The Picerne Family Foundation supports programming at the North Hollywood and Burbank Senior Arts Colonies through a new Musical Theatre Movement class led by Marc Mantell, an accredited actor, director, and writer who has taught professional level acting, dance, and musical theater in New York and Los Angeles. A former Broadway dancer himself, he weaves stories of his personal experiences with the history behind Broadway musical productions, then incorporates dance movements and simple combinations from these shows into exercise routines that can be executed by people at any level of ability, including those using walkers and wheelchairs. Familiar songs from famous musicals such as “Chicago” and “West Side Story” inspire the routines. The class, which is also supported by the LA County Department of Arts and Culture, is an enormous hit with residents! See a 30″ video here.
Marc’s theatrical career as a performer and author is as diversified as his talent. He has appeared in films and has had guest leads on television with recurring roles on both soaps and a series. These acting credits have been combined with an impressive body of work in the theater. Within a short time after his debut performance on the New York stage at the age of fourteen, he was being acknowledged as a strong dancer and singer.
Marc constantly studied with the best teachers in New York. He was cast by some of the theater’s finest directors and performed leading roles in major productions and tours of such musicals as The Sound of Music; The Fantasticks; West Side Story; Fiddler on the Roof; Stop the World – I Want to Get Off; Promises, Promises; and Gypsy. A season with the Stratford Shakespeare Festival in Canada led to a series of dramatic leads in various productions of The Lion in Winter, Antigone, Satyricon, Spring Awakening, Romeo and Juliet, As You Like It, and Macbeth, in venues ranging from the Public Theater in New York to the Ahmanson in Los Angeles.
Marc brings yet another vibrant and exciting class to our residents. We look forward to witnessing their growth under his tutelage.
