First Online With Fran: Recent Episodes
Frances McGarry
What I hope to do with this show is to talk about my life...about always trying to belong, but then the ultimate challenge of belonging which is becoming a wheelchair user because you're going to stand out in any kind of way. I hope with audiences what comes out is a partnership which is the theme. Let me tell you what I'm talking about, what you won't know unless you're a wheelchair user. I want people not to feel like I'm preaching at them. I'm coming to tell you what it's like and that's my goal --to have humor in it, to have advocacy in it, but to have people in the end feel like they're a team with me or like their allies...not to feel ashamed or embarrassed. This is not a victim story by any means. ~ Diana Romero
Diana Romero is an award-winning writer, producer, and storyteller whose work focuses on overlooked lives and the complexity of being seen.
The choices we have here in America are different from the choices people have in Russia. We can vote. That is the most important right that has not been taken away. In Putin’s Russia, elections have not been free for decades. Opposition candidates are barred from running, and even then the results are manipulated to deliver Putin a staggering victory. So this is what I can tell my American listeners: vote.
– Svetlana Satchkova
Svetlana Satchkova is a Russian-born journalist and novelist who immigrated to the United States in 2016. She covers culture and politics, with bylines in the Rumpus, Newsweek, LARB, the Independent, and others. Currently a research fellow at the Jordan Center for the Advanced Study of Russia at NYU, she holds an MFA from Brooklyn College and lives in Brooklyn. Svetlana has published three novels in Russian; The Undead: A Novel of Modern Russia, is her English-language debut.
When you're running for office be your authentic self and tell the truth. You have to tell everybody what you have done for them and what you want to do. You have to listen to them. You shouldn't be scripted. Shoot from the hip; talk from the heart. And you can tell them how you can't get things done without having the House and Senate, but this is what I would like to do. What makes sense for all Americans. But you have to point out the opponent -- things are hurting them. Ask them not to be a one issue voter; you're not voting for perfect but for Good. ~Pat Ceasar
Pat Ceasar, Pat Is a Comic/Actor/Writer/ Director/DP and an Artist & Storyteller. After attending the Art Institute of Boston at Leslie College she started her career working on Political advertising in Boston as an Art Director. Then Pat moved to NYC and switched her career to consumer advertising.
There's always hope. You can't say the word hope without smiling. Hope is that ability to get up and go again. The Finnish have word for it--SISU. What it means is white-knuckle courage in the face of overwhelming odds. When everything is lost, the spirit of SISU manifests itself. And for me SISU means relentless resilience. I'm incredibly stubborn and the idea of ever giving up never crossed my mind. I had to prove that they were wrong. That they could never break me.
Dr. John A. King is an Australian-born, Indigenous (Warumungu) author, speaker, and survivor-advocate based in Texas.
As I've traveled around the world to teach, speak, and lecture about audience development, in particular, Africa, is that what I've learned is that at the end of the day, people want to feel welcome, they want to have a good time, even if it's something that made them want to laugh, but to feel like, 'Wow, this was thought-provoking, this was interesting, and to feel that I made a good choice coming. And maybe I met someone that I didn't know.' I learned how class, particularly in America, is such a barrier for people to feel they belong.
~Donna Walker-Kuhne
Donna Walker-Kuhne is an award-winning author, strategist and expert in building diverse audiences and engaging communities for arts experiences. She believes that thriving communities embrace the arts and are invited to participate in the arts in a consistent and predictable manner.
~
I want to educate the public about what’s happening in the immigration crisis itself and inside the courts, about the refugees and how they are treated here, but also to make the performances beautiful in a way that will impart something profound to the audience. How do I put these stories into the most beautiful artistic form to go to the core of the human being? What I need from these performances is a call to action—for people to actually DO something. We need to educate them and impact them emotionally, so that people know what to do. This crisis is on us! We need to be haunted by their stories. We need to hear these stories over and over again so we cannot turn away. ~ Irina Kruzhilina
Irina Kruzhilina is an award-winning theater maker whose roles include director, scenographer, experience designer, playwright, professor, and artistic director, creating work at the intersection of visual art, live performance, and civic engagement.
