Steven Hauck: Stripping Away Stereotypes

June 25, 2024 by Leave a Comment

Theater is both a spiritual healing and emotional healing and even physical healing for me, and it’s been my raison d’etre for most of my life, and that’s been problematic, at times, because…as a professional actor there are going to be times when you’re not engaged or employed in my chosen profession, but I still go back to the theater to look for sustenance, inspiration, community –all those imperatives that I cannot find anywhere else to date.

I aspire to tell stories that touch our common humanity: the fears, hopes, conflicts, and most of all the love that we share. They say that life is a comedy for those who think and a tragedy for those who feel. I seek to do both. Here’s to life! ~Steven Hauck

Steven Hauck actor/playwright recently made his directorial debut with TOMORROW WE LOVE (co-author Jeffrey Vause) at the Chain Theater in New York. He directed that production, as well as plays and musicals at Newstage Theatre, Dixon Place, Theater for the New City, Geva Theater and the Red Barn Playhouse.

TOMORROW WE LOVE is a gender-bending, comedic homage to the classic romantic films of the mid-twentieth century. It’s 1960 in the wealthy enclave of Noble Bay, California, where Elaine ‘Lainie’ Fairbanks is the toast of the town. She has it all – money, status and an intimate relationship with the Pacific Ocean. Suddenly Lainie must contend with her husband’s betrayal, her daughter’s rebellion, her best friend’s treachery and the wrath of a small town engulfed in scandal. Can she turn tragedy into triumph? Will she crumble or will she soar? Tomorrow We Love is her story – and ours! TOMORROW WE LOVE is her story – and ours!

As an actor Steve has appeared on Broadway in The Velocity of Autumn and Irena’s Vow. Off-Broadway credits include Pay The Writer (Signature Theater), One Arm (The New Group), The Screwtape Letters (Westside Theater) and Crossing Swords (Outstanding Performance Award, New York Musical Theater Festival.) Regional Theater: The Stage Manager in Our Town (Theater Aspen), Sherlock Holmes in The Adventure of the Suicide Club (Cincinnati Playhouse), DeGuiche in Cyrano (Milwaukee Rep), Juror #8 in Twelve Angry Men (Engeman Theater), Marc in Art (Geva Theater) and Malvolio in Twelfth Night (Virginia Stage and Clarence Brown Theaters)

Steve holds an MFA in acting from the Professional Theater Training Program at the University of Delaware.

Film: “The Miseducation of Cameron Post” (2018 Sundance Grand Jury Prize), “Collateral Beauty,” “Ocean’s Eight” and “The Eyes.” Television: Dawes on “The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel,” Judge Bad on “Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt” and many others. Steve is featured in the Spike Lee Joints “Oldboy,” “Da Sweet Blood of Jesus” and “She’s Gotta Have It.”

Instagram: @stevendhauckFacebook: Steve Hauck

Commercial and Film/TV reels

IMDB Profile

www.tomorrowwelove.com features videos, bios, 

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Christine Dixon: Black History Brought to Life

May 16, 2024 by 1 Comment

Harriet Tubman knows how to relate to the different groups because Harriet doesn’t ‘see’ people like [cultural entities]; my audience is seen as humans, a beautiful mélange of people that are just there — all together — breathing in sync.

When you love what you do you’ll never work a day in your life.

Chris Dixon has been directing, producing, booking, and starring in the award-winning, one woman show Harriet Tubman Herself. This production first got its start with a grant from Staten Island Arts. She belongs to SAG-AFTRA, Arts Ignite, The African American Women in Cinema, The New York Women in
Film & Television.

In the theatre world, there are ordinary roles, and then there are roles of a lifetime. Harriet Tubman is among the latter. The famed abolitionist and humanitarian is such an iconic figure in American history, rescuing so many slaves with missions along with Underground Railroad, that playing her onstage even once would seem impossibly intimidating. Christine Dixon has done it over 200 times.

