COMPANY STAFF

EXECUTIVE

JEM JENDER a.k.a. James O´Connor-Taylor (Founder & President) In 2006, with support from The Actors Fund of America and Career Transition for Dancers, Jem laid the foundation for PureJem Pictures LLC. More Than A Woman is Jem´s debut as a screenwriter. Jem is also co-author of the new musical Diva Diaries which had sold out runs at The Tampa Bay Performing Arts Center, The Broward Center for Performing Arts and the Lakeshore Theater in Chicago. Jem has also written another new musical Sugar Creek which is currently in development. Other writing credits include Total New York, The New York Times, Wire Magazine, Rizzoli & Chronicle books.

As a performer, Jem´s classical ballet career started at The North Carolina School of The Arts. Shortly after, he received a full scholarship with New York City Ballet´s prestigious School of American Ballet. Jem went on to dance with several major Ballet companies including The Boston Ballet, The Joffrey, Chautauqua Dance Theater and The Universal Ballet of Korea. This lead to a contract with The Ballet Trockadero De Monte Carlo and a drag ballerina was born. Famous for his portrayal of "The Dying Swan," Jem toured internationally with the company for five years. During this period he published a book in Japan with art photographer Wouter Deruytter titled Tu-Tu Much, a look at the art of dance and travesty.

Jem also became a strong force in the global fashion and nightclub industry where he toured the world appearing in charitable fashion events and modeling for designers such as Armani, Donna Karan, and Izzac Mizarahi to name a few. As the nightclub drag diva of New York City Jem holds the record for the longest drag nightclub booking ever at John Blair´s The Roxy.

Jem´s film and television highlights include: Hitch, My Super X Girlfriend, Little Manhattan, Miss Congeniality 2, The Summer of Sam and HBO´s Angels in America directed by Mike Nichols. Under the guidance of HBO´s Sheila Nevins, Jem has starred in three HBO documentary features: Girls, Girls, Girls, and most recently Dragtime for America Under Cover. Guest television appearances include Late Night with Conan O´Brian, The Jon Stewart Show, Saturday Night Live, and Entertainment Tonight.

Jem is a member of the historic Players´ Club in New York (Helen Hayes was its first woman member; Jem is the first more-than-a-woman member in its history). www.jemjender.com

WENDY WOODS (Vice President, Production & Development) brings twenty years of experience in corporate development, legal and arts administration from all over the east coast.  She most recently served for five years as the Director of Marketing & Public Relations for the Kitchen Theatre Company.  Past positions include Marketing Manager for Costume World; Public Relations Director for Executive-On-Tapâ; Senior Executive Administrator for the FDIC; Scenic Shop Administrator and Purchasing Agent for Coconut Grove Playhouse; and Legal and Executive Assistant to Don King at Don King Productions and DK International. 

Her introduction to the arts came through the world of dance, where she taught professionally and earned several gold medals in competitive ballroom at a young age.  She attended Carnegie-Mellon and Boston Conservatory’s BFA programs as a musical theater major/dance minor on scholarship.  After joining Actor’s Equity at age 18, she spent most of her career as a musical theatre principal, performing at countless regional theaters throughout the US including Theatre By the Sea (NH), Maine State Theatre, Prescott Park Arts Festival, The Colonial Theatre, Hippodrome State Theatre and Miami Shores Theatre.  Her favorites roles include Velma Kelly in Chicago (with original Fosse staging, mentored by Chita Rivera),  Pippin (original Fosse staging), Audrey in Little Shop of Horrors, Kathy Seldon in Singin’ In the Rain, Marty in Grease and Sister Mary Leo (directed by Felton Smith) in Nunsense. 

Wendy received critical acclaim for her choreographic work with The Sons of Pitches’ (a five-man a Capella group) concert tour and regional productions of Evita, Nunsense, Romance, Romance, A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum and Once Upon a Mattress.  She choreographed and managed a series of themed shows for SeaEscape Cruise Lines, and as Founder of Triple Threat Productions, wrote and produced original stage shows for other cruise lines. 

