About SOPAC’s Creative Community Brain Trust

SOPAC’s groundbreaking Creative Community Brain Trust is a committee of five advisors and industry experts that will guide SOPAC toward inclusively excellent, radically creative, and community-powered programming.

Each expert focuses on one of SOPAC’s five pillars of programming: for Experiential and Immersive, artist, performer and curator Adam Rei Siegel; for Kids + Family, Founding Mothers Founder Dr. Alissa D. Gardenhire; for Broadway in Concert and New Musicals Development, Dana Spialter & SOMA Stage; for Comedy, Comedian Liz Glazer; and for Music, bassist and producer Mike Griot.

“This moment for SOPAC is about radically reimagining our relationship with our regional community, and lifting up voices and visions to power transformational change,” says SOPAC Executive Director Stephen Beaudoin. “These five individuals were selected for the SOPAC Creative Community Brain Trust to animate our community-powered programming.  Each bring a commitment to inclusive excellence, as well as significant industry and community capital to the assignment. Both individually and together, this Brain Trust will envision an ever more creative, community-centric, connected, and empathic northern New Jersey, with SOPAC as its central beating heart.”

SOPAC launched it’s Creative Community Brain Trust in the spirit of community curation, which it would like to embrace in upcoming seasons. The five Brain Trust members will work as individuals and as a collective to create and curate SOPAC experiences, artists, acts, and gatherings across the SOPAC campus in the creatively kinetic downtown Village of South Orange, including on the SOPAC mainstage, in the Loft at SOPAC, and additional spaces across the campus.

 

 

Sign-Up for Updates

Meet the Brain Trust Members

Click on Brain Trust members’ photos to view their bios

 

Adam Rei Siegel

Adam Rei Siegel

Experiential & Immersive

Adam has curated immersive experiences at House of Yes, Public Hotel, Norwood Club, and Spring Studios. He is widely regarded in the industry as an artist, performer, curator, and producer working in the vanguard of experiential and immersive live performance. Based in Brooklyn, Adam is proud to be connected with the SOPAC regional community through this role.

Dr. Alissa Gardenhire

Dr. Alissa Gardenhire

Kids + Family

Dr. Gardenhire started her career supporting social policy research at Harvard and MDRC. She is the founding executive of the South Orange/Maplewood branch of Best in Class Education, an organization dedicated to supporting all kids in achieving their fullest potential as learners and leaders. Her creative approach to community and change centers on breaking down paradigms and reconsidering norms.

Dana Spialter & SOMA Stage

Dana Spialter & SOMA Stage

Broadway in Concert + New Musicals Development

Dana aims to make her theater company SOMA Stage the hub of live theatre and the development of important new theatrical works in South Orange/Maplewood, Essex County, and beyond. Her experiences include Creative Coordinator to acclaimed Broadway producers Barry and Fran Weissler, and producer of Broadway talent at industry staples such as 54 Below and Webster Hall in New York City. She is a proud Maplewood resident.

About SOMA Stage

SOMA Stage is a new non-profit theater company based in the South Orange/ Maplewood (aka SOMA), NJ area that provides our many local professional theater artists with a creative home in their backyard and allows our community to support and enjoy the talent of their neighbors.

Liz Glazer

Liz Glazer

Comedy

Liz is an award-winning standup comedian, actor, and writer. She won first place in the Boston Comedy Festival and Ladies of Laughter of Competition and will be part of the upcoming HBO Women in Comedy Festival. Drawing from her own life as a lesbian, a rabbi’s wife, and a former lawyer, Liz uses her self-proclaimed “loud, unsecretive, and bold” style to connect with all those who simply want to FEEL. Liz and her wife call West Orange home.

Mike Griot

Mike Griot

Music

An internationally sought-after bass player and producer, Mike has toured Europe and performed with the likes of Queen Latifah and Hezekiah Walker. Mike is proud to have founded SOPAC’s “In the Loft” series, and served for many years as curator of our “Blues in the Loft” events. He received the 2014 HANDS Community Leadership Award. Mike is proud to call Orange Valley his home.

2023-24 Brain Trust Events

Ladies of Laughter Funny & Fabulous Tour

Thursday, October 19 at 7:30PM

Don’t miss the second night of all-female comedy at SOPAC!  This night of hilarity will feature 2014 Ladies of Laughter Professional winner Alycia Cooper, 2004 Ladies of Laughter Professional winner Jane Condon, and Showtime’s 2008 ALMA-nominated Sara Contreras.  Get ready to laugh the night away!

Buy Tickets
Learn More

Blues, Roots & BBQ in the Loft David Keyes & Blues People With Celebrity Chef Jesse Jones

Sunday, October 22 at 7PM

Bring your friends and family together in The Loft at SOPAC for an intimate evening of world-class Blues and Roots music.  With the doors opening an hour before showtime for a BBQ dinner in The Loft, each performance in this series will take audiences on a journey through the evolution of Blues music.  The first evening in this brand new series features the “King of the Keys” and three-time Blues Music Award nominee David Keyes, and North Jersey’s 2023 International Blues Challenge winner Blues People.

