AMT After Dark with Joanie & Pete

AMT AFTER DARK with JOANIE & PETE, A podcast with Joan Pelzer and Pete Dorton talking to creative folks about their journey. You never know where the conversation will go...it's AFTER DARK AFTER ALL!!  Produced by Alex Garrett

THIS EPISODE: Listen to Joanie and Pete talk with Joseph C. Grano


ABOUT JOE GRANO (JOSEPH C. GRANO): 
Known for horror film Dolly (2025), Bad Man (2025), Ballers (2015) among others, Joe Grano is an independent film producer, with his own production company called Set Point Entertainment. With extensive experience in the entertainment industry, Joe held key roles in various production companies in Hollywood. Joe Grano's educational background from Yale University and his professional experience underscore his commitment to excellence and proficiency in the entertainment industry.
 
LINKS:  
https://variety.com/2025/film/markets-festivals/rod-blackhurst-horror-dolly-distribution-shudder-1236572129/
 
https://www.imdb.com/name/nm3187716/?ref_=nv_sr_srsg_0_tt_0_nm_8_q_joseph%2520c.%2520grano 
 
https://shoutoutla.com/meet-joseph-c-grano-independent-film-producer/



AMT AFTER DARK with JOANIE & PETE, A podcast with Joan Pelzer and Pete Dorton talking to creative folks about their journey. You never know where the conversation will go...it's AFTER DARK AFTER ALL!!

AMTtheater.org
[email protected]
Social Media: @AMTtheater45 
https://www.amttheater.org


📲

AMT AFTER DARK with JOANIE & PETE, A podcast with Joan Pelzer and Pete Dorton talking to creative folks about their journey. You never know where the conversation will go...it's AFTER DARK AFTER ALL!!  Produced by Alex Garrett

THIS EPISODE: Listen to Joanie and Pete talk with Jeremiah Kipp, Director


ABOUT JEREMIAH KIPP 
Jeremiah Kipp is based in New York. His directing credits include the AMC+ Shudder Original "Slapface" (Audience Award Winner at Cinequest), the horror-sci fi hybrid "Black Wake"; "Don't Pick Up" starring Keith David and Kathryn Erbe, "Draw Up and Stare" starring Michael O'Keefe and Melissa Leo, "The Sadist" starring Tom Savini and "The Pod": starring Larry Fessenden. His collaboration on "The Avant Gardener" with fellow filmmakers Lindsay Katt, Heather Matarazzo and Carl Byrd won the Flickers Rhode Island Experimental Grand Prize in 2017 and his work on "Pickup" won the Best Television Award at HollyShorts Film Festival in 2018.- IMDb mini biography by: Isaac North

https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0456031/
https://www.instagram.com/jeremiah.kipp



AMT AFTER DARK with JOANIE & PETE, A podcast with Joan Pelzer and Pete Dorton talking to creative folks about their journey. You never know where the conversation will go...it's AFTER DARK AFTER ALL!!

AMTtheater.org
[email protected]
Social Media: @AMTtheater45 
https://www.amttheater.org

📲

AMT AFTER DARK with JOANIE & PETE, A podcast with Joan Pelzer and Pete Dorton talking to creative folks about their journey. You never know where the conversation will go...it's AFTER DARK AFTER ALL!!  Produced by Alex Garrett

THIS EPISODE: Listen to Joanie and Pete talk with Zachary Stewart, Chief Critic for TheaterMania


ABOUT ZACHARY STEWART 
Zachary Stewart has been the chief critic for TheaterMania since 2013. He is the vice president of the New York Drama Critics’ Circle and a voting member of the Drama Desk. His work as a playwright and director has been seen at the Players Theatre, the Connelly Theater, and the 45th Street Theater. He holds a B.F.A. in Theatre from New York University. Zach is the author of the forthcoming novel Resentment: A Love Story. He moonlights as a building superintendent on the Upper West Side, where he resides with his husband, Paul Xuereb, and their two cats. 

https://zacharystewart.com/about-zach/

https://www.theatermania.com/authors/zachary-stewart-5/ 



AMT AFTER DARK with JOANIE & PETE, A podcast with Joan Pelzer and Pete Dorton talking to creative folks about their journey. You never know where the conversation will go...it's AFTER DARK AFTER ALL!!

