History
New England Entertainment Digest (NEED), an arts & entertainment monthly publication covering all of New England and New York, was established in 1979 by a gentleman named Paul Reale, passed along to another gentleman named Bob Taylor in the ‘80s, and in 1995 was purchased by JAC Publishing & Promotions. Since then, NEED has been distributed and sold throughout New England to a wide variety of readers including individuals, arts organizations, theatre companies, dance studios, and music halls, etc.  NEED caters to the arts community having sections covering Professional, Regional, College, Community and Children's Theatre, all types of Dance and Music, Film & Video, auditions and production listings,  and advertising. We are here to provide as much information to as many people as we can with the resources we have. That's our job, and we're sticking to it!

The Staff
A family owned magazine, NEED utilizes a freelance staff to help cover events throughout our region.  The family and staff includes:

NEEDs Owner and Editor, JulieAnn Charest, has been involved in theatre and the arts for about 30 years, which is only a drop in the bucket for some, but for a woman in her 30s, its a considerable amount of time. She has been seen onstage throughout Massachusetts, and has also embarked on a very positive directing career.  She is using whatever resources she has to spread the wealth she's found in the arts to as many people as she can.  For JulieAnn, NEED has become a full-time hobby, (along with her full-time motherhood job), which collectively, have hindered most of her onstage ventures, but if Mr. Stephen Sondheim is reading this, she is more than willing to make the time to be featured in future projects with you. Please don't hesitate to call or E-mail her. See JulieAnn's Resume!

Joe Charest retired after 32 years at MIT Lincoln Laboratory fully intending to travel, golf, play cards with his buddies, and relax at home during his senior years. Then, even before his social security kicked in, his daughter JulieAnn approached him with a possible business venture - publishing a monthly entertainment magazine. The rest, NEED we say, is history.   Primarily responsible for maintaining the subscription base and the accounting for JAC Publishing and NEED, Joe still has plenty of time to go to the casinos, golf and play cards with his friends (too much time if you ask JulieAnn). He's also incorporated traveling into his schedule...back and forth twice monthly to drop off the magazine for print, and then to pick it up for deliveries.  Care to know more about Joe?  E-mail him!

A Test Engineer  at Teradyne, NEED Photographer and Director of MIS, Michael Govang has acted for many years with groups such as The Concord Players (Lend Me a Tenor, All My Sons), Needham Community Theatre (Mame, Witness for the Prosecution, Cactus Flower, Anything Goes), Quannapowitt Players (Death of a Salesman), Limelight Productions (Biloxi Blues), the Hovey Players (Come Back, Little Sheba), and as Andrew in Nashoba Players' I Hate Hamlet.  Michael’s talents have also been seen on the Burlington Players’ stage where he portrayed  Jack in The Boys Next Door, as well as Jack in The Importance of Being Earnest.  The latter production proved his most successful of all, as that is where he met his Gwendolyn, played by JulieAnn Charest, now his wife.  The two were married on September 7, 1998.  E-mail Michael!  See Michael's resume!

The NEED Freelance Contributors