Her photography and graphic art have been published nationally (Playbill.com, American Theatre Magazine), and her consulting business provides marketing and public relations campaigns to a variety of artists and companies nationwide.  Even with her focus on the administrative side of the foot lights, Wendy continues booking on-camera work, voiceovers and regularly performs her cabaret act of standards and Broadway repertoire.

HARVEY S. TRAISON (Financial Advisor) served LaBranche & Co Inc. from March 2000 to June 2005 as Senior Vice President and Chief Financial Officer. Prior to joining LaBranche, Mr. Traison was Vice President, Treasurer of DaimlerChrysler North America Holding Corporation from 1984 to 1999. Mr. Traison served three years as CFO of Paramount Group in New York City, a German-owned, U.S.-based commercial real estate company, and fourteen years with Ford Motor Company’s Financial Services subsidiaries in the U.S. and Europe. He is the past Chairperson of the New York Treasurers Group, a member of Financial Executives International and the National Association of Corporate Treasurers Alumni. Mr. Traison graduated with an accounting degree from Wayne State University and earned a MBA degree in finance from The University of Michigan. Mr. Traison is a trustee of the American Friends of the Berlin Staatsoper, the Marlboro Music School and Festival and the Great River Arts Institute, and a Lifetime member of the Glyndebourne Opera Association.

PureJem Pictures is under the guidance of Financial Advisor Harvey Traison while PJP is currently conducting an executive search for CFO.

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ETC.

ARNOLD J. CIVINS (Certified Public Accountant)
Citrin Cooperman & Company, LLP
529 Fifth Avenue
New York, New York 10017

BEN FELDMAN, Esq. (Attorney for PureJem Pictures LLC) is affiliated with Beigelman, Feldman & Associates, P.C. and focuses his practice in matters concerning theatre and independent film. Adept at negotiating and structuring a variety of agreements, Mr. Feldman also provides counsel in the areas of art, book publishing, music, sports and television. His varied clientele consists of film and theater producers, cable television show hosts, actors, publicists, distributors, Obie Award-winning theater directors and Tony and Emmy Award winning writers and composers. He has artfully secured the film rights for stories appearing in publications ranging from The New York Times to Vanity Fair and the live musical stage rights to numerous novels and popular films. In his film practice, he represented more documentaries at the 2004 Sundance Film Festival than any other attorney, and as a producer rep he sold one , in an unprecedented deal, to a national broadcast network for prime time exhibition (he subsequently sold two additional films at the Tribeca Festival later that same year, in the Spring of '04). Mr. Feldman's work as a theatrical attorney was acknowledged on the Tony Awards program (2002), making him one of only a handful of attorneys who have received such an honor. His clients have also been recognized at the Tony's, having been nominated in such categories as best Play Revival (producer) and Best Actress in a Play, both in 2004.

In addition to his legal practice, Mr. Feldman also serves as Chairman of the Board of Trustees of the Naked Angles Theater Company, and is a member of the Board of Directors of the Hourglass Group and of the New Festival Inc., sponsor of the New York Gay and Lesbian Film Festival. As a producer himself, Mr. Feldman has presented The Cutting Room, a short film featuring Kate Hudson, and the commercial run of The Stand In, a play developed by Naked Angels and later optioned by Miramax.

Formerly, Mr. Feldman was affiliated with Epstein, Levinsohn, Bodine, Hurwitz & Weinstein, LLP from 2002 to 2007. Before that, he was affiliated with the law firms of Parker, Chapin, Flattau & Klimpl, LLP, and Kaufmann, Feiner, Yamin, Gildin & Robbins, LLP. Mr. Feldman was admitted to the New York Bar in 1999. He received his J.D. from New York University School of Law, where he won the ASCAP Copyright Law Prize and the school's Moot Court Oral Argument Competition. He is a Summa Cum Laude graduate of Yale College. CONTACT: Beigelman, Feldman & Associates, P.C., 100 Wall Street, 23rd Floor (@ Water Street), New York, NY 10005 | (212) 230-1300 | E: bfeldman@bfalaw.com | FAX: (212) 230-1090 | www.bfalaw.com.

