ABOUT THE THEATREZONE TEAM / BOARD

Mark Danni is one of the most well rounded people in the entertainment business. His directing, music directing and drumming skills make him a sought after commodity in the theatre world. After starting his New York City career as a drummer on Broadway for shows such as Chicago (starring Jasmine Guy, Jennifer Holiday, Vicky Lewis and Alan Thicke) Grand Hotel (starring Michael Jeter, Rex Smith and Jane Krakowski), Miss Saigon (starring Lea Salonga and Hinton Battle), Les Miserables (starring Colm Wilkinson, Ricky Martin, Andrea McArdle and Laurie Beechman), Joseph…(starring Michael Damian), Annie Get Your Gun (starring Bernadette Peters and Tom Wolpat) and Nunsense, he quickly moved into the conductor’s chair and conducted the national tours of Barnum and Les Miserables. During his 14 years in New York, he also toured with the shows The Phantom Of The Opera, 42nd Street (starring Gretchen Wyler and Marcia Lewis), the 25th anniversary tour of Hair (directed by James Rado and Galt McDermott), Evita, Les Miserables (starring Sutton Foster) and Fame as the drummer and/or percussionist. Regionally, he was the conductor of A Little Night Music at the Signature Theatre in Washington, D.C., where he also worked on the Studio Theatre’s production of Falsettoland. Quickly becoming a favorite in D.C., he was then asked to play drums for Al Gore’s Innaugural Gala in 1993, A Taste of Tennessee, starring Dixie Carter and Gary Morris.

Directing shows became inevitable for someone as creative as Mark. While conducting the tour of Les Miserables, he soon became a favorite conductor for many of the cast members and the director of the show started teaching him the ropes of directing, encouraging him to start directing himself. That’s just what Mark did. When he left the road, he started directing anywhere he could and even directed a few Off-Broadway productions. Some of those include the critically acclaimed play, Aggravation, and the musical workshop of What Would Esther Williams Do In A Situation Like This? (starring Richard Heard).

After leaving New York, Mark continued directing in Southwest Florida, and became the Founding Artistic Director of TheatreZone Inc., a professional theatre company in Naples, Florida. While Mark maintains a heavy directing schedule, he is still in demand as a conductor and drummer. At Sandy Duncan’s request, Mark toured through the state of Florida with her show, Sandy Duncan: celebrates Broadway, and has also played with the Naples Philharmonic.

Born and raised in Buffalo, NY, Mark attended Baldwin-Wallace College in Cleveland, OH. He is a trained director, conductor and percussionist whose teachers include Jack Lee, Eric Schaeffer, Dwight Oltman, Donald Schleicher, Rick Holms and Karen Carpenter.

E-Mail the Artistic Director: Mark Danni

Entrepreneurial in spirit, Ellen Elleman enjoys her work as Managing Director of TheatreZone as it allows her to combine her MBA education with her creative side. Relatively new to Naples, Ellen and her family have lived in Atlanta, GA, Charleston, SC, Columbus, OH and San Diego, CA. Their goal is to have fun in all 50 states, as travel is their favorite pastime. They also love warm weather and the beach, and are happy call Naples home. In her spare time Ellen plays tennis, volunteers at The Community School of Naples and scrapbooks like a fiend.

Frank B. Petras, voted Best Real Estate Agent in Client Satisfaction in Southwest Florida by Gulfshore Life Magazine and Leading Residential Real Estate Sales Professional in North America by Realty Alliance, joined John R. Wood Inc., Realtors in 2002. Mr. Petras has an uncompromising reputation as a trusted advisor to C-level executives of both private and publicly-owned companies, high net worth individuals, professional athletes and entrepreneurs and has earned vast local and national recognition for marketing and selling multimillion dollar properties.

Mr. Petras is an attorney licensed in the state of Ohio. Prior to joining John R. Wood he was an investor relations counselor, developing and managing investor relations programs for public and pre-IPO companies. Mr. Petras, whose investor relations expertise spans a wide range of industries, served on Cleveland-based Dix & Eaton's Management Committee, co-managed the Investor Relations practice, directed the rapidly growing emerging growth and small-cap company specialty area and led the firm's investor targeting and peer-monitoring services. In addition, he directed Dix & Eaton's firm-level marketing and business development initiatives.

Mr. Petras has extensive experience assisting micro- to mid-cap public companies with investor targeting and attracting expanded national investment community following. Mr. Petras has a vast network of contacts with investment bankers, analysts and portfolio managers throughout the country and works closely with CEOs, CFOs and senior management teams.

With a background in marketing and communications, accounting, finance, real estate, economics and law, Mr. Petras has counseled clients on a variety of issues including investor relations programs; pre-IPO planning; public disclosure requirements; messages and content for financial communications; investor targeting; and annual report production.

Prior to joining Dix & Eaton in 1998, Mr. Petras was with a Cleveland-based investor relations counseling firm, where he was the primary investment community contact for his clients. He previously founded and managed Petras & Associates Co., L.P.A., where he served as legal counsel to an array of clients, including large corporations, mid-sized companies and start-up enterprises.

Mr. Petras, an avid real estate enthusiast, joined Realty One in 1998 as real estate salesperson. Selling real estate as a hobby during his spare time, he earned the million dollar designation within the first few months of joining the company.

Mr. Petras holds a master's degree in business administration with a concentration in marketing and finance and a juris doctor from Case Western Reserve University. He has a bachelor's degree in accounting, finance and economics from Baldwin-Wallace College, and was an active member of the National Investor Relations Institute (NIRI). Mr. Petras served on the Board of Trustees of Junior Achievement, A Cultural Exchange and the March of Dimes. He is currently a Trustee of Welcome House. Mr. Petras licensed to sell real estate in Ohio and Florida.