Tony Award Winner Billy Porter to Appear at SOPAC, 6/15

Midtown Direct Rep (MDR), the ensemble-based theater company based in South Orange/Maplewood, NJ, announces A CONVERSATION WITH BILLY PORTER, on Monday, June 15, 2015 at 7:30 PM at the South Orange Performing Arts Center (SOPAC) in a one-night-only benefit appearance hosted by NY1's Budd Mishkin.

Billy Porter, the Tony® and Grammy® Award-winning singer, composer, actor, playwright and director who currently stars as Lola in the smash-hit Broadway musical Kinky Boots, will highlight his extraordinary personal and creative journey in a benefit for Midtown Direct Rep's year-round Theatre in the Loft series, dedicated to nurturing new plays and musicals at SOPAC. Billy Porter will be signing copies of he latest recording, Billy's Back on Broadway(Concord Records), and a portion of ticket sales will benefit North New Jersey Pride's programs supporting LGBTQ youth in the region.

Tickets for A CONVERSATION WITH BILLY PORTER, which are $30-$75, are available by calling (973) 313-2787, online at sopacnow.org, and at the SOPAC box office (One SOPAC Way, South Orange, NJ, 07079).

BIOGRAPHIES

BILLY PORTER is a Tony® and GRAMMY® Award-winning singer, composer, actor, playwright and director from Pittsburgh, PA. As a recording artist, Porter's solo albums include his first CD, Untitled, on A&M records and his sophomore album, At the Corner of Broadway + Soul - LIVE, on Sh-K-Boom Records.

Billy's Back on Broadway, Porter's highly anticipated debut on Concord Records, was released April 15, 2014. Featuring ten classics made famous on the Great White Way that focus on inspiration, empowerment and hope, the album's title is a nod to Sammy Davis, Jr.'s recording Sammy's Back on Broadway.

Porter's voice can also be heard on the albums A Very Rosie Christmas, Jim Brickman'sDestiny (top ten AC hit), Grease (revival cast album), Adam Guettel's Myths & Hymns, Gershwin and Sondheim Benefit Albums, Hercules (Disney), Anastasia (Warner Bros.), Liz Callaway - The Story Goes On, Alvin Ailey: Revelations, Broadway Cares: Home for the Holidays, Dreamgirls in Concert, HAIR (Actors' Fund Benefit recording), Great Joy: A Gospel Christmas (with The Broadway Inspirational Voices) and The Human Rights Campaign's Love Rocks.

Porter currently stars as "Lola" in the smash hit Broadway musical Kinky Boots, for which he won the 2013 Drama Desk and Tony® Awards for Best Actor in a Musical. Other Broadway acting credits include Miss Saigon, Five Guys Named Moe, Grease (all original cast), Smokey Joe's Café and Dreamgirls (20th Anniversary Broadway Concert and LA Ovation Award). Off-Broadway and regional credits include Angels in America (Signature Theatre), Romance in Hard Times, The Merchant of Venice, House of Lear and Radiant Baby (The New York Shakespeare Festival), Birdie Blue (Second Stage), Angels in America (Actors Theatre Of Louisville), Going Native (The Long Wharf), Jelly's Last Jam (Alliance), Topdog/Underdog (City Theatre), King Lear (Exit, Pursued by a Bear), Jason Robert Brown's Songs for a New World (original cast), Jesus Christ Superstar, Antigone, A Chorus Line and Chicago. His one-man show, Ghetto Superstar: The Man That I Am, debuted at The Public Theater in NYC in conjunction with City Theatre of Pittsburgh and was nominated for a 2005 GLAAD Media Award. Porter was also named "Pittsburgh's Performer of the Year 2003-2004" by the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette.

