Michael Unger is the Producing Artistic Director of the NewArts.

This year's presentation of A (Virtual) Christmas Carol is dedicated to the memory of 14-year-old Mary Socci - one of NewArts' most dedicated family members. Mary lost a valiant two-year battle with cancer on November 14th. We miss her terribly but find solace in knowing that she embodied all that The 1214 Foundation and NewArts can offer the youth of this world.

Michael is a theatre and opera director whose work has been seen on stages from Los Angeles, to Chicago, to New York, to Yekaterinburg, Russia - and many places in between. He is the new Artistic Director of Skylight Music Theatre in Milwaukee, WI. Previously, he was the Associate Artistic Director and Director of Education of Off-Broadway's The York Theatre in New York City. He is also the Producing Artistic Director of NewArts which brings high-level performing arts education and programming to the resilient community of Newtown, CT. NewArts uses the performing arts as a vehicle for healing and promoting creativity, collaboration and community - to give children tools for their future.

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For NewArts, Michael has produced and directed twelve large-scale musicals involving over 550 children onstage, backstage and in the orchestra: Matilda (upcoming, Summer 2019), Newsies, Seussical: The Musical starring John Tartaglia and 84 Newtown children, the world premiere of A ROCKIN' Midsummer Night's Dream (co-adapted with composer, Eric Svejcar - CD available on Broadway Records), Disney's The Lion King, Jr., Liberty Smith and The 101 Dalmatians Musical (co-adapted with Dennis DeYoung - of Styx) featuring 107 Newtown kids, School of Rock, The Wizard of Oz, Roald Dahl's Willy Wonka, Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat, and A Christmas Carol. Michael also directed From Broadway With Love: A Benefit Concert for Sandy Hook (CD and DVD available) to raise support, awareness and funds for Newtown, CT. This concert, which was televised on PBS, amassed a corps of 700 volunteers, including Stephen Schwartz, Marc Shaiman, Frank Wildhorn, Linda Eder, Brian Stokes Mitchell, Michael Cerveris, Mary Testa, Nikki Blonsky, Richard Kind, Janet Metz, Christine Ebersole, Capathia Jenkins, Micky Dolenz and the casts of "Sister Act," "Million Dollar Quartet" and "Sesame Street" and, most important, 100 Newtown and Sandy Hook kids on stage performing with their Broadway heroes - and 350 Sandy Hook Elementary School students on video. It was a remarkable evening of healing in action.

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He also directed From Broadway With Love: A Benefit Concert for Parkland - which brought Broadway and Hollywood stars to Florida in support of the horrendous shooting at Marjorie Stoneman Douglas High School. Performers included Rachel Bloom, Matthew Morrison, Deborah Cox, Noah Galvin, Christy Altomare, Donna Lynn Champlin, George Salazar, and many others, in addition to over 100 local shool children. He also co-directed his production of A ROCKIN' Midsummer Night's Dream with Special Tony Award recipient, Melody Herzfeld, at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in the spring of 2019.

He recently directed The York Theatre's Oscar Hammerstein Award honoring Susan Stroman, hosted by Matthew Broderick, which included a cast of 60 recreating some of "Stro's" greatest hits as well as appearances by Richard Maltby, Jr., David Shire, Lynn Ahrens, Sierra Boggess, Nick Cordero, Stephen Flaherty, John Kander, William Ivey Long, Terrence Mann, Debra Monk, Brad Oscar, Laura Osnes, Bryonha Marie Parham, Tiler Peck, David Thompson, Kaley Ann Voorhees, John Weidman, Tony Yazbeck, and Karen Ziemba.