Gary P. Cohen

Gary P. Cohen recently retired as the Producing Director for Middlesex County, New Jersey’s Plays-in-The-Park, where he worked for more than 30 years. Over Gary’s diverse career, he has been a theatrical agent for the William Morris Agency, founded his own theater company (Celebration Playhouse) in the ’70s, acted in many plays and musicals, and created lighting and set designs for PITP and other NJ theaters. He has written two books about theater: The Community Theater Handbook and The Theater Director’s Primer, both published by Heinemann Publishers. Currently he plays guitar and banjo for two musical groups—the Back Porch Jugband and Cafe Mocha.

He has written the librettos for four children’s musicals, The Reluctant Drago, Three Little Pigs in a Blanket, The High School Monster Musical, and J.B.’s Harmonica with John Sebastian of the Lovin’ Spoonful. A horror movie devotee, Gary has also written and directed three shot-on-video horror films, Video Violence, Violence 2, and Captives, all of which have been re-released on DVD after their initial VHS releases in 1987. Gary also helmed an award-winning documentary entitled Magic on Music Mountain, detailing the history of St. John Terrill’s first theater-in-the-round-under-a-tent in Lambertville, NJ.