Broadway
Center Stage was founded by Emmy and Drama Desk Award winning producer, performer and playwright, Suzanne Ishee. Her production,Jessye Norman Sings for the Healing
of AIDS, directed by George C. Wolfe and designed by Robert Wilson with guests stars Maya Angelou, Whoopi
Goldberg, Elton John, Bill T. Jones, Toni Morrison, Max Roach and Anna Deavere Smith received both the NY Emmy and the Cine
Golden Eagle Awards. She received the Drama Desk Award for "mobilizing the theatrical community in
the fight against AIDS." She created and for eight years produced Broadway’s Easter Bonnet
Competition, which continues to raise millions of dollars annually for Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS.
Most recently, she was production director for the African American Church Inaugural Ball in DC for which
she was granted a special “Keeper of the Flame Award” bestowed upon such highly distinguished honorees as General
Colin Powell, Archbishop Desmond Tutu, Marian Wright Edelman among others. And for Carnegie Hall’s HONOR! Festival, Suzanne produced and directed
the highly acclaimed Sacred Ellington at The Cathedral of St. John the Divine.
For the League of American Theatres and Producers,
she has co-produced Broadway on Broadway and the launch of their world-wide marketing initiative, Destination
Broadway directed by Robert Longbottom. She was production manager for Classical Action’s
Anniversary Celebration written by Bruce Vilanch, directed by Scott Wittman, and starring Joshua Bell, Fred Hersch, Madeline
Kahn, Nathan Lane, Edgar Meyer, Ursula Oppens, Dawn Upshaw and the Julliard Woodwind Quintet.
A popular favorite with
corporate event planners and destination management companies, with Broadway Center Stage, she has garnered a SITE award nomination
and was named a "Preferred Vendor" at the 2007 Bizbash Event Style Awards. She conference coordinator for the first Black Church HIV/AIDS
Training Institute in Tuskegee, AL.
Suzanne is a graduate of the Commercial Theatre Institute. She was Leonard Bernstein Fellow for
vocal study for two seasons at Tanglewood and she holds Bachelor and Masters degrees in music and voice respectively from
UNC-CH and Manhattan School of Music. She is a member of AEA, SAG, AGMA, PIM (Professionals In Media), a company member of the New Jersey Repertory Theatre and serves as Chair
of Management/Operations for Arts Builds Communities, an information and training organization within the Bloustein School
of Public Policy at Rutgers University.
As an actor, she has perfomed on Broadway in The
Phantom of the Opera, Showboat, La Cage aux Folles, Mame, the national tours of Jerry’s Girls,
Wizard of Oz, and New York City Opera’s The Merry Widow (PBS). Regionally she has
starred in productions such as Lion in Winter, Kiss Me Kate, Steel Magnolias, King and I, Communicating Doors and
the world premieres of Tom, Dick and Harry, Pompeii, 1492, the Opera and Glorious
(Florence Foster Jenkins) and the US premiere of LUST Off Broadway.
As
a playwright, she has created the chamber musicals, Jack and Jill and America’s Singing Sweethearts, and
her newest musical, Searching for Spinoza, is the centerpiece of The Spinoza Project-preparing artists to
be global citizens of social purpose-and will receive its world premiere by the UNC Opera, April 16-20, 2010 at the Nelson
Mandela Hall, Fed Ex Global Education Center.