AMTtheater.org
[email protected]
Social Media: @AMTtheater45 
https://www.amttheater.org

📲

AMT AFTER DARK with JOANIE & PETE, A podcast with Joan Pelzer and Pete Dorton talking to creative folks about their journey. You never know where the conversation will go...it's AFTER DARK AFTER ALL!!  Produced by Alex Garrett

THIS EPISODE: Listen to Joanie and Pete talk with Mickey Gooch, Jr., Actor and Playwright, Silverback Mountain at AMT Theater June 2026

ABOUT MICKEY GOOCH, JR (Actor, Playwright):  
Mickey is a New York based actor, producer, writer and director working across theatre, film, and television.  Gooch has appeared in studio and independent films, including How to Single, The Clapper, and Deported. His work often centers on complex, flawed characters, blending dark comedy with emotional realism.  As a producer, he was part of the producing team on The Trial of the Chicago 7, the Academy Award–nominated and Golden Globe–winning film written and directed by Aaron Sorkin. He also served as a co-producer on the Broadway musical The Heart of Rock and Roll, which ran in Spring 2024.  Across his work on stage and screen, Gooch brings an actor’s sensibility to producing and a producer’s perspective to performance, with a focus on character-driven storytelling grounded in lived experience, vulnerability, and humor.



SILVERBACK MOUNTAIN: A NEW GAY JUNGLE PLAY
https://www.silverbackmountainplay.com/

A chaotic adventure that blends screwball comedy, a love story, and a jailbreak into a musical romp. Featuring gay mountain people, a gorilla named Undatee, and Wendy Williams, the play explores the courage it takes to genuinely say "I love you" in a world that constantly tries to silence it.
Lucas, a 43-year-old New York artist with a chronic fear of commitment, and his boyfriend Andy, a high-achieving architect with a bottomless appetite for drama and a cheeseburger without the cheese, have been together for five years. Andy wants more, specifically, monogamy. Lucas wants space. And somewhere in the middle of that argument, they end up on a gorilla trekking trip to Uganda.But when their relationship—and their identities—are unexpectedly exposed, the trip spirals into something far more dangerous than a breakup. Suddenly, it’s up to a disgruntled drag queen waitress and a coked out twink from Brooklyn to help save them from a situation neither of them saw coming.

LIMITED ENGAGEMENT
Previews: 
May 31st - June 4th, 2026
Opens
June 5th until June 21st, 2026


AMT AFTER DARK with JOANIE & PETE, A podcast with Joan Pelzer and Pete Dorton talking to creative folks about their journey. You never know where the conversation will go...it's AFTER DARK AFTER ALL!!

AMTtheater.org
[email protected]
Social Media: @AMTtheater45 
https://www.amttheater.org

📲

AMT AFTER DARK with JOANIE & PETE, A podcast with Joan Pelzer and Pete Dorton talking to creative folks about their journey. You never know where the conversation will go...it's AFTER DARK AFTER ALL!!  Produced by Alex Garrett

THIS EPISODE: Listen to Joanie and Pete talk with Steven Brandon, Silverback Mountain producer 

ABOUT STEVEN BRANDON (producer):  
Hailing from Sydney, Australia, Steven Brandon was a successful theatre producer in Sydney starring in and directing productions of I Love You, You’re Perfect, Now Change, A Funny Thing Happened On The Way To The Forum, and Urinetown: The Musical. Steven also produced productions of Rent, Lend Me A Tenor, Closer, Tick Tick Boom, and Noises Off.

