The Manhattan Live Performance concept was born when I first moved to New York and was exposed to the remarkable abundance and diversity of entertainment here. Friends introduced me, early on, to the special world of cabaret and, night after night, I found myself in the company of talented artists working in small, intimate settings. I thought, "More people should know about this!"
I started by designing printed promotional materials -- postcards, programs, posters and ads. I started this site in 1998, thinking it would allow me to continue with the design work I love while reaching a much larger audience for my clients. But I was in no real rush to begin, and didn't actually publish anything here until the following year.
The first step onto the Web came because of a telephone call from Helen Baldassare. Katie Couric, of NBC's Today show, took a class at Ms. Baldassare's Cabaret Performance Workshop, and her participation was documented for a May, 1999 broadcast of Today. Ms. Baldassare commissioned MLP to prepare a place for the Workshop on the Web; she anticipated that some of the millions of viewers who saw the Today piece would want more information.
She was right. The response was overwhelming! People from all over the United States contacted her through MLP, and the Workshop is thriving. We're grateful to Ms. Baldassare for the trust she placed in us, and happy to know all our hard work paid off -- for her and for MLP. A link to The Cabaret Performance Workshop is now a permanent fixture here on the MLP site.
The MLP site has expanded greatly since our first page was published, and more talented performers work with us every year. Some of the people you'll read about on our site are old friends, some are future friends, and some are design clients of MLP. We think they're all worth a look and a listen.
-- James Millefolie
Creative Director
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