2023-24
JULIE MILLER (President) is a NYC based producer and general manager of theater and film, and before that, practiced law in NYC for many years. Before becoming the President of MAC, Julie served as the Vice President for 13 years, during which time she produced the annual MAC AWARDS SHOW for eleven years, as well as MAC’s recurring show THEY WRITE THE SONGS. Among the feature films she has produced are the original rock musical CLEAR BLUE TUESDAY and the science fiction three-part story FADE TO WHITE. In theater, she produced the new musical ZAPATA at the Pershing Square Signature Center, and was general manager for the shows SLEEPOVER at The Cherry Lane Theatre, and AMIGO DUENDE at the Theater at El Museo del Barrio. Other favorite production and/or general management projects include the FringeNYC production of THE HURRICANE KATRINA COMEDY FESTIVAL at the Soho Playhouse, which won the Overall Excellence of Production festival prize, as well as SHOW CHOIR THE MUSICAL at The American Theater of Actors. Julie has worked on a wide variety of productions including the DRAMA DESK AWARDS and THE NIGHTLIFE AWARDS. Julie is also proud to be a member of the Board of Directors of Prospect Theater Company in New York. Julie is very grateful to be a part of the wonderfully supportive and talented community of cabaret and is honored to be President of the MAC Board of Directors.
AMY WOLK (Vice President) has won 2 MAC awards for her cabaret performances, including the 2011 MAC for Musical Comedy, and the 2004 MAC Award for Best Female New York Debut for her show Different For Girls. in 2020, she won the MAC Award for ‘Outstanding Host for her gamneshow series I Only Have Lies For You. She is also a MAC-winning songwriter, for the song “The Brit Song,” co- written with William TN Hall. She won the 2014 Bistro Award for Musical Comedy. Amy was also named one of the best in cabaret by ShowBusiness Weekly. A graduate of NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts/CAP21, Amy has appeared in shows at The Duplex, Don’t Tell Mama’s, The Metropolitan Room, the Laurie Beechaman Theatre, and Town Hall in New York, as well as at Davenport’s in Chicago. She has also appeared in many regional productions including Evil Dead (Cheryl) Schoolhouse Rock Live (Dori), Into the Woods (Rapunzel), and The Taffetas (Peggy). Amy is the host and producer of the hit gameshow I Only Have Lies For You, now in its 3rd season.
A certified New York City school teacher, Amy has a Masters degree in Education from Fordham University. She works as a freelance teacher with On Location Education as an on set tutor on films and Broadway shows. This job has given her the opportunity to meet great people, teach amazing kids, and has allowed her to eat for free at opening night parties and from craft service tables. Amy has also worked extensively on Broadway as an assistant merchandise manager for over 40 Broadway shows, including Annie Get Your Gun, Les Miserables, Gypsy, Equus, Anything Goes, and The Phantom of the Opera.
Amy has been a member of the MAC Board for over 10 years, and recently concluded her term as President.
NATASHA CASTILLO (Treasurer) is the producer and two-time MAC Award-nominated best emcee of the Three-time MAC Award-nominated best recurring series Spotlight On YOU Open Mic. Natasha Castillo is one of three daughters of late superstar Dai Ling Chuang, who recorded multiple records with EMI/Decca who had her own TV/Radio show in Southeast Asia. Natasha’s musical career started early in school plays, talent shows, and glee clubs. In high school, she experienced her Lincoln Center debut in her performance with the high school A Capella Chorus. Natasha performed as lead singer with an alternative rock band in college and later became the lead singer for the wedding band Eternity. After some time off, Natasha reentered the music world when she joined the Blue Hill Troupe (BHT), an all for Charity off-Broadway Theater Troupe where she learned the in’s and out’s of theater production, from props to costumes to construction to utilizing her skills as a hair and make-up artist. She was elected new members entertainment committee chair the year after she joined the troupe, testimony to her diligence. She performed in the troupe’s annual cabaret shows at the Triad and was cast in the leading role of Ronnette in the BHT’s Fall production of Little Shop of Horrors.
