So just who ARE these people?
Nick Anselmo is the Founder and Executive Director of Mantua Theater Project (MTP). He was the Artistic Associate / Education Director of the Passage Theatre Company in Trenton, New Jersey, where he was the Director of The State Street Project, a successful replication of New York’s 52nd Street Project. Nick studied “Playmaking” with Daniel Judah Sklar and is the primary instructor for MTP.
In addition to implementing the 52nd Street Projects model in Trenton area after school programs, Nick created several new programs using poetry, acting, and technical theater. He adapted Alice Childress’ novel A Hero Ain’t Nuthin But a Sandwich for an anit-violence program for the Trenton Public Library and commissioned and directed “A Child’s Christmas in New Jersey” by R.N. Sandberg. He served on the City of Trenton’s Weed and Seed committee and gave several lecture/demonstrations of the “Playmaking” process for the New Jersey State Council on the Arts as well as sitting on panels concerning youth and the arts. He spent several years as an actor in Chicago working for Music Theatre Workshop in their “Under Pressure” series, which performed original plays about gangs, drugs and peer pressure.
Nick is the Director of the Theatre Program and the Mandell Professionals in Residence Project (MPiRP) at Drexel University. He is also the Founder and Artistic Director of The Late Night Series (LNS) which is a free weekly open mike that features professional artists performing alongside students in a coffee house environment, which just celebrated its 10th Anniversary season. He has directed several productions for Passage Theatre, Philadelphia Young Playwrights, Hedgerow Theatre and his own adaptation of letters from soldiers fighting in Vietnam for a show called Vietnam: Letters and Remembrances, for which he also composed the music.
As an actor he has appeared Off-Broadway at the York Theatre in their Musicals in Muft series and at the Ensemble Studio Theater working with director Rene Buch. He was a company member of The Pulse Ensemble on 42nd Street in New York City. A few of his favorite roles include the Cabaret Corp (Williamstown Theater Festival with Andrea Burns), Richie Valens in Buddy(Walnut Street), Biondello in Taming of the Shrew (Asolo Theatre), Raul/guitarist in Fort Chaffee (World Premiere - Arkansas Repertory with Mia Michaels choreography), Featured dancer in Zorba (Apple Tree Theatre), and Chino in West Side Story at Mill Mountain Theater. He has studied acting with Uta Hagen, Robert Cohen and Eli Simon and Folio Shakespeare with John Basil. He studied dance with Buzz Miller, Chris Chadman, Bob Rizzo, Frank Hatchet, Ginger Farley and Florence Lessing. He has an MFA in Musical Theater from University of California-Irvine and a certificate in Arts Administration from NYU.
Our Board of Directors
David Toll – President
Vice President - David Lee White
John Turnbach – Treasurer
Natalie Kidd – Secretary
David O'Connor
Barbara R Binis
Nick Anselmo – ex oficio