Steven moved to Los Angeles to pursue writing and in 2010, he and his writing partner sold a single camera comedy pilot titled Single Girl Theory to ABC Family and in 2012 they were staffed on the CBS sitcom Friend Me starring Christopher Mintz-Plasse & Nicholas Braun.Since then Steven returned to his theatre roots co-writing and producing the hit parody Lost: The Musical at the Lillian Theatre in 2014 and Shame of Thrones: The Parody Musical at the Macha Theatre which then toured to San Diego and Off-Broadway playing at The Jerry Orbach Theatre in 2017. 

Steven went on to produce other musical parodies including Dear Jerry Seinfeld and Han Solo Must Die before remounting both his Lost and Game Of Thrones parody musicals at The Whitefire Theatre in 2019. 

In 2023, Steven produced Lewberger & The Wizard of Friendship Off-Broadway and is very excited to produce and direct The Jewish Priest, The Gangster, & The Magician at The Hollywood Fringe Festival in 2025!

SILVERBACK MOUNTAIN: A NEW GAY JUNGLE PLAY
https://www.silverbackmountainplay.com/

A chaotic adventure that blends screwball comedy, a love story, and a jailbreak into a musical romp. Featuring gay mountain people, a gorilla named Undatee, and Wendy Williams, the play explores the courage it takes to genuinely say "I love you" in a world that constantly tries to silence it.
Lucas, a 43-year-old New York artist with a chronic fear of commitment, and his boyfriend Andy, a high-achieving architect with a bottomless appetite for drama and a cheeseburger without the cheese, have been together for five years. Andy wants more, specifically, monogamy. Lucas wants space. And somewhere in the middle of that argument, they end up on a gorilla trekking trip to Uganda.But when their relationship—and their identities—are unexpectedly exposed, the trip spirals into something far more dangerous than a breakup. Suddenly, it’s up to a disgruntled drag queen waitress and a coked out twink from Brooklyn to help save them from a situation neither of them saw coming.

LIMITED ENGAGEMENT
Previews: 
May 31st - June 4th, 2026
Opens
June 5th until June 21st, 2026


AMT AFTER DARK with JOANIE & PETE, A podcast with Joan Pelzer and Pete Dorton talking to creative folks about their journey. You never know where the conversation will go...it's AFTER DARK AFTER ALL!!

AMTtheater.org
[email protected]
Social Media: @AMTtheater45 
https://www.amttheater.org

📲

AMT AFTER DARK with JOANIE & PETE, A podcast with Joan Pelzer and Pete Dorton talking to creative folks about their journey. You never know where the conversation will go...it's AFTER DARK AFTER ALL!!  Produced by Alex Garrett

THIS EPISODE: Listen to Joanie and Pete talk with Rob Schneider 

ABOUT ROB: 
Robert W. Schneider (not the actor) is one of New York City’s most acclaimed concert producers and director. Rob is an original programming producer at Feinstein’s/54 Below. Rob is a director and producer who co-founded and serves as Artistic Director of off-Broadway’s award winning J2 Spotlight Musical Theater Company in 2018 to revive forgotten or underappreciated musical theater works. 
As Artistic Director, he has helmed productions such as Smile, Woman of the Year, and Seesaw. 

In addition to J2, Schneider is a podcaster for the Broadway Podcast Network ("Behind the Curtain Broadway's Living Legends"). Rob is author of Queer Musicals: Boy Meets Boy to Jagged Little Pill, Fifty Key Stage Musicals. 

He has also collaborated on projects with some of this century’s greatest artists including Stephen Sondheim, Audra McDonald, Emma Thompson, Seth McFarlane, Christina Aguilera, Bernadette Peters, Sutton Foster, Christopher Durang, Kristen and Bobby Lopez, Jason Alexander, Will Roland, Jane Lynch, and many others.

He has lectured on musical theatre at Yale University, Penn State, Kent State, USC, UCLA, and holds academic appointments at Penn State and the New York Film Academy. He is a proud member of SDC and represented by ICM.


https://www.amazon.com/Queer-Musicals-Jagged-Little-Essential/dp/1350506486 
https://www.robwschneider.com/  
https://www.j2spotlightnyc.com/staff-board  



AMT AFTER DARK with JOANIE & PETE, A podcast with Joan Pelzer and Pete Dorton talking to creative folks about their journey. You never know where the conversation will go...it's AFTER DARK AFTER ALL!!

