John Chatterton (Executive Producer) started OOBR (“the off-off-broadway review”) in 1993. One of his reviewers suggested that “someone” should start a Midtown theatre festival. Eleven seasons later, the MITF is still going strong. John has also run a rehearsal studio/theatre complex, Where Eagles Dare; produced Off-Broadway; and is a playwright. He also runs the Short Play Lab and Playwrights’ Press and produces CAPTAIN MARBLES AND HIS ACTING SQUAD, a kids’ classic appearing at 45 Bleecker St.

Lisa Dozier (Senior Artistic Director) is a theatrical producer and general manager in New York City. Recent credits include: Milk (New Georges), The Duchess of Malfi (Red Bull Theater), Diary of a Teenage Girl, How To Be a Good Italian Daughter (Cherry Lane), F#@king Up Everything (NYMF), Into the Hazard (Henry 5), The Rise and Fall of Annie Hall (Theatre Row/Stage 13), To Paint the Earth (NYMF), SA KA LA (45 Bleecker/Oslo Elsewhere), Murderers (Emelin), The Piper (NYMF), Surface to Air (Symphony Space), The Polish Play (Walkerspace/ Katharsis); Character (Prospect), Warrior (NYMF), Behind the Limelight (NYMF), Hot and Sweet (NYMF), Ibsen + Fosse 2006 with Oslo Elsewhere at 59E59: Rosmersholm and deathvariations,  Manhattan Madcaps of 1924, Apartment 3A. Previously, she was the associate producer at Symphony Space and was on the artistic staff at Manhattan Theatre Club (Doubt, Reckless, Rabbit Hole, Brooklyn Boy, 5 by Tenn, A Picasso, etc.). She has also been on staff at the New 42nd Street, American Repertory Theatre and New York Stage & Film. Lisa is the general manager for the  National Alliance for Musical Theatre's Festival of New Musicals. She holds a BA in theatre management from Florida State.

Jamibeth Margolis (Artistic Director for Musicals) comes to MITF with a strong background and interest in new works and the development of new musicals.  Previously, Jamibeth served as the New Works Program Director at the National Alliance for Musical Theater.  She was also a script reader and evaluator for the Next Link series of the New York Musical Theatre Festival for three years.  As a professional director, Jamibeth is attached to a number of new musicals currently being developed for Broadway including Warsaw and Owl Creek. She has directed readings, showcases and productions of a dozen new musicals in the last three years at prominent New York venues. She also recently served as assistant director to Jerry Zaks on The Caine Mutiny Court Martial on Broadway and A Bad Friend at Lincoln Center Theatre.  Jamibeth is also a professional casting director with twelve years of experience in NYC.  She worked for Johnson-Liff Casting, Margolis-Seay Casting, and is now a freelance casting director with her own office.  Past casting projects include the Broadway and National Touring Companies of such shows as Cats, Miss Saigon, Les Miserables, The Phantom of the Opera and many others.  Member: Society Of Stage Directors and Choreographers, The Casting Society Of America, and Actors’ Equity Association.  She is thrilled to be part of MITF this year.

GERALD vanHEERDEN (MITF Co-Artistic Director) A graduate of The Boston Conservatory-BCM and emerging east coast stage director of musicals and plays, Gerald has vast experience working with new work, especially musical theater endeavors, as artistic director, conceptualist and stage director. Mr. vanHeerden has had a long association with NMTN, the parent company of NYMF as evaluator, evaluations program associate and artistic administrator of the TAM award, endowed by the late, Mae Richard, Off-Broadway lyricist. As director, Mr. vanHeerden's work includes, Off-Broadway- Hadleyburg, A new musical, Lyrics-Mae Richard, Music-John Clifton, Book-Bob Griffiths, Shadows of the Mountain a new musical, Book and Lyrics-James F. McTamney, Music-Rita Pearlman, and conceptual development- Lovers A new musical by Christopher Massimine. The Wiz, Honk, The Adventures of Kid Zero, A new musical, A Chief's Bride and MVP- Amy Crockett are some of the productions done with the Black Spectrum Theatre in Queens, NY as director. He has also created, as CTI resident director at BST, productions of: Aladdin, Once On This Island, Bugsy Malone, and Bustin' Loose with Babes In Arms. In regional theater, Gerald has received praise for his direction of And Then There Were None by Agatha Christie at PTC, Pawling, NY as well as The Music Man and The Wizard of Oz at Applause Performing Arts Center, Paramus, NJ. Gerald is a member of the Stage Directors and Choreographers union, SDC. Website: geraldvanheerden.com, Email: gerald@geraldvanheerden.com or gerald.mitf@gmail.com

He was responsible for the original German production of Elton John’s Musical Aida with Disney Theatrical Productions and was the Stage Manager for the original German productions of Phantom of the Opera, Beauty and the Beast and Jekyll & Hyde, among others. With Broadway Composer and Lyricist Maury Yeston he collaborated on the German premiere of Yeston's December Songs in 2005/06. He has been working closely with Jason Robert Brown, Bill Russell and other renowned Broadway Artists and Producers on several cross-Atlantic projects.

Productions in 2009 include The 39 Steps by John Buchan and Alfred Hitchcock and Musical Fieber - presented by Aktiv Event Ltd. Daniel is delighted to be with the MITF and thanks John and Emileena for this wonderful opportunity.

