The Madrid’s Edie Falco on Carmela, Jackie and the High School Musical That Launched Her Career

By Kathy Henderson
Twitter @KatH_NY
February 27, 2013
Broadway.Com

Before Edie Falco donned mob wife couture as Carmela in The Sopranos, she won a Theatre World Award for her harrowing performance as the embittered wife of a jazz musician in Warren Leight’s Tony-winning drama Side Man. Falco continued to make stage acting a priority while becoming only the second person in history to win lead acting Emmys in both drama (The Sopranos) and comedy (the title role in Nurse Jackie). Now starring as a runaway mom in MTC’s off-Broadway premiere of The Madrid, Falco chatted with Broadway.com about her iconic TV heroines, three favorite stage roles and the high school musical that gave her the confidence to pursue a career in acting.
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Role That Changed My Life

“I was a shy, awkward kid—I didn’t know how to be popular and never wore the right clothes—and being chosen to play Eliza in My Fair Lady at Northport High School [on Long Island] was very, very meaningful. My mother had been an actress, and the idea of auditioning for a play was mortifyingly scary for me. But Fran McGarry, who is still performing, cast me and gave me the confidence that I could carry a play and lead an ensemble. The fact that she trusted me was a huge part in my becoming an actress. My Henry Higgins was David Troup, who now works at a theater in Maine [Everyman Rep] and was one of my dearest friends. I would love to do a [Broadway] musical. I almost did Threepenny Opera with Alan Cumming, but I had a conflict. I find the whole mode of expression in musicals very moving.”

Fran’s Comment:

As Edie’s high school drama teacher, I am grateful and humbled to know that I played a small part in the arc of her career; nevertheless, there are thousands of teachers who have impacted the lives of so many students. Edie was the first to share her story:
“Fran McGarry and Eve Terry, perhaps unbeknownst to them, played a huge part in my path to my present career. Though I was just a schoolkid, they treated me like an artist; made me believe I had something unique to offer. They helped grow my confidence which I believe can take you anywhere you want to go. I am so grateful.” Edie Falco, July 11,2011

What about you?
How has your life been indelibly touched by a teacher who utilized the arts for whatever reason and acknowledge how they were instrumental in breaking the mold to allow you to become who you are today?

First Online With Fran: 7,388 Views

First Online With Fran is endorsed by the African American Playwrights Exchange!

ff12_katori_hall[1]Friday, February 22, 2013
Cherry Lane Theatre playwright mentoring program (NYC)

Katori Hall

First Online With Fran is a TV talk show dedicated solely to arts advocacy as a means to raise sustainable national attention to the Arts. Hosted by Frances McGarry, the pilot episode features an interview with Angelina Fiordellisi, Artistic Director and Founder of the renowned Cherry Lane Theatre in NYC. It’s worth a watch for a couple of reasons because 1) playwright Katori Hall gets a plug, 2) you get to meet the person behind the playwright mentoring program, and 3) it helps support Ms. McGarry’s goal of creating the first TV talk show dedicated solely to arts advocacy– and us.

Testimonial #19: Lynne Harrington-Crick, Self-employed free lance photographer-filmmaker/ retired elementary school teacher

“Music is something people will always remember and be grateful that they had stuck it out learning to play or sing. It is something one carries with them all their life.”

How are the arts re-igniting your community and sparking innovation and creativity in your local schools?

I don’t know truthfully how to answer this question because the problem is here in San Diego and all over the state of California, as far as I know presently, the arts are not re-igniting anything in our community and are not sparking innovation and creativity in our local schools. This is why I retired ten years ago burned-out and stressed. Now I am ready to take a stand for a new possibility of what our community and the way our local schools could be by putting music back into the curriculum as part of the core.

Without music education, I see more students being deprived of a well-balanced education one which enriches and restores a love for learning. Backing up what music does for students and people of all ages are numerous current studies proving how beneficial and necessary it is to have music in everyone’s lives, not just for those special students who are deemed to be the only ones that should be provided a music education because of the born talents. By providing music education it is shown through studies how it develops the brain in all people that sparks that ability to think creatively bringing more creative solutions to any problem we are currently facing in the world today. In fact, it is my theory that we are dealing with so many problems because we need to expose more people to a well balanced education that includes the arts. This is what art does and I do believe most people agree with me already on this as I have yet spoken with someone who did not agree with me on this.

How has your life been indelibly touched by a teacher who utilized the arts for whatever reason and acknowledge how they were instrumental in breaking the mold to allow you to become who you are today?

