Prepping for Latin America Meets Broadway Event

As I prep for Latin America Meets Broadway Exporting, Importing and Co-Producing Musicals & Plays, I learn so much about the wonderful group of panelists that  I cannot wait to share it with you all!

The event is almost full and the amazing Bianca Marroquin joins our panel to complete the list. I am super excited to have such a FANTASTIC group of people on board and this informative discussion in collaboration with the great people at United States - Mexico Chamber of Commerce. Special thanks to Alejandro C. Ramos Executive Director of the Mexican Chamber of Commerce.

Carlos Arana

Carlos Arana co-founder and CEO of Hiro Sake and a lifetime theatre lover. Born in Peru and living in New York producing credits include: On Broadway: La Cage Aux Folles (Tony and Drama Desk Award),The Scottsboro Boys (12 Tony nominations), On A clear day you can see forever, The Anarchist andPippin (Tony and Drama Desk Award). In London: The King's Speech and The Scottsboro Boys (6 Olivier nominations). in Peru: El Chico de Oz (Premio Luces, best play of 2013). Upcoming projects:Titanic and The King's Speech on Broadway. 

Kelly Crabb

Kelly Crabb is a partner in the Entertainment, Technology and Advertising Practice resident in the firm’s Los Angeles office. His practice emphasizes clients with an entertainment, sports, and media focus and includes a mix of sophisticated and complex financing, production, and content work for substantial U.S., Asian, and European companies. His practice areas include motion pictures, television, Internet, video games, print publishing and other content production, financing, distribution and exhibition; music business contracts; commercial endorsements and advertising; live events (including Olympic Games and other international sporting events, concerts, and stage productions); content rights acquisition and licensing; corporate mergers and acquisitions and joint venture transactions; and matters related to the entertainment and music performance guilds. His book, The Movie Business, which was published by Simon & Schuster in 2005, is regarded as a major work in the filmed entertainment community worldwide.

Mr. Crabb recently represented Tokyu Corporation, owner or Tokyo's Orb Theatre, in connection with its investment in the Tony Award Winning Broadway musical, "Kinky Boots.” As a result of the deal, the Orb Theater obtained exclusive rights to the play in Japan. Mr. Crabb has represented the South Coast Repertory Theater including, among other matters, with respect to the workshop of “The Education of Randy Newman," and the DiCapo Opera with respect to the traveling rights to the Gershwins’ “Porgy & Bess.” Mr. Crabb authored the stage play, “All My Friends Are Cowboys,” which was featured as a PBS special starring Johnny Cash, Wilford Brimley, Roy Rogers and others. For a period of time he was a member of the Dramatist Guild.

Mr. Crabb received his law degree from Columbia University School of Law, where he was an editor of the Columbia Law Review. He received his Master’s in Public Administration and his undergraduate degree from Brigham Young University. Mr. Crabb is a frequent lecturer on entertainment and sports law and a recognized author. Mr. Crabb was selected by the Los Angeles Chapter of the J. Reuben Clark Law Society as “Outstanding Lawyer of 2005.” In 2006, 2007, 2008, 2009 and 2010 Super Lawyers Magazine named Mr. Crabb as one of Southern California’s “Super Lawyers” in the arts and entertainment practice. He is a member of both the California and New York state bars.

Robert Darwell

Robert Darwell is universally recognized as one of the top entertainment lawyers in the world. He heads Sheppard Mullin’s Transactional Entertainment, Technology and Advertising Law Practice. He splits his time between New York, Nashville and Los Angeles, representing motion picture studios, television networks, and independent producers worldwide in connection with all aspects of the development, production, acquisition and distribution of motion pictures, television programming, video games and other content.

Last year, Mr. Darwell represented Doris Day in a deal with Universal for a Broadway show version of “Pillow Talk” and he has acted as counsel to the Broad Stage (Helen Hunt’s “Our Town”) and The Juilliard School.

Mr. Darwell has been invited to speak at a number of national and international film festivals. He has been recognized by a number of publications, including “Best Lawyers in America”; “Leading Lawyer,” The Legal 500 US, “Best of the Bar,” Los Angeles Business Journal; Finalist, Lawdragon 500 Leading Lawyers In America, Lawdragon Magazine; “Attorney of the Year,” Entertainment, California Lawyer; “Power Lawyer,” The Hollywood Reporter; “Super Lawyer,” Los Angeles Magazine; “Leading Lawyers in America,” Lawdragon Magazine; and Transactional Entertainment Rating, Chambers and Partners. Mr. Darwell received his law degree magna cum laude from Georgetown University Law Center, and his B.A. summa cum laude from Arizona State University.