Natasha discovered the world of cabaret through the Singers Forum where she met multiple award-winning director/artist/performer Lennie Watts and multiple award-winning musical director Steven Ray Watkins. She experienced her first break-through in the art of cabaret working with them in “Get Your Act Together” during her 35-minute cabaret show “Re-Evolution” at Don’t Tell Mama in March 2012. Natasha produced her first variety show “Parallel Moments with Natasha Castillo and friends” benefiting Tsunami victims in Japan May, 2011 and subsequently produced multiple variety shows at the Federal Reserve Bank of NY featuring amazing performers/directors: Lennie Watts, Steven Ray Watkins, Teri Ralston, Dan Furman and more… She also produced charity benefits throughout the year in partnership with Hearts and Voices and other charitable organizations. She co-hosted the Singers Forum bi-weekly open mic from 2013-2014, participated in the longest running show at the Metropolitan Room that is now in the Guinness Book of Records as well as multiple variety shows hosted by MAC award winning emcees Bobbie Horowitz and the late Dana Lorge.
ANALISA BELL (Secretary) was born and raised in Perth, the most isolated city in Australia. After high school, she auditioned and gained entry to the prestigious Western Australian Academy of Performing Arts where she studied musical theater. Upon graduating, she performed in a number of musicals and theatre productions, including Oklahoma, Les Misérables and The Vagina Monologues (2007 ITA Best Actress Award). She also worked as a voice over artist and on-air talent for Perth commercial radio stations 96fm and 92.9fm. After several years touring Australia as a children’s theatre entertainer, Analisa discovered the world of cabaret! She went on to tour the cabaret and festival circuits to much acclaim in Melbourne, Sydney, and Perth, before moving to NYC at the end of 2014. She is currently mentored by Tony Award-winner, Faith Prince, is an Alumni of the International Cabaret Conference at Yale, won the 2015 Annual Broadway Spring Festival Cabaret Competition, was a Semi-Finalist in the 2016 and 2017 MetroStar Challenges at the Metropolitan Room, and has performed in a plethora of solo and collaborative cabarets at the former Metropolitan Room, The Duplex, The Triad Theater, Don’t Tell Mama and Feinstein’s/54 Below. By day, you’ll find her working at The New York Pops as Education and Operations Manager.
ANTHONY LAMATTINA has over forty years of experience in finance for the commercial theatre. Starting in 1981, he joined The Shubert Organization in their box office audit department. In the ensuing year, his scope expanded to include finance, payroll and audit functions. Eventually he became responsible for the financial and legal aspects of Shubert’s investments in productions. He routinely analyzed up to forty productions each season and followed their progress from inception to closing. Most recently he worked on Macbeth with Daniel Craig and the Tony Award winning Some Like It Hot.
JENNIE LITT is one-half of the songwriting and performing duo Alpher & Litt with her husband, composer/pianist David Alpher. A graduate of Harvard College and the Iowa Writers’ Workshop, Jennie was busy pursuing a career as an award-winning fiction writer when she met Alpher at The MacDowell Colony and her life took a left turn. The couple has released a live concert CD with folk legends Jay Ungar and Molly Mason, and two CDs of their own original cabaret songs, both available at CDBaby, iTunes, etc.: Two Apples (2014) and Songs For Sapiosexuals (2019). Their songs have been performed at NYC clubs from Don’t Tell Mama to 54 Below; they have appeared as a performing duo at many of NYC’s clubs as well, and as far afield as The Rockport Chamber Music Festival, The Chamber Arts Festival of Marbletown, Cleveland’s Nighttown, and Bard, Vassar, and Harvard Colleges. Alpher & Litt have co-taught cabaret performance workshops and master classes for the Boston Association of Cabaret Artists, Vassar College, The New York Singing Teachers’ Association, and The Brooklyn Cabaret Workshop, as well as privately, and are on the faculty of SummerKeys in Lubec, Maine. Jennie also directs cabaret shows. Jennie was on the Board of Directors of The Chamber Arts Festival of Marbletown from 2004-08. The couple is currently engaged in writing their first musical, based on the lives of the infamous Mitford sisters. She and David have a tween daughter. www.litt-and-alpher.com
