Her World's A Stage

Whether on stage as a performer or behind it as a director, Shari Upbin generates excitement.

Her skill at directing was evident in her October production of "Hollywood Live!" at Pompano Beach Cultural Center. The show, featuring classic numbers from the silver screen, was a fundraiser for Insight for the Blind, a Fort Lauderdale nonprofit that promotes literacy among the visually impaired via the recording of Talking Books, a program of the Library of Congress. Upbin decided to benefit the nonprofit at the request of longtime friend Matt Corey, CEO of Insight for the Blind.

"It was a worthy cause," she says.

Upbin's love for show business began long ago. She was only 3 when she began tap dancing and appeared on the TV show "Startime." Performing at such a young age was natural for Upbin, whose father, Alex Kiesler, was a radio writer for Jack Benny.

"I was always working, acting, singing, dancing," she reminisces. "Whatever show business offered, I was there."

She received her Actor's Equity Card at 13 after appearing in summer stock theater. It was a glamorous but exhausting life. So, after high school, she married early, had three children and settled down.

But the allure of the theater never waned.

"When you have show business in your blood, it's there," she says. "I became restless and went to work for a community theater where I could combine my work with family life."

She soon landed a plum job at New York's Public Theater, where she was an assistant director to renowned British director Michael Langham. Then, she became one of the original producers of the long-running hit musical "One Mo' Time" and founded a production company, ShaRell Productions, with Sandi Durrell.

In 2001, Upbin moved to Palm Beach County, and she now lives in Boca Raton. She continues to direct musicals, including "Confessions of a Jewish Shiksa: Dancing on Hitler's Grave" at the Kravis Center in 2012.

Upbin credits her father for her enterprising spirit: "He taught me there was nothing I couldn't do. The worst that could happen was something didn't work out, and you were back where you started." O