User:Kantorm/sandbox

Michael Kantor is an Emmy and Peabody Award-winning documentary filmmaker. Mr. Kantor, trained as theater director at UCSD under Des McAnuff, Peter Sellars, and Robert Woodruff, directed plays in New York (including work with Adam Guettel) before he devoted his career to chronicling the arts on television. His company, Ghost Light Films, was formed in 1996, and has had the privilege of filming in a variety of Broadway theaters, music studios, and performance spaces around the world. He served as a Tony nominator from 2008-2010. In May of 2014, Mr. Kantor was appointed to the position of Executive Producer of American Masters, the PBS series that has set the standard for documentary film profiles, accruing widespread critical acclaim and 26 Emmy Awards since its inception in 1986.

Most significantly, Michael Kantor created the six-hour landmark series, Broadway: The American Musical, which was hosted by Julie Andrews and was honored with the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Nonfiction Series in 2005. The companion book, which Mr. Kantor coauthored with Laurence Maslon, was published by Bulfinch and also released in paperback by Applause Books. That same year, he teamed with Ms. Andrews to create three hours of DVD extras for 20th Century Fox’s 40th Anniversary release of “The Sound of Music.” For HBO, Kantor teamed with Stephen Ives to direct Cornerstone: An Interstate Adventure, which followed Bill Rauch, Amy Brenneman, Allison Carey and a troupe of 50 on tour across the United States with a contemporary version of Shakespeare’s The Winter’s Tale. For the PBS series City Arts, Mr. Kantor created segments on Arthur Miller and David Mamet.

In 2013, Kantor produced and directed the Peabody Award-winning documentary, Broadway Musicals: A Jewish Legacy, which aired as part of the Great Performances series on PBS. Narrated by Joel Grey, it included performances by Matthew Broderick, Kelli O’Hara, David Hyde Pierce, John Kander, Stephen Schwartz, Charles Strouse, Marc Shaiman, Andrew Lippa and many other major Broadway talents. In 2012, Mr. Kantor produced The Thomashefskys: Music and Memories of a Life in the Yiddish Theater with Michael Tilson Thomas which aired on PBS and was nominated for a Primetime Emmy.

Michael Kantor’s other work in television includes executive producing Give Me the Banjo with Steve Martin, and creating the Emmy-nominated Make ‘Em Laugh: The Funny Business of America hosted by Billy Crystal. Mr. Kantor recently produced Superheroes: A Never-Ending Battle, hosted by Liev Schreiber, with a companion book published by Random House.

Mr. Kantor is also President of Almo Inc., which owns and distributes The American Film Theatre series, which includes Edward Albee’s A Delicate Balance (starring Katharine Hepburn), Eugene O’Neill’s The Iceman Cometh (Lee Marvin), and Kurt Weill’s Lost in the Stars among its titles. As a writer, Mr. Kantor created Lullaby of Broadway: Opening Night on 42nd Street and has published numerous articles on the theater in outlets including Interview and American Theatre magazine.