Dana
Aber
Dana's Performer
Resumé
Midwest raised, Big Apple tested, & Audience approved
Bio
Dana Aber (she/her) is an award-winning theatre performer, producer, collaborator, and creator, with a 20 year career spanning across the country and across the seas. She has been seen in NYC Off-Broadway, at The Dixon Place, NYFringe Festival, NYMF, Apollo Theatre, and FDCAC/Classical Theatre of Harlem. A strong advocate for the development of new musicals, she has been involved in countless presentations at New Dramatists, NYU Tisch, Dramatists Guild, Ars Nova, and across virtual media. Through her Big Thunder Productions company, Dana has created and helmed 8 concert-cabarets, most notably the bi-coastal #YesAllWomen Raise Your Voice concert joining artists within the movement for gender equality.
Up next: On the Right Track, a new musical (Off-Bway)
As a theatre writer, Dana’s autobiographical 1-woman musical, Baggage at the Door, travels her healing process from trauma-induced PTSD. Baggage at the Door was a finalist in NYC’s ONEFest, and earned Dana a month-long artist residency with Elsewhere Studios in Colorado in 2018. Coming up, Baggage at the Door looks forward to its regional premiere in Virginia, and Dana’s next soloshow FINAL BLOW, which explores the blame placed on boundary setting, will have its NYC festival debut in November 2021. Dana is currently collaborating with her brother, Broadway’s Drew Aber (he/him), on her new play Save/Reload, about identity exploration through video games.
She is a survivor and advocate, and is honored to be able to use her voice to share for those who cannot.
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Dana is a New York-based performer who has been seen in New York City at the famed 54 Below supper club, Dramatists Guild, Ars Nova, The Dixon Place, New Dramatists, the NYFringe Festival, NYMF New York Musical Theatre Festival, Apollo Theatre with George Faison’s If This Hat Could Talk national tour with Margaret Bell, FDCAC/Classical Theatre of Harlem in several of their outdoor performances in Brooklyn Fort Greene Park, University Club to honor Gershwin’s music, the Studio @ Theatre Row, Workshop Theatre, & the Laurie Beechman in Times Square, and also as part of Tyrone’s R&B album debut concert at Riverbank Performing Arts Center.
An ardent proponent for the creation of new musical theatre, Dana has worked for the past 10 (!!!) years with NYU’s Graduate Musical Theatre Writing Program, workshopping and presenting new-musical final full-length thesis projects with the next generation of writers. Writers from this program have hired Dana to continue development of their projects at New Dramatists, Ars Nova, Drama League Fellowship, NY Theatre Barn, Musical Theatre Factory, and The Dramatists Guild, and for countless demos and recordings.
Regionally, Dana has worked professionally for regional theatres along the Eastern seaboard, and around her hometown of Cleveland, OH. Dana has entertained as singer internationally with Norwegian Cruise lines through the Caribbean, has performed in 7 repertory shows at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival and in two professional variety shows in Thailand.
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Favorite roles: Mother in Ragtime, Judy/Ginger in Ruthless!, Amelia Earhart in a new musical by Rachel Dean, Miss Sandra in All Shook Up, and Blanche DuBois in Streetcar Named Desire.
Syracuse University, BFA Musical Theatre. Dorothy Haas Acting Scholarship, Walnut Street Theatre. 2017 Best Actress Award, Midtown International Theatre Festival, 2003 NATS Regional Winner, Westminster Choir College. Member of AEA since 2007.
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Also a theatre & event producer, Dana’s company Big Thunder Productions is a vibrant enterprise that produces new original theatre, web series, and also coordinates weddings!
Learn more at www.BigThunder.com.
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Personal History
