10th Annual Symposium on Positive Aging

Andrew Block received the Ovation and L.A. Drama Critics Circle awards for Best Director & Production for the world premiere of John Pollono’s Small Engine Repair, starring Emmy-winner Jon Bernthal. Selected credits include: NYC premieres of Adam Szymkowicz’s Fat Cat Killers and the NYC Fringe hit Clown Bar 2 (Audience Choice, Most Fringe awards); Kelley Nicole Girod’s This Stretch of Montpelier and Body of Water (The Fire This Time Festival, Le Petit); Mark Jason Williams’ Straight Faced Lies and The Other Day (Theatre at 14 St Y); John Pollono’s Lost and Found (FringeNYC Encore, Lucille Lortel Theatre); David Caudle’s Downward Facing Debbie (ProjectY); Sondheim’s Company (Gallery Players); Why Bother? (Best Director, Planet Connections Festivity); Adam Rapp’s Bingo with the Indians (GLAAD award nomination for Outstanding Theatre, West Coast premiere); Bedroom Farce (FAPC); Reach (Ivy Theatre Company); Avenue Q (Manhattan College); Inherit the Wind (Manhattan College); Rumors (AADA); The Shape of Things (Adelphi University); Recovery (FringeNYC). He is a multi-hat-wearing Arts professional with extensive experience in production, advocacy, marketing, education, and community building, and is a proud native of New Orleans.

Broderick Brown is an accomplished crossover singer with a background in opera, musical theatre, and contemporary Christian music. He holds a degree in vocal performance from the Eastman School of Music, where he studied with Grammy Award winner Anthony Dean Griffey. Some of Broderick’s favorite previous credits include Mr. Mayor in Seussical, Herman Atlan in The Mother of Us All, DaVinci in the US premiere of the DaVinci Requiem, and Anthony in Sweeney Todd. He hopes you enjoy the concert as much as he enjoyed putting it together.

Dani Davis is an Emmy Award-winning writer, Emmy-nominated director, Tony-nominated producer, and multiple award-winning director and choreographer. She is the proud creator of Little Women—the musical—and producer of several major Broadway and touring shows, including Billy Elliot and Shrek. She is committed to creating provocative, emotionally driven work that resonates with all audiences, continually developing new pieces that speak to the heroism of the human spirit. It’s a privilege to be a part of this wonderful initiative. www.thedanidavis.com

Zachary Eisenstat has lived many lives. In the past, he has been an engineer, a financial analyst, a dancer with Pilobolus, and an actor in plays like The Tempest, The Heart of Robin Hood, and The Play About the Baby. Most recently, he helped create and perform in Life & Trust. He is also a father to two amazing kids.

Clara Francesca is an award-winning stage and screen actor, XR performance artist, and executive public speaking coach. A professor at St. John’s University with a Juris Doctorate equivalency and Biomedical Sciences degree, her screen work includes PBS, FBI (CBS), and New Amsterdam (NBC). She has toured extensively, including at the Edinburgh Fringe, in a solo show directed by Laurence Olivier Award winner Guy Masterson. A TEDx Modena speaker, Dame Joan Sutherland Fund recipient, and Anne Bogart SITI Company inaugural Conservatory alum, Clara is an internationally recognized immersive arts collaborator and performer.

Tracey Grimaldi founded her NYC-based Broadway Vocal Coaching and Acting company, TG Studio NYC, on the UWS in 2001. Her students have appeared on Broadway, in National and Regional productions, including: Wicked, The Outsiders, The Book of Mormon, Matilda, Cats, An American in Paris, Jersey Boys, RENT, How 2 Succeed, The Lion King, The Prom, Mary Poppins, Hair, In The Heights, The Great Gatsby, Merrily We Roll Along, West Side Story, Chicago, Fiddler on the Roof, Beauty and the Beast, The Merry Widow, Rigoletto, A Chorus Line, and 13. Her younger students have gained admission to programs including LaGuardia HS, Sinatra, PPAS, Special Music School, Interlochen, University of Michigan, Pace, NYU, BoCo, Emerson, BU + have earned leads in competitive youth, regional, and summer programs, including Stagedoor Manor, French Woods, and Random Farms.

Many of Tracey’s students are referred by the agents and managers, and she brings equal enthusiasm to working with singers, actors, and dancers. Tracey believes in the importance of tapping into each artist’s strengths and connecting all disciplines of the performing arts. Her background in TV/film production is employed to produce students’ self-tapes and prescreens for digital submissions. She attended Ithaca College for music and communications.

Tracey raised her son in the neighborhood and is grateful to the JCC for all of the programs made available to children and adults of all ages, and is thrilled to MD this project.

Jeffrey Grover is a New York-based actor, writer, and producer who has appeared in television, film, and theater in New York and in regional productions across the country. He is featured in Charliebird, which received the Best U.S. Feature Film award at the 2025 Tribeca Festival. As a creative collaborator, Grover and his partner, Jonathan Wright, are co-creators of the Larry Silver series A Man of a Certain Age in the Upper West Side, in which Grover stars as Larry. Throughout his career, he has produced, co-written, and performed work that explores socially relevant themes and contemporary issues.

