about us

A Sketch of New York Productions Inc. is a 501 c(3) nonprofit organization dedicated to rebuilding the sense of community in the arts that once allowed New York City to become the collaborative theater capital of the world, but has not truly existed here for about 40 years.  We are committed to elevating the legions of actors, writers, and other theater professionals who flock to New York in a dedicated serious attempt to “make it here” in a not just nonexploitative, but an actively antiexploitative way.

We also host private classes in writing, sketch comedy, stage combat and other essential theater skills, and, during the worst of the COVID-19 pandemic, held an online charity livestream to raise money for actors whose only sources of income had been halted by the virus. 100% of all monies raised through that charity drive went directly back into the pockets of those performers. 

We do this all without charging anything in “membership fees,” requiring any “audience invite quotas” from our actors, or ever accepting a dime from the performers we work with.  Every cent we make is entirely raised through ticket sales and private charitable donations.  

We are dedicated, above all, to empowering the theatrical community that we work with in an industry and in a city that all too often seeks to exploit and take advantage of them.

Since our inception in 2016 (pausing only due to the COVID-19 pandemic) we have worked with thousands of actors and staged hundreds of individual unique runs of our shows.  We run our “flagship show” - A Sketch of New York - roughly every three weeks with up to three individual unique casts.  We also periodically perform other sketch shows, including: “Our New York,” “More New York Stories,” “If You Can Make It Here,” the post-quarantine lockdown special “A Sketch of New York: Dead Forever,” our annual Queer Pride Month Alumni show “A Sketch of PRIDE,” our annual Halloween Alumni show “Scary Sketches to Perform in New York,” and our annual Christmas Alumni show “Christmastime in the City.” 

We also produce shows developed by the members of our company and give stage space to new writers in New York City. Our original non-sketch productions include the world premieres of psychological drama “Behind Glass Walls: The Anxiety Plays” and metatheatrical comedy “A Play of Sorts.” 

In addition, we routinely help international actors campaign for their O-1 artist’s visas and have helped many stay in the United States to chase their dreams.   

  • Joanne DiNozzi (she/her) is the CEO, Artistic Director, and co-founder of A Sketch of New York Productions Inc.

    She is also a freelance director, actor, stage combat teacher and choreographer, voice actor, writer, and transgender advocate and activist. She is a graduate of the SUNY Purchase Drama Studies program.

    Jo served for ten years as an actor as well as assistant improv director, fight choreographer, and director of the Pirate Scenario cast at the New York Renaissance Faire.

    When she is not producing, directing, and writing for A Sketch of New York, she can be found as the co-leader of the transgender advocacy and educational organization TQVoices, or teaching stage combat as well as choreographing violence in various shows and films throughout the New York City area - either on her own or assisting Fight Master J. David Brimmer’s classes at NYU and accompanying on and off-Broadway shows.

    She is proudly the world’s first openly transgender Fight Director with Broadway show credits to her name.

Meet the Team

A Sketch of New York is proudly a 100% queer woman owned and operated business.

  • Darien DeMaria (she/her) is the Vice President, Assistant Director, and co-founder of A Sketch of New York Productions Inc.

    She is also a freelance actor, director, voice actor, and writer based out of New York City, and a graduate of the NYU - Tisch Drama and Acting program.

    Darien served for seven years as an actor as well as the improv and Village Scenario cast director at the New York Renaissance Faire.

    When she is not producing, directing, writing, and occasionally acting for productions put on by A Sketch of New York, she can be found touring various Renaissance Faires throughout the continental United States performing as her religious satire independent act: the puritan Temperance Belowe.

Watch Jo’s Interview with Queerful!