I have to go way back to my elementary-junior high school days to answer this question. Looking back on my life, I can see how I was in a way somewhat of a split personality if you can call it that, I don’t know. I definitely had become psychosomatic. Whenever I was involved in academic subjects in school that had nothing to do with music, I was very withdrawn, timid and shy, and most fearful particularly of people in authoritarian positions such as teachers. That changed once I started music lessons and I became so naturally outgoing and loving learning in school. There was one particular music teacher in my junior high school that was more inspiring to me in wanting to be a music teacher. He was such a fun teacher that involved all his students every day getting us to come meet in his classroom after school to learn a new instrument or music theory, etc. things that were extracurricular to the program. We were so automatically self-motivated to want to learn more. I blossomed in musical ensemble groups which contributed to why I was so attracted with such ambition to major in music education when I got to college level. Music is something people will always remember and be grateful that they had stuck it out learning to play or sing. It is something one carries with them all their life.

Music Moves Us is a film project to show how important music is, to start up a movement to bring about a change in our schools, our communities, as well as the healing arts. We encourage ordinary people who have a love for music to participate in this project in ways that they feel most comfortable doing. There will be new interviews posted every month of people sharing stories how music has impacted their lives, and people are invited to participate in another way by posting comments and/or testimonials.

Designing for Deep Space | News | About | RISD


RISD’s artists and designers are attempting to answer a question that’s had NASA engineers scratching their heads for decades: how do you make a glove tough enough to withstand the moon’s harsh atmosphere while allowing the hand to move freely? In the Wintersession course Designing Space Gloves for NASA – a studio offered by RISD’s Apparel and Industrial Design departments – students are pairing up to create functional prototypes that can weather the unearthly elements of deep space.

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The Vagina Monologues 2013 at HERE Arts Center


One Billion RisingThe Vagina Monologues 2013 at HERE

“The world needs dreamers and the world needs doers. But above all, the world needs dreamers who do.” -Sarah Ban Breathnach

This February marks the 15th anniversary of V-Day, the global activist movement to end violence against women and girls. On February 18th and 19th, 2013, at 7pm, a V-Day benefit production of Eve Ensler’s award winning play The Vagina Monologues will be directed by Andrea Bertola at HERE in New York City, where The Vagina Monologues was first produced in 1996.

This V-Day production at HERE will benefit viBe Theater Experience, a non-profit performing arts/ education organization that produces original, free theater, music and videos about real-life issues written and performed by under-served teen girls. Each year community members and artists such as Andrea Bertola, join the V-Day Campaign to produce annual benefit performances of “The Vagina Monologues” and other artistic works by Eve Ensler to raise awareness and funds for anti-violence groups within their own communities.

This production joins activists around the world for ONE BILLION RISING, the largest call of action in the history of V-Day. ONE BILLION RISING began as a call to action based on the staggering statistic that 1 in 3 women on the planet will be beaten or raped during her lifetime. With the world population at 7 billion, this adds up to more than ONE BILLION WOMEN AND GIRLS. This coming February, V-Day’s 15th anniversary, we will join activists, writers, thinkers, celebrities, and women and men across the world as we express their outrage, demand change, strike, dance, and RISE in defiance of the injustices women suffer, demanding an end at last to violence against women.

“When we started V-Day 14 years ago, we had the outrageous idea that we could end violence against women,” said Ensler. “Now, we are both stunned and thrilled to see that this global action is truly escalating and gaining force, with union workers, parliament members, celebrities, and women of all backgrounds coming forward to join the campaign. When we come together to demand an end to violence against women and girls it will be a truly global voice that will rise up.”

Why Donate?

We are inspired daily by viBe girls’ brave voices. We look forward to engaging generations of girls in healthy, self-esteem building activities that encourage them to prepare for the future by engaging in academics and providing them with creative outlets for addressing the issues that impact them most. With your support, we hope to increase our capacity for freeing, shaping and celebrating their voices. By becoming involved with viBe and V-DAY, you become part of a rich and viBrant tapestry that we hope will continue to grow for years to come.

Your donation will directly impact the continued existence of viBe programs, performances, publications, recordings and workshops.



Your donation of:

$4 puts a binder, pen and blank paper in the hands of a viBe Girl—her palette to share her words with the world.

$14 covers an hour of rehearsal where viBe Girls shape their performances while building self respect and confidence.

$44 gives a viBe Girl a field-trip ticket where she can learn about theater by seeing a professional production.

$74 provides a transportation scholarship for viBe Girls who need extra funding to come to their viBe rehearsals and performances.

$104 buys costumes and props for one viBe Girl performing her one-girl-show.

$244 puts 100 “Girls Life Adventure” books in the hands of girls across NYC where they can learn information about important girl issues including sexuality health and justice through shared writing and experiences of other teenage girls.

$400 rents a theater space for an afternoon remount of a viBe Production where a new audience of teenagers can hear the voices of their peers and re-imagine their potential!

$1,400 funds production of 500 viBe CDs where viBe Girls write and compose their own unique melodies that TimeOut New York describes as “sending small waves of uncommon jubilation through the seen-it-all local set!”

The Vagina Monologues at HERE

2/18/13 and 2/19/13 at 7pm.

2/19 at 9:30pm.

HERE is located at 145 6th Ave. (Enter on Dominick, 1 Block South of Spring).

For Tickets & Information, visit here.org or call 212-352-3101.