is a director, actor, producer, playwright and poet. He began writing scripts at Cal Arts in classes taught by the great British film director Alexander McKendrick. He co-founded San Diego Repertory Theatre with Sam Woodhouse, serving as Artistic Director for 20 years.
He resigned in 1997 to focus on writing his play, R. Buckminster Fuller: THE HISTORY (and Mystery) OF THE UNIVERSE (world premiere at San Diego Rep, March 31, 2000). This play has had over 1,000 performances in San Diego, San Francisco, Chicago, Seattle, Montreal, Ventura, Santa Fe, Portland OR, Washington, DC, Cambridge/Boston, San Jose, Ashville, Atlanta, Carbondale, Edwardsville and Wrocław, Poland.
His adaptations of A CHRISTMAS CAROL played at San Diego Rep for 30 years, becoming famous for its use of live music, ranging from traditional scores to gospel and jazz adaptations. As a producer, his numerous productions of Shakespeare and Dickens have included mostly original scores played by live musicians. The composers have included Jonathan Sacks, Steve Gunderson, Victor Zupanc, Polly Pen, Gina Leishman, Beth Custer and Max Roach.
For several years, he served as a Board Member of the Interval Foundation, a non-profit dedicated to supporting microtonal music and the legacy of Harry Partch.
has been around the arts and show business most of his life. His father was a vocalist in the 1940s. His mother was a showgirl, a Rockette. They are the inspiration for YOURS, TRULY.
He first appeared in front of a television camera at 11 when he
performed in sketches with the great Jackie Gleason when Gleason was taping his variety show in Miami Beach.
He studied theatre at Florida International University in Miami, wrote several screenplays and is a member of SAG.
An award winning advertising copywriter, his consulting firm, KELSON MARKETING, directed subscription and fundraising campaigns that raised millions
of dollars for the finest regional theatres in the country. One of his clients was San Diego Repertory Theatre where he met Co-Founder/Artistic Director D.W. Jacobs, his co-writer on YOURS, TRULY.
After 30 years working in the arts as a marketing and development consultant, Gary recently stepped down as Director of Marketing & Development for Opera Naples, Florida to continue the development of YOURS, TRULY.
Co-creator and musical arrangements for: Back To Bacharach & David (Off Broadway, Henry Fonda Music Box Theatre), Suds (Off Broadway, Old Globe Theatre, Actors Theatre of Louisville, National Tour, dozens of productions worldwide), Everybody’s Talkin’: The Music of Harry Nilsson (SD Rep), More Magic (Stage West in Toronto and Calgary), Two Rockin’ Gents (Hope Repertory Theatre), Eternally Bad (Moxie Theatre). Composer: Dixie Highway, A Christmas Carol, The Brontes, Rock Candy. Winner of the 2016 Creative Catalyst Grant for The Artificial Woman (Composer, co-written with Amy Gerstler).
As an actor: Regional: His Girl Friday, The Nightingale, Memphis (La Jolla Playhouse); Hadrian VII, A Trip To Chinatown, How The Grinch Stole Christmas (Old Globe Theatre); Romance, Miss Witherspoon, Detroit, Hairspray (San Diego Rep), An Ideal Husband, You Can’t Take It With You (Lambs Players Theatre), as well as major roles at Pasadena Playhouse, La Mirada Theatre, Center Rep, North Coast Rep, American Stage Theatre, New Village Arts, Colony Theatre, Canon Theatre, Diversionary Theatre. National Tour: The Grapes of Wrath. Voices on TV’s King of the Hill and (The New) Beavis & Butthead.
New York credits include: 9 Circles (The Sheen Center), Long Story Short (Prospect Theater), Five Flights (Rattlestick Playwrights Theater), Wet (Summer Play Festival), and Marry Harry (NYMF, American Theater Group). Regional: Once, Amadeus, and A Light in the Piazza (South Coast Repertory), How to Write a New Book for the Bible (South Coast Repertory, Berkeley Repertory, Seattle Repertory), Cubamor (Village Theatre), Lizzie (Theater Under the Stars, Village Theater), Grey Gardens, Vincent in Brixton, Ambition Facing West, and All My Sons (TheatreWorks), Saint Ex (Weston Playhouse), 9 Circles, The Good German, and Jacques Brel (Marin Theater Company), Small Tragedy and Satellites(Aurora Theater Company), Kissing the Witch and Stones in His Pockets (Magic Theatre).
He has also worked as a producer on many new plays and musicals. Off-Broadway credits include Far From Heaven by Richard Greenberg, Michael Korie and Scott Frankel; Bella: An American Tall Tale by Kirsten Childs; IOWA by Jenny Schwartz and Todd Almond; and Fly By Night by Kim Rosenstock, Will Connolly, and Michael Mitnick. Regionally he produced the world premieres of Memphis (by Joe DiPietro and David Bryan), Striking 12 (by Groovelily), Emma (by Paul Gordon). He was Associate Artistic Director at Magic Theatre, created the New Works Initiative at TheatreWorks in Palo Alto and The Uncharted Writers Group at Ars Nova and has served on the boards of The Playwrights Foundation and The National Alliance for Musical Theatre. He currently serves as the Director of Musical Theater at Playwrights Horizons.
Contact: Beth Blickers APA 135 W 50th Street New York, NY 10020 (212) 621-3098 bblickers@apa-agency.com
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