As a director, Porter directed a critically acclaimed recreation of The Wiz and conceived a musical revue entitled Signed, Sealed, Delivered: The Music of Stevie Wonder, which starred Chaka Khan and ran at The Venetian Hotel in Las Vegas in the spring of 2002. Porter conceived and directed Being Alive, a musical celebration that aligns the cannons of Stephen Sondheim and William Shakespeare and combines them with the soulful musical styles of the African-American experience. Being Alive made its world premiere in the summer of 2007 at The Westport Country Playhouse and immediately transferred to The Philadelphia Theatre Company, inaugurating their new Suzanne Roberts Theatre. He directed the new musical Twilight in Manchego for the NYMF in the fall of 2008 and is the NAACP Theatre Award winner for Best Direction of a Musical for his production of Once on This Island at Reprise Theatre Company, where he also conceived and directed a new musical revue called The Soul of Richard Rodgers. Other directing credits include Five Guys Named Moe for Casa Manana, Altar Boyz for Lyric Theatre of Oklahoma, Rent (Associate Director: Off-Broadway Revival), Wicked Summer Nights Concert Series at The Ford Amphitheater starring Shoshana Bean, Eden Espinosa and Stephen Schwartz in conjunction with Upright Cabaret, where he was Artistic Director for the 2009 Season. Porter made his London directorial debut in the fall of 2009 with Olivier Award Nominee Patina Miller at Live in the Delfont Room. Porter is also a graduate of The Professional Program in Screenwriting at UCLA and is an adjunct professor at his alma mater Carnegie Mellon University's School of Drama, where he has directed productions of Company and Letters from 'Nam. Last fall, Primary Stages presented the World Premiere of his play While I Yet Live starring S. Epatha Merkerson and Lillias White. This winter he directed a revival of George C. Wolfe's seminal play The Colored Museum at the Huntington Theatre Company in Boston, MA.

BUDD MISHKIN is a television host and correspondent for New York's 24-hour news network, NY1. He hosts the weekly series "One on 1 with Budd Mishkin," in which he interviews and profiles prominent New Yorkers with significant connections to the city. Mishkin began his work at the station as a sports correspondent and still hosts "Sports on 1: The Last Word" every Thursday. He also contributes feature stories to the network. Since the inception of "One on 1 with Budd Mishkin" in 2003, the series has profiled more than 200 New Yorkers from across a wide range of fields, including writers Gay Talese and Joan Didion; musicians Judy Collins, Ruben Blades and Wynton Marsalis; journalists Mike Wallace and Frank Rich; Gloria Steinem; actors Alan Alda and John Turturro; talent agent extraordinaire and dancer Jadin Wong, filmmakers Spike Lee and Milos Forman; former New York Mayor Ed Koch; and former Governor of New York Mario Cuomo.

About Midtown Direct Rep

With perhaps more professional theater artists than any suburb of NYC, Maplewood/South Orange (NJ) is "where Broadway comes home to sleep." MDR, a theatre company created by and for these NJ-based artists, develops and presents relevant, world-class theatre for its community.

Midtown Direct Rep company members include two-time Tony® Award-winner Norbert Leo Butz, Tony® Award-nominees Stephanie J. Block, Megan Lawrence, and Christiane Noll, plus Sebastian Arcelus, Joel de la Fuente, Bradley Dean, Michele Pawk, and many others. The Company is led by Managing Director Jeffrey Shubart, Artistic Producer Steven Tabakin, Literary Manager Marni Raab, Artistic Advisor Sandy Rustin, and Producing Director Evan Fleischer.

About Theatre in the Loft

Midtown Direct Rep presents Theatre in the Loft at the South Orange Performing Arts Center (SOPAC) in South Orange, New Jersey. This series of public readings of new plays and musicals showcases new work in development in an elegant and safe setting in front of a sophisticated and engaged audience. The series focuses on works that reflect the complexities of a uniquely diverse community; writers or subjects with a local connection; and roles that can be cast significantly from the MDR ensemble. Recent projects include work by Jack Canfora, Jeremy Desmon, Chad Hardin, James Hindman, Chisa Hutchinson, David Johnston, Kara Lee Korthron, David Myers, Sandy Rustin, John Walch, Douglas J. Cohen, Zoe Samuel and others. In 2014, Academy Award®-winner Olympia Dukakis joined company members Sebastian Arcelus, Jenny Bacon, Stephanie Kurtzuba and others in Absence, a new play by Peter Flaherty.

For more information, visit http://www.middirrep.org.