Why is freedom to read so important? I think we take for granted the idea that a multiplicity of voices are accessible to us, and our libraries are places that represent the voices of everyone in the community. There's a court case called Little v Llano just came out of the 5th district of the 5th circuit court of appeals, the district covers Texas and Louisiana. This court case is threatening one of the most essential freedoms that we have which is a couple of First Amendment precedents that were established in the 60s-70s that say that very thing -- that books cannot be removed from the shelves based on just disagreeing with the partisan ideas or the ideas wherein...the threats to these freedoms are very real, and what I try to do is get out the urgent message that we could see the Supreme Court weaken the first amendment as it comes to free expression, as it comes to the freedom to read, as it comes to the ability to read what you want, think what you want about it, write what you want, and I don't know what could be more fundamental than that. That's the message I'm really trying to get across. ~ Rosie Stewart
Rosalie (Rosie) Stewart is Senior Manager of Public Policy at Penguin Random House. A skilled grassroots organizer with a passion for youth, LGBTQ+ advocacy, and championing the freedom to read, Rosie has extensive experience working at the federal, state, and local levels on issues including appropriations, intellectual freedom, and voting access. Rosie is a graduate of the University of Texas at San Antonio and the Harvard Kennedy School of Government
"One of the major ideas behind Fall of Freedom was not only to get some bold-faced names involved to this project to attract involvement, but to get regular folks to participate...We are all creative beings; we are all producing culture all the time...it's not just seeing the art on the wall, but the conversations we might have. These are important cultural acts that are unfolding on a daily basis and everybody is participating in them. You don't have to fall into this special category of "artist" to produce culture. "
~Laura Raicovich
Laura Raicovich is a New York City-based writer and curator based in New York City. Most recently, she curated the inaugural Counterpublic Convening, CIRCUS OF LIFE, in St. Louis, MO and is an initiator of Fall of Freedom, a national call for cultural resistance in the US.
Holding women back doesn't just harm women, it holds everyone back - our economies, our nations, our future. If inequality is limiting us all, why aren't we doing anything to fix it? To build the unity needed to move forward, we have to connect to people's values. What kind of world do they want? For me, the answer is clear: we need women's full participation - everywhere. Holding women back holds humanity back. And building a better world for women is better for everyone. ~Lina AbiRafeh
Lina AbiRafeh is a prominent women’s rights activist, author, and speaker, dedicated to eradicating inequality for women. With three decades of experience, she has worked in over 20 countries to create real-life solutions to the global challenges women and girls face. Lina is also the Founder and Chief Changemaker of Better4Women, her advisory firm delivering practical and innovative solutions for gender equality. Lina holds a master’s degree in international economics and development from Johns Hopkins University and a PhD from the London School of Economics and Political Science. Her work includes speaking and writing to ignite everyday activism, creating impactful change for women worldwide.
I came up with this idea that we would have workshops, and we would have formerly incarcerated people come to the workshops, and we would teach them about organizing and teach about women's suffrage, civil rights, and marriage equality. How impactful a group of people can be if they all have the same interest. They're voters. They can talk to the state legislators and tell them, 'I'm a voter and what they're doing is making my life really hard.' And, to my great surprise, it totally worked!
Amanda DuBois—attorney, social justice advocate, and author of the award-winning Camille Delaney legal-mystery series. Amanda DuBois is the founder and managing partner of DuBois Levias Law Group, one of Washington’s longest-standing, woman-owned law firms.
I was pleasantly surprised and [found it] incredibly fulfilling when we brought kids who I interviewed down to Florida and thank you to the Orlando Philharmonic Orchestra -- they gave us the opportunity to bring these young activists into schools and introduce these young activists -- this is three days after the last election so other kids in these schools were feeling very defeated; in the beginning they were afraid to ask questions...and our kids were in their 20s now and said, "OK, so you're upset.so, what are you gonna do?" There was an exchange of energy between the two of them that was so absolutely gratifying. That was the cherry on top for me. ~Portia Kamons, librettist
SEVENTEEN is a symphonic portrait of young Americans confronting an unprecedented range of challenges, from gun violence to climate change. An orchestral work in four movements with spoken libretto of verbatim text, it’s a powerful representation of young lives at the cusp of adulthood in America today.
Portia Kamons is a writer and producer of theater, music, live events, and feature film. In New York City with En Garde Arts, she produced FATHER WAS A PECULIAR MAN, ANOTHER PERSON IS A FOREIGN COUNTRY, and BASETRACK LIVE, a verbatim multimedia work named in the top ten productions of 2014 by The New York Times.
Ron Ramin was born and raised in New York City. He earned his undergraduate degree at Princeton University, where he majored in music and studied privately with Milton Babbitt. Upon graduation, he moved to Los Angeles where he composed music for 20 Primetime television series and 30 movies/telefilms.
Anything that brings us back into the center of ourselves, into the space that literally is your heart, the center of you and recalls the truth of who you are, you should feel better. So, you are responding to who YOU are, not as who you're protecting yourself from.
