Yvette Heyliger: Lessons to Learn

September 14, 2022 by 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  

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Joan Kane: Speaking Truth

July 29, 2022 by 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

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Joan Kane & Gary Morgenstein: Taking a Bite of a Sweet Divide

January 21, 2021 by Leave a Comment

I believe we’re broken. Everybody is broken in some way. Everybody has a story to tell. There are cracks in us…Kintsugi is the Japanese art of repairing broken objects by highlighting their cracks with golden powder. . . the original object is even more beautiful than before it was broken…America is going to be even more beautiful; we’re looking at our brokenness. And I really believe with my heart and soul that we’re going to be even more beautiful after this. ~Joan Kane

GARY MORGENSTEIN’S
A BLACK AND WHITE COOKIE
 IS A NEW OFF-BROADWAY COMEDY/DRAMA
ABOUT AN AFRICAN AMERICAN NEWSTAND OWNER ENCOURAGED TO FIGHT HIS EXORBITANT RENT INCREASE BY AN ECCENTRIC JEWISH RADICAL  

DIRECTED BY JOAN KANE, THE PRODUCTION NOW PREMIERES
THURSDAY, JANUARY 21 AT 7:00PM/ET AS PART OF TFTNC’s ON THE AIR SERIES
&  SUNDAY, JANUARY 24 AT 3PM/ET ON THE EGO ACTUS WEBSITE

Incorporating the pandemic experiences of the past eight months into their production that Covid-19 brought to a halt in March, the award-winning Ego Actus Theatre Company will still present Gary Morgenstein’s new drama A Black and White Cookie, but in an updated version that is set against the backdrop of New York City reopening, post-pandemic. The play’s schedule has been updated. The premiere will air as part of Theater for the New City’s virtual On The Air series. It is now slated for Thursday, January 21 at 7:00PM/ET, with an additional performance on Sunday, January 24 at 3PM/ET.
 
Directed by Joan Kane, A Black and White Cookie was originally scheduled to premiere at the Pulitzer Prize-winning Theater for the New City on March 26, 2020. There are plans to stage the show at TFTNC when in-person performances are again allowed in New York City. 

The cast features Morry Schorr (Modern Family/ABC-TV), Roslyn Seale (The Color Purple/National Tour), Julie T. Pham (The OA/Netflix), Chris Collins-Pisano (Forbidden Broadway: The Next Generation/Off Broadway) and Mansoor Najee-ullah (Mulebone, G.R. Point, The Mighty Gents/Broadway).

Harold Wilson, a gruff, conservative African American senior, has finally reopened his East Village newsstand following the coronavirus lockdown. Then an exorbitant rent increase forces him to close after 30 years and reluctantly retire to Florida with his niece. Enter Albie Sands, an eccentric 1960s Jewish radical, who persuades Harold to fight the landlord. Overcoming their many differences, Harold and Albie form a powerful and unlikely friendship to confront corporate greed – and prejudice. 

Said Gary Morgenstein: “For this new production, it was important to update A Black and White Cookie by layering in the terrifying burden of the pandemic to portray a city struggling to come into the light. While the play reflects hard truths about fear, disease and bigotry, it’s ultimately positive and uplifting. What the world needs now more than ever is love and understanding, and faith in ourselves, and each other. If these two stubborn old guys can come together, so can all of us. You just gotta believe.”

Gary Morgenstein’s (playwright) novels and plays have been featured in national media from the New York Times, Entertainment Weekly, Parade Magazine, the New York Post, Sports Illustrated to NPR. His sixth novel A Fastball for Freedom, the sequel to his critically-acclaimed dystopian baseball-science fiction A Mound Over Hell (“1984 Meets Shoeless Joe”), will be published by BHC Press on March 25, 2021. In addition to A Black and White Cookie, he is the author of the stage dramas Saving Stan and A Tomato Can’t Grow in the Bronx, and the off-Broadway sci-fi rock musical The Anthem.  Morgenstein is developing the scripted television series Joyland, set during the tumultuous 1960s, with veteran network executive Russell Friedman and the award-winning Broadway performer and director DeMone Seraphin, who will direct the pilot episode on Zoom in early 2021.
 
