Boards

Board of Directors

Ellen Weiss (Chair)(composer/lyricist) was thrilled that Transport Group was awarded $25,000 by the Shen Family Foundation for her musical score, Being Audrey. In 2006, she wrote the original vocal and harmonica score for TG's revival of All The Way Home. She is also extremely proud to be one of the writers for the company's historic production of The Audience (2005 Drama Desk nomination for Outstanding Musical). A member of the Lehman Engle B.M.I. Advanced Musical Workshop and graduate of Carnegie Mellon University Drama Dept., her other works include Memorable (Dir. Larry Fuller, York Theater Company), Little Match Girl, Shel Silverstien's The Giving Tree, Requiem for William. Her songs have been recorded by Daisy Egan, Donna Murphy, Barbara Walsh, Brent Barret, Stephen Bogardus, Danny Burstein, Sarah Uriarte Berry, and the late Laurie Beechman. In addition to her writing, Ms. Weiss served as Chairman of the Board of TheatreWorks/USA. She lives in New York with her husband Ron and son Chris.

Sarah Ackerman attended Vassar College where she received a BA in Drama with a minor in Art History. She received her Masters Degree in Elementary Education from New York University in 2003. She is currently employed by The Children's Museum of Manhattan (CMOM) where she teaches Early Childhood classes, focusing on helping children and families learn together in a unique environment of interactive exhibitions and programs.

Anne L. Bernstein is a Broadway and film producer whose credits include Marlene and the award-winning documentary, Broadway’s The Golden Age.

Irene Carney is an educator in Richmond, Virginia where she heads The Sabot School – a progressive program of Early Childhood Education. She has also served as a Trustee of The Richmond Montessori School and as Founding Chair of the Board of Directors of Orchard House School – an innovative middle school for girls.

Marcia Cohen works at Morgan Stanley Smith Barney and has been providing accounting, tax and financial advisory services to mid size organizations in a variety of industries and also to high net worth individuals. Prior to this, Marcia worked for Geller & Company, Coopers & Lybrand, and Solomon Brothers. She is an AICPA Personal Financial Specialist, a CPA and a member of the AICPA and the NY State Society of CPAs. Marcia is also a Certified Financial Planner (CFP) and holds a BS in Accounting from the University of Delaware.

Jack Cummings III (Artistic Director) is the co-founder and Artistic Director of off-Broadway’s Transport Group Theatre Company. He is a five-time Drama Desk Award nominee for Outstanding Director (The Audience, The Boys in the Band, See Rock City & Other Destinations, Hello Again, and Queen of the Mist). Other favorite Transport Group credits include the first New York revivals of Michael John LaChiusa’s First Lady Suite (starring Tony nominees Mary Testa and Mary Beth Peil), Tad Mosel’s Pulitzer Prize-winning All The Way Home, William Inge’s classic The Dark at the Top of the Stairs (starring Tony winner Michele Pawk), the world premiere musicals Normal (starring Tony nominee Barbara Walsh), Marcy in the Galaxy, and Being Audrey as well as a deconstruction of the 1928 play The Patsy (starring OBIE winner David Greenspan). Other credits include the world premiere musical A Thousand Words Come To Mind by Michele Lowe and Scott Richards for New York’s Premieres, Inc., A Streetcar Named Desire for Pennsylvania’s Gretna Theatre, Tony Kushner’s adaptation of The Illusion for Nevada Theatre Company, Violet (Best Director and Best Musical, Virginia’s Style Magazine), and The Young Man From Atlanta for Richmond’s Barksdale Theatre. For PBS, he directed a musical version of A Tale of Two Cities (filmed in Brighton England), starring Michael York. He is currently developing the new musical The Blonde Streak, by Dan Lipton and David Rossmer for Broadway Across America. Upcoming: Terrence McNally’s world premiere play …And Away We Go for The Pearl Theatre Company, The 2013 Drama Desk Awards. Jack received his MFA from The University of Virginia and his BA from The College of William and Mary. He is married to actress Barbara Walsh.

Lori Fineman (Executive Director) is formerly the Executive Director of the National Women’s Theatre Festival in Philadelphia. She worked as a systems analyst for Andersen Consulting and as the Global Director of Knowledge Management for Capco. Lori is the President of the Jewish Community Project of Lower Manhattan, an organization that develops educational and social programming for families living downtown. www.jcpdowntown.org. She holds a BSE and BA from the University of Pennsylvania.

Shawn Flowers is an Assistant General Counsel with Time Inc., the publishing subsidiary of Time Warner Inc. Shawn specializes in contract and media law and her principal clients include health.com, Time Inc.’s interactive group and Time Inc.’s central advertising and custom publishing groups. She earned her B.A. from the University of Chicago in 1988 and her J.D. from New York University in 1993, where she was on the Law Review.

