Mary Ellen Bernard
Photo by Paul Sunday
While primarily a writer and performer, Mary Ellen has worked onstage, backstage, and in the planning stage, accumulating experience as both an artist and an administrator.
Manager & Creative Contributor. At Triple Z Music, she manages day-to-day operations. She also develops proposal budgets and often contributes to projects as a member of the creative or production team. For instance, she managed pre-production and on-site costuming and wardrobe for the IBM Global Golden Circle Awards in Dubai and Hawaii (with more than 100 cast members) and the award-winning presentation for Hisense at the Consumer Electronics Show.
Writer
Mary Ellen has penned song lyrics, stand-up comedy, proposals, articles, informational resources, and marketing collaterals of all types. She has shaped promotional messages for major book publishers, non-profit organizations, small businesses, and performing artists.
She began a career in publishing as an assistant at Billie Jean King’s womenSports magazine and in six years had advanced to Vice President/Creative Director at a promotion and advertising agency that specialized in book publishing. In between, she was promotional copywriter at Doubleday, then Simon & Schuster. Her writing portfolio included high-visibility titles by bestselling authors, and she served some of the most highly respected editors in the business, including Michael Korda and Nan Talese.
Actor & Entertainer
All the while, Mary Ellen was following her bliss in theater and other performance. Right out of college, she became a founding member of a small non-profit theater company and served as its executive director for five years. Eventually, she left publishing to concentrate more fully on performance and writing, studying stand-up comedy and improv, writing and performing in cabaret, and recording her own CDs.
Recording & Concert Performer
She landed in the acoustic music circuit with a hybrid show of original acoustic pop, novelty songs and humor. There she appeared as a featured act or as opener for such artists as John Prine, Loudon Wainwright III, Richie Havens, Tom Paxton and John Sebastian. Her three CD’s (Point of Departure, Coney Island Mojo and Bus Stop) have received reviewer praise and airplay around the country and in Europe.
“If she were a chef, her spice cabinet would need restocking daily. Bernard seasons her material to taste, and cooks with a high flame,” wrote Mark Keating in the regional music magazine Sound View.
Lyricist & Librettist
Mary Ellen has recently completed the book and lyrics for The Mountains Are Burning, a full-length musical with music by Paul Guzzone. The show is inspired by historical events, namely the labor activism among coal miners and their families in Northeastern Pennsylvania and the influence of the feisty union organizer Mother Jones.
Mary Ellen has written numerous songs with Paul, and they have performed together for decades.
Educator
Mary Ellen was an adjunct professor for 20 years in the Pace University School of Performing Arts, teaching about the business of theatre and film in the course How the Entertainment Industry Works.