BAB On 3 Productions: Acknowledging Our Authentic Selves

We can acknowledge that we’re all damaged, we’re all broken. That doesn’t mean that we’re destroyed because beautiful things can grow out of damage. ~ Gina Dobson

I’m exploring a me that I would have never known before. Women wear so many hats. How about wearing the hat that I want to wear! ~ Carla Kelly Turner

I started to get the idea that it’s possible to do what you really want to do — no matter what age you are. [My mother] led by an example for me. It’s not IF this is possible — it’s more WHEN am I going to do this. ~Jennifer Pyle

We are a film production company on a mission to inspire, empower and light a fire! Not just for women (left to right):

Jennifer Pyle Actor, Dancer, Model, VO artist. Content creator/creative collaborator. MCAS warrior. Dedicated to carpe diem & inspiring others!

Carla Kelly Turner author, actor, activist whose personal motto is Uplift the community by enriching and impacting individual lives.

Gina Dobson Writer, actress. Mischief maker, wine drinker, and marshmallow roaster extraordinaire. Survivor.

Jennifer Pyle and Gina Dobson were friends from their previous work as ongoing characters on the comedic podcast Fine In Dandee. They joked about writing their own script for something so they could have the roles they wanted. Carla Turner and Gina have been friends for over a decade performing on stage together many times. They joked one day about the funny things that have happened during auditions, and Carla suggested to make a show about this. So, the trio got together, and they started writing…

They realized that they worked well together (each with a different strength to bring to the table) and formed BAB on 3 Productions and went in search of a dynamic crew to round out our team. They wanted a predominantly bad ass team to create a series about 3 actresses over 40 who are aging out of the industry and are fighting to breakdown the stereotypes and take the roles they feel they’ve been deprived of. It’s comedy for sure, but with social commentary built in. The pilot is “in the can” and they will be searching for financial backing for upcoming episodes.

Getting ready to shoot our pilot episode of BAB on 3! A comedy about 3 actresses aging out of the film industry who bond with the mission of showing the world they are still Bad Ass Bitches.

Jennifer P. co-producer and Porsha Brown director

#redsyte#femaledirectors#smallbusiness#indiefilm#setlife

From the series, they are working on a spin-off podcast to feature inspirational and empowering stories from real life BABs. CALLING ALL BAD ASSES!! Do you know someone who has defied stereotypes/challenges and is kicking them in the posterior? Know anyone who is fearless, rewrites the rules, and/or inspires people to reach for their dreams despite obstacles? BAB on 3 Productions is looking for nominations for guests on our podcast currently in development so we can help tell their stories to the world! Please DM us with nominations

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Cindy Cooper: Seeking Asylum through The Arts

Theatre is the one area, aside from religion, where people are presented with stories; they can hear them, they can see vicariously what can happen. They have a conversation with what’s happening with their own experience, and they actually can change . . .making a new commitment to advocacy and that is so beautiful.

Human rights and civil rights will be realized only when we fully hear the voices, ideas and creative concepts of womxn over 40, whose perspectives have long been marginalized and stifled. ~ Cindy Cooper

Cynthia L. Cooper (Cindy to most people) is an award-winning playwright, journalist, author and activist. She became a playwright to use the power of the stage to address topics and issues that were flattened and ignored by popular media. Her plays are united by a passion for socially relevant topics, stylized staging and a dramatic-comedic mix.

Her plays (15 full length, 35 short) include Silence Not, A Love Story and At the Train Station in Munich about a woman who resisted the rise of the Nazis; Heaven Scent about a gay couple that encounters prejudice when they seek to adopt; Stones of Tiananmen, about Chinese Nobel Peace Prize winner Lui Xiaobo, his artist-wife and the fight for freedom of speech, and Running on Glass and How She Played the Game about overlooked women in sports, and All Databases Are Incomplete about the ordinariness and invisibility of intimate partner violence

Stories of asylum seekers and asylum helpers — of the search for safety and the offer of sanctuary — are revealed in unfolding monologues in I Was A Stranger Toosharing the hopes that can emerge from a single act of caring and concern.

A woman, propelled by the memory of her mother’s rescue from the Holocaust, is drawn to help asylum seekers in the U.S.  As she attempts to navigate the asylum system, she encounters a rich mosaic of people who are fleeing persecution, and others determined to welcome them.Drawn from dozens of interviews with people in Minnesota and elsewhere, the play takes audience members beyond stereotypes to the power and capacity of the human spirit. I Was A Stranger Too tells the story of hope that can arise amid chaos, difficulty and trauma.

With a deep belief in the transformational power of theater to open hearts and minds, over 20 years ago, she founded ReproFreedomArts.org (formerly Words of Choice), which produces creative works about reproductive health, freedom, rights and justice, and has taken performances live to 20 states, livestreamed to tens-of-thousands of viewers, and does walking tours on reproductive freedom in New York City.

