Victoria Lang, President
Victoria Lang has enjoyed an award-winning career in theatre, television, film, concerts and podcasts.
Recent Broadway productions include THE KITE RUNNER, FUNNY GIRL, PARADISE SQUARE, TOOTSIE (Tony nomination), THE CHER SHOW, SYLVIA, 1984, THE LIGHTING THIEF and ESCAPE TO MARGARITAVILLE.
On the cutting edge of the best Off Broadway theatre in New York City she has produced such hits as SILENCE! The Musical, the unauthorized parody of the iconic film The Silence of the Lambs, which was a London hit and subsequently opened in New York to rave reviews, sold-out houses and a 2-year run Off-Broadway. SILENCE! won the Off Broadway Alliance Award and the Obie Award for Best Musical, 3 LA Drama Critics Awards, and was named as one of the “Top 10 Plays of the Year” by TIME Magazine. The original cast album has been released on Sh-K-Boom Records.
Her production of the smash hit MATT & BEN was called “The Hottest Play in New York” by Newsweek Magazine and “One of the Top 5 Plays of the Year” by TIME Magazine. She went on to produce the show in Los Angeles, Chicago and on tour. Victoria premiered the new musical JOHNNY GUITAR in New York, which received the Outer Critics Circle Award for Outstanding Off-Broadway Musical, as well as the celebrated musical LISTEN TO MY HEART: THE SONGS OF DAVID FRIEDMAN at Studio 54, which was nominated for a prestigious Drama Desk Award.
Victoria opened the first New York Musical Festival (NYMF) with SHOUT! The Mod Musical. SHOUT! went on to a six month Off-Broadway run before launching a national tour and productions worldwide, as well as an exclusive 7-year license with Norwegian Cruise Lines.
She has been represented on London’s West End with productions of FUNNY GIRL, BAT BOY: THE MUSICAL and SHOUT!
National tours include SHOUT!, MATT & BEN, DIVORCE PARTY THE MUSICAL: THE HILARIOUS JOURNEY TO HELL… AND BACK!, LISTEN TO MY HEART, SHOUT!.
Upcoming Broadway productions include THE KITE RUNNER, THE COTTAGE and the new musical LOCH NESS.
Ms. Lang began her legit career at the general management firm of Theatre Now. There, she was a part of such Broadway productions as THE LITTLE FOXES with Elizabeth Taylor, PETER PAN with Sandy Duncan, THE FIRST, OH BROTHER, and the revivals of OKLAHOMA!, WEST SIDE STORY and BRIGADOON. She ran the New York office for Producer Zev Bufman and Elizabeth Taylor’s The Elizabeth Theatre Group. Productions included the Richard Burton/Elizabeth Taylor production of PRIVATE LIVES, The Tony-nominated A VIEW FROM THE BRIDGE starring Tony LoBianco, THE CORN IS GREEN starring Cicely Tyson, JERRY’S GIRLS starring Carol Channing, Dorothy Loudon and Leslie Uggams, REQUIEM FOR A HEAVWEIGHT starring John Lithgow and George Segal, JOSEPH AND THE AMAZING TECHNICOLOR DREAMCOAT starring David Cassidy and later Andy Gibb, and PEG starring Peggy Lee.
For her work in television, Victoria received 3 Emmy Award nominations as a Producer on the popular nationally-syndicated show LIVE WITH REGIS & KATHIE LEE. She created and executive produced HAVEN, a nationally-syndicated weekly sponsored program on home decorating starring Joy Philbin. She co-produced and wrote the successful Pledge Specials for PBS: “GUY LOMBARDO: THE SWEETEST MUSIC THIS SIDE OF HEAVEN” and “GLENN MILLER’S GREATEST HITS,” starring Kathie Lee Gifford. For A&E, she produced the star-studded, top rated network special “ROSEMARY CLOONEY’S DEMI-CENTENNIAL: A Girl Singer’s Golden Anniversary,” starring Tony Bennett, Bette Midler, Lily Tomlin, Joanne Woodward, Barry Manilow, Diane Sawyer, Bob Hope and George Clooney.
Ms. Lang worked in publicity and sales at CBS as well as serving as Senior Vice President and Director of the Broadcast Department at the Rowland Company, a division of Saatchi and Saatchi, where she developed sponsored entertainment.
Victoria has produced several independent feature films including the popular MACBETH IN MANHATTAN, a contemporary telling of the classic story, starring Gloria Reuben, Harold Perneau and John Glover, which premiered on Showtime and was honored with the Best Feature award at the South Beach Film Festival, the Audience Award at the Long Island Film Festival and was chosen for the dramatic feature competition at the prestigious 1999 South by Southwest and Florida Film Festivals. It was also selected as the Premiere Film at the 16th annual Long Island Film Festival and was one of only five U.S. films asked to screen and under special consideration for competition at the Cannes Film Festival (Critics’ Week and Director’s Fortnight). Additional film credits include the independent features DARK TIDES, starring Christopher Kennedy Lawford and Paige Turco which premiered on Showtime; PERFECT LIES and THE FOUNTAIN OF DEATH, all of which are currently in worldwide distribution. She is also a pioneer in serialized films for the Internet. In 2000, Victoria produced the first ever, online, digital, feature film, CHAOS THEORY for Alloy.com.