JASON BRUFFY (Co-Artistic Director of Plays) , originally from New Jersey, has worked professionally in theatre all around the country for the past 10 years; currently also serves as Resident Director with Ensemble Studio Theatre, NYC. Bruffy is the founding producer of the Cincinnati Fringe Festival, which debuted in May of 2004. He has served as Producing Artistic Director of Know Theatre of Cincinnati (Ohio) and Salt Lake Acting Company (Utah). Other companies include: Wayside Theatre (DC/VA), Cincinnati Shakespeare Company (OH), and Spoleto Festival USA (SC). Jason Bruffy has been recognized as Person of the Year in 2009 by Cincinnati CityBeat, as well as an Cincinnati’s Theatre Entrepreneur and Arts Risk Taker (Cincinnati Enquirer), Arts Innovator (Cincinnati CityBeat), Forty under 40 Business Leaders (Cincinnati Business Courier), and one of 40 people who shaped Cincinnati in 40 years by Cincinnati Magazine. Bruffy has directed over 35 productions professionally, winning numerous regional awards for direction, design, and extraordinary events. www.jasonbruffy.com

KATRIN HILBE (Artistic Director of International Relations) Katrin directs Opera, Operetta, Contemporary Music Theatre, Plays, both in Europe and in the US . With her newly founded company, ManyTracks, Katrin produced and directed The Man in the Newspaper Hat by Hayley Heaton as an AEA Showcase in NYC in 2009, and is taking it to Seattle in spring of 2011. Between 2007-2010 she was the 1st Assistant Director for the opera cycle Der Ring des Nibelungen at the Bayreuth Festival in Germany and a “fellow” and director for the magical mysterious Fraktale Sommernacht of the International Lab for Opera and Media Castle Werdenberg in Switzerland. Katrin is a member of the Dramatists Guild of America, the League of Professional Theatre Women, the WorkShop Theater Company, Theatre Resources Unlimited and an alumni of the Directors Lab West. Katrin works as a translator in the languages German, English, Italian and French.  She writes for reviewbroadway.com. For more information please see katrinhilbe.com and manytracks.org.                                                                        

SARAH KATE O'HAVER (Marketing Director) is thrilled to join the MITF team this year! She has worked closely with box office guru Joseph Craig for the last four years at Nielsen Research Group and now with his new team at Entertainment Research Marketing Inc. where they have introduced the business of market research on Broadway and Off. Their clients include Disney Theatricals, SPOT Co, Roundabout Theatre Co and more. She has an MFA in playwriting from Rutgers' prestigious Mason Gross School of the Arts, where she studied with Lee Blessing.

MICHELLE TABNICK  (Publicity) Michelle Brandon Tabnick is a freelance publicist and marketing consultant. She was the Director of Marketing at Signature Theatre Company and at The Pearl Theatre Company. She has also been employed in the Marketing Departments of New York City Opera, Hangar Theatre and Porthouse Theatre. As a publicist, she has worked with numerous companies and organizations, including Parsons Dance, Keigwin + Company, Battleworks Dance Company, Dance New Amsterdam, Gotham Chamber Opera, Brooklyn Center for the Performing Arts, Heiress Productions, The Storm Theatre, Parallel Exit, Besch Solinger Productions, The Ateh Theater Group, 3Graces Theater Co., The Moonshine Project, and Propinquity Productions, among others.

MICHAEL GNAT (Festabill Editor), actor and editor, starred as Broadway producer (and Wiccan High Priest) Julian Dewinter in Gene Ruffini’s Process of Elimination (TNC, January 2011). An inaugural Innovative Theatre Award nominee, Michael starred as T.D. Rice in Henry Meyerson’s Jump Jim Crow (MITF, 2008) and was a NYTheatre.com 2009 Person of the Year. Since Fall 2009 he has appeared on NYC stages as besieged businessman Blake in Mike Folie’s Slave Shack (Algonquin); Cornish in Miss Lulu Bett (WorkShop); homeless poet Pigeon in Michael Niederman’s The Riverside Symphony (Ignited States; PCTF “Outstanding Actor”); Armado in Love’s Labours Lost (DrillingCompaNY); and Al/Marbury/BB in Eddie Antar’s The Navigator (WorkShop). Editorially, he has long worked on the scholarly biannual Theatre Survey, handled both editions of the Cambridge Guide to American Theatre, and recently edited a book of medieval French farces.

LEIGH CAUDILL (Organizational Coordinator) is an actress, singer, and improv artist.  When not onstage, she uses her multi-tasking abilities and incredible powers of organization to help companies and events run smoothly.  Her planning and administrative handiwork have been utilized by Blue Man Productions & The Blue School, Round House Theatre, Olney Theatre Center's National Players, and The Clarice Smith Performing Arts Center, to name a few.  A proud alum of both The University of Maryland at College Park and The Stage Internazionale de Commedia Dell'Arte in Reggio Emilia, Italy.  Enjoy the show!

BRoadwayclubhouse.com (Costumes/Props Consultant) has designed productions at The Kings Head Theatre, (London), and in New York: Access Theatre, Duplex Cabaret Theatre, Flea Theatre, Laurie Beechman Theatre, Players Theatre, and Theatre Row, et. al. Former resident designer for the award winning Rabbit Hole Ensemble, BroadwayClubhouse.com currently serves as Associate Costume Designer for the long running off-Broadway show, The Awesome 80s Prom, (Webster Hall).