A two-time Jerome Fellow, Cindy’s plays have been seen in New York at Primary Stages, The Women’s Project, Wings, Lincoln Center Clark Studio, Town Hall, Anne Frank Center USA, EST New Works, Center for Jewish History, WOW Café, Culture Project, Art and Work Ensemble, and more, as well as in Chicago, Minneapolis, DC, Philadelphia, Boston, Reno, LA, Richmond, Cape Cod, San Francisco, Florida, Oregon, Alabama, Maryland, Texas, Montreal, Budapest, Jerusalem, Helsinki and London.

She is on the executive committee of Honor Roll (women playwrights over 40).

Cindy’s plays are in 17 publications, and she has won awards from Pen & Brush, Samuel French Play Festival, Malibu International Playwriting Festival, Nantucket Theatre Festival, City of Providence, Quixote Foundation and others.

Cindy is one of four artistic instigators for Statuefest: Put A Woman On A Pedestal, which uses theater to advocate for more monuments honoring women; participates yearly in ‘Women, Theatre and the Holocaust,’ and spends time as an activist, in and out of theater, advocating for parity, equality and justice.

Websites:

www.cyncooperwriter.net

https://reprofreedomarts.org/

https://strangertoo.weebly.com/

Social Media

https://www.facebook.com/cyncooperwriter/

@cyncooperwrtr  FB and Insta

@ChoiceTheater Twitter

@reprofreedomarts Insta

@strangertooplay Insta

John Pavlovitz

Pat Addiss: Humble Guru

I don’t know all the answers. I mean I’m not some Great Guru. I just know what I know. I just know what has transpired in my life. You have to take chances . . . I will expire before I retire.

Reinventing Yourself: An Inspirational Talk Targeted for Women +50: When act one of life finishes, how do you raise the curtain on act two? Discover careers and ideas you never dreamed of.

Pat Addiss, Theater Producer, didn’t start out wanting to be a theatrical producer.  She was busy running the promotion company she founded, but after 30 years, she handed the reins over to her daughter.  Then in 2005, after ‘learning the tools of the trade,’ Pat went on to produce more than 18 Broadway and Off-Broadway productions including: “Spring Awakening,” “Vanya, Sonia, Masha and Spike” and “Desperate Measures.”  And…she’s never looked back!

We do not have equal rights, Ladies. It’s up to us to stick together and fight for our rights and help each other and help young people coming up. I think that’s so important. ~ Tony Award-Winning Broadway Producer Pat Addiss was interviewed by TV Journalist and Theatre Critic Roma Torre at the New York Public Library for the Performing Arts October 2022.

Pat Flicker Addiss is a native New Yorker. She was a child model and actress. Went to Finch College where she majored and graduated in honors in Costume Design and Merchandising. She married the love of her life and hoped to have 6 children, 5 of her own and one adopted. However, it was not the dream of her husband who really did not like children or the confines of married life, so 10 years and 3 children later they separated. He became a dead beat ex and she was forced to make a living for herself and children. After great despair and low self image, she started her own Company Pat Addiss Enterprises which designed and manufactured all items and widgets with Corporate names and logos. An impressive mix of diverse clients ie ChaseBank, Manufacturers Hanover, Reader’s Digest, Nestle, Renault , Kravis Center, Wall Street Journal, Ms Magazine, NBC, Ashford and Simpson. Johnnie Walker. Bacardi.

​With her profits, she was able to educate all of her children in private schools and cater to her passion of travelling the world to over 54 countries. When most people retire, Pat gave her company to her daughter Wendy (who still runs it) so she could start producing Broadway plays. The first was Little Women starring Sutton Foster. She is still at it with her latest new play Jane Anger starring Michael Urie. Is involved in the development of a new musical Carpathia, starting from scratch. In October she is being honored with LPTW Oral History that will be filmed for the archives of Lincoln Center Performing Arts Library. With a colleague, Magda Katz, she has initiated a formula to connect women through YaYa lunches, dinners and now the addition of upscale tea. She loves to speak to women over 50 “How to Reinvent Yourself.”

Jane Anger by Talene Monahon starring Michael Urie In “Jane Anger,” a new comedy by Talene Monahon, everyone is fed up with the endless waves of sickness and quarantine. The year is 1606, and we are in England, which is enduring another outbreak of the plague. But for one man, a late-career William Shakespeare, there are graver concerns: writer’s block.

The League of Professional Theatre Women (LPTW) is a membership organization championing women in theatre and advocating for increased equity and access for all theatre women. Our programs and initiatives create community, cultivate leadership, and increase opportunities and recognition for women working in theatre. The organization provides support, networking, and collaboration mechanisms for members, and offers professional development and educational opportunities for all theatre women and the general public. LPTW celebrates the historic contributions and contemporary achievements of women in theatre, both nationally and around the globe, and advocates for parity in employment, compensation, and recognition for women theatre practitioners through industry- wide initiatives and public policy proposals.

