DANIEL NEIDEN
In a rich and varied career, Daniel Neiden has enjoyed bridging the gap between avant-garde and mainstream commercial theater, working side by side with the Tony-nominee, multiple Obie-winning Liz Swados on thirteen projects in nearly ten years as actor, creative consultant, and co-producer on ventures including, THE HATING POT, JERUSALEM and GROUNDHOG, at such venues as BAM, The Public Theater, Manhattan Theater Club and La Mama.
He has served as a consultant and fund-raiser for Nederlander Productions, bringing investors and creative input to several of James Nederlander’s various Broadway projects including SUNSET BOULEVARD; NIGHT OF THE IGUANA; and development of THE SHANGHAI GESTURE (in collaboration with Liz McCann).
Daniel produced, directed, and co-wrote two sold-out benefit performances at Symphony Space: JUST HEALTHCARE, honoring Michael Moore and featuring performances and readings by Pete Seeger, Tom Chapin, Michael Musto, and Carl Hancock Rux; and SILKWOOD TODAY with Meryl Streep, Mike Nichols and Ron Silver. Both were substantial moneymakers.
Neiden guest-lectured at the Eugene O’Neill Theater Center’s National Theater Institute for more than ten years. His seminars proved so effective that he was chosen as the only non-institute past director to be invited to join the committee planning the direction of NTI. He offered seminars in networking, auditioning, post-college survival skills, self-marketing, “the grad-school dilemma.” The guest lecturers he brought to New London to speak at NTI included casting folk for The Kennedy Center, Manhattan Theater Club, and The Public. He also enticed master classes to be delivered by the heads of daytime and prime-time casting for ABC; and more than two dozen casting directors and agents for Broadway and feature films. Some of his students went on to be Jennifer Garner, Daniel Dae Kim, John Krasinski, Jeremy Piven, and Rachel Dratch. The O’Neill still farms graduates to Daniel for consultation and mentoring, which he has never charged for, and never will.
As a committed director of socially conscious projects, Daniel recently co-produced (with Julie Smolyansky’s Test400K) and premiered PHOENIX RISING: GIRLS AND THE SECRETS WE KEEP, a new play about survivors of sexual assault, Off Broadway at The Lion Theatre on Theatre Row. He directed the VSArts award-winning WELCOME TO TOURETTAVILLE about the stigma of pediatric Tourette Syndrome (Oliver Saks, consultant) at The Kennedy Center for members of Congress (the project toured the tri-state area and played for more than 10,000 school children). He directed and presented, via New Jersey’s Holocaust Commission, the first production of BRUNDIBAR since it was presented in the concentration camp, Terezin; and premiered an Off-Broadway show, A BITTER PILL, about the over-medication of American children, at the Hudson Guild Theatre. At present, Neiden is perpetually developing new works about: bullying (IMAGINARY BOY), guns (UNTITLED, with Michael Moore), and he is formulating a new piece about the recently discovered letters of Raoul Wallenberg.
Over the past thirty years, Daniel has mounted and produced projects at The Kennedy Center, The Public Theater, The Hudson Guild, BAM, The Village Gate, The Perry Street, and The Cherry Lane Theater and garnered nominations (Drama Desk) and awards (VSArts/DC) along the way.
A proud adjunct to the TOURETTAVILLE musical is the Mac Rebbennack, aka Dr. John arrangement/recording/animated short of TOURETTAVILLE’s song, “One Of A Kind You,” performed by members of the SNL band, and Tony Garnier (bass player for Bob Dylan), and the video also voiced by Dr. John himself, and actor Michael Imperioli.
As an actor, Daniel has been directed by Nora Ephron, Woody Allen, Todd Solondz, Liz Swados, Allen Ginsberg, Tony Kaye, and Larry Fishman, among others. Neiden created more than a dozen roles at Off-Broadway venues including Manhattan Theater Club, The Public, Delacorte Theater, and Brooklyn Academy of Music. He toured nationally with Broadway shows including INTO THE WOODS; FIDDLER ON THE ROOF with Theodore Bikel and Hershel Bernardi; BABY with Edie Adams; and THEY’RE PLAYING OUR SONG with Victor Garber and Anita Gillette. Soaps, Pilots and many national and international commercials rounded out his acting credits.
He received a regional EMMY for voicing the title Character of MAD MATH (Learning Channel), and has voiced many of the animated films of Academy Award nominee, Bill Plympton.
Born and bred in Lincoln, Nebraska, Daniel is a proud and lucky graduate of Drake University and the Eugene O’Neill Theater Center.