Theresa Chaze: Feisty Filmmaker

The [marginalized] community doesn’t want special treatment. They just want equality — to be who they are, to be respected for who they are. ~Theresa Chaze

Telling stories that activate emotions helps audiences be open to new ideas.  People can only change themselves. But until they experience the new they will remain stuck in the old–in other words, we are growing and changing or stagnating and dying.  My work helps people find the best of themselves.

Theresa Chaze began her career in the mid-1980s at a small independent TV station in Grand Rapids, Michigan. Moving to Traverse City, she worked at the local ABC affiliate as a producer, writer, editor, and director. In the mid-1990s, she ghostwrote two features and two shorts. However, after working as a producer on two independent films, she walked away from the industry. In 2009, she started her journey back began through a series of coincidences. Her time away from film and television gave her the strength and courage to turn “impossible” into “I’m possible”.

Kaleidoscope Film and Television is a new production studio that will produce projects based on age, gender, and ethnic diversity.  We will break stereotypes in front of and behind the cameras, especially for women, Native Americans, and veterans.  More of a cooperative than a traditional studio, we are looking for individual and production companies to join our team,  We will create quality entertainment while changing the world.

Kaleidoscope Film and Television combines the best of the old-school storytelling and innovative production techniques with modern technologies to create a financially stable business model for film and television projects. Based on the concept originally created by D. W. Griffith, Charlie Chaplin, Mary Pickford, and Douglas Fairbanks with the creation of United Artists, Kaleidoscope Film and Television intents to once again pull together the talents of producers, directors, actors, and crew, who want to take back their independence by having more financial and creative control of their careers. By working together and combining their skills, the KFAT team creates a cooperative that will produce and distribute projects that are based on a diversity of gender, age, and ethnic backgrounds. KFAT will give voice to the people and messages that have been overlooked and thus attract the audiences, who have been ignored. This inclusive and innovative business model that will attract the creatives with good business sense, which in turn will diversify, and expand the audience based on all the projects. It will oversee pre-production, production, post-production, distribution, and the licensing and sales of all inherent rights in both domestic and international marketplaces as well as in all current and future distribution platforms.

Horses and Heroes will focus on the human aspect by telling personal stories of courage of how veterans have chosen to heal by facing the fear, pain, and guilt of the past. This message is also valuable to civilians, who have encountered traumatic physical and emotional events. It has the right message at the right time to create a bridge of understanding between those who have served and civilians while helping them all find a way to heal from the inside out. Veterans will also be hired for jobs both in front of and behind the cameras.

Kaleidoscope Film and Television

Cosmos Productions LLC
Traverse City MI 
Eastern Time Zone
231-943-3298

231-313-8327
Monday-Friday 11 am to 7 pm

Website

Vimeo profile

Facebook

Linked In

Twitter

Joan Kane: Speaking Truth

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

Emma Palzere-Rae: Raising Representation Awareness

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


Dani Martineck: Pronouns Matter

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.

Screen Actor:

Voice Actor:

Give Me Away by Gideon Media

Audiobook Narrator:

We’re Not From Here by Geoff Rodkey

The Witch King & The Fae Keeper by H.E. Edgmon

Dead Collections by Isaac Fellman

Paul Takes the Form of a Mortal Girl by Andrea Lawlor 

Writer:

“Pan the Pirate”

“Merlin and the Dragons”

“Storm Magic”

There’s No Place Like Art!

First Online With Fran’s First Podcast

There’s No Place Like Art…

FOLWF Podcast Art

The Arts are imperative — a life journey, a life experience that is like no other.  The Arts brings people together all in one space.  The plays I’ve written have touched lives — they’ve changed lives and that’s what Art does. ~Dan McCormick, Playwright

The arts are an essential part of a complete education, no matter if it happens in the home, school, or community. Students of all ages—from kindergarten to college to creative aging programs—benefit from artistic learning, innovative thinking, and creativity. Celebrating National Arts in Education Week is a way to recognize this impact and share the message with friends, family, and communities.

Towards that end First Online With Fran celebrates National Arts in Education Week by launching her first podcast featuring guest Dan McCormick, playwright of The Violin  at 59E59 Theater.

The podcast offers opportunities for you to join her in discussions on how ordinary people are doing extraordinary things in The Arts to make our world a richer, deeper, better place to live. In these divisive times, tune in and listen to how The Arts transforms people’s lives and remind us how vitally important a role The Arts play in tapping into our humanity.