Nancy Friedman spent nearly two decades as a freelance television writer and producer, creating marketing, promotional and branding material for clients as diverse as Nickelodeon, HBO, Lifetime Television, WCBS, The Points of Light Foundation, and The Disney Channel.  A veteran blogger, her essays have appeared online in The Miami Herald, The Philadelphia Inquirer, and The Sacramento Bee as well as in numerous magazines and anthologies.  She is a founder and co-host of The BloggingAngels, a popular weekly podcast for women about harnessing the power of social-media, and a social media consultant for clients as diverse as Microsoft Windows and Omni Hotels. Her own humor blog, From Hip to Housewife.com, is where she writes about momming, aging and her twenty-year quest to lose the same ten pounds. Nancy is the Queen Bee and co-founder of KidzVuz: video reviews by kids, for kids.

Barbara Freitag is an associate producer/investor in many Broadway shows including: The Tale of the Allergist’s Wife, The Goat, or Who is Sylvia?, and Caroline, or Change. Other projects include Tony Award-winning The Drowsy Chaperone with producer Kevin McCollum, Legally Blonde, The Homecoming, August: Osage County, and November with Nathan Lane.

Benjamin D. Goldberg is an attorney at D. E. Shaw & Co., L.P., a global investment and technology development firm, where he focuses on technology, intellectual property, outsourcing, professional services and other related contracts.  Prior to joining D. E. Shaw, he worked in house at Barclays Bank PLC and as an associate at Robinson & Cole LLP.  Ben received his B.A., cum laude, from New York University (Journalism, Political Science) and his J.D., cum laude, from Case Western Reserve University School of Law.  Ben is also the Vice President of the Board of Directors of The Performing Arts Project and is active in the theater community.

Francesca James has five daytime Emmy Awards and was the first person in the history of daytime drama to travel the distance from acting to directing to Executive Producing, receiving several nominations in all three disciplines. She began her professional life acting in the theater.

Yael Jekogian is a fundraising consultant for nonprofit organizations, specializing in women's issues. She served as Director of Development for Nontraditional Employment for Women in New York City and Women's Way, a women's funding federation in Philadelphia. Prior to her fundraising career, Yael practiced as an environmental engineer with environmental insurance companies and environmental consulting firms, focusing on contaminated property remediation, environmental compliance, and landfill design.  Yael is on the National Board of Directors of Women's Campaign Fund.

Scott Manville (Secretary) is a Senior Vice President of Computer Services for U.S. Trust Company, where he has spent his entire career.

Richard Page serves as the Director of Clinical and Revenue Applications at Englewood Hospital and Medical Center.

Rory Stanton (Treasurer) is the Finance Director for Conde Nast Portfolio magazine.

Kenneth Stein is a partner at Stroock & Stroock & Lavan LLP and is a member of the firm’s Intellectual Property Practice Group.  He counsels clients on all aspects of patent, copyright and trade secret law.  Ken is listed in New York Super Lawyers in the area of intellectual property litigation.  He is also on the advisory boards of the East Harlem International Film Festival, Ruah Dance Company and General Mischief Dance Theatre and is a Co-Chair of the Benefit Committee of the Legal Action Center.

Richard Winkler is a lighting designer and producer. As a lighting designer, he works for Broadway, off-Broadway, national and international tours and regional theatres, working on plays, musicals, opera, concerts, and dance. While his 35-year career as a lighting designer continues, he began producing commerically in 2008. HIs most recent shows: The Norman Conquests (Tony Award), Memphis: The Musical (Tony Award), La Cage Aux Folles (Tony Award), A Little Night Music, La Bete (London and Broadway), Long Story Short with Colin Quinn, A Little House on the Prairie (national tour with Melissa Gilbert), The 39 Steps (national tour and off-Broadway). Coming: Catch Me If You Can: The Musical. In development: Langston in Harlem (musical), The Al Jolson Project musical), Idaho! (musical), Southern Rapture (play). His production company is Red Hanger Productions.

Artistic Advisory Board

Brian Crawley, lyricist and librettist
Lucille Lortel Award & New York Drama Critics Circle Award winner
Violet
The Little Princess

John Dossett, actor
Tony Award nominee
Gypsy

John Clinton Eisner, Producing Director
The Lark Play Development Center

Shawn Elliot, actor
Marie Christine
Jacques Brel is Alive and Well and Living in Paris

Paulette Haupt, Artistic Director
The Eugene O’Neill Music Theater Conference

David Hirson, playwright
Tony Award nominee and Drama Desk winner
La Bête
Wrong Mountain

Michael John LaChiusa, composer and lyricist
5-time Tony Award nominee
The Wild Party
Marie Christine
Chronicle of a Death Foretold
Hello Again
Little Fish

Donna Murphy, actress
2-time Tony Award winner
Passion
The King & I

Gilbert Parker, agent
Represented A.R. Gurney, Terrence McNally & Beth Henley

Michele Pawk, actress
Tony Award winner and 3-time Drama Desk nominee
Hollywood Arms
Crazy For You
Cabaret
The Paris Letter

Christopher Shinn, playwright
Obie winner, Lucille Lortel Award winner, Drama Desk nominee
Dying City
Four
Where We Live