Chris recently worked with Denzel Washington and Spike Lee on their new film project, High
& Low.
Chris recently performed her 733rd- 736th Tubman shows in Paris, France. Chris recently
starred as Harriet Tubman Herself, in her Off- Broadway Debut at the now closed Historic
Theatre 80 St. Mark’s.
During Covid. Chris’s Essay $3000 vs $300 was published by Chicken for the African
American Women’s Soul.
Chris, recently started a clothing line for Plus size women.
Recipient of a New York foundation of the Arts award, The City Corp New York Arts award,
Artist in Excellence Award, The National Council of Negro Women Huminitarian Award
(NCNW) and the very first recipient of the Harriet Tubman Legacy Award.
A few months ago, up the block from Lincoln Center, Chris opened up for Dr. Elizabeth
Eckford, from the Historic Little Rock Nine incident.
The Santa Barbara Maritime Museum hosted Chris’s 700th show in February 2023. This
special maritime version talks about how the lighthouses in America were built by freed and
enslaved men African American and Black men, however in 1843 the United States
Department of Treasury made it illegal for them to ever be Lighthouse Keepers because only
White men and shortly after that, White women were allowed to hold such a prominent
position.

Chris has worked on the television shows Instinct, Law & Order, From Scratch, The Front
Room starring Brandy. Space Cadet Starring Emma Roberts, Luke Cage, Jessica Jones,
The Path, Blue Bloods, Orange is The New Black, Amazon’s Mr. & Mrs. Smith Starring
Childish Gambino, The Affair and others. Chris has performed as Harriet Tubman Herself,
over 750 times in over 30 states, and five countries, including the Caribbean.
Chris created seven different versions of this show, which she performs for dignitaries, at
museums, universities, Charter schools. Community centers, block parties, galas, Zoom
shows, private lofts, and Elementary Schools.
She also portrays an older Harriet Tubman in the short film “Era”, produced by Army Veteran
Delaina Waldron, that has won awards in Film Festivals worldwide, and Chris was named “Best
Actress” in the New York Women in Film & Television Festival.
Chris can be seen featured in Megan Thee Stallion’s Nike commercial, currently Streaming on
YouTube and cable. Chris is wearing the glasses.
Chris currently stars in three new AT&T/ Cricket commercials running now on Hulu,
American Channels 2,5,7,9 & 11. Also nationwide on American radio stations. She is also in
Cricket’s Instagram & Snapchat Social Media Ad’s.
Chris was recently honored after she performed for 38 judges and numerous law
enforcement members in New York after her 712th show.
Tina Knowles (Beyonce’s Mother,) Jessica Chastain, Nicholas Cage, Rita Wilson, Irdris Elba,
Shonda Rhimes, Tyler Perry, Eva Longoria, and Steven Spielberg told Chris they all look
forward to working with her.
When Chris isn’t performing, or driving from NYC to California every three months by herself
performing Harriet between states, she enjoys scuba diving on the island of Utila in Honduras,
and currently patrols the streets of Brooklyn, as a New York City Police Officer with the NYPD.

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Ellen W. Kaplan: The Promise of Play

April 4, 2024 by Leave a Comment

I believe that [National Women’s History month] is about women and social change. Leaders of change reside with women.

For me, working with rather than writing about people is the more radical act.  Work with vulnerable communities requires us to focus on their concerns and priorities, to be respectful of their autonomy and dignity. It is not therapy, but an opportunity for to create healing spaces, self-expression, psycho-social support.  Of course, there’s trepidation; I am a stranger here, we need to build trust. We work slowly, everyone participates only to the extent they desire, and no more.

Theatre Responds to Social Trauma: Chasing the Demons. ed. Kaplan, Ellen W. (Routledge, 2024)

Ellen W. Kaplan is Professor Emerita of acting and directing at Smith, a Fulbright Scholar in Costa Rica, Fulbright Senior Specialist in Pakistan, Romania and Hong Kong, an actress, director and playwright. Ellen works extensively with underserved and at-risk communities, including Arts in Special Education in Pennsylvania; Young Playwrights Festival; pre-GED literacy training; with women in prison, and death row inmates.

