Mark Saltzman
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
 |
This article or section may require cleanup to meet Wikipedia's quality standards. Please help improve this article or replace this tag with a more specific message. This article has been tagged since July 2006. (help, talk) |
A native of Yonkers, NY, Mark Saltzman began his career in New York City as a script writer and songwriter for "Sesame Street", where he earned himself seven Emmy awards. For that tv show, he created the Muppet character of Placido Flamingo and wrote more than 50 songs, including "Caribbean Amphibian" and "I 've Got a New Way to Walk." At that time, Mark was also writing cabaret shows and musicals that played at The Ballroom, Soho Rep, 13th Street Theater, and the Village Gate, where he co-wrote the long-running revue "A, My Name is Alice."
For CBS, Mark wrote "Mrs. Santa Claus", the holiday musical movie which starred Angela Lansbury and had songs written by Broadway legend Jerry Herman. For the movies, he wrote "The Adventures of Milo and Otis" and "Three Ninjas Kick Back" and has written screenplays for SONY, Universal, and Disney. His TV movie, "The Red Sneakers", directed by and starring Gregory Hines, aired on Showtime in 2004 and was nominated for a Writers Guild Award. For cable tv's Here! network Mark wrote the screenplay for "Third Man Out", based on the novel by Richard Stevenson.
Mark's musical play, "The Tin Pan Alley Rag" presented a 1915 meeting between Scott Joplin and a very young Irving Berlin. 'Tin Pan' opened at the Pasadena Playhouse in 1997 and was nominated for five Los Angeles Ovation Awards, including Best Musical. The show continued on to many U.S theaters, including Miami's Coconut Grove Playhouse, Goodspeed Musicals, and The Cleveland Playhouse. Mark’s stage musical, "Romeo and Bernadette", played at the Coconut Grove Playhouse in Miami and New Jersey’s State Theater, The Paper Mill Playhouse. Mark's comedy, "Mr. Shaw Goes to Hollywood", based on the true story of George Bernard Shaw's 1933 visit to MGM, premiered at the Laguna Playhouse in April 2003. His newest play, "Clutter", had its world premier at the Colony Theater in Burbank on February 7 of 2004. In 2002 he adapted the musical classic "Show Boat" for a Hollywood Bowl performance.
For many years, Mark has been a mentor in the Blank Theatre Company’s Young Playwrights’ Festival, held annually in Los Angeles. He is the president of the Arnold Glassman Fund, a charitable foundation that provides grants for film and theater projects. Mark is a graduate of Cornell University's English and Theater Departments.
