https://dianemascialeproductions.com Television Executive Mon, 20 Feb 2023 08:16:14 +0000 en-US hourly 1 https://dianemascialeproductions.com/thats-classic/ Wed, 09 Nov 2011 17:01:04 +0000 http://dianemascialeproductions.com/?p=917 Move over American Idol and make way for “That’s Classic!”  I recently shot a classical music, comedy contest at the legendary “Carolines on Broadway” in NYC that I am creating into a one-hour program. For the WNET production, we teamed up with the country’s most listened-to classical music radio station, WQXR, which hosted the classical comedy contest.  Believe it or not, classical music and comedy do mix and quite well.  If you are old enough to remember Victor Borge you will know what I mean.  If you aren’t, you should check out my newest show when it airs in December on NY’s public television stations.  The program features eight classical music comedians who braved Carolines stage and a packed house to compete for a very nice trophy, a customary PBS tote bag and the opportunity to perform at the NY Comedy Festival.  And while you probably won’t know the names of the contestants, you might know the judges: Comedian Robert Klein, Peter Schickele of PDQ Bach fame, Opera Diva Deborah Voigt and Charles Hamlen of IMG Artists (classical music management company).  I was doubtful about the whole thing myself until I had the pleasure of a fun shoot and an interesting edit creating “That’s Classic!”  You can see a video of the finalists at: www.wqxr.org/comedy but you will have to watch “That’s Classic!” on Fri, Dec. 9 at 10:30pm on WNET’s Thirteen or on Sat, Dec. 10 at 5:30pm on WLIW21 to find out who takes home the tote bag.

]]> https://dianemascialeproductions.com/treasures-of-new-york/ Fri, 16 Sep 2011 21:04:37 +0000 http://dianemascialeproductions.com/?p=863 Chances are you have never been to the Park Avenue Armory in New York City unless you have gone there for one of the legendary Arts and Antiques Fairs.  In recent years, this landmark building from days gone by has been undergoing a quiet restoration and re-birth.  And as part of the WNET, New York PBS, series: “Treasures of New York,” I am doing a documentary on this massive urban palace from the Gilded Age. The Armory, which takes up a full city block on tony Park Avenue between 66th and 67th Street, was built in the late 1800’s by what was known as the Silk Socking Regiment of the National Guard.  The Silk Stocking Regiment earned it’s distinctive name because so many of its members came from the finest New York families.  Astor and Harriman, Roosevelt and Van Rensselaer to name just a few.  The names meant big bucks when the place was being built as both a military installation and an elite social club.  The Regiment called upon the greatest artisans of the day to adorn their play house: Tiffany, Stanford White, the Herter Brothers.  The end result is a masterpiece with a 55,000 square foot Drill Hall and 18 glorious period rooms.  Today the Armory is being restored to its beautiful origins and being re-invented as a cultural arts space that can present works needing huge spaces and great imagination.  Works like Peter Greenaway’s “Leonardo’s Last Supper” or Ryoji Ikeda’s “The Transfinite.”  Works that can really only happen in the Armory’s Drill Hall with it’s 85 foot high curved ceiling.  It’s a marvel and the subject of my latest documentary for PBS which will air at the end of October.  Stay tuned!  

 

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