Award-winning Director, Choreographer and Master Teacher Greg Ganakas is represented by Encompass Arts Management, and DGRW Talent Agency.

 

Credits include Broadway, Off Broadway, National Tours, International Productions, Television and Corporate Entertainment packages. He has worked at Radio City Music Hall, for Disneylive Entertainment, and for such venues as Carnegie Hall, Lincoln Center, and Madison Square Garden. His Regional Theatre credentials include directing numerous productions for the Tony Award winning Goodspeed Opera House, Dallas Theatre Center, Long Wharf Theatre, and the Studio Theatre among others. His repertoire crosses over into the Opera world, where he has staged productions for Glimmerglass, Minnesota Opera Company, Virginia Opera, Michigan Opera Theatre and Central City Opera. His production of  “An Evening of Gilbert and Sullivan”, featuring Beverly Sills and the Boston Pops, was filmed live at Boston Symphony Hall as part of  The PBS’ Great Performance Series.  His International credentials include The Maputo Music Festival, South Africa, The 50th Anniversary production of West Side Story at the Globus Theatre, Russia, The World Premiere  of "Singapora The Musical" staged at the newly renovated Capital Theater in Singapore, and most recently, The Ravenna Festival's Autumn trilogy, in Ravenna, Italy, celebrating Puccini's 'La Boheme'.

 

Ganakas has garnered many awards and honors for his work, including the Helen Hayes Award, the Connecticut Critics Circle Award, the Kennedy Center College Theater Festival Award, the New York University Distinguished Teaching Award, and Special Honors for his productions at The New York International Fringe Festival and the New York Music Theater Festival.  His production of “Izzo Goes to Broadway” earned an Emmy Award in the Arts - Entertainment category, and helped raise thousands of dollars for the American Cancer Society’s “Coaches vs Cancer” initiative.

 

A committed educator, he served on the faculty of New York University, where he founded their nationally renowned Music Theater program. His guidance and expertise helped make it one of the highest regarded programs for Music Theater training in the country. Throughout his tenure he mentored young artists, who have gone on to successful careers in the theater and have made award-winning contributions to the performing arts.

 

Mr. Ganakas' has had the distinct privilege of collaborating with such artists as Dame Julie Andrews, Hal Prince,  Chita Rivera, Betty Buckley, Patti LuPone, Clint Black, Sarah Jessica Parker, Bernadette Peters, Susan Stroman, Idina Menzel, Carly Simon,  Kristen Chenoweth, Sarah Hyland, and Joel Grey, as well as composers and writers Jerry Herman, Marvin Hamlisch, Alan Menken, Douglas Carter Beane, and Joe Di'Pietro among others.

 

Originally from East Lansing, Michigan, Greg Ganakas resides in New York City.