AMTtheater.org
[email protected]
Social Media: @AMTtheater45 
https://www.amttheater.org

📲

AMT AFTER DARK with JOANIE & PETE, A podcast with Joan Pelzer and Pete Dorton talking to creative folks about their journey. You never know where the conversation will go...it's AFTER DARK AFTER ALL!!  Produced by Alex Garrett

THIS EPISODE: Listen to Joanie and Pete talk with Michalina Scorzelli, Award winning Director, Producer, Actor about life, car racing, and her creative work, specifically her new films DOLLY and being part of the AMT International Film Festival. 


ABOUT MICHALINA SCORZELLI:  
Michalina Scorzelli is an award winning Director and P.G.A Producer and a proud member of the Screen Actors Guild/American Federation of Television and Radio Artists. Michalina is owner operator of the Independent Production Company Independent Artists Collaborative LLC. and on the Board of Directors for the Saratoga Springs International Film Festival. Her work has been seen in and won numerous Film Festivals in the US and World Wide.In 2003 she was in and Produced a film titled Nate Dogg that Won Best Debut feature film at the Raindance film festival .It received nice notices including a mention in a Europe Time Magazine article titled “Sticking it to the Studios." This was just the begging of a multifaceted career in the entertainment industry.

As a Director Michalina Wrote, Directed and Produced The New Weapon. It has been in and won several Awards such as Best Drama, Best Directing, Best Ensemble Best Actress under 18, Best Storytelling , Best Theme Song and Best of the Festival. Another successful film she Directed titled DISTRACTIONS was screened nationally on BET and BET-J. Distractions was in and won several Festivals including The Woodstock Film Festival.In 2017 she will be Directing and Producing for film & TV. Pain & Sympathy, The New Weapon feature, Chicakadee starring Academy Award winner Chris Cooper and The Composer all in development.

As a Producer Michalina is one of the Producers of Aftermath that Premiered at the Cinequest Film Festival. Then secured distribution and screened theatrically in NYC and L.A. Aftermath was Written/Directed and Edited by her mentor Thomas Farone and was Chris Penn's last film. It also stars Tony Danza, Anthony Michael Hall, Leo Burmester, Frank Whaley, Federico Castelluccio, Jamie Harrold and Elisabeth Rohm.

Michalina's Production Company encourages artists to collaborate not compete. Independent Artists Collaborative LLC has produced feature films, shorts, music videos and trailers with several projects in development.

https://michalinascorzelli.com/



AMT AFTER DARK with JOANIE & PETE, A podcast with Joan Pelzer and Pete Dorton talking to creative folks about their journey. You never know where the conversation will go...it's AFTER DARK AFTER ALL!!

AMTtheater.org
[email protected]
Social Media: @AMTtheater45 
https://www.amttheater.org


📲

AMT AFTER DARK with JOANIE & PETE, A podcast with Joan Pelzer and Pete Dorton talking to creative folks about their journey. You never know where the conversation will go...it's AFTER DARK AFTER ALL!!  Produced by Alex Garrett

THIS EPISODE: Listen to Joanie and Pete talk with Barbara Moresco about life growing up in Hell’s Kitchen and her recent book about her life and journey “From Hell's Kitchen to the City of Angels: Devils and Angels”, her love of New York City and her family including Academy Award winner Bobby Moresco. 