Ken Davenport

Ken Davenport is a Broadway producer whose credits include Mothers and Sons, The Bridges of Madison County, Kinky Boots (Tony Award), Macbeth starring Alan Cumming, Godspell, Chinglish, Oleanna starring Bill Pullman and Julia Stiles, Speed-the-Plow, Will Ferrell's You're Welcome America, Blithe Spirit starring Angela Lansbury (Broadway and the West End), and 13, as well as Altar Boyz, My First Time, The Awesome 80s Prom, and Miss Abigail’s Guide to Dating, Mating, & Marriage Off-Broadway. He also produced the award winning These Magnificent Miles: On the Long Road with Red Wanting Blue, a documentary on one of the top unsigned rock bands in the country. Ken was featured on a national commercial for Apple's iPhone, named one of Crain's “40 Under Forty” and is one of the co-organizers of TEDxBroadway. Combined, Ken's productions have grossed more than $100 million worldwide and are being produced internationally in over 25 countries including Germany, Mexico, France and Korea.

He created and developed the Broadway board game Be A Broadway Star, as seen on “The Today Show,” and a smartphone app called AT THE BOOTHTM, which has been featured on Entertainment Weekly’s “Must List” and called “Ingenious! The best thing to happen to New York theater since, well, the introduction of the TKTS® booth!” He also runs a number of theatrical websites including DidHeLikeIt.com and YourBroadwayGenius.com. His blog, TheProducersPerspective.com, has been featured in Vanity Fair, New York Magazine, The Gothamist and more. He has written articles for Forbes, Mashable, Imedia and others. Current projects include his adaptation of the novel and film Somewhere in Time, which premiered at Portland Center Stage this spring; Gettin’ The Band Back Together which premiered at George Street Playhouse in the fall as well as bringing the first ever revival of A Few Good Men to Broadway.

Website:  www.DavenportTheatrical.com

Felipe Gamba

Felipe Gamba is Director of International Production Strategy for Disney Theatrical Group. Born in Colombia, he started performing on stage and television at age 7, later forming his own theater company and serving as artistic director and producer. Following studies in Germany and Italy, Felipe moved to New York City in 1996 and graduated in Dramatic Writing from NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts. 

After five years working as a creative development executive for Sony Pictures Television in Mexico and Russia, where he led the local language adaptation of hit TV series “Ugly Betty”, he returned to his roots in live theatre. In 2003, he created Salón Volcán, a producing organization devoted to building international partnerships among contemporary theatre artists, producers and performing arts organizations around the world. Among other projects, he served as consultant to the Brooklyn Academy of Music (BAM) and shepherded their production of Teatro de Arena and John Jesurun’s “Faust”, a co-production with Mexico’s Festival Internacional Cervantino. 

In 2004, he conceived and produced VIA, a global performing arts festival designed to provide opportunities for the Latin American artistic community to market their work internationally. The program is still running successfully today within the frame of Colombia’s International Theatre Festival, having hosted more than 250 performing arts professionals from around the world and facilitated countless international opportunities for Latin American theatre artists. Felipe is thrilled to be a member of the Disney Theatrical team since 2010.

Morris Gilbert

With 39 years in the theater production , Gilbert Morris is one of the key figures in this industry within the Spanish-speaking world , as evidenced by the more than 70 productions and 22 large format musicals.

Throughout four decades of work that has spanned all genres and thanks to the visionary initiative of OCESA , the most acclaimed and successful musicals in the world also have been admired in Mexico. Morris’s foray into the field of production happened occurred with the production “The sons of Kennedy,” a memorable artistic success, followed by more than 90 productions ranging from monologues to grand and impressive productions which led Morris to work with over 1,200 actors in a number of representations that reaching almost 40,000.

In 1997, Morris established a partnership with OCESA Presenta and has produced some forty works including Confessions of women aged 30 , Master Class, Doubt, La Prueba, Las ‘viejas’ vienen marchando , The Grönholm Method, The Diary of Anne Frank, Adorables enemigas y La rubia, la trigueña y la pelirroja vengadora, among many others.

He has been director of the Theatre Division of OCESA since 1999, a company that has produced Rent , The Phantom of the Opera , Man of La Mancha, Jesus Christ Superstar , Chicago, The Full Monty, Les Miserables , Joseph the Dreamer , Fiddler on the Roof, Besame Mucho , The Producers , Beauty and the Beast , Sweet Charity, Mamma Mia! , Chorus Line , Peter Pan and Mary Poppins. Each and every one with an optimum level of quality which has
enabled the revival of musical theater in Mexico, WICKED being the latest addition.

