Franklin E. Porath’s (Designer) mentors include Doctor Dina Rees Evans (America’s first PhD in drama), Benno Frank, (protégé of Max Reinhardt), Anthony Addison, and Boris Goldovsky. He attended Oberlin College, Case Western Reserve University, and the Cleveland Institute of Music. At CIM he designed sets for operas conducted by James Levine, and was Opera Director of Karamu House. He worked with MusicCarnival, the Cleveland Play House, and the Cleveland Orchestra. Frank was also a Board Member of Cleveland’s Lyric Opera. Frank has degrees in opera, business, and theoretical physics. He is a Mission Pilot and Major in the Civil Air Patrol, the US Air Force Auxiliary. For Opera at Rutgers he played Njegus in The Merry Widow, designed sets for Tales of Hoffman, and collaborated on the recent productions of Le Pescatrici, Fairy Queen, and Flora. In 2011 he directed the “Mack The Knife Meets The Sopranos” production of Britten’s The Beggars Opera.