Kiana Webb is the founder and CEO of Glorious Arisings—a movement at the intersection of conscious leadership and spiritual transformation. Her work fuses leadership development, personal transformation, and spiritual wisdom to guide people toward deeper self-awareness, fulfillment, and meaningful impact.
We are making sure that the arts remain independent, well-funded, and accessible for all. Anytime anything rears its ugly head to challenge that, we will be there fighting for you. ~Erica Lauren Ortiz
Erica Lauren Ortiz (she/her) is a seasoned non-profit leader, arts advocate, and creative producer with deep roots in theatre, media, and cultural strategy. She currently serves as the Lead of Advocacy & Governance Programs at Theatre Communications Group (TCG), the national organization at the forefront of building a just and thriving theatre ecology.
I don’t really produce plays. There are many other organizations that are wonderful at producing plays, and I’m not interested in someone coming in that’s completely done and all they’re really looking for is financial support. I don’t work like that. What most excites me is when I meet with an artist who would love to do a site-specific piece, and in whatever form it might take whether it be outdoors or indoors, in a car, in an elevator, on a roof or wherever it could be. They see a necessity for why En Garde and no one else.
Anne Hamburger (she/her) Founded En Garde Arts in 1985. As its Executive Artistic Director, she is responsible for pioneering site-specific theatre in New York, using its streets and historic landmarks as her stage.
Our nuclear security has been compromised and that really is a dangerous situation because all of our nuclear sites are nuclear power plants, or they are a theoretically defunct site like where nuclear Hanford doesn't occur anymore, but it represents three super-fund sites that need to be cleaned up because of the amount of nuclear waste. What has been a really good outcome of [writing this book] is this being in the news again, people are starting to understand what a threat the amount of nuclear waste that's already been created can be to the public at large, because nuclear waste is volatile.
Kay Smith-Blum, a former fashionista and Seattle School Board President, spends her days debunking the tropes of the mid-20th-century history. An odd dream and the recent upheaval over leaking radioactive waste tanks at the Hanford Nuclear site compelled her to write, TANGLES, named 2024 Book of the Year by the Literary Global Book Awards and Best Debut Fiction by the American Writing Awards 2024.
This new book I've written SWEET DREAMS AHEAD FOR BED is a story that literally outlines the steps for getting ready for sleep for babies to four-year-olds. Also, in the book are tips for parents on how to get your child to go to sleep. And what I've discovered in the new books I've been doing is the front of the book is the story, and the back four pages are parenting information...So, now what's happening is parents are reading the book out loud, then they're reading the tips. It's a wonderful way to get information to parents. This has really been successful.
Tish Rabe (“Robby”) is a bestselling children’s author, professional singer, animation Head Writer, scriptwriter and lyricist. She has written over 200 books for Sesame Street, Disney, Nickelodeon, PBS Kids and many more
Whether it's about immigrants, Iranians, Lebanese people or Jews in Warsaw or transgender characters or whatever those characters may be, I feel that, especially theatre, is like a mirror that you hold up to society either to its past, its possible future, its darknesses, its lightness -- things that we don't want to engage with every day in life because it actually has real-day consequences, but as actors we get to share that with people to have that experience with us, and I think it changes people.
Pooya Mohseni is a multi-award-winning Iranian American actor, writer, filmmaker and transgender activist. She is making her Broadway debut in Sanaz Toossi's Pulitzer winning play "English" at the Roundabout Theater.
Age tells us one thing: the day you were born and the day you will die, and there's a dash in between. And you know what? That dash is ME! That dash represents who you are. And it is up to YOU: to describe, to define, to manage your 'dash'. Don't ever let anyone manage your dash for you. ~Dr. Solanges Vivens
Dr. Solanges Vivens is a nursing professional, entrepreneur, educator and product of Georgetown University School of Nursing. She and two minority partners formed VMTLTC Inc., in 1988. It was a multi-faceted, multi-million-dollar health care company which began on one simple idea: Commitment to Quality.
I love writing about women because this is how women are, and we're so diverse, right? We show our power in so many different ways, and sometimes it's not a lot of lines in the play; sometimes, it's just the way they show up.
Cynthia Grace Robinson playwright/screenwriter/lyricist was born and raised in The Bronx, New York. "I use my platform as a Writer to amplify the voices of characters and narratives rarely portrayed on stage and screen. I believe as storytellers we have a unique opportunity to broaden the spectrum and deepen the complexity of the stories we choose to tell."
What I really wanted to do was to show a strong, flawed woman - a hundred years ago! - dealing with the same issues that strong, flawed women are dealing with today.
KAREN E. OSBORNE, an award-winning and Amazon Kindle best-selling author of four suspense novels