Mark Danni

Mark Danni, 1984 – Mark Danni is a Broadway musician, conductor, and the founding artistic director of TheatreZone, Inc. a not-for-profit regional theatre in Naples, Florida. Music and theater have long been a big part of Danni’s life. As a student at Williamsville South, he was active in the band, jazz band, orchestra, choir and theatrical productions. His versatility extended into the arena of sports, too, as a member of the 1983 undefeated varsity football team.

After graduating from high school, he attended Baldwin-Wallace College in Ohio where he earned a bachelor’s degree in Music Education. Following college, he taught for three years but the bright lights of Broadway beckoned. He left his teaching post to pursue a career in New York City where he worked as a drummer/percussionist on seven Broadway shows including Chicago, Les Miserables, Miss Saigon, Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat, Grand Hotel, Annie Get Your Gun, and Nunsense. He also toured the United States and Europe with the Phantom of the Opera, Evita, Fame, 42nd Street, Hair, Barnum and was a conductor on the national tour of Les Miserables where some of you may have seen him at Shea’s Performing Arts Center.

While directing a show in Naples, Danni was approached by The Community School of Naples, a private school, to be the Director of Performing Arts and to start a theatre program. He took the position and also started a professional Equity regional theatre company in residence at the school’s theatre called TheatreZone. Now, in its fifth successful season, Danni has received critical acclaim for the shows he has directed starring many celebrities and Broadway stars. In 2007, he produced the world premiere of Miracle in Rwanda, a one-woman show based on the life of a survivor of the Rwandan genocide. The show has since moved on to New York City and a world tour.

Currently, he is working on another world premiere starring Hal Linden (Bareny Miller) entitled The Beast of Broadway, which is about Broadway’s most notorious producer, David Merrick.