PHOTO BY REBECCA SHAVULSKY
Producer Jeffrey Seller, pictured in front of the Nederlander Theatre in New York; won a Tony Award for Best Musical for Rent.
wanted to be producer, director, actor and more.
"Around the time of my bar mitzvah, I became a reg-
ular theatergoer at the Fisher," he says. "I didn't see my
first stage production in New York until after I gradu-
ated from high school, but I saw every major musical
that came through Detroit."
While at Oak Park High, Seller appeared in school
plays, including Pajama Game and The Fantasticks. And
he credits dedicated teachers, not only for their encour-
agement and support, but also for helping him hone his
writing and communication skills.
"I was lucky to have wonderful teachers," he says,
smiling. "At Oak Park High, Mrs. Shirley Citron, Mrs.
Barbara Goldsmith and Mrs. Leslie Pomerantz, in par-
ticular, were incredible influences."
The admiration is mutual. "He was extremely ener-
getic and spoke very well," says Citron, who taught Sell-
er an English class in advanced composition. "He was
not intimidated by anything, and his maturity was re-
vealed in his writing." .
Barbara Goldsmith remembers Seller as quick and
dynamic. "Jeff was very responsible with a lot of creative
energy, and he was a truly nice young man," says Gold-
smith, who had Seller in English literature and jour-
nalism classes. "Jeff was also editor in chief of the
yearbook and newspaper. I was yearbook adviser, so I
was able to get to know him in that capacity, too.
"I remember he decided the yearbook theme would be
animation, and he did an excellent job. He was very ar-
ticulate and had a knack for telling things like they were,
with no pretenses. He was the kind of student you don't
forget."
When he went to the University of Michigan, Seller
earned a bachelor of arts in political science but made a
concerted effort to continue with theater in every ca-
pacity. He directed Anything Goes for the Ann Arbor
Civic Theater and Shtetl Tales for the Young People's
Theater, and wrote theater reviews for the Michigan
Daily and features for the Ann Arbor News. During the
summers, he was drama supervisor at Camp Maas.
"At camp, I directed ninth-graders in plays for four
weeks, three hours a day. At the end of the session, we'd
perform for the campers, then for the residents of Jew-
ish Home for the Aged on Seven Mile, the campers' par-
ents at the JCC, and for the senior citizens across the
lake from Tamarack."
When Seller graduated U-M in May 1986, he decid-
ed to try and make it in the Big Apple. "I graduated from
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