Any women working in the theatre industry are eligible to join LPTW. For more information on upcoming events and to join LPTW, visit http://www.theatrewomen.org

Addiss, a long-time member of LPTW, has produced more than 20 plays on and off Broadway. Many of these have won or were nominated for a Tony, notably: A Christmas Story; Promises, Promises; Passing Strange;  Little Women; Chita Rivera: The Dancer’s Life; Bridge and Tunnel; Spring Awakening; 39 Steps; Vanya and Sonia and Masha and Spike; and Eclipsed. View her complete Broadway credits here.

  • BOARDS:

NJ REP, Vala, Women in the Arts & Media Coalition

  • BROADWAY SHOWS

Little Women​

Chita Rivera: A Dancer’s Life

Bridge & Tunnel

Spring Awakening

Passing Strange

39 Steps

Vanya, Sonia, Masha & Spike

Promises, Promises

Gigi

Love Letters

Eclipsed

War Horse

A Christmas Story

And my favorite Off-Broadway show:

Desperate Measures, currently playing around the country.

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Janet Stilson: Shiny Objects Exposed

I [want] people to think a little bit more about where we might be headed from the standpoint of communications and how it’s manipulated and massaged by people with all sorts of different interests [and money].

“The future is already here – it’s just not evenly distributed. ” ~William Gibson

On one hand, Janet Stilson is a journalist. On the other, she writes scripts, novels and short stories that largely fall in the grounded sci-fi and fantasy genres and illuminate the human condition in provocative ways.

Janet’s novel, “The Juice,” is a dystopian, cyberpunk tale that was inspired by her work as an editor and reporter, interviewing execs at big media companies about where the heck we’re all going. It was published by Dragon Moon Press on Feb. 9, 2021. If you love the cyberpunk science fiction of William Gibson; the dystopian world of The Handmaid’s Tale ; or sci-fi detective novels, add THE JUICE to your reading list!

THE JUICE, is available on Amazon and Barnes & Noble. “Stilson debuts with an energetic vision of a dystopian near-future America … This cyberpunk adventure delivers plenty of future tech and social commentary to please genre fans.” — Publishers Weekly 

Based on her film script “Jaguar Trail,” Janet was selected to be part of the  Writers Lab for Women, which is funded by Meryl Streep and Nicole Kidman. Stowe Story Labs also selected “Jaguar” to be part of its intensive mentorship program in 2018.

As a journalist, Janet got her “chops” at the storied showbiz bible “Variety.” She has traveled the world chronicling the business of media and entertainment. It afforded her many busman’s holidays in places like Shanghai and Paris, for which she is forever grateful.

Janet has also worked as a consultant and researcher, specializing in the business of media. Separately and in conjunction with others, she has provided services to such clients as Liberty Media, Microsoft Corp., Oxygen, Discovery Communications and MTV Networks.

She has been an artist in residence at Dorland, a retreat in Southern California; the Julia and David White Artists’ Colony in Costa Rica; Odysseys, also in Costa Rica, and La Muse in southern France.

Janet lives in New York City’s Riverdale area. It’s a world away from her childhood home in a gorgeous upstate New York town called Franklin. Cars pass through Franklin in almost the blink of an eye, and she hopes it stays that way.

Her short story “Imaginary Children” was published by Asimov’s magazine in July 2020.

#inspiration #novels #sciencefiction #fantasy #books

Facebook @authorjanetstilson

Instagram: @janetstilson

Twitter: @JanetStilson

LinkedIn: @janetstilson

Emma Goldman-Sherman: Living In Your Power

We can heal. I think it’s really important to be in control of what we’re taking in so that we don’t feel that we have to worry…that we can feel like we can live in our power, we can do things, as artists, that will hopefully push the needle and change the culture and make people think more deeply about what THEY can do if they’re not artists.

Playwright, Dramaturg, and Teacher Emma Goldman-Sherman (she/they) is an autistic, gender-dysphoric, queer, Jewish, feminist playwright living in New York City. Emma Goldman-Sherman is a playwright who likes to challenge audiences in terms of what we think a play can be.

Award-winning playwright Emma Goldman-Sherman creates timeless yet relevant, feminist work that engages on multiple levels to heal what our culture denies. Emma believes in the power of theatre to offer healing and agency to audiences, and their plays tend to be about daunting subjects like war, trauma (including rape, abuse and domestic violence), identity and the conflict in the Middle East. These subjects have touched Emma’s life in various ways, so their work is quite personal even if it isn’t always autobiographical. 

Emma’s first memory of live theatre was Peter Pan at Philadelphia’s Playhouse in the Park in the round. At age five, this was life-changing – to be able to help save Tinker Bell with collective applause. She is compelled by the power of theatre to confer healing and agency on audiences.

