Our team

Gary Bernstein's career spans over 25 years of professional experience and background in business, marketing, producing and arts management. Gary is currently a principal in GB Consulting Associates LLC, dedicated to assisting cultural, performing arts and educational institutions to realize the mission, vision and capacity goals of the spaces they use for activities and programs. Services include assistance in the design of new or renovated spaces; capacity building and fundraising; feasibility studies, financial modeling and analysis; facility operations, management systems development and marketing and programming development.

Recent projects include a leading role in the design, construction, and inaugural programming for the $30-million Archbishop Fulton Sheen Center for Thought and Culture, a project of the Archdiocese of New York. It features two state-of-the-art theaters, a gallery, rehearsal studios and residences for visiting artists. Diverse programing included theater, music, spoken word presentations, film premieres, visual arts, theater and literary festivals, and special events to celebrate the Papal visit to New York in September 2015. Other clients include the Inwood Academy Charter School in Manhattan where GBCA assisted in the design and upgrade of its performing arts facilities. GBCA is also working on cultural space development in Upstate New York.

In 2001, Gary’s passion to make performing arts and culture accessible to students led him to establish Wingspan Arts, a not-for-profit recognized as one of New York’s leading providers of arts enrichment programming in public schools. Prior to founding Wingspan Arts, Gary spent eleven years at Blue Heron Theatre. Under his leadership, Blue Heron Arts Center opened in 1999 and was hailed as one of New York’s most successful new performing arts centers in a decade.

He also has served as a grant evaluator for the Rockefeller Foundation and the NYC Department of Cultural Affairs, and as an informal consultant to arts advocacy and arts education groups.

Jessica is an Assistant Professor of Theater at the University of Miami, where she teaches acting and theater creation. She was the Artistic Director and co-founder of Strange Sun Theater , a theater company in New York City dedicated to creating magical new theater that ignites in audiences and artists, the power of possibility. In addition she was the Consulting Artistic Director of the Sheen Center, when it opened in downtown Manhattan, curating a full season for 2 theaters. Before that she served as the Artistic Director of Wingspan Arts, an arts education company in New York City.

Jessica is a playwright currently working on a solo performance piece entitled Ann and Me: or The Big Bad Abortion Play, which is in development throughout the country- recently at Syracuse Stage's Cold Reads Festival, and American Theater Northwest. Other plays include: Wickedest Woman; The story of Ann Lohman, midwife and abortionist in the 1800’s in NYC. Finalist, Scrap Mettle Arts Playwrights Festival, Production January 2019 NYC, published by Next Stage Press.  Garden of Memories the story of siblings dealing with the loss of their mother and the acceptance of their past. Runner Up W. Keith Hedrick Award at HRC Showcase Theater and Semi-Finalist, Trustus New Playwrights Festival 2016.

Jessica works as a freelance theater director specializing in new play and musical development, her favorite credits include; Loving Repeating (NYC Premiere), Life of the Party (NYU-Premiere Production of Larry O’Keefe & Nell Benjamin’s new musical), at NYU Steinhardt Gypsy, Midsummer Night’s Dream, Twelfth Night, with Strange Sun Closer Than You Think (World Premiere), The Drowning Girls (NYC Premiere).

In addition to her work as a director and playwright, Jessica is an accomplished acting coach, focusing primarily on audition coaching and musical theater work.  She also works with people in all professions to incorporate theater techniques into their daily lives, as a means of self-expression and empowerment.

​Jessica has a BFA in Acting from Boston University and an MFA from Goddard College. Her practical focus has been on theater creation, primarily directing. Her research focuses on both feminist theater and progressive pedagogical approaches to teaching acting and directing; on both the university and high school levels.

Benjamin is the Director of Production and Event Operations for Eventique, an events creative and production agency. He has been on the Board of Directors for Fresh Ground Pepper NYC since March 2017 and was appointed Vice President of the Board in January 2021, and has served on the development committee since 2019. 

Prior to Eventique, Benjamin was the General Manager for Convene, a premium event and meetings provider, offering virtual, hybrid, and in-person workplace and conference solutions. 

Prior to joining Convene in 2021, he spent 4 years as the General Manager at the Plaza Hotel with Bentley Meeker Lighting and Staging, a full-service lighting and audio-visual design firm, before becoming the Associate Director of Venues, overseeing some of New York’s most iconic and recognizable event properties. 

From 2001 – 2016, Benjamin had a 15-year career as a theatrical and event lighting designer, designing over 500 musicals, plays, events, architectural, and art installations. In 2011, he received the Boston Theater Critics Elliot Norton Award for outstanding design of Annie Baker’s The Aliens with Company One Theater Company, in partnership with the Huntington Theater Company. 

Benjamin holds an MFA in theatrical design from Brandeis University, and a BFA in technical theater from Florida Southern College.