Congratulations to Dana Lerner '14, co-producer of COMPANY, for winning a Tony Award for Best Revival of a Musical!
Dana M. Lerner is a Tony Award winning theater producer, entrepreneur, and MBA Candidate at Columbia Business School. She is the founder and CEO of Red Pelican Creative a social media consulting and management company representing prominent influencers and innovative brands in entertainment and beyond.
Dana received a BA in Theatre Arts with a minor in Visual Studies from Cornell University in 2014. She is a proud and active Cornell alumni volunteer and serves as a Class Officer, Annual Fund Representative, Reunion Campaign Co-Chair and Social Media Manager for the Class of 2014 as well as an Alumni Admissions Ambassador.
my new roommate Tony pic.twitter.com/p4tQnTRid4
— Dana Meredith Lerner (@officialDML) September 16, 2022
Excerpt from Dana Lerner's alumni profile:
What drew you to PMA when you were a Cornell undergraduate?
I have always known I wanted to be a theatre major and study in a liberal arts setting. Being able to study all aspects of theatre (acting, directing, writing, history, etc.) while also receiving a broad liberal arts education is exciting and useful! You can bring knowledge and information from other class and courses into your theatre work and vice versa. I think that anything is applicable to theatre, media, and film, as long as you can present everything you know in a way that makes you a more valuable student, job candidate, and team player. You learn how to talk to other theatre people, such as designers or directors, and beyond that as well. Everything is relevant and can connect in ways you wouldn’t ordinarily consider.
What classes/experiences in PMA stand out from your time at Cornell and why?
Commedia del'arte with Beth F. Milles was my favorite course I took as an undergrad. I really learned how to be myself in that class (a clown!) and be free and open and not care about what anyone else thinks. That class shaped me, brought out my inner clown and let me be open to all the ups and downs and stock characters life throws at you. The semester after, Beth directed a devised piece many of the Commedia classmates and I created called In the Middle of the Night, based off of a Charlie Chaplin film. It was my Schwartz Center debut and being able to take what I learned in my favorite class and share it with a wider audience was so special.
Read Dana's full alumni profile here:
https://pma.cornell.edu/pma-alumni-profiles#dana-lerner-14