Ellen performs and directs internationally, (Pakistan, China, Israel, Costa Rica, Argentina, Puerto Rico and across the United States), and has been guest professor at Tel Aviv University; Hong Kong University, where she was a distinguished writer-in-residence in 2016; the Chinese University of Hong Kong; University of Costa Rica; Heredia University (Costa Rica); the University of Theatre and Film (Bucharest, Romania), the University of Kurdistan/Hewler. During the pandemic, she taught virtual classes at Rojava University in Syria.   Recent guest lectures and theatre workshops include the University of Coimbra, Portugal and National Academy of Performing Arts, Karachi, Pakistan.

“A woman enters her husband’s house in her wedding gown, leaves in her shroud.” -Ismat Chughtai

As a Fulbright Senior Specialist, Ellen was invited to Karachi Pakistan in January and February 2024, to work on collaborations between IVS (Indus Valley School of Art and Architecture) and NAPA (the National Academy of Performing Arts). She gave talks about her Applied Theatre work, (including work with adjudicated teens, in prisons, pre-GED workshops, work with elders, etc, Ellen also, conducted a workshop at NAPA on performing Shakespeare, and 2 different performances. She played Ruth in Collected Stories; and directed 24 graduate arts students in a full staging of 5 stories by Ismat Chughtai. Together, we adapted, scripted, staged, designed and performed five of her short stories, including one for which she was put on trial for obscenity.

Recent directing: The Stories of Ismat Chughtai, National Academy of Performing Arts and Indus Valley School of Arts, Karachi, Pakistan; Noel Coward’s Private Lives at Hedgerow Theatre; Turn of the Screw; Lungs; The Tattooed Man; and a radio production of The Foxfinder for Silverthorne Theatre; The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time at Smith College; a virtual production of Julius Caesar; and The Magic Flute for the University of Massachusetts Amherst Opera Workshop. Recent acting: Ruth in Collected Stories (Margulies), Karachi, Pakistan; David de Sola’s La Nieta del Dictador, touring to Puerto Rico and the Midwest, and a workshop production of La Razon Blindada by Aristides Vargas, in Spanish.

Recent playwriting: Survivor, Outcast Theatre, Tampa; Livy in the Garden at the Robert Black Theatre in Hong Kong; Coming of Age, published by Next Stage Press; Out of the Apple Orchard: Off Bdwy: Actors’ Temple, NYC (2023), Orlando Repertory Theatre (2016); Someone Is Sure to Come, about inmates on Death Row, was presented in NYC at La Mama Annex and published in the Tacenda Literary Magazine; Sarajevo Phoenix, based on interviews with Croat, Slav and Bosniak women who survived the siege of Sarajevo; Cast No Shadow, about the legacies of the Holocaust, which premiered at the Jewish State Theater of Bucharest; Pulling Apart, about the 2nd intifada, produced in New Haven, CT, and won a Moss Hart Award; and two short documentary films, including Mixed Blessings, about Jews and Roma in Eastern Europe after the fall of Communism. She has written and performed plays based on archival research, about Justine Wise Polier (supported by Kenilworthy-Swift Foundation); Charlotte Salomon (supported by Haddasah-Brandeis Institute), and a play about Anzia Yezierska. Her play Testimonies is based on interviews with Ezidi women in Iraqi refugee camps. Her plays were twice named as finalists for the Massachusetts Playwriting Fellowship.

In 2022, Kaplan offered theatre workshops with Ezidi IDPs at Shariya Camp in northern Iraq; see her essay about this work in Humanities Journal.

