Creative Team
MATT OKIN (Artistic Director)
Matt's plays include Pigs (Adam Nicolas Productions/NYU), In Love (Adam Nicolas Productions/NYU), The Ugly Wife (Off-Broadway/Riverwest Theater), Cherry Hill (Theater for the New City/Cannery Works; Spencer Chandler, director), One Innocent Woman (TNC/Cannery Works; Spencer Chandler, director), Walter Liked To Sit In His Big Backyard (staged readings at First Stage of Los Angeles and The Zipper in NYC), Twist of Faith (director of national tours), Second Chances (director of national tours and at TNC), Destinations (story/director; TNC and FL's Coral Springs Center for the Arts) and Cherry Hill (director; 2008 Midtown International Theater Festival at the June Havoc). His musicals, written with composer-lyricist Avi Kunstler, include Generations (also director; now in workshop at BergenPAC), the new rock musical Soul Searching (also director; currently in development for Off-Broadway and Broadway), and the in-progress Returning. (Both Generations and Soul Searching will appear in the 2008 New York Musical Theater Festival.) Matt's improv comedy projects have included Lost Tribe (numerous NYC-area venues) and, as director and co-writer, A Match Made In Manhattan, The Interactive Jewish Wedding Experience (NYC and national tours). Matt is Artistic Director of Black Box Studios, which has developed and produced theater and music events with spiritual themes for both mainstream and niche audiences. As an Associate Producer, he is currently working with Gallant Arts on the NY premiere of The Quarrel at The DR2 Theatre. A member of the Dramatists Guild, he also teaches musical theater, improv, and acting at Black Box Studios in Teaneck, NJ; at The School of Performing Arts at the JCC on the Palisades in Tenafly, NJ; at the Bergen County High School of Jewish Studies in Hackensack, NJ; at the Moriah School of Englewood, NJ; and with The Apollo Theater’s In-School Seminars throughout NYC. Matt received a B.F.A. in Dramatic Writing from New York University's Tisch School of the Arts and has two daughters, Rachel and Arielle.
AVI KUNSTLER (Producer/Composer)
boasts a musical resume that runs the gamut from performer to songwriter to recording artist. On stages throughout the NYC area and around the globe, Avi has appeared solo as well as fronting various bands. Primarily, his focus has been in performing his own material. Avi has released three albums to date: Eyes On Jerusalem, In This Place Of Mercy, and Destinations; and he has composed music and lyrics for six productions: Twist Of Faith, Second Chances, Destinations, A Match Made In Manhattan, the new rock musical Soul Searching, and the all-kids rock musical workshop Generations. Currently, with Matt Okin, he is at work on a new rock musical called Returning.
NORMAN GURMAN (Executive Producer)
has worked with Matt Okin and Avi Kunstler since the late ‘90’s, and was instrumental in the launch of the original renditions of Twist of Faith, Second Chances, and A Match Made in Manhattan. He has served major Jewish causes, both locally and internationally, throughout the past few decades and lives in Englewood Cliffs, NJ.
DANIEL GALLANT (Associate Producer)
is a producer, director, writer, actor and teacher. He has produced plays, musicals, spoken word and literary events at venues including the 92nd Street Y, Makor, the New York Public Library, the Henry Street Settlement, the 13th Street Rep, Mo Pitkins and Galapagos. His directorial credits include premieres of new works by Neil LaBute, John Guare, Mark O'Donnell and Laura Shaine Cunningham. Daniel's own plays have been staged at New Dramatists, the Actors Studio, the Cornelia Street Cafe, and other NYC venues. He has moderated interviews and panel discussions with well-known theater artists including Tony Kushner, F. Murray Abraham, Norman Mailer and Wendy Wasserstein. Daniel is a member of playwrighting units at HB Playwrights Theater and the Actors Studio. For further info:gallant.arts@gmail.com
MANDY DECKER (Company Manager/Production Stage Manager)
is a production stage manager, company manager, choreographer, children's theater director, and acting coach. She also teaches technical theatre and basic lighting design. In New York, her recent credits include Indiosyncrasy (Teatro La Tea), Out of Control (Midtown International Theatre Festival), Woody and the Heeb (Manhattan Repertory Theatre), Trilogy Threat (Indigenous Taino Productions), the new rock musical Soul Searching, Twist of Faith (Black Box Entertainment), and Cherry Hill (MAKOR).
Her extensive work in children's theater took her around the states to work on Dracula, A Midsummer Night's Dream (Urban Youth Theatre), Horton Hatches the Egg, The Sneetches, Stone Soup, Nickel and Dimed, The Lorax, R.E.S.P.E.C.T (Children's Theatre Company), the all-kids rock musical workshop, Generations (Black Box Entertainment at BergenPAC and New York Musical Theatre Festival), Me and My Girl, RAGS, Babes in Arms (Capital Playhouse).
Mandy's tours include Pippi Longstocking (American Family Theatre), R.E.S.P.E.C.T (Dr. Dorothy Productions), and A Match Made In Manhattan (Black Box Entertainment). She has also worked regionally on Blood Brothers, Grapes of Wrath, Annie Get Your Gun, the world premiere of Salute to Christmas Radio Days, The Crucible, West Side Story (Covered Bridge Theatre Company) and 42nd Street (Star Players of Bristol County).
She is married to Tim Decker, a published author/illustrator of books for young people and an accomplished guitarist. They live happily in Jersey City and have several fish.
SAM GORDON (Technical Director)
Sam is a Senior BFA Theatre Production Design student at Montclair State Univeristy. Some of Sam's professional credits include Resident Lighting Designer of Merkin Concert Hall at the Kaufman Center from 2006-2008 seasons. At Montclair State, Sam assisted professional lighting designers Brenda Gray, on Danceworks 2007 and Saul; Christopher Chambers on The Full Monty and Rachel Budin on Danceworks 2008. Sam is also the technical director for the producers all-kids rock musical workshop, Generations.
MICHAEL GURIN (Playwright)
is an award-winning writer of short fiction whose works have been published in Midstream, Paris Transcontinental, The Cimarrow Review, and The Journal of African Travel Writing. He is the writer of Black Box Entertainment's Destinations, which premiered at Theater for the New City in 2003, and he is the co-writer of the long-running Twist Of Faith and Second Chances, which had its NYC premiere in 2002. An Associate Professor of English at Devry Institute of Technology, Michael is currently penning a new collection of short stories, the revival of Twist Of Faith, and a one-man show based on the works of I.B. Singer.
IRA MACHEFSKY (Photographer)
RANDOLPH B. HOUSTON, JR., ESQ.,(Legal Counsel)
Fortkort & Houston P.C.
DONALD B LIBERMAN, ESQ. (Legal Counsel)
Garfield, NJ.