Christopher Johnston is a playwright, director, and independent journalist. His plays have appeared at BorderLight Fringe Festival, Cleveland Public Theatre, convergence-continuum, Dobama Theatre, Notre Dame College, Playwright’s Local, Talespinner Children’s Theatre, and West 78th Street Theater in New York. In 2019, he received a Dramatists Guild Foundation Writers Alliance Grant for Live Bodies for Sale, and a filmed version of his play The Ascension of Mary Mulligan was released in March 2023.

Rachel Laufer is an NYC-based actor and theatre artist from New Orleans. She earned her BA in Theatre from Florida State University and trained with FSU’s Theatre Academy London. Credits include Fat Cat Killers (AD) with SparkPlug Productions, Murder for Two (ASM) and The Importance of Being Earnest (AD) at Le Petit Theatre, and Hadestown: Teen Edition (choreographer/co-director) and Six: Teen Edition (choreographer) at The Willow School. FSU credits include The Lesson (Student) and Hamlet (Ophelia).

Beatrice Owens she/her INTERNATIONAL: Scotland: Into the Woods (The Witch). REGIONAL: Delaware Theatre Company: The Chequerboard Watch (Mr. Kit), Signature Theatre: Fiddler on the Roof (Tzeitel), Paper Mill Playhouse: Fiddler on the Roof, Imagination Stage: Robin Hood, Keegan Theatre: Hands on a Hardbody (Kelli). EDUCATION: Royal Conservatoire of Scotland: MA Musical Theatre Performance, James Madison University: BA Theatre Performance. beatriceowens.com @busylittlebea

Ann Pascale recently appeared in Finding Mr. Rightstein by Nancy Davidoff Kelton at the Chain Theatre. She is a veteran of many Off-Off-Broadway productions, including revivals of Crimes of the Heart, Tartuffe, The Norman Conquests, and A Midsummer Night’s
Dream. SAG/AFTRA

Katie-James Rushin (he/she) is a Queens-based composer, producer, and music director known for work on productions like Freestyle Love Supreme and Maybe She Dies. A multi-instrumentalist and educator, she has taught at several universities and is currently developing original projects, including an animated horror film and TTRPG-based programs, with upcoming work as composer/MD for White as Snow and as producer for Anania’s debut EP.

Lester Thomas Shane is a New York–based actor with extensive credits in classical and contemporary theatre, appearing in more than fifty productions across regional and New York stages. In addition to his acting work, he directs, teaches speech and voice, and serves as a dialect coach for stage and film.

Jim Shankman Broadway credits: Grease and Once in a Lifetime. Off-Broadway: Perfect
Crime. Oslo, St. Louis Rep; The Price, Triad Stage; Angels in America, Playhouse On Park; A Comedy of Tenors, Bristol Riverside; Uncle Vanya, Columbia Chekhov Project; Willy Shotz in his own play, The Screenwriter Dies of His Own Free Will, which won a Fringe NYC Best Playwriting Award; Jericho and Sick, New Jersey Rep; Moonlight and Magnolias, Dorset Theatre Festival; Opus Florida Stage

Faye Sholiton honed her craft in the Cleveland Play House Playwrights’ Unit, in Dobama Theatre’s Playwrights’ Gym, and in rehearsal rooms around the U.S. In 2011, she founded Interplay Jewish Theatre to revive a beloved cultural tradition in Northeast Ohio. She’s delighted to celebrate Positive Aging with you, as she is positively aging herself. And this year marks some 30 years since she began working with Lester, Suzanne, and your emcee, Jeff Grover.

Nina Silverman is a 16-year-old native New Yorker. Recent credits include: Urinetown (Hope), RENT (Maureen), The Prom (Emma), Into the Woods (Cinderella), and Mean Girls (Cady). When not performing, she can be found seeking the perfect iced coffee, playing with her two sweet black labs, or listening to her favorite country songs!

Suzanne Toren has created roles on and off Broadway, from a Cuban exile (Goodbye, Fidel) to Queen of Aragon (The Disputation) to an impassioned lawyer (Denial) to Mama (From Door to Door). She has appeared in regional theatres, in new plays and in classics, in English and in Yiddish (Linda Loman in Toyt fun a Seylzman).
TV: Law and Order, Elsbeth
Short Films: The Eighth Day, Caesar Salad
A highly acclaimed, multi-award-winning audiobook narrator of over 1500 titles, including the “Golden Voice” award for “significant contributions to audiobook publishing.”

Owen Weiss is a singer, performer, and storyteller whose work is rooted in authenticity and resilience. Following a life-changing spinal cord injury, Owen found new meaning in creative expression, using performance to connect, reflect, and inspire. In addition to performing, Owen is an adaptive athlete currently pursuing graduate studies in education at the University of Michigan, where he will compete in the university’s wheelchair tennis program.