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Janet Mitchko: Holding Hands

February 2, 2024 by Leave a Comment

I would like to believe I attract heart-centered individuals to work with. I create a sense of safety in the rooms, empowerment and we are in service of the text. I pick plays that are going to take us on a journey that we all want to go on; that we’re all going to leave a little bit better; that we’re going to share with our audience, and we’re all going to leave the experience a little bit better than when we came. That’s my hope.

I strive to create and share life-affirming stories that speak from the heart and celebrate our shared humanity.

Janet Mitchko is the Artistic Director at The Public Theatre, an Equity theatre located in Lewiston, Maine. She considers herself lucky to have spent most of her life earning a living in the theatre. Executive/Co-Artistic Director Christopher Schario will be retiring at the end of this season and her title has been changed from Co-Artistic Director to sole Artistic Director of The Public Theatre. An Executive Director has been hired as we pursue a new leadership model.

Trained as an actress at Carnegie-Mellon, Janet worked in regional theatres, in New York at Theatre of the Open Eye, and with various companies developing new work. She also directed and taught acting and voice and speech at The American Academy of Dramatic Arts.  In 1993, she left NYC to move to Maine with her then husband and CMU classmate Christopher Schario to share the helm of Artistic leadership at The Public Theatre. At that time, The Public Theatre was 1 ½ seasons old and had renovated an old movie theatre to become its performance space. When they arrived in Lewiston a contract was negotiated with Actor’s Equity and turned The Public Theatre into a professional Equity theatre. In thirty years, the annual audience grew from 1,200 to over 17,000 people each season and voted “Best Theatre in Maine” seven years in a row by DownEast magazine readers’ poll. 

Voted Maine’s “BEST THEATRE” by Down East Magazine seven years in a row, The Public Theatre brings you the most exciting contemporary plays from Broadway and beyond featuring the finest professional actors from New York to Los Angeles. Whether you’re seeing a rollicking comedy or a searing drama, we promise you a good story, well told.

The Public Theatre’s mission is to create high quality professional theatre that is integral to the lifeblood of our community. We believe theatre is for everyone and strive to create inspiring, entertaining, and inclusive experiences that celebrate our shared humanity. We tell stories that speak from the heart; that are life-affirming and uplifting even when the subject matter is challenging; that invite our audience to see their world in a new way. We are committed to engaging and enriching the communities we serve and inspiring children with our educational programs. Artistic excellence is central to the mission of The Public Theatre.

The Public Theatre

31 Maple Street
Lewiston, ME 04240

Business: (207) 782-2211
Tickets: (207) 782-3200

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ThePublicTheatre/

Twitter:  https://twitter.com/PublicTheatreME

Instagram:    https://www.instagram.com/publictheatreme/

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Valerie David: Celebrating Differences

July 12, 2023 by Leave a Comment

My mission is to keep [Iraqi Jewish] culture alive; to sustain that culture because we don’t want history repeating itself. And to educate – we are all the same people. We are all in the mindset of being ONE. And that we should celebrate our differences instead of fearing them or being alienated by those differences.

L to R: Christina Kotlar, Producer; Frances McGarry, Host; Valerie David, Featured Guest

Valerie David, is a New York City-based performer/playwright. Her mission in life is to educate and empower through the performing arts.

~David Perlman Photography

Valerie’s mission in life is to use theater as a unique, humorous, entertaining, thought-provoking vehicle to inspire while helping to foster healing, especially in a world with rising prejudice, intolerance and discrimination—never giving up the beliefs that love and peace will prevail and always triumph in the end.

Valerie David’s award-winning solo show, Baggage From BaghDAD: Becoming My Father’s Daughter, is about one Middle Eastern Jewish family’s true inspirational journey of being forced to flee from religious persecution during the 1941 “Farhud” pogrom in Baghdad. It is the story of Valerie’s father and his family’s struggle to transcend their harrowing past and build a new home in America. As father and daughter learn to love and to accept their differences, the importance of family takes center stage as she begins to understand how his tale of survival and perseverance shaped her convictions and her future. 