About Barbara Moresco:
I grew up in Hell's Kitchen in the shadow of The Westies - New York's most infamous Irish mob. My life was surrounded by violence, crime, and the constant threat of falling into the same life as everyone from the Westside of Manhattan. But my husband and I chose a different path - one that led us across the country, into the heart of the entertainment industry, and ultimately to the Oscars, but we learned there is no escaping.

https://w42st.com/post/barbara-moresco-west-side-story/

From Hell's Kitchen to the City of Angels: Devils and Angels by Barbara Moresco (Author) Between the dark alleys of Hell’s Kitchen, the Westies, the drugs, and the bright lights of Hollywood lies a woman’s journey marked by grit, love, heartbreak, murder, and the red carpet for an Academy Award.

https://www.amazon.com/Hells-Kitchen-City-Angels-Devils/dp/B0FY6LTHSH/





AMTtheater.org
[email protected]
Social Media: @AMTtheater45 
 https://www.amttheater.org


📲

⭐️🚨NEW PODCAST🚨⭐️AMT AFTER DARK with JOANIE & PETE

A podcast with Joan Pelzer and Pete Dorton talking to creative folks about their journey. You never know where the conversation will go...it's AFTER DARK AFTER ALL!!  Produced by Alex Garrett


THIS EPISODE: Listen to Joanie and Pete talk with ADRIAN MIRANDA, PT about his life growing up in Washington Heights, the stereotypes, and what lead him to create art around it all. 
UPTOWN BOOKS: An Original Bilingual Play - An original production created in and for Washington Heights, blending story, music, and community into a live, site-specific experience you won’t forget.

ABOUT ADRIAN MIRANDA, PT:  
As the founder of Gross Anatomy Studios, Inc., I produce short films, plays, and community projects (Uptown Actors) in Washington Heights and Inwood that celebrate local voices while blending education with entertainment. From comedy sketches about anatomy to narrative shorts about resilience, my work lives at the intersection of health and art.

Over the past decade, I’ve explored storytelling through theatre, sketch comedy, and film festivals while also pushing into new formats like VR and immersive experiences. Whether it’s helping a Broadway dancer manage injuries or producing a film with Uptown Actors in NYC, my mission is simple: make healing visible, inspiring, and human.

https://www.linkedin.com/in/adrianmpt/
https://withfriends.co/event/26945109/uptown_books_an_original_bilingual_play
https://withfriends.co/wordup

Word Up is a multilingual, general-interest, nonprofit community bookshop and arts space in Washington Heights, NYC. / Word Up es una librería comunitaria multilingüe de interés general, sin fines de lucro, y un espacio de arte en Washington Heights, en la Cd. de Nueva York.



AMT AFTER DARK with JOANIE & PETE, A podcast with Joan Pelzer and Pete Dorton talking to creative folks about their journey. You never know where the conversation will go...it's AFTER DARK AFTER ALL!!



AMTtheater.org
[email protected]
Social Media: @AMTtheater45 
https://www.amttheater.org

📲

AMT AFTER DARK with JOANIE & PETE, A podcast with Joan Pelzer and Pete Dorton talking to creative folks about their journey. You never know where the conversation will go...it's AFTER DARK AFTER ALL!!  Produced by Alex Garrett

THIS EPISODE: Listen to Joanie and Pete talk with ALBERT M. TAPPER (the AMT of AMT THEATER) about life & baseball, theater, music, his love of New York City, his new documentary feature film “THIS ORDINARY THING” and his upcoming new musical, THE PAPARAZZI which opens at AMT Theater in March 2026.