KRISTOFFER LOWE an Alabama native, has made NYC home for the last 21 years. An award winning cabaret artist, his show YOU’RE GETTING TO BE A HABIT WITH ME: The Songs of Harry Warren, received critical praise and a 2016 MAC Award. He is also the recipient of a 2015 Bistro Award and a 2015 MAC Award for his debut show. He has sung at the Mabel Mercer Foundation’s Cabaret Convention at Jazz at Lincoln Center’s Rose Hall and historic Town Hall, receiving the 2015 Julie Wilson Award for excellence in cabaret. Theatrical credits include: National and Canadian tour: Vallon in SHOWBOAT; Padre in MAN OF LA MANCHA (Human Race Theatre), Nanki-Poo in THE MIKADO (River Rep. Theatre); Reuben in JOSEPH (Media Theatre); Lord Savage in JEKYLL AND HYDE (Trump Plaza, Atlantic City). He regularly performs with and serves on the advisory board for Vocal Ease, a non-profit volunteer organization that presents hour long concerts of jazz standards and the American Songbook to NYC’s elderly in nursing homes, retirement communities, hospitals and drop-in centers. Classically trained, he is a state winner in the 1998 Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions, and earned the Best Diction Award in the Regional Auditions that same year. B.A. Birmingham Southern College.
SIDNEY MYER Cabaret Booking Manager for almost 4 decades: Don’t Tell Mama, Rose’s Turn and Panache. Artists he has presented have gone on to careers on Broadway, Television, Motion Pictures; become the “Star Search $100,000 Grand Prize Winner”, the highest jackpot winner in Lotto history, receive multiple Emmys, Grammys, Tonys, Oscars and a Pulitzer Prize! He has booked Lucille Ball & Desi Arnaz’s Granddaughter, Barry Manilow’s Mother, Dionne Warwick’s Sister, Paul Newman & Joanne Woodward’s Daughter, Fyvush Finkel’s Sons, Neil Simon’s Wife and Alan J. Lerner’s Widow. In 2009, he was featured in a group photograph, above the fold in the cover story of the Sunday New York Times Arts & Leisure Section with the Headline: “Saviors Of The American Songbook”. Theater: Off-Broadway: “Grandma Sylvia’s Funeral”, “Dressing Room”, “Split Ends”; Kaye Playhouse in the 25th Anniversary Revival of “Irene”; Edinburgh Fringe Festival with “La Gran Scena Opera Co.”; Theatre By The Sea in “Beauty & The Beast”. Off-Off-Broadway Credits: “Times Square Angel” with Charles Busch, “The Boys in the Band”, “Laughing Wild”, “The Ball” “Midnight At The Never Get”. Film: 20th Century Fox’s “Headin’ For Broadway”. Television: Seasons 1 & 2 of The 6 Time Emmy Award Winning “After Forever” on Amazon Prime. Celebrity Interviewer: Cable’s “Cabaret Beat” & “Broadway Beat” and Nancy Lamott DVD “I’ll Be Here With You”. Commercials for RCA Victor and New York Lotto. Radio: Regular on “The Joey Reynolds Show”. He’s entertained from San Francisco to New York to London. Recipient MAC, Broadway World, Backstage Bistro, Provincetown CABFEST Lifetime Achievement Award, Mabel Mercer Foundation’s Cabaret Classic & Paula Laurence Awards. DVD: Sidney Myer: Live At The Beechman on Harbinger Records.
ADVISORY BOARD
CHAIRPERSON
Roy Sander
SENIOR ADVISOR
Lennie Watts
Sherry Eaker
Eric Michael Gillett
Michael E. Kerker
Peter Leavy
Ricky Ritzel
HONORARY BOARD
Mario Cantone
David Friedman
Julie Gold
Karen Mason
Marilyn Maye
Liza Minnelli
Rex Reed
Steve Ross
Lily Tomlin
PRESIDENTS EMERITI
Judy Barnett
Jamie deRoy
Barry Levitt
Lennie Watts
PAST PRESIDENTS
Scott Barbarino
Curt Davis
Michael Estwanik
Erv Raible
Ricky Ritzel