Takashi and the Great Buddha of Kamakura

Mark Stefanik resides in Brooklyn Heights, a tree and brownstone neighborhood just across the river from Manhattan. Originally from Canada, Mark is the author of The King Of Ice Cream Mountain (a play for children), first produced by The Paddington Players at Ontario Place, Toronto. In addition, The King of Ice Cream Mountain had a successful summer engagement at Dundurn Castle (a historic neoclassical mansion) in Hamilton, Ontario. This production was produced by Theatre Aquarius, Stage 2 and directed by Mark. His playwriting career exploded with a theatrical production of Blind Fury, a one-act play that he not only wrote, but directed and cast himself in the leading role. Blind Fury collected thirteen awards on the drama festival circuit in Southern Ontario and the play received a lot of press attention. A cover story about Mark and Blind Fury was written by Kathleen Wernick (married to Morris Wernick, one of Harold Pinter's life-long friends) and published in the Hamilton Spectator. In addition, Mark is an actor, children's theatre director, film producer, and national television news editor. He spent four years with the Film Society of Lincoln Center interviewing A-list talent and directors on the red carpet at the prestigious New York Film Festival, Chaplin Gala and Rendezvous with French Cinema. Mark appeared in season two of the Showtime series, The Knick (directed by Steven Soderbergh) and in the Amazon series, Mozart in the Jungle. He is the author/illustrator of Skippy, A Squirrel in Brooklyn Heights (ISBD: 978-0-578-54334-5) Mark is currently writing and producing a feature film, The General (WW1 historical drama/romance based on the short life and death of General M.R. Stefanik) and another Skippy book. The 2020 Skippy book tour was set to launch at the Tucson Festival of Books in Arizona but was postponed due to the Covid-19 pandemic.