YNS: Contact Us

Your Neighborhood Stage podcast hit the airwaves (err...cyberwaves)on May 1, 2006. Having recently become addicted to the podcasting phenomenom, Chris noticed a lack of podcasts on community theatre, especially one that would appeal to community theatre groups from around the country. An idea was born. He called his best friend Rob to share the idea. Rob and Chris had actually done a NASCAR-themed talk show on a tiny AM station in Southern New Jersey...way back in 1994. After Chris explained to Rob just what a podcast was, he whole-heartedly agreed to join Chris in jumping into the fray.

Episode 1.1 hit the ground running and included its first spotlight interview, the Road Company in Williamstown, NJ. Since then Chris and Rob have strived to make the show better each and every week. At the end of 2007, Nearly 60 different theatre companies had been spotlighted. Those groups had come from 47 different states (soon...we will get all 50). In addition, Chris and Rob had interviewed dozens of industry representatives and newsmakers.

The hosts of Your Neighborhood Stage also hosted a podcast series for the American Association of Community Theatre called "AACTFest Update" which helped promote AACTFest, a bi-annual play festival held in 2007 in Charlotte, NC . The episodes included, news, updates, and interviews with all twelve festival finalists. YNS already has a tentative agreement to do the same for AACTFest '09 in Spokane, Washington.

Chris Laning, Producer/Co-Host

Chris has been involved in theatre pretty steadily since the 10th grade. He appeared in three musicals in his high school (with Rob). While double majoring in Communications and Computer Science at Methodist College (now Methodist University) in Fayetteville, NC, Chris spent a great deal of time on his minor, theatre. He was involved either on or backstage with nearly every production done at the college while he was there. He was a member of the Monarch Playmakers, Alpha Psi Omega, and the traveling Circuit Players (which he directed for a year. He spent so much time there in fact, that when he graduated he had also acquired and A.A. in Theatre.

After college Chris did a couple productions for local community theatre groups.

In 1997, Chris was asked to help direct a production of "Godspell" being put on by the youth of his church. The production went so well that the Trinity Players were born. For the next 9 years the Trinity Players staged one full-blown musical every summer. Chris produced all of them and directed all but one. He also managed to get cast in several shows as well, including twice playing Jesus (Godspell, Superstar) and once even God (In the Beginning). In 1997, Chris, his wife Jennifer, and their two children, Jamie and Paige, moved from South Jersey to Newark, Delaware. In December 2007, Chris returned to the boards as Father in "The Best Christmas Pageant Ever" for Chapel Street Players in Newark.

Rob Scardino, Co-Host

This is Rob’s twenty-second year in theatre and seventeenth year as a director. As an actor, Rob has performed in Once Upon a Mattress, Hello Dolly, Anything Goes, West Side Story, The Bar Off Melrose, Corpse, Speed the Plow, Noises Off, Little Shop of Horror, Grease, A Chorus Line, Kiss Me Kate, Jesus Christ Superstar, Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat, Children of Eden, In the Beginning, Guys and Dolls, Beauty and the Beast, Oliver, Home for the Holidays, and The Last Five Years.

Mr. Scardino has also worked professionally for Dr. Neff and his Amazing Puppet Company in shows such as Peter and the Wolf, The Christmas Troll, and Fantasi. Mr. Scardino also performs professionally for South Jersey Ballet Theatre as an actor, annually, in the Nutcracker and has performed in Swan Lake, Cinderella, and Copellia.

As a director, Mr. Scardino has a BA in Education and Children’s Theatre, MA in Education, is a member of EDTA, and has directed for Washington Twp. Parks and Recreation, Mantua Twp. Schools, Atlantic Contemporary Ballet Theatre, and Eight years at Chestnut Ridge Middle School.

At CRMS, Mr. Scardino has directed the Annual Talent Show, the Annual Night of One Acts, and 18 Nervous Gumshoes, How to Eat Like a Child, You Can’t Take it With You, Damn Yankees, Merry Murders at Mountmarie, The Legend of Sleepy Hollow, Guys and Dolls, Anything Goes, Peril on the High Seas, South Pacific, M*A*S*H, Bye Bye Birdie, The Outsider, Grease, Cheaper by the Dozen and Footloose. Mr. Scardino is also a two-time Best Director recipient at the Annual Bucks County Drama Festival and two-time winner of the Gloucester County Parks and Recreation Talent Show.

Rob also formerly co-hosted a Radio Talk Show called “Track Talk” with Chris Laning. In his “spare time”, he is also a free-lance theatrical set and lighting designer and singer/songwriter.

Staci Cobb, Co-Host

Staci is a Jacksonville, FL native and graduate of Douglas Anderson School of the Arts and Jacksonville University. After graduating from college and doing a Summer Stock (Jekyll Island Musical Theatre Festival), Staci made the move to New York City where she worked and studied for eight years (1995-2003).

While in New York, she performed in 25 shows (plays, musicals and cabarets), played a lead in an Indian feature film (The Inscrutable Americans), and got to live out a fantasy by singing back-up for the legendary Phoebe Snow. As an actress, Staci has had the pleasure of playing quirks…her favorites being: Fifi in The Big Funk (Altered Stages, NYC); Stephanie in The Book of Tom (Producer's Club, NYC); Sara Jane Moore in Assassins (also co-produced), Mayzie LaBird in Seussical (sporting the best costume ever), and most recently, Meredith Parker in Bat Boy, for which she won a Best Actress Award (Players By the Sea, Jacksonville Beach, FL).

Staci returned to Jacksonville in March 2003 and by day she serves as the development officer for Theatre Jacksonville. Since her return, she has made her Theatre Jacksonville directing debut with Moon Over the Brewery and she has had the opportunity to have some wonderful NYC-type moments: singing with Donna McKechnie in TJ's annual fundraiser Happily Red (2006), singing for singer/songwriter Amanda McBroom and musical director Joel Silberman in a Musical Theatre Master Class, and seeing the workshop of Grey Gardens at the Sundance Theatre Lab held at White Oak Plantation in Yulee, FL (yes, it was brilliant then, too).