Podcasts – First Online with Fran

Romy Nordlinger: An Empowering Voice

September 26, 2022 by drfrances Leave a Comment

Learning through The Arts [as] being one of the most transformative vehicles in which we really get to a person’s soul and to realize they’re not alone in their feelings and that is by exchanging [ideas] and THAT is what theatre does…We have everything to gain by stories being told that we need to hear now and now more than ever.

Romy Nordlinger is a NYC based Actor/Playwright and Audiobook Narrator. An award-winning bestselling Audiobook Narrator, Romy has recorded over 350 titles. Her acting roles include Guest and Co-starring roles on Bull, Manifest, FBI, Law & Order (Officer Talbor) and numerous independent films.

Her acclaimed solo show PLACES (now Garden Of Alla) based on the life of trailblazing Broadway and Silent Film star Alla Nazimova, recently played at The Kennedy Center as well as 59E59, Edinburgh Fringe, Jerry Orbach Theatre Center, HERE Theater, The Jewish Museum, The Players Club, Dixon Place.

Romy’s original multimedia solo show Garden of Alla, tells the story of Alla Nazimova, the rule-breaking, lesbian Broadway and Hollywood legend. From a Jewish immigrant fleeing Crimea and the Tsars to Hollywood’s first female director and producer and one of Broadways’ brightest stars, Nazimova was a trailblazer who wouldn’t be silenced. Nordlinger’s solo performance reimagines one of the most daring and censored artists of the 20th century who tells it like it was… and still is.

A constant video stream is projected behind and onto the performer throughout the play, becoming a part of her. This visual landscape of atmospheric textures echoes Nazimova’s thoughts, layered with scratched celluloid, as if from a flickering silent movie projector. Evocative images inform moments of her life in Russia, New York and Hollywood, including her infamous Garden of Allah.

The sumptuous musical score by Nick T. Moore accompanies the play.

Directed by Lorca Peress.

Some Off-Broadway credits include Ginger in Lancelot by Steven Fechter (The Woodsman) at Judson Gym, Shakespeare’s Slave at the Clurman and Caligula at The Kirk Theatre Row. Regionally she’s performed at Actors Theatre Of Lousiville, Wilma, & Shubert amongst many others.

Amongst other plays by Romy: The Feeling Part (Jimmy’s No.43/Playwrighting Collective, and live streamed internationally by LoNyLa), Sex & Sealing Wax (Estrogenious Festival, MITF), Broadville (Source Theatre, Clurman Theatre), Lipshtick (New York International Fringe Festival/Dixon Place). She livestreamed her newest work Amazing Grace and NYSeeing2020 at Nuyorican Poets Café.

As a theatre teaching artist she has used theatre as a learning tool to teach literacy and self-awareness to underserved communities in every borough of Manhattan for the past 15 years.

Member of the Dramatists Guild, League Of Professional Theatre Women, NY Madness, Resonance Theatre Ensemble, Flux and The Playwrights Gallery.

As a theatre teaching artist she has used theatre as a learning tool to teach literacy and self-awareness to underserved communities in every borough of Manhattan for the past 15 years.

Filed Under: Arts Advocacy, Educational Theater, Featured News, First Online with Fran, League of Professional Theatre Women, Playwriting, Podcasts Tagged With: Actor, Alla Nazimova, Arts & Activism, Arts Advocacy, Broadway Historians, Censorship, Educational Theater, Indy Films, League of Professional Theatre Women, LGBQT, Lorca Peress, Mari-Lyn Henry, New York Women in Film & Television, One Woman Shows, Pat Addiss, Playwrights, Playwriting, Roe v Wade, Romy Nordlinger, Society for the Preservation of Theatrical History, Teaching Artists, TheatreDirectors, USA & The HOlocaust

Yvette Heyliger: Lessons to Learn

September 14, 2022 by drfrances Leave a Comment

I am encouraging my students to be students of the world: to look around them, to see what’s happening, see how their lives are affected by world events and the changes of our society because that’s fodder for future plays that they may write or that they may participate in as artists.

YVETTE HEYLIGER Playwright/Director/Producing Artist/Author is a lifelong theatre artist, as well as an educator, and the author of What a Piece of Work is Man! Full-Length Plays for Leading Women. Yvette is a long-time activist for women in the American theatre and was recently named a finalist for the Advance Gender Equity in the Arts 2022 AGE Legacy Playwright Grant.

The Children of the People: Writings by and about CUNY students on race and social justice, offers the perspective of past and present CUNY students–some, now faculty–on the success of this experiment.