Joan Kane (director) is the founding Artistic Director of Ego Actus and directed I Know What Boys Want at Theatre Row, Six Characters in Search of an Author in Oslo, Norway and Kafka’s Belinda in Prague. She also directed both Safe and what do you mean at 59e59 Theaters and in the Edinburgh Festival Fringe, getting four star reviews for each. Kane was awarded Best Director in the 2016 United Solo Festival was named to the Indie Theatre Hall of Fame by nytheatre.com. She has also directed plays and readings for the Lark, Ensemble Studio Theatre, the NY Fringe Festival, Theater for the New City, Urban Stages, Workshop Theater, Nylon Fusion, Abingdon Theatre, Oberon Theatre, the Samuel French Short Play Festival, the Midtown International Festival and The Actors Studio. Joan has an MFA in Directing from The New School, an MS in Museum Education from Bank Street College. She is a member of The New York Madness Company, the Dramatists Guild and the Society of Stage Directors & Choreographers. Kane recently directed two plays during the Ego Actus Survival is Insufficient 10-play reading series.
 

KINTSUGI is the Japanese art of repairing broken objects by highlighting their cracks with golden powder.  Often undertaken as a form of art therapy to encourage resilience, the art of kintsugi follows a slow and painstaking process that requires patience and concentration. Day after day, week after week, step after step, the object is cleaned, gathered, cared for, mended and celebrated.  The object becomes even more beautiful then it was before it was broken. Its about accepting and celebrating our brokenness.

ABOUT EGO ACTUS
The award-winning international production company Ego Actus (Latin for “My Way”) was founded in 2009 by Joan Kane and Bruce A! Kraemer, who created an independent theatre company dedicated to creating art for art’s sake. Since then their shows, which have been presented in New York City and Europe, have been nominated for 61 awards, winning 21. Ego ActusOff-Broadway shows have included Play Nice! at 59e59 Theaters, I Know What Boys Want at Theatre Row and Sycorax, Cyber Queen of Qamara at HERE, with other critically acclaimed productions at Theater for a New City, Urban Stages, and the WorkShop Theater. The European productions included Safe and what do you mean at the Edinburgh Festival and the Edinburgh Festival Fringe, Kafka’s Belinda and The Telegram in the Prague Fringe festival, while The Metamorphosis was performed in Prague and Budapest. Their two reading series have included Off the Page, seven scripts read to live audiences at TornPage and Survival is Insufficient, 10 scripts seen on Zoom.
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Ripple Effect Artists: Guarding the Bridge

July 20, 2018 by Leave a Comment

July 18, 2018 was Nelson Mandela International Day:  “Education is the most powerful weapon which you can use to change the world.”  Change your perspective.  Visit those dark spaces.  Shed some light on it and spread the love. 

Final performance  July 30th at 7pm!!! Tickets

Guarding the Bridge CoverWhat a fierce evening of theater and substance!GUARDING THE BRIDGE with authentic performances by Scott Zimmerman, Tim Dowd  deftly directed by Jonathan Libman and one-woman wonder, Spoken Word Artist, Dawn Speaks!

It is the mission of Ripple Effect Artists to address injustice and causes social impact through art — primarily by producing masterful plays – presenting them along with talk-back discussions in partnership with educators and advocacy groups.  Jessie Fahay, Founding Executive Director recollected seeing A Normal Heart and was so incredibly moved and thought “theatre moves people.  What can I do about this? Theater can cause a ripple effect”; thereby, becomes the laser focus of Wednesday evening’s performance of Guarding the Bridge by Chuck Gorden and Spoken Word Artist Dawn Speaks.

The juxtaposition of the powerful one-act play about the roots of racism and Dawn Speaks’ one-woman jam-poetry entertaining narrative candidly tackles issues of racism, fear, and bigotry.  Following this, a panel featuring Erika L. Ewing of Got To Stop Think Tank, Dawn Speaks, Chuck Gorden and two representatives from Center for the Study of White American Culture, Inc. shared their insights and solutions to start a conversation about these issues:

“People are hungry.  And what am I gonna do about it? People are helpless. And what am I gonna do about it? Bring humanity back. Be willing to hear; be interested to hear it.  Systems [are] designed to suppress.  [We] have to be in that conversation.” ~Erika L. Ewing

“Why we hate we? The material is not new but the conversation is very old. . . I decided to educate; that’s how I intend to spark a revolution.”  ~Dawn Speaks

“You can’t say I’m not a racist – it’s inherent.  As long as you’re not aware of it it perpetuates. White people fear [being called] racist.”   ~Chuck Gorden

Catch a glimpse of their exchange:

https://www.facebook.com/jessica.l.jennings.33/videos/10156557155178887/?comment_id=10156557162083887&notif_id=1532011170859783&notif_t=comment_mention

July 18th, 2018 was Nelson Mandela International Day:  “Education is the most powerful weapon which you can use to change the world.”  Change your perspective.  Visit those dark spaces.  Shed some light on it and spread the love.

Final performance on July 30th at 7pm!!! Tickets: https://www.rippleeffectartists.com/productions #socialjustice

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