JOHN HAGER (Director of Photography) was born on May Day 1975 in Charleston, S.C. and moved to New York in 1999. He studied film production in Charleston and cinematography at Watkins College of Art and Design in Nashville. In 2002 he worked with Entertainment Struggle Magazine as a photographer and photo editor. He has been a director of photography for independent films, documentaries and promotional programs in New York and Los Angeles. Credits include Flesh For the Beast (16mm Feature, Director: Terry West, Fever Dreams Productions) which was awarded "Best Cinematography" at NYC Horror Film Festival; Long Island Love Story (16mm Musical, Director: Peter Phok, Basement Productions); The Last Witch (16mm Feature, Director: John Dolan, Dolan Films); Cocaine Cowboys (16mm short, Director: John & Paul Buckholts, Our Thing Productions); and Blood Bath (16mm-DV Feature, Director: Zac Adams, Bloody Films).

DJ PHILIP KOHL (Music Consultant & Event DJ) Veteran DJ Philip Kohl has been spinning from the tender age of 15 in such clubs as Fantasia, Galaxy 21, The Loft, Ice Palace 57, on Fire Island, in New Orleans, Las Vegas, Dallas and Austin. He is currently an Ipod stylist. Philip has an extensive collection of rare music from the 60s through today which includes illusive remixes, rare DJ sets and mashups. Pkohlnyc1@aol.com.

JOHN MERCURIO (Composer) wrote the score and co-wrote the book to Diva Diaries which ran for three months at the Lakeshore Theatre in Chicago. Before that, it played to packed houses at the Tampa Bay Performing Arts Center and set box office records at the Broward Center for the Performing Arts in Fort Lauderdale, Florida.

He wrote the music for A Time to Be Born, based on the novel by Dawn Powell, which scored a big success last summer at the Lucille Lortel theatre as part of the New York Fringe Festival. Before that, it was chosen to be part of the National Opera and Musical Theatre Initiative in Boston.

This January, his new musical The Riverhaven Book Club, about an unlikely group of country folk who start a book club to try and improve themselves, had a workshop production at the Lyric Theatre in Florida.

He is the recipient of an award from the Jonathan Larson Performing Arts Foundation and a Commendation Award from the Gilman & Gonzalez-Falla Musical Theater Foundation for his work in musical theatre.

John wrote the score for 1001 Nights, the story of a group of abolitionists posing as a traveling theatre company to help a runaway slave along the Underground Railroad. It was developed at a workshop at the George Street Theatre and produced at the Lyric Theatre in Florida. His original show A Tailor's Tale was chosen to be developed at the Eugene O'Neill National Music Theatre Conference in 1999.

John is currently developing a musical entitled Myth, a contemporary variation of three Greek myths in present-day New York City. He is also writing songs for an original play with music, Arturo's Window, (www.arturoswindow.com), which tells the fascinating true story of John Jerome. This spring it had its sold-out premier as part of the York Theatre Developmental Reading Series.

John has composed the incidental music to plays and the scores to three ballets including one on which he collaborated with former New York City Ballet dancer Miriam Mahdaviani. He has also written and illustrated three children¢s books. He has received degrees from the Eastman School of Music and NYU and was a member of the BMI Advanced Musical Theatre Writing Workshop. www.johnmercurio.com

DANIEL PETRO (Casting) TV: "You're The One That I Want." Web series "Joe Hero" (AOL). NY theatre: Pages, Drift (NYMTF). Regional: ...Spelling Bee (Chicago co.), Altar Boyz (Nederlander tour, Rep. St Louis & Cincinnati Playhouse), Dreamgirls (starring Jennifer Holliday), The Wizard Of Oz (KC Starlight/Fox Atlanta/Bass Hall), Loving, Repeating (Stephen Flaherty & Frank Galati), Shear Madness (Chicago Theater). Upcoming: Nickelodeon Music Programs. Thanks to A. Tanner, F. Chapes, D. Rubin, S. Samuelson, D. Nevin, T. Rubin, B. Telsey, P. Hardt, J. Huff, R. Hoffman, J. Katz, C. Burns & the producers and creative teams who have trusted us with their vision.