Join us in the James Gallery at the CUNY Graduate Center to celebrate the launch of the book with an evening of readings by the book’s contributors Connie Gemson, Yvette Heyliger, Jose Lopez, Kate McCaffrey, Lee Painter-Kim, Javier Riveros, Cynthia Tobar, and Alison Wong who will be joined by the editors Rose M. Kim, Grace M. Cho, and Robin McGinty, followed by a discussion lead by scholar, editor, and activist Conor Tomás Reed on the writing of the book as well as the current state of CUNY and public higher education.

Date and time

Thursday, September 15, 2022

5:30 PM – 7:00 PM EDT

Location

The James Gallery

365 5th Avenue

New York, NY 10016

YVETTE HEYLIGER is a playwright, producing artist, educator, activist, and author of What a Piece of Work is Man! Full-Length Plays for Leading Women. Yvette has contributed to many anthologies including On Holy Ground: The National Black Theatre Festival Anthology, ARTemis Arts Wisdom Anthology, She Persisted: 30 Ten-Minute Plays by Women Over 40, She Persisted: Monologues from Plays by Women Over 40, Performer’s Stuff, The Monologue Project, Later Chapters: The Best Scenes and Monologues for Actors over Fifty, Short Plays on Reproductive Freedom, 24 Gun Control Plays, The Best Women’s Stage Monologues 2003, and The Best Stage Scenes 2003. Yvette has also penned theatre industry-related articles for magazines, blogs, a scholarly journal, and textbooks including The Children of the People: Writings By and About CUNY Students on Race and Social Justice and Performing #MeToo: How Not to Look Away. Realizing that in order to grow as a playwright she needed to see her work living and breathing on the stage, Yvette hung up her shingle and became a producing artist. Yvette’s plays, including her one-woman show, have been presented in theatre festivals in NY and LA, as well as at the prestigious National Black Theatre Festival. Yvette is a long-time activist for women in the American theatre and currently serves as a member or in a leadership capacity with Honor Roll! (an advocacy group for women+ playwrights over 40), Dramatists Guild’s Diversity Equity Inclusion Access committee, the League of Professional Theatre Women, and 50/50 in 2020. Awards: Finalist – Advance Gender Equity in the Arts 2022 AGE Legacy Playwright Grant finalist, AUDELCO Recognition Award for Excellence in Black Theatre’s August Wilson Playwright Award, National Black Theatre Festival Emerging Producer Award, and Best Playwright nomination NAACP’s Annual Theatre Awards, among others. Memberships: Dramatist Guild, AEA, SDC, and AFTRA-SAG. Yvette Heyliger | New Play Exchange

Social Media:

Facebook: Yvette Heyliger | Facebook

Twitter: Yvette Heyliger (@Twinbizness) / Twitter

Instagram: Yvette Heyliger (@twinbizness)

LinkedIn: Yvette Heyliger | LinkedIn

Filed Under: Arts Advocacy, Educational Theater, Featured News, First Online with Fran, League of Professional Theatre Women, Playwriting, Podcasts Tagged With: #METOO, A Bedroom Farce, Actor, Advance Gender Equity in the Arts Legacy Playwright Grant, American Academy of Dramatic Artsa, Arts Advocacy, Black Lives Matter, CUNY, CUNY Graduate Center, Educational Theatre, Jon Stewart, League of Professional Theatre Women, New Work, Playwrights, Playwrit8ing, Queen Charlotte Of England, Rachel Cruthers Award, Racism, Social & Political Activism, The Chi8ldren of the People, The Children of the People, What A Pice of Work is Man!, Young Playwrights Inc., Yvette Heyliger

Joan Kane: Speaking Truth

July 29, 2022 by drfrances Leave a Comment

I had to tell my story. I needed to be able to say, ‘Look, I grew up in a time period in Brooklyn where racism was horrific and it was rampant.’ I needed to talk about sexual assault. I needed to talk about survival; how you can have horrible things happen to you. . . And I think it’s relevant today . . . I wanted to give some hope to folks: Look! Yeah, you can do it! You can go, you can push ahead. Tell your stories. Make sure that your truth is out there. For me, it’s very important that my truth is out there because, I believe, it’s truth that sets us free.

Joan Kane (writer/actor/producer) is the founding Artistic Director of Ego Actus.

The theatre is my church and I am a true believer. I see shows, I write plays. I produce, direct and perform. I love to see stories brought to life and I love making them.

Almost 13 by Joan Kane will be presented by Ego Actus in the Edinburgh Festival Fringe at Greenside Venues, 6 Infirmary St in August 2022. The play dramatizes the memories of a young girl’s violent summer in Brooklyn. Emotionally broken from witnessing a murder and ore, she finds herself dancing with a ghost. Can she survive being caught between a disintegrating family and racial violence?

This is a solo adaptation of the memories of a young girl’s hot, sweaty summer in Brooklyn. Can she survive being caught between a disintegrating family at home and racial violence on the streets? All she wants to do is jump in the waves at Coney Island and see the fireworks. Joan wrote the original 15 character play at the LaMama playwriting symposium in Umbria, Italy.

EGO ACTUS PRESENTS “ALMOST 13”
WRITTEN AND PERFORMED BY JOAN KANE,
DIRECTED BY BRUCE A! KRAEMER.
These are the memories of a young girl’s violent summer in Brooklyn.
Can she survive a disintegrating family and racial violence?
WHERE AND WHEN:
In the 2022 Edinburgh Festival Fringe
at Greenside Venues, 6 Infirmary St, Edinburgh EH1 1LS, Scotland
August 8 to 13 at 18:30
August 15 to 20 at 18:30
August 22 to 27 at 16:10
Tickets £12.00 (Concession £10.00)
Run time: 50 minutes

Edinburgh Festival Review

Published August 23, 2022 by Paul Levy

This is visceral, credible and well written drama, documentary yet delivered in part-fictional style through character acting, storytelling, occasional heart-breaking humour and a life-affirming message that lingers as we leave the theatre, pondering, humbled and ready to start talking further about Almost 13.

Bruce A! Kraemer (producer, designer, and playwright) is the producer of all Ego Actus shows.

Joan was named one of the 2011 People of the Year in honor of her contributions to the
NY theatre scene and inducted to the Indie Theatre Hall of Fame by nytheatre.com. Her
shows have been nominated for 61 awards, winning 21. Joan has also directed plays and
readings at the Lark, Ensemble Studio Theatre, Urban Stages, Workshop Theater, Nylon
Fusion, Articulate Theatre, Abingdon Theatre, Oberon Theatre, the Samuel French Short
Play Festival, the Actors Studio, T. Schreiber Studio, the Broadway Bound festival and
many others. Joan graduated from the High School of Performing Arts, studied acting at
the Neighborhood Playhouse and has an MFA in Directing from The New School and an
MS in Museum Education from Bank Street College. Early in her career she was an
Equity, AFTRA and SAG actress. She later became a teaching artist for Henry St
Settlement, Young Playwrights and Theatre for a New Audience. Joan went on to teach in
New York City Public Schools and she was a staff developer and at Fordham University
as an adjunct professor for both under graduate and graduate classes. Joan is a member of
The New York Madness Company, Rising Sun Performance Company, The Episcopal
Actors’ Guild, the League of Independent Theatre, the Dramatists Guild, New York
Women In Film and Television and the Society of Stage Directors & Choreographers. She
is a voting member for the New York Innovative Theatre Awards Artistic Achievement
committee and a Nominator for the Kilroys List. Joan is also an ex-officio Vice President
for Programming on the Executive Board of Directors of the League of Professional
Theatre Women.

Social Media Links
Twitter: @EgoActus, @kanejoan1
Facebook: EgoActus, Joan Kane
Instagram: egoactus, joankane9, kanejoan
Website: http://www.EgoActus.com, http://www.JoanKane.us

#ALMOST13 #One WomanShows #metoo #ViolaDavisFindingMe #EGO ACTUS #Sexualassault #Playwriting #Women’sRights

Filed Under: Arts Advocacy, Educational Theater, Featured News, League of Professional Theatre Women, Playwriting, Podcasts Tagged With: #METOO, 59E59 Theater, Almost 13, Art Advocacy, Arts Advocacy, Bruce A Kraemer, Catherine Filloux, Edinburgh Festival, EGO ACTUS, Finding Me, Independent Theatre, Joan Kane, League of Professional Theatre Women, New Works, NYWIFT, One-Woman Shows, Playwrights, Racism, Sexual Assault, Social & Political Activism, The League of Professional Theatre Women, Umbria Writing Series, Viola Davis, Young Playwrights Inc.

Emma Palzere-Rae: Raising Representation Awareness

July 27, 2022 by drfrances Leave a Comment

Theatre is a way to bring people together in a non-confrontational way. You could do theatre as a political act and say it’s a political act; you can do theatre as an art and bring people together in the room to have that experience while people are being entertained and reacting emotionally; that they react and get them thinking and hopefully move them to take action these days.

Emma Palzere-Rae is a playwright, actor, director, producer and non-profit administrator. Emma spent 15 years as part of the NYC theater community, where she began producing one-woman plays and founded the Womenkind Festival. Over its ten-year run, Womenkind presented nearly 75 different performers, mainly original works. She is the Associate Director at Artreach, Inc. (Norwich, CT), and has also held the position of Artistic Director for Plays for Living (NYC), a touring company dedicated to social change, where she also wrote and developed plays for the repertoire.

Theater has the power to heal — bringing people together for a common shared experience, to laugh, to cry, to learn and, perhaps, to have a personal revelation or catharsis. Theater provides a space for personal and social change. Through my solo plays, I create theater that is a channel for that healing.

Be Well Productions is receiving a grant to develop a new work! Thanks to @CultureSECT for all their work in creating this funding opportunity for our local artists and organizations.

Emma’s plays include “Aunt Hattie’s House”, about what compelled Harriet Beecher Stowe to pen “Uncle Tom’s Cabin”, and “Live from the Milky Way… It’s Gilda Radner!” Her current projects include “The Woodhull Project” about 1872 Presidential candidate, Victoria Woodhull; and the two-act “Finders Weepers”. Her one-woman plays tour throughout the country under the banner of Be Well Productions. Emma is passionate about nurturing theater artists and co-founded The Way of the Labyrinth Playwright’s Retreat, held every June since 2015 in southeastern Connecticut. Emma has also been an adjunct professor in the Arts Administration program in the Dramatic Arts Department at the University of Connecticut. Emma serves on the steering committee of the League of Professional Theatre Women (CT Chapter) and the boards of the CT Chapter of the Association of Fundraising Professionals, New London Arts Council, and East Lynne Theater Company. She is also a member of Actors Equity Association and the Dramatists Guild, where she serves as the regional representative for New England-West. Emma holds a B.F.A in Acting with minors in Creative Writing and Speech from Emerson College, Boston. In 2021, Emma was awarded an Artist Fellowship from the CT Office of the Arts.

An Arts & Health Agency

Supporting mental health and wellness through the creative and performing arts since 1985!

Social Media:

https://www.facebook.com/BeWellProductions/
Instagram: @emma_be_well

@ artreachheals

#BeWellProductions

#CreativityHeals

#VictoriaWoodhull

#HarrietBeecherStowe

#JuliaMargaretCameron

Filed Under: Arts Advocacy, Educational Theater, Featured News, First Online with Fran, League of Professional Theatre Women, Playwriting, Podcasts, Resources Tagged With: @CultureSECT Grant, AEA, Ageism, Art Heals, Artist Fellowship, Artreach, Arts Advocacy, Association of Fundraising Professionals, Be Well Productions, Cancer Survivor, East Lynne Theater Company, Emma Palzere-rae, Harriet Beecher Stowe, Julia Margaret Cameron, Mental Illness, New London Arts Council, New Works, NYWIFT, One Woman Shows, Photography, Plays for Living, Playwrights, Playwriting, Social & Political Activism, The Way of the Labryinth Playwrights' Retreat, Theatre Education, University of Connecticut, Victoria Woodhull, Womankind Festival, Womenkind Festival

Dani Martineck: Pronouns Matter

June 29, 2022 by drfrances Leave a Comment

In the moment we’re in, I myself, as an individual, have developed certain habits in ways of being where … if I am misgendered like it happened at the beginning of this conversation, to me, it becomes a learning opportunity.

Dani Martineck is a New York-based non-binary actor, writer, and award-winning audiobook narrator with a background in experimental psychology.

I’m a storyteller. I’ve found that in communicating truthfully through the stories I tell, other people feel seen and understood, and it just radiates this ripple of openheartedness outward to places I’ll never know.

they/them – what’s this?

Dani is here to celebrate moments of connection that bridge our experiential differences and create radical empathy. They bring their experience as a storyteller (as an actor, writer, and award-winning audiobook narrator), their experience as someone with their own daily meditation practice, and their experience as one who has found meaning living between several binaries to their offerings to you.

On screen, Dani has a recurring role on Blue Bloods on CBS, they can be seen (for a few seconds) cursing at Kendall Roy on HBO’s Succession and (for many more seconds) in short queer rom com Potion Masters, as well as several other short films and series. Their first audiobook narration, for We’re Not From Here by Geoff Rodkey for Penguin Random House, won an Odyssey Honor. Through both their acting and their writing, Dani celebrates moments of connection that bridge our experiential differences and create radical empathy. They also offer meditations for free on Insight Timer and in a more personalized process for custom guided meditations.

Explore some of Dani’s work:

Screenwriter, Producer, Actor:

Experimental-narrative short film The Rushing of the Sea explores familial loss and grief as an immersive experience. Younger and Older are adult siblings who’ve just lost their mother to terminal illness. Older is processing by taking care of Younger, who has sunk into a grief where she intrusively relives the last perfect day the three of them had together: on the beach, with the rushing of the sea underscoring impermanence. When Older has to leave Younger alone for the first time since the funeral, Younger’s surreal, sensory grief threatens to drown her. She must turn into the swell and face it, accepting the help and love of her family—both here and gone—to resurface.