Another production in the chain of successes in his field of musical theater includes Si nos Dejan!, the big Mexican musical with 600 continuous performances in Mexico City which was also reproduced in Botoga, Colombia.
It’s now back in Mexico after a South American tour.

As a result of Gilbert’s partnership with OCESA , currently in theaters you
may enjoy the following productions:The Vagina Monologues , Lies, Credit,
Sexy Laundry, and Only a week! Many of these productions have had thousands
of uninterrupted performances in theaters. Moreover, other successful works
are currently in preproduction. 

Regina Gordin

 

Regina Gordin joined the Export-Import Bank of the United States in November of 2009. She the Regional Director, at the Bank's Small Business Group. Prior to joining the Bank, Regina spent seven years as Senior Vice President at Broad Street Capital Group, a private New York based merchant bank, where she originated and managed a wide variety of international project finance and export finance transactions. Before joining Broad Street she was a VP and Senior Financial Advisor at Wachovia, The Bank of New York and Merrill Lynch's Private Client Group. Regina holds a BBA in Finance from The Wharton School and an MSOD in Global Management and Leadership from the School of Arts& Sciences at the University of Pennsylvania.

Bianca Marroquin

Bianca Marroquin was born in Monterrey, Mexico, and raised on the border between Matamoros, Mexico and Brownsville, Texas. She started her artistic career in Mexico City in the productions of Disney's Beauty and the Beast, Rent, Phantom of the Opera, Vagina Monologues and Chicago. For her portrayal of Roxie Hart in Chicago Bianca received 5 awards from the Mexican Critics Associations including New Revelation and Best Actress. In the summer of 2002, Bianca was invited to crossover from Mexico to Broadway and made her debut with her English version of Roxie Hart and later kicked off Chicago’s 3rd National Tour for which she received a Helen Hayes Award in Washington DC for Outstanding Lead Actress in 2004. 

After touring for two years she officially moves to New York to continue to pursue her career. She then originates the role of Carmen in the Revival Broadway Hit, Tony Award Winner, Pajama Game starring Harry Connick, Jr. You can listen to Bianca on the special edition of the 10th anniversary of Chicago CD performing a medley version of three of Roxie’s songs in Spanish. She makes her TV debut as Yolanda Rios in One Life to Live. In April of 2008 The Mexican Consulate in New York awarded Bianca for her successful labor as an actress on Broadway. Bianca then premiered her one woman show in Mexico City: “Solo Pido” (All I ask) in honor of her late mother. Regional: And the World Goes round at Barrington Stage Company, woman #3. Bye Bye Birdie at North Shore Music Theatre, Rose Alvarez for which she won a IRNE award for Best Actress in a musical. Bianca then portrays the role of Maria Rainer in Mexico City’s hit production of The Sound of Music marking her official return to the Mexican Stages after 6 years. In the summer of 2010 she appeared back on Broadway when she joined the Tony Award winner company of In the Heights in the role of Daniela.

She has just concluded her 3nd season as a judge on Univision’s explosive rating new Dance reality show “Mira Quien Baila”. Bianca starred in Luis Dellano’s Televisa’s soap opera “Esperanza del Corazon” as “Angela” and concluded 2 seasons of Televisa’s reality competition “Pequeños Gigantes” as a judge in the dance department. Bianca is currently starring as Mary in the 1st Spanish speaking production of Disney and Cameron Makintosh’s “Mary Poppins” in Mexico City.

Roberta Pereira

Roberta Pereira has been a Producer with Bisno Productions since 2010, where she has worked on several shows, including Annie, War Horse (Tony), Priscilla Queen of the Desert, The Merchant of Venice, and Through a Glass Darkly. Previously, she was Associate Producer for Anne Bogart’s SITI Company, Executive Producer of Yale Summer Cabaret (New Haven) and Associate Managing Director for Yale Repertory Theatre/World Performance Project, where she produced a series of international music and theater events. Roberta also produced all the auxiliary events for the 2006 Dublin International Theatre Festival.

As an independent producer, her credits include: Broadway: Mothers and Sons, Grace, A Life in the Theatre. West End: Merrily We Roll Along (Olivier). Board President of nonprofit theater company Studio 42. Managing Editor of Dress Circle Publishing, publisher of The Untold Stories of Broadway (dresscirclepublishing.com). MFA, Yale School of Drama; BA, Wesleyan University. 

And me...

I just feel so lucky, honored, humbled and EXCITED by the event that I won't even include my bio or pic... LOL!

There are only like 5 spaces available so if you still want to join this first panel; Run... www.salgadoproductions.com

Ps. If you do want to read a bit more about me visit www.luissalgado.com

:-)