Buy Tickets
Learn More

Haunted SOPAC Spooky SOPAC Tours

Saturday, October 28 at 2PM, 3PM, & 4PM

Get ready for Halloween with this immersive haunted walking tour inside and outdoors on the SOPAC campus, featuring live performances from costumed characters right out of Jersey folklore and mythology (the Jersey Devil anyone?)

Learn More

Blues in the Loft Eliza Neals

Sunday, January 14 at 7PM

Bring your friends and family together in The Loft at SOPAC for an intimate evening of world-class Blues and Roots music. Each performance in this series will take audiences on a journey through the evolution of Blues music.  The second installment of this series will feature sultry Blues singer and pianist Eliza Neals.

Learn More

The Roy Hargrove Big Band

Thursday, January 18 at 7:30PM

The Roy Hargrove Big Band has performed everywhere from Tokyo to the Hollywood Bowl.  And now they are coming to SOPAC! Don’t miss this classic Jazz big band on the SOPAC Mainstage!

Learn More

South Orange International Blues Festival: Winter Edition Featuring Popa Chubby, Billy Hector & Blues People

Saturday, January 27 at 7:30PM

New York City-based Blues guitarist Popa Chubby joins forces with Asbury Park Music Awards winner Billy Hector and North Jersey’s 2023 International Blues Challenge winners Blues People for three hours of Blues on the SOPAC Mainstage. Don’t miss this historic reunion concert featuring the best of Mike Griot’s legendary South Orange International Blues Festival at SOPAC!

Learn More

Blues, Roots & BBQ With Celebrity Chef Jesse Jones

Sunday, May 19 at 7PM

Bring your friends and family together in The Loft at SOPAC for an intimate evening of world-class Blues and Roots music, curated by SOPAC Brain Trust Member Mike Griot.  With the doors opening an hour before showtime for a BBQ dinner in The Loft, each performance in this series will take audiences on a journey through the evolution of Blues music.

Learn More

Cabaret in the Loft Eli Bolin Has No Friends

Sunday, October 1 at 7PM

Eli Bolin, Emmy-nominated composer of cult favorite Original Cast Album: Co-op and John Mulaney and the Sack Lunch Bunch and Maplewood resident, brings his catalog to SOPAC with an action-packed show featuring local talent. There’ll be deep cuts, pesky earworms, new songs from new shows, less new songs from less new shows, songs from cool TV stuff and podcasts, and more.  Featuring a cast of over a dozen Broadway performers including Kara Lindsay, Christiane Noll, Charlie Pollock and more, you don't want to miss this!

Learn More

Ladies of Laughter Funny & Fabulous Tour

Thursday, July 27 at 7:30PM

Don’t miss the first night of all-female comedy at SOPAC!  Hosted by the 2021 Ladies of Laughter Professional winner, and SOPAC Community Brain Trust member, Liz Glazer, this night of hilarity will feature Ladies of Laughter Grand Finale finalist, Maureen Langan, 2012 Ladies of Laughter winner, Robin Fox, and 2022 Ladies of Laughter Newcomer runner-up Marcela Onyango.  Get ready to laugh the night away!

Learn More

Past Brain Trust Events

SOMA backStage Reading Series New Musical: REVIVAL By Chris Miller & Nathan Tysen

Sponsored by the Pollock Properties Group – Keller Williams

Saturday, June 3 at 7:30PM Sunday, June 4 at 3PM

Be the first to hear Chris Miller and Nathan Tysen's newest musical, REVIVAL, and share your thoughts with the creative team in a talkback!  Part of the new SOMA backStage Reading Series, Miller and Tysen introduce their newest protagonists, fiddler Elin Hermannson and Manhattan socialite Margaret Elliott, to audiences in a professional reading of this musical in the Loft at SOPAC.

Learn More

SOMA backStage Reading Series New Play: STILL By Lia Romeo

Sponsored by the Pollock Properties Group – Keller Williams

Saturday, June 3 at 3PM Sunday, June 4 at 7:30PM

Be the first to experience Lia Romeo's newest play, STILL, and share your thoughts with the creative team in a talkback!  Part of the new SOMA backStage Reading Series, Romeo introduces her newest protagonists, exes Helen and Mark as Mark runs for Congress and Helen hides a secret that could derail his campaign.  Don't miss this professional reading in the Loft at SOPAC!

Learn More

An Evening with Eleri Ward

Friday, May 19 at 8PM

Eleri Ward took social media by storm with her groundbreaking fusion of Broadway and Indie-Folk and her "incandescent" reimagination of Sondheim classics (American Theatre Magazine) on her new album A Perfect Little Death.  Don't miss her SOPAC debut!

Learn More

Laura Benanti

Sunday, May 7 at 3PM

Experience Tony-Award winner Laura Benanti as she returns to SOPAC.  Hailed by The New York Times for her "effortless" vocals, and by the New York Post for her ability to "whip up laughs out of thin air," Benanti is a performer you don't want to miss.  Get your tickets today!

Learn More

Sign-Up for Updates