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about Joanne Zippel

Joanne Zippel’s Creative Coaching practice evolved naturally out of her work as a manager of playwrights and screenwriters --guiding their careers and helping them to pursue their passions in what is well known as an often difficult, changeable and sometimes arbitrary business. As a Coach she works with clients helping them to open themselves up to their creative capacity, build a solid foundation from which to make authentic career and life decisions and take action on them.

Through her company Zip Productions LLC, she currently works with playwright/screenwriter/director David Simpatico whose projects include, the stage adaptations of Disney’s High School Musical and High School Musical 2, and is Executive Producing his original screenplay, the comedy Mike’s Makeover to be directed by Marilyn Agrelo (Mad Hot Ballroom). She also represents Children’s Letters to God the musical theatre adaptation of the best-selling book by Stuart Hample with music by David Evans and lyrics by Doug Cohen. Her other producing projects include the feature length movie of the Tony Award winning musical City of Angels to be directed by Academy Award winner Barry Levinson, and White Collared, Jeffrey Jackson’s black comedy about corporate America which won first prize in the Santa Barbara Film Festival’s screenplay writing competition.

She has over 25 years experience as an entrepreneur, working in theatre and live event production, marketing, promotion, sponsorship, development and literary management in the entertainment business. She founded Advance Entertainment New York, the first exclusive marketing service for commercial theatre representing over 300 Broadway & Off-Broadway shows and other entertainment events including such hits as Titanic, Rent, Tommy, How to Succeed in Business… Moon Over Buffalo, Smokey Joe’s Cafe, Damn Yankees, Guys and Dolls, Crazy for You, City of Angels, M. Butterfly, Stomp, Driving Miss Daisy, Steel Magnolias, Other People’s Money and Tony n’ Tina’s Wedding. As President of the company, Joanne was responsible for its overall management and administration, new business development, and the design and execution of all marketing activities.

As an entertainment marketing and promotional consultant for Broadway and Off-Broadway theatre productions she developed and implemented television, radio and print promotions for commercial theatre productions. Selected shows include: Paula Vogel’s Pulitzer Prize winning How I Learned to Drive, The Goodbye Girl, Hello Muddah Hello Faddah, Back to Bacharach and David, David Ives’ All in the Timing and Charles Busch’s You Should Be So Lucky, The Drowsy Chaperone and The Pirate Queen.

Joanne is a veteran of the New York theatre community and has produced the critically acclaimed Jenifer Lewis on the Couch, a one woman musical comedy starring Jenifer Lewis at the Roundabout Theatre in New York City and at the Bathurst Street Theatre in Toronto. She also produced Just So, a musical adaptation of Rudyard Kipling’s Just So Stories Off-Broadway. For five years she was the producer for The Actor's Producing Company, a New York based Equity theatre where she produced new plays, readings and workshops bringing together over a hundred actors, directors and playwrights to develop new work. Plays included the American premiere of David Edgar's Saigon Rose, A Perfect Diamond by Don Rifkind, Not So New Faces, conceived and directed by Stuart Ross and workshops of plays by such writers as David Ives, Quincy Long and Paula Vogel.

She produced and directed the short documentary film Art in Fashion interviewing teen/tween girls about their personal style. Joanne produced the Equality Now’s 10th Anniversary Celebration at the Gramercy Theatre featuring Meryl Streep, Alanis Morissette, Kate Clinton, Sarah Jones, Lilias White, and Gloria Steinem sponsored by Marie Claire Magazine. She was a corporate and media sponsorship consultant for DV Walk/Run To End Domestic Violence, an annual event in New York City’s Battery Park sponsored by Verizon Wireless and WCBS-TV. Prior to her involvement in theatre, Joanne was the Director of Corporate Development for the New York City Chapter of the March of Dimes Birth Defects Foundation. There, she produced large-scale fundraising events such as The Women’s Tennis Association Dinner at the Plaza Hotel and Walk-America involving Fortune 500 companies such as Playtex, Sony and Family Circle Magazine.

Joanne has been a life-long advocate for progressive causes. She is on the Steering Committee for BlueWave New Jersey, a grassroots progressive political organization. Joanne graduated from the University of Pennsylvania and did graduate work at NYU's Gallatin School of Individualized Study. She is a graduate of the Hoffman Institute and lives in Montclair New Jersey.

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