nowak is a writer and cartoonist with over 100 publication credits. Her books include JUST JOAN: A Joan Crawford APPRECIATION, an in-depth tribute to actress Joan Crawford with over 300 photos. She is an active member of Mystery Writers of America and is currently working on a mystery series featuring her amateur sleuth Miss Iodine Bell.

Kelli Curtain. Kelli Curtin is a Broadwayworld contributor based in Pennsylvania. In addition, to writing for broadwayworld.com she is editor and writer for TheatreSensation.com and blogs about theatre for Fig Lancaster. Kelli is excited to share her passion about theatre and the Arts with her readers. Kelli can be found on twitter @theatrescribe and on Facebook/theatresensation. Read more from Kelli at www.theatresensation.com.

Meet the Rockland/Westchester Team.

Kathryn Kitt. Kathryn Kitt is a Classically Trained Lyric Soprano who is comfortable singing different types of genres. She has a BA in music from Bennington College and an MFA in Opera from Suny-Purchase. She has performed in the Aspen Music Center, Tanglewood Music Center, Lake George Opera Festival and The Little Orchestra Society.

She also has performed in a great many local theatres including The Armonk Players, Clocktower Players and recently Curtain Call in Stamford, CT. Kathryn also sings at Temples and Churches in which she gets to explore very demanding, yet fulfilling repertoire as well.

Kathryn resides in Bedford, NY with her three children, Andrew, John and Madeleine who have also been "bitten" by the music/theatre bug.

Peter Danish. Peter Danish is a Media Marketing Consultant and Classical Arts Presenter. He is a founding member of ArtsRock, where he presented concerts with such world renowned artists as Grammy winning Classical Guitarist Sharon Isbin, Grammy winning Violinist Marc O'Connor, The Eroica Trio, The American Brass Quintet, The New York Philharmonic Brass Quintet, Alec Baldwin, Louis Black and RoBert Klein. At The Riverspace Performing Arts Center, he presented such artists as Meryl Streep, Jonathan Demme, Bill T. Jones, Bill Irwin, Mike Nichols, Ani Di Franco, Eve Ensler, Pete Seeger, Ellen Burstyn, Edward Albee and Kathleen Turner. He has programmed concerts and educational programs for a multitude of local arts organizations including the American National Opera and the Westchester Hudson Opera, and has lectured on opera and classical music in schools and libraries as part of their outreach programs. For over two decades he has served as Director of Marketing for NBC, Vice President of Marketing for Telemundo, Senior Vice President of Sales and Marketing for Azteca TV Network, and Marketing Consultant to PBS. He is a member of the Dramatist Guild of America, The Wagner Society of N.Y. and Board of Trustees of the award-winning classical concert series, The Carnegie Room Concerts at the Nyack Library. His work has appeared in The New York Times Magazine, Ad Age, Ad Week and Media Week.

Meet the Long Island Team.

Senior Editor, Melissa Giordano. Melissa has been covering theatre for BroadwayWorld for the past five years and has loved every second of it. She is consistently inspired by the talent of the artists of her beloved Long Island and looks forward to each show.

Brian Rivera. Born and raised on Long Island, Brian has been involved in countless community and regional theatre productions on Long Island as well as in NYC, with his most recent production being "The Cherry Orchard" at the Kupferberg Center for the Arts, where he played "Pischik." Currently, Brian is a double-major in Drama & Theatre Arts and Spanish at CUNY Queens College, as part of the Macaulay Honors College at CUNY. While he's not writing for BroadwayWorld, Brian enjoys eating, sleeping, and just getting through the day without curling up in a fetal position & crying. You can catch Brian on Youtube as a part of BRASH (www.youtube.com/BRASHWebShow), as well as his personal channel (www.youtube.com/brianrivera95). For more info, visit brianjrivera.wix.com/home