Emma builds from her own experience as a trauma survivor with chronic illness, a parent and citizen of the world. She has documented human rights abuses and writes as if female experience matters. Rarely naturalistic her work is inspired by visual artists and philosophers. She uses myth (making new/deconstructing known), metaphor, and language/ composition. She expects a strong collaborative approach. Though she’s broken the 4th wall, these days she’s extending the 4th wall to include the audience in new ways.

FUKT was recently live-streamed and performed 0/27 – 11/13/22 at The Tank in NYC! More info The Tank in NYC! Their work has been final listed at BAPF, Unicorn (x3), Risk is This at Cutting Ball (x3), Campfire, Bechdel, and Henley Rose. Counting in Sha’ab is available as a podcast on PlayingonAir.org and Abraham’s Daughters is available as a podcast at TheParsnipShip.com. They are working on a collaboration with Experimental Bitch Presents called Tanya’s Lit Clit which was workshopped at The Tank October 2021 and the Park Avenue Armory in 2022.

Grief Dialogues’ vision is to erase the stigma surrounding dying, death, and grief. Using theatre, visual art, film, music, podcasts, poetry, and narrative, Grief Dialogues opens new conversations between grievers, those with terminal or chronic illness, and their health care providers and caregivers. We believe out of art comes understanding, compassion, and empathy for all involved in grief. Grief Dialogues was created by Elizabeth Coplan, Emma is a contributor.

You and your donation help more people look at their grief through a creative lens. We encourage you to designate your donation to the Grief Dialogues program or project that speaks to you directly.  

It’s because of you that we create the podcasts, write and produce plays and films, and most importantly, share your stories, poetry, art, and music. Hopefully this work provides you the confirmation you are not alone in your grief and the satisfaction that you are expanding this supportive community.

Brave Space began when I began to write my personal truths openly for an audience. I stepped into a Brave Space I had to create for myself. Now Brave Space exists to support and encourage the female+ voice. By this I mean to include trans females and AFAB (assigned female at birth) trans males, non-binary and non-gender conforming individuals. In 2022, it is still incredibly necessary for women+ to have a space of our own. Brave Space is that and so much more. Brave Space is a purposefully anti-racist space where each individual is honored for their own voice.

Writer/Coach www.BraveSpace.online

Emma is produced on 4 continents, their work has been seen at Golden Thread, WP Theatre, New Georges, UNESCO’s City of Literature Festival in Dunedin (NZ), EST/LA, Dixon Place, The Philadelphia Women’s Theatre Festival, The New Ohio, Manhattan Theatre Source, All Out Arts at CSV, Circle Rep Lab, Guild Hall, New Circle Theatre Co, The Bernie Wohl Center, The Chain, The Wild Project, Capital Fringe, Alumnae Theatre Toronto, Short + Sweet Gold Coast and Sydney (AU), Seoul, Sasebo, Renegade N.O.W. Festival, The Loft at Marble Collegiate Church, Astoria First Presbyterian’s Brown Tree Theatre, Union Theological Seminary, The Museum of Jewish Heritage, Yiddishe Folksbiene Theatre, Greenbriar Valley Theatre, Canal Cafe Theatre (London), Camilla’s, The Culture Project, and others.

Emma is published by Brooklyn Publishers, Smith Scripts (UK), Next Stage Press, Smith & Kraus and Applause.

They earned an MFA from University of Iowa where they received the Norman Felton Fellowship and won the Richard Maibaum Award for plays addressing social justice for Antigone’s Sister and received a Jane Chambers Award for Perfect Women. Residencies at Millay Colony for the Arts, Ragdale and twice at WordBridge where they returned a third year as a dramaturg. Emma has taught and been a dramaturg at the Great Plains Theatre Conference (2015, 2016). Emma was the Resident Dramaturg at 29th Street Playwrights Collective where they ran the Write Now Workshop from 2015 – 2021.

Emma created and runs the global Zoom offering http://www.BraveSpace.online for all kinds of creatives. Member: Honor Roll!, LPTW, LMDA and the Dramatists Guild.

Her work is available at NPX: https://newplayexchange.org/users/1088/emma-goldman-sherman

ABRAHAM’S DAUGHTERSis now a podcast on TheParsnipShip.com – listen here: https://www.theparsnipship.com/#listen-now
COUNTING IN SHA’AB about a community in Iraq is now a podcast on PlayingOnAir.org – listen here: https://playingonair.org/new-releases/counting-in-shaab

https://www.facebook.com/emma.goldmansherman

Twitter @EmmaGSherman

Instagram @emmaintheatre

Brave Space, where I support other creatives weekly https://www.bravespace.online

The website for FUKT, my most recent play https://www.fukttheplay.com/