Ms. Lang has worked with Saban Entertainment on program development and as Talent Coordinator for Lee Guber and Shelly Gross’ Music Fair Group, producing stage shows with the brightest names in the music and comedy arenas.
Victoria is a Founder and Co-President of Content of Broadway & Beyond Theatricals and was a Founding Partner and Co-President for over 15 years of PLUS Media, Inc., one of the largest producers of lifestyle programming for television nationwide.
Ms. Lang is a member of The Broadway League, The League of Off-Broadway Theaters and Producers, The Off Broadway Alliance, The NYC Mayor’s Office of Film, Theatre and Broadcasting’s “Made in NY” Panel of Experts, New York Women in Film and Television, the British Academy of Film & Television, Who’s Who in Entertainment, Who’s Who in American Professionals and Who’s Who in American Women, and has served as a judge for The Emmy Awards, The Long Island Film Festival, The FilmMakers.com screenwriting competition and the International Film and Television Festival of New York. She attended Emerson College and is a summa cum laude graduate of Long Island University.
Tony Baarda, Vice President
Mr. Baarda has a lifetime of experience working with both private and public corporations, from the New Zealand Armed Forces to Marriott Vacation Club International.
Tony managed business affairs, finances and the office staff for Plus Media in New York City. For Marriott Vacation Club International he was employed as a Sales Executive at their first off-site Sales Center in Little Falls, NJ and then Breckenridge, CO, rising to Quality Assurance Manager in Boston. As Sales Manger, Tony opened Marriott’s Seaview, NJ location. Subsequent to Marriott, Tony worked for Hilton Vacation Club both in sales and as a Customer Service Manager in Manhattan, New York.
In the real estate sector, he has managed private portfolios of properties in Aspen, New York City, Santa Fe, Fort Lauderdale, Oak Ridge and Brigantine; supervised management companies and contractors; and presided over Owner Association Boards as President.
Prior to coming to America to become a Ski Instructor in Aspen, Tony was the Food and Beverage Manager at McMurdo Station in Antarctica and the Aquatic Centre Manager at Great Keppel Island on the Great Barrier Reef, Australia. He has a Bachelor of Arts Degree in Education from the University of Canterbury, Christchurch, New Zealand.
Constance Mortell, Associate Producer
Constance Mortell was one of the founding producers and early board members o
f the New York Musical Theatre Festival (NYMF) in 2004, helping launch worthy musicals like [title of show], Altar Boyz, and The Great American Trailer Park Musical. She is a board member of Hi-Arts (formerly known as the Hip Hop Theatre Festival) a leading organization within the urban arts movement, dedicated to developing, producing and presenting theatre written by and about the Hip-Hop generation by such artists as Danny Hock, Marc Barmuthi Joseph, Will Power and many more. Collaborating with the Kennedy Center for Performing Arts for over sixteen years, in 2016 Hi-Arts was named Curator in Residence of Hi-Hop Culture at the Kennedy Center.
She is the Emmy nominated producer/director of “Prairie Tides”, a film about early Chicago that went on to be shown in classrooms with a dedicated curriculum and housed in historical societies; she was an early backer of the Oscar winning short “Saving Face” and Executive Producer of the TV pilot “The Abandon”. Constance has produced numerous award winning shorts: “Make the Change” for the Chicago Transit Authority and “This Old Church”, which helped to save a major landmark. She has supported a number of independent documentaries: “Mother: Caring for 7 Billion”, “Open Sesame – the Story of Seeds,” and “Nelson Algren: The End is Nothing, the Road is All.”.
Prior to her producing career, she was on the executive staff of the President of the Chicago Transit Authority, responsible for press/external and political relationships and marketing, instituting color-coding for all the rail lines, launching such initiatives as the Peace and Earth Day buses, and an annual anti-graffiti mural contest resulting in murals throughout the system, receiving a City of Chicago Public Service Award. Before that, as the Executive Director for the Holy Family Preservation Society, she built from scratch a successful two year campaign raising over $ 2 million and saving one of Chicago’s oldest landmarks, garnering a National Trust for Historic Preservation Award. Ms. Mortell began her professional life as a Montessori teacher and subsequently spent twelve years in real estate development doing land assemblages and 12 to 25 unit conversions for moderate income housing. She is a graduate of the University of Colorado in English Literature and holds a Master’s Degree in Urban Planning and Public Policy from the University of Illinois, Chicago.
