Shari Upbin (Director)

NSAL Florida East Coast Chapter President Shari Upbin is a Producer/Director who has been a theatre professional since the age of 13 when she became a member of Actors Equity. Her father was a writer for Jack Benny and she was raised in a house of 'one-liners'.

She has been a professional tap dancer and choreographer and is a member of the Society of Stage Directors and Choreographers. Shari has produced and directed over 50 productions in New York and around the country. Directing credits include VIincent The Passions Of The Artist Van Gogh the original Danny And Sylvia at the Forum Theatre in New Jersey, Life With Father, Fiddler On The Roof, Cabaret, The Roar Of The Greasepaint, Jacques Brel, and won best director for her production of Side By Side By Sondheim.

In Florida, she has directed Confessions Of A Jewish Shiksa, Dancing On Hitlers Grave at the Kravis Center of Performing Arts, The Colony in South Beach and Area Stage in Coral Gables. She has directed Dames In Divaland at the Biefield Theatre. She was one of the Directors of the prestigious Florida Naked Stage 24 hour Theatre Project. Shari was the Director of the South Florida Dance Competition for the National Society of Arts and Letters www.nsal-arts.org. She directed WOMEN'S MINYAN by Naomi Regan in Boca Raton Florida in December 2011 to sold out audiences and is directing the critically acclaimed play again in November & December 2012.

Shari was assistant Director to the world renowned British director Michael Langham for the first Black/Hispanic production of Julius Caesar and Coriolanus at the New York Shakespeare Festival with Joe Papp, starring Morgan Freeman. She produced Bojangles with Charles Strouse and Sammy Cahn and Captain America with John Cullum. She was one of the original Producers of the long running hit Off Broadway Musical One Mo Time which ran nationally and internationally.

Shari was President of The League Of Professional Theatre Women/NY for seven years and is on the advisory board for Theatre Resources Unlimited in New York. She is listed in Who's Who in America.