About Albert M. Tapper
While attending Boston University, Al Tapper wrote his first musical at the age of 20. Since then, he has written special material for regional productions, composed seven musicals, a ballet, a rhapsody, and a capriccio.  He has written two straight plays and four books, and produced three documentary films.Al Tapper composed the ballet “The Seduction of Bathsheba”, whose premiere performance at Mechanics Hall was presented by the Central Massachusetts Symphony Orchestra 1988.  Al’s seven musicals have also garnered success throughout the years opening in various cities on the eastern seaboard.  Beginning in 1992, “David” opened as a workshop production at 890 Broadway in New York City and in Washington, D.C. in 1994 at the Washington Jewish Theater.  His off-Broadway musical, “iMperfect Chemistry”, for which he composed the music and created the story, opened at the Minetta Lane Theater in New York City in April of 2000.  The musical revue “From Where I Stand” opened at the Laurie Beechman Theatre in March of 2004.  “Sessions” a new musical opened at the Peter Sharp Theater (Playwrights Horizons) and the Algonquin Theater and ran for over 400 performances.  It was translated into Spanish and played in Mexico where it won the best musical of the year in 2011.  He wrote the musical “An Evening at the Carlyle” which ran at The Algonquin Theater and was reviewed as ‘best show of the Summer’… 2010 by UPI.  “National Pastime,” which played at the Keegan Theater in Washington DC in 2011 and was chosen to be considered for a Helen Hayes Award.  “All Aboard” which played at the 14th Street Theater. It played again in 2023 with a new score at the AMT Theater in Manhattan. He, along with Tony Sportiello wrote a new musical in 2021 “The Paparazzi” about how tabloid newspapers the internet and TV can cause havoc amongst celebrities in all aspects of society. It played in Guadalajara. Mexico and won for best show of 2022.Al has written four books on humor that were published by Andrews McMeel and Company and MJF Publishing. The books entitled, “A Guy Goes Into a Bar”; “A Minister, a Priest And a Rabbi”; “A Guy Goes Into a Doctor’s Office, and a “A Guy Goes Into a Gym.”In 2013, he wrote a novella called, “Conversations with Max” and in 2021 a short story entitled “Sittin’ On The Stoop” in 2021. In 2023 at the AMT Theater, he wrote “An Unbalanced Mind” a musical show featuring 21 songs written over the many years of his career, and his straight play “Bettingers Luggage” which takes a nostalgic look back, warts and all, at a family business in the old neighborhood of New York’s Lower East Side’s as the generations struggle, love and grow apart.  He is currently working on a new musical “UPSIDE/down” written with Tony Sportiello scheduled to open in 2024.Tapper also produced the PBS television special “My Sinatra: The Songs and the Stories” a musical tribute starring Cary Hoffman in 2002.

Al Tapper produced the documentary film entitled “Broadway: The Golden Age, By The Legends Who Were There” written and directed by Rick McKay.  The film shares the stories of such legendary Broadway stars as Carol Burnett, Angela Lansbury, Shirley MacLaine, Jeremy Irons, Gena Rowlands, Jerry Orbach, Martin Landau, Bea Arthur, Stephen Sondheim, and Eli Wallach and dozens of others, while illustrating their tales with amazing, rare, archival performance footage and their own home movies and photos. “Broadway” has won standing ovations and thirteen Best Film, Documentary and Audience Awards at sold-out screenings at festivals all over the country this past year.  He produced Broadway Musicals…A Jewish Legacy written and directed by Michael Kantor about contributions of Jewish composers and lyricists from the beginning of Broadway and still today.  The movie presents the views of Hal Prince, Mary Rodgers, Sheldon Harnick, Maury Yeston, The George and Ira Gershwin estate, Jamie Bernstein, John Kander,and numerous other interviews. He won a Peabody Award for this production. His latest film opened on July 23, 2018 on PBS American Masters.  Ted Williams…The Greatest Hitter Who Ever Lived.  The movie was previewed on July 17, 2018 at the Baseball All-Star Game in Washington DC. His movie “A Righteous Gentile” a documentary about Gentiles who risked their own lives to save Jews during the Holocaust. It will  will be completed in mid-2024.

Al Tapper was born in Worcester, MA and currently resides in Boca Raton, FL and New York City. 
He is a member of the Dramatists’ Guild of America and a member of ASCAP (American Society of Composers and Publishers). 

Further information can be found at his website:   https://www.amtentertainment.com/


AMT AFTER DARK with JOANIE & PETE, A podcast with Joan Pelzer and Pete Dorton talking to creative folks about their journey. You never know where the conversation will go...it's AFTER DARK AFTER ALL!!

AMTtheater.org
[email protected]
Social Media: @AMTtheater45 
https://www.amttheater.org

📲