Gorman John Ruggiero brings 35 years of experience with children and the arts to World Theatre of Children. As an actor in the Conservatory Acting Program at SUNY Purchase, Mr. Ruggiero began to teach children acting skills in museum programs and elementary schools. He played leading roles at Purchase and learned fencing, circus arts, stage make-up, vocal production, set construction and dance, but his main focus was acting. He headed to NYC like most of the starry-eyed artists, but was soon working with children again in a newly formed CETA program at the American Folk Theatre on 93rd Street. Soon after, Ruggiero and Michael Burns (another fine playwright and actor) co-founded The Kafftearia Players (a name created by William Randolph at Purchase College). They formed a production company and moved it to the famous Cafe Lena in Saratoga Springs, NY.

While teaching theatre and acting to children in Saratoga, Gorman was inspired to found and develop a child acting company called the Lake Avenue Theatre of Children. Ellen Ciampa, a local education advocate, administered the program for five years, enabling Gorman to produce original plays and adaptations of folk tales, religious tales, myths and history, all designed with the young performer in mind. His productions received high acclaim and Ruggiero soon found he was tapped to write and perform his own television character for a local TV station in Albany. Cappy GoLucky entertained and educated thousands of children in that regional market from Rochester, NY to Springfield, MA. He kept up his work with children on the stage and wrote many plays and other performance pieces, songs and stories for children to perform. In the meantime, he continued to produce full-length shows for adults as well as manage his child acting company.

In 1985 Ruggiero moved to Philadelphia and continued his work in the theatre with children. Notably, he worked with the Philadelphia Crime Prevention Association, which dealt with at-risk youth. Ruggiero recognized that these children needed a place to express themselves in a controlled and productive way. He produced three shows simultaneously at three different community centers in South, West and North Philadelphia. This feat was followed by other shows and Ruggiero also performed in films and television doing such activities as riding horses in and out of scenes of the George Washington movie where Barry Bostwick portrayed the First President among others.

He was hired to teach at the exclusive Baldwin School for Girls, a Main Line school in the Philadelphia area. While there, he produced fourteen shows a year of various lengths. His adaptations of folktales, history, myth, and religious stories as well as his original plays, earned him the nickname: "The Vivaldi of Baldwin". Mr. Ruggiero designed and managed a Performing Arts Camp for the Julian Krinsky Organization, one of the largest and finest camp organizations in the Delaware Valley.

He started his summer program at the Newtown Friends School in 1994 and received high praise for the program and weekly performances given all summer.

Resources for Human Development, Inc. retained his services in 1997 as a crisis intervention counselor to work with extreme-risk youth. These individuals were crack babies who had grown up, victims of child abuse and neglect, and in some cases were also abusers themselves. This group wrote and produced a short film. Ruggiero worked with these children until funding was cut.

Ruggiero has developed a communication skills program in conjunction with SUNY New York at Purchase. This program is currently in two elementary schools in Port Chester New York.

Currently, in addition to World Theatre of Children, Mr. Ruggiero is developing the Painted Pony Productions in Lake Luzerne, NY. In 2009 his company produced John Steinbeck's Of Mice and Men as the maiden production. The ranch is an Actor's Retreat where theatre artists can create and enjoy the beautiful Adirondack Mountains. In August Ruggiero will open the season with Samuel Beckett's Waiting for Godot at the Carles R. Wood Teatre in Glens Falls, NY before bringing it to Philadelphia, PA.

Also, Ruggiero is continuing his work with children across Autistic spectrum by developing a Communications and Social Skills program for children with Asperger's Syndrome. This project is being developed by World Theatre of Children in conjunction with Delaware Valley Children's Center, an agency for children created and managed by Kerey Ruggiero, Gorman's wife. Gorman is currently studying for a Master's Degree in the Science of Psychology and working on his new book as well as acting on stage and in film.

Bios coming soon for:

Set Designer - Ksenia Gamarnik

Costume Designer - Ann D'Silva

Organizational Management - Dale Quiroga

Executive Assistant to Mr. Ruggiero - Karen Stevens