{"id":151,"date":"2019-03-15T17:06:12","date_gmt":"2019-03-15T17:06:12","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/nyglamour.net\/?p=151"},"modified":"2026-02-03T04:09:41","modified_gmt":"2026-02-03T04:09:41","slug":"a-closer-look-renowned-director-producer-and-playwright-john-blenn","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nyglamour.net\/?p=151","title":{"rendered":"A Closer Look: Renowned Director, Producer, and Playwright John Blenn"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

At Five Towns College, they call him \u201cProfessor Hockey Man,\u201d because of his penchant for wearing hockey jerseys to class. Bearded and burly, you\u2019d be expecting to see him at a ballpark far more than community theater. But the most interesting things in life are the things that never are what they appear. For a decade, John Blenn has been in a league of his own, producing over 80 original plays and producing more than 90 productions with his all-original theater group, Middle Class American Productions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For 41 years, he\u2019s been a respected entertainment journalistic editor\/publisher, launching his career with Nassau Community\u2019s College\u2019s Satellite newspaper and working as a DJ at the college\u2019s WVHC\/WRHU FM station. The entertainment magazine, \u201cThe LIE,\u201d<\/em> or Long Island Entertainment, <\/em>which he started in 1997 and ran until 2004 . Blenn has also been the former editor of Good Times Magazine<\/em> (1981-1986, 1988-1997), entertainment editor at the Island Ear <\/em>(1986-1988), and has also written for Newsday, The Music Paper, It\u2019s Hip, Network<\/em> and several others, before debuting as a playwright in 1995 with X\u2019s & 0\u2018s. <\/em>Blenn was also employed as the General Manager of Westbury Music Fair (now known as the NYCB Theatre at Westbury), the 2,900+ seat venue owned by Live Nation, from 2001-2004.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Since 2001, he has taught Music Business, Theatre, Screenwriting, Mass Communications and History at Five Towns College and has been Playwright-In-Residence for the college since 2005. He\u2019s even returned to the journalism ranks as Entertainment Editor for Village Connection, a Long Island-based arts monthly. A man who knows his way around the arts? Every corner of it, in both suits and ties and hockey jerseys.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The second son of a Nassau County Police Officer (John F., his father, is responsible for Eisenhower Park\u2019s Safety Town, a project that teaches children traffic safety) and a house wife, John followed older brother Robert to Hofstra and majored in Communications, graduating with a B.A. in 1982. An avid CD and sports card collector, he\u2019s been married for 26 years to wife Joni, a graphic artist for the Town Of Hempstead and former co-publisher of the LIE.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Blenn stormed onto the L.I. theatre scene with critical acclaim in 1995, and has continued to win raves from numerous magazines for his wild social commentaries, explosive humor and provocative stories. His previous works include X\u2019s & O\u2019s <\/em>(1995 ,1998 & 2005), Trailer Park Etiquette <\/em>(1996), The Man From X- Ville <\/em>(1996 & 2005), Popularity Contest <\/em>(1997 & 2001), Bowling Alley Logic <\/em>(1997), Those Swingin\u2019 Anzelones <\/em>(1997), Bloomer Pudding <\/em>(1998 & 2004), Chip Barton\u2019s Day In Court<\/em>  (1998), Abstract Faith <\/em>(1999), Artificial Sincerity <\/em>(1999) and Another Baffling Chess Accident <\/em>(2000), The St. Francis Show<\/em> (2003 & 2005), Say Something Important<\/em> (2004), Appomattox Charley Horse<\/em> (2005), Abercrombie Street 7:30 pm<\/em> (2007) & All Kidding Aside<\/em> (2006), Average Perfection<\/em> (2007), Golden Parachutes<\/em> (2009), Better Hue<\/em> (2010), Bwana Marky 2015, just to name a few. His shows have appeared at The Stage (Merrick), Arena Players (Farmingdale), Author\u2019s Playhouse (Bay Shore), Cultural Arts Playhouse (Old Bethpage), Bellmore Movie & Showplace (Bellmore) and Purple Cow Playhouse (Hicksville), The New Space Theatre (Dix Hills), Five Towns College (Dix Hills), Governor\u2019s (Levittown) and Brokerage (Bellmore). He was also tabbed to direct and executive-produce the world premiere of rock star Eddie Money\u2019s autobiographical musical, Two Tickets To Paradise<\/em>, which debuted in June of 2009 and starred Eddie Money himself as the narrator. He served the same duties in its return to Long Island in January 2015 with Blenn again serving as director.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Blenn has built a reputation for his \u201clive sitcom\u201d style, a wicked eye for human behavior and its foibles. He\u2019s poked fun at everything from Suburbia to Politics, The Courts to Children\u2019s Theatre, Television to Dinner Theatre and Romance to Trailer Parks. Luminaries such as King Of Queens\u2019 star Kevin James, Joey Kola from the Martha Stewart Show and Jackie \u201cThe Jokeman\u201d Martling, Howard Stern\u2019s chief writer for 16 years, have come to Blenn\u2019s shows and lauded his abilities., Blenn has also done stand-up comedy, opening shows for people like Kola, Uncle Floyd, Chris Rush, Eddie Brill, John Mc Clellan and Joe DeLion.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In addition to his work as a playwright\/director\/actor, Mr. Blenn\u2019s company, Middle Class American Productions, has produced fifteen new writers\u2019 series, including American Dating Catastrophes<\/em> XV, which was produced at the Bellmore Showplace in July 2017 and three magic productions \u2014 noted international performers, Joe DeLion\u2019s DeLion\u2019s Den<\/em>(1993) and Scott Interrante\u2019s Tricks of the Trade<\/em> (1995) and Houdini\u2019s Ghost <\/em>(1998). His latest place, Respect The Craft, a comedy about a suburban acting school, debuts this summer.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The East Meadow native has continued to build a sizable fan base and we believe he would make for a truly interesting interview. He\u2019s has been a guest on News12 (with Doug Geed), Ed Lowe\u2019s Telicare Show, Valerie Forte\u2019s \u201cOn the Island\u201d, Channel 21\u2019s Metro Guide with Laura Savini, Public Access\u2019 \u201cMaking A Difference\u201d, WBAB-FM, WGBB-FM, WKTU-FM and is recognized as a pioneer in the all-too-rare field of ORIGINAL Long Island theatre. Blenn also portrayed diner owner Marky Dee in Martin Guigui\u2019s 2017 film, 911 <\/em>and has appeared in Here Comes The Boom<\/em> with Kevin James, Henry Winkler and Salma Hayak, Bronx Bull with William Forsythe, Paul Sorvino, Penelope Ann Miller and Tom Sizemore, the Dennis Quaid thriller, Beneath The Darkness <\/em>and is set to play a lead in the Sunset Pictures slice-of-life comedy, George Bailey, which also features Blenn as the screenwriter.<\/em> Other appearances include Mall Cop<\/em> with Kevin James, Thicker Than Water<\/em>, Evil Streets<\/em> and sitcom pilot, Reelin<\/em>\u2019.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

At Five Towns College, they call him \u201cProfessor Hockey Man,\u201d because of his penchant for wearing hockey jerseys to class. Bearded and burly, you\u2019d be expecting to see him at a ballpark far more than community theater. But the most interesting things in life are the things that never are what they appear. For a […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":152,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-151","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-film"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nyglamour.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/151","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/nyglamour.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/nyglamour.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nyglamour.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nyglamour.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=151"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/nyglamour.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/151\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":19401,"href":"https:\/\/nyglamour.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/151\/revisions\/19401"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nyglamour.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/152"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nyglamour.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=151"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nyglamour.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=151"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nyglamour.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=151"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}