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

Pat Addiss: Humble Guru

I don’t know all the answers. I mean I’m not some Great Guru. I just know what I know. I just know what has transpired in my life. You have to take chances . . . I will expire before I retire.

Reinventing Yourself: An Inspirational Talk Targeted for Women +50: When act one of life finishes, how do you raise the curtain on act two? Discover careers and ideas you never dreamed of.

Pat Addiss, Theater Producer, didn’t start out wanting to be a theatrical producer.  She was busy running the promotion company she founded, but after 30 years, she handed the reins over to her daughter.  Then in 2005, after ‘learning the tools of the trade,’ Pat went on to produce more than 18 Broadway and Off-Broadway productions including: “Spring Awakening,” “Vanya, Sonia, Masha and Spike” and “Desperate Measures.”  And…she’s never looked back!

We do not have equal rights, Ladies. It’s up to us to stick together and fight for our rights and help each other and help young people coming up. I think that’s so important. ~ Tony Award-Winning Broadway Producer Pat Addiss was interviewed by TV Journalist and Theatre Critic Roma Torre at the New York Public Library for the Performing Arts October 2022.

Pat Flicker Addiss is a native New Yorker. She was a child model and actress. Went to Finch College where she majored and graduated in honors in Costume Design and Merchandising. She married the love of her life and hoped to have 6 children, 5 of her own and one adopted. However, it was not the dream of her husband who really did not like children or the confines of married life, so 10 years and 3 children later they separated. He became a dead beat ex and she was forced to make a living for herself and children. After great despair and low self image, she started her own Company Pat Addiss Enterprises which designed and manufactured all items and widgets with Corporate names and logos. An impressive mix of diverse clients ie ChaseBank, Manufacturers Hanover, Reader’s Digest, Nestle, Renault , Kravis Center, Wall Street Journal, Ms Magazine, NBC, Ashford and Simpson. Johnnie Walker. Bacardi.

​With her profits, she was able to educate all of her children in private schools and cater to her passion of travelling the world to over 54 countries. When most people retire, Pat gave her company to her daughter Wendy (who still runs it) so she could start producing Broadway plays. The first was Little Women starring Sutton Foster. She is still at it with her latest new play Jane Anger starring Michael Urie. Is involved in the development of a new musical Carpathia, starting from scratch. In October she is being honored with LPTW Oral History that will be filmed for the archives of Lincoln Center Performing Arts Library. With a colleague, Magda Katz, she has initiated a formula to connect women through YaYa lunches, dinners and now the addition of upscale tea. She loves to speak to women over 50 “How to Reinvent Yourself.”

Jane Anger by Talene Monahon starring Michael Urie In “Jane Anger,” a new comedy by Talene Monahon, everyone is fed up with the endless waves of sickness and quarantine. The year is 1606, and we are in England, which is enduring another outbreak of the plague. But for one man, a late-career William Shakespeare, there are graver concerns: writer’s block.

The League of Professional Theatre Women (LPTW) is a membership organization championing women in theatre and advocating for increased equity and access for all theatre women. Our programs and initiatives create community, cultivate leadership, and increase opportunities and recognition for women working in theatre. The organization provides support, networking, and collaboration mechanisms for members, and offers professional development and educational opportunities for all theatre women and the general public. LPTW celebrates the historic contributions and contemporary achievements of women in theatre, both nationally and around the globe, and advocates for parity in employment, compensation, and recognition for women theatre practitioners through industry- wide initiatives and public policy proposals.

Any women working in the theatre industry are eligible to join LPTW. For more information on upcoming events and to join LPTW, visit http://www.theatrewomen.org

Addiss, a long-time member of LPTW, has produced more than 20 plays on and off Broadway. Many of these have won or were nominated for a Tony, notably: A Christmas Story; Promises, Promises; Passing Strange;  Little Women; Chita Rivera: The Dancer’s Life; Bridge and Tunnel; Spring Awakening; 39 Steps; Vanya and Sonia and Masha and Spike; and Eclipsed. View her complete Broadway credits here.

  • BOARDS:

NJ REP, Vala, Women in the Arts & Media Coalition

  • BROADWAY SHOWS

Little Women​

Chita Rivera: A Dancer’s Life

Bridge & Tunnel

Spring Awakening

Passing Strange

39 Steps

Vanya, Sonia, Masha & Spike

Promises, Promises

Gigi

Love Letters

Eclipsed

War Horse

A Christmas Story

And my favorite Off-Broadway show:

Desperate Measures, currently playing around the country.

Make a contribution to Vote Mama today »

Vote Mama is the first PAC in the country dedicated to increasing the political power of Democratic moms.

We believe that our country needs more moms representing our neighborhoods, our communities, and our families because we know that they are dedicated to investing in equitable solutions for future generations to come.

Vote Mama helps progressive moms break barriers to running for office by disrupting the systems that hold women back through providing direct financial support, mentorship, and endorsements.

DONATE NOW to help us elect brave pro-choice Democratic mamas – up and & down the ballot and across the country!