PETER PHOK (Producer & Line Producer) Born in New York City and raised in the suburbs of Long Island, Peter grew up loving movies and developed a passion to make them. This desire took him to the School of Visual Arts where he wrote, produced, shot, edited, and directed many short films including his senior year thesis, a dramatic musical tragedy about an outsider's journey into Long Island's posh house party scene, titled Long Island Love Story. The film earned much notoriety after its acceptance by IFP's Buzz Cuts and the New York International Independent Film & Video Festival where it was acquired by RCN's IT-TV television program Shoot It which highlights student films of extraordinary vision. Upon graduation with a Bachelors of Fine Arts in Film, Peter went to work with Ti West, fellow SVA graduate and collaborator, on The Roost as a production manager and associate producer. This low budget indie horror feature written and directed by Ti West and produced by Susan Leber with executive producer Larry Fessenden, premiered at the 2005 South by Southwest film festival with much success and received both theatrical release and DVD distribution. Peter continued to demonstrate his professional abilities as he went on to production manage another film with accomplished producer Susan Leber. Bittersweet Place, directed by Alexandra Brodsky and starring Seymour Cassell, received honorable mention at the 2005 Tribeca Film Festival. Peter then went on to assistant direct Bristol Boys, an indie film produced and directed by Brandon David, starring Tom Guiry which released on DVD in the spring of 2007. Peter's personality, organization, managerial skill and desire to make movies have taken him to produce Ti West's second feature with executive producer Larry Fessenden, Trigger Man, world premiering at the 2007 SXSW film festival. Peter continues to produce feature films for Larry's production company Glass Eye Pix under the Scareflix banner, which includes the directorial debuts of Graham Reznick's I Can See You and Glenn McQuaid's I Sell The Dead. Peter resides in the New York area working on projects that draws his attention and interests as he prepares to produce his
own feature film project.

STEPHEN WAGNER (Production Assistant) Stephen Wagner attended Ithaca College in Ithaca, NY where he majored in theatre. He has stage managed many productions at Kitchen Theatre Company working with award-winning actors, playwrights and directors. He has worked on many national tours (CATS, RENT, THOROUGHLY MODERN MILLIE, OKLAHOMA). Stephen currently lives in Ithaca and is a freelance stage manager.

ERIN WEISBURGER (Web Developer/Designer and WebMaster) Erin grew up in the town of Orford, New Hampshire. Orford is part of the rural community of the Connecticut River Valley, a collection of small towns that spans across the border of Vermont and New Hampshire. It was her life here that began her inherent interest in all things arts related. Taking private art and music lessons from the age of nine until she left for college, it was only natural that Erin pursued the arts in her higher education experience.

After high school, Erin left Orford to attend Ithaca College where she would later receive her BS in Cinema and Photography, Still Photography concentration, in 2004. She soon realized she needed to expand her media and proceeded almost immediately to work toward her Master's in Information Technology, Web Development concentration, at Marlboro College Graduate Center in Brattleboro, Vermont. During the last few months of graduate school, Erin moved back to Orford to help her mother and a group of artist friends open the Palisades Gallery and Frame Shop in Fairlee, Vermont where she and the group would host shows, receptions and parties all for the love of art.

Shortly after the Palisades debut reception (which was also the day Erin finished graduate school) she took off for the East Village in New York City to discover a career, which was a much bigger task than she had anticipated. While the job search continued to be unsuccessful, Erin took up dog walking on the Upper West Side for a while, only to realize that she was only getting off track of the goal at hand. It was then that she landed the job as a member of the web team at the Office of Court Administration in the Unified Court System (www.nycourts.gov) where she still works now a year later. Erin continues to photograph at every opportunity in preparation for the rebuilding of Palisades Gallery after it, and several other adjacent shops and homes, tragically burned down in a freak fire this spring. She's wicked psyched to be on the PureJem team and is thrilled to have an opportunity to be a part of such a talented group of artists here in New York. www.erinweisburger.com