Because the play is rooted in the historical civil unrest for the Jews of Iraq, Baggage From BaghDAD also mirrors the current struggle of today’s Ukrainian refugees, and the continuing rise of racial and religious discrimination worldwide.

Her goal for Baggage From BaghDAD is to perform it both domestically and internationally as an educational piece to create awareness of The Farhud, an essential, important part of history that has largely been forgotten—a Middle Eastern pogrom against the Jews of Baghdad, where over 1,000 Jews were killed and forever changed their lives.

Some of the universal themes of Valerie’s solo show center on immigration, refugees, social injustice, generational trauma, discrimination, prejudice, mental health, repression, bullying, and the love and loss of family. This play celebrates the resiliency of the human spirit. It finds humor and hope, even in the darkest of times.

It is an accepted fact that Hitler had Mein Kampf translated into Arabic and thus began the trouble for the Middle Eastern Jews. There were plans for concentration camps and gas chambers, as over one million Jews lived in the Middle Eastern countries in the 1930s/the ’40s, and the Middle Eastern Jews’ existence in the Middle East dates back thousands of years. Valerie’s family was part of that diaspora. Her family fled the night of The Farhud with only what they could carry, never to return.

This tragic time in history had a permanent impact on Middle Eastern culture with its main themes highlighting today’s turbulent times and the global increase of prejudice and discrimination against those who are minorities, those of different faiths, and sexual orientation. Valerie takes you on a journey portraying over 15 different characters spanning her family’s travels, their experiences throughout Iraq, Europe, India and eventually settling in the U.S. and those whom Valerie herself encountered along the way.

Valerie wrote and also currently performs the award-winning, internationally acclaimed solo show, The Pink Hulk: One Woman’s Journey to Find the Superhero Within. She wrote the autobiographical comedic drama The Pink Hulk as a cancer survivor to express the empowerment she felt being able to find humor and superhero inner strength going through three bouts of cancer to become a 3-time cancer survivor—first Stage III Non-Hodgkin’s Lymphoma, Stage II Breast Cancer, and then Stage IV Metastatic Breast cancer, which she has conquered. Valerie is a true superhero—she currently has no evidence of disease—no trace of her cancer as of April 2019. The Pink Hulk has been accepted into almost 50 different play festivals worldwide since its 2016 debut, performed in over 25 different cities, including touring in Europe, and is a testament TO NEVER GIVE UP! It has won several awards including the Audience Choice Award in the Shenandoah Fringe and WOW Award in Sweden’s Gothenburg Fringe, and Valerie has been touring the show since 2016, including performances virtually throughout the pandemic. Valerie won the Act Solo Show Award in the Reykjavik Fringe Festival for her in-person performances in Iceland in July 2021. Valerie and The Pink Hulk have been featured on TV, radio, in publications and on podcasts, including NBC 4 New York, CBS, FOX, amNY, Heal magazine, The IndyStar, Breast Friends Cancer Support Radio Network, Mia’s World, First Online With Fran and is thrilled to be returning, The Crisis Help Show, the Jim Masters Show! Live, Tamara L. Hunter’s Service Hero Show and Reykjavik Fringe Festival podcast. Valerie raises money through The Pink Hulk performances for domestic and international cancer organizations. For more info on Valerie, visit https://pinkhulkplay.com/

Memberships include the Dramatists Guild, League of Professional Theatre Women, AEA and SAG-AFTRA. She also performed improv throughout New York City with improv groups Faceplant, Cronuts and Cherub. A graduate of the American Academy of Dramatic Arts-Manhattan campus and James Madison University,

Valerie also teaches improv both domestically and internationally and at nationwide state thespian conferences. A big thank you to Fran for this opportunity!

Social Media

Email: PinkHulkPlay@gmail.com

Website: https://pinkhulkplay.com/baggage-from-baghdad-solo-show/

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/pinkhulkplay/

IG: @pinkhulkplay

Twitter: @pinkhulkplay

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/valeriedavid/

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