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.
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.
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.
Pilot Episode: First Online With Fran with Angelina Fiordellisi
On November 19th, 2012 First Online With Fran featured Artistic Director and founder of the Cherry Lane Theatre, Angelina Fiordellisi. Listen to her reflect on the work at the Cherry Lane Theatre, most notably the 2013 Mentor Project, among others, and how they contribute to cultivating an urban artist colony, honor its ground-breaking heritage, create theater that illuminates contemporary issues and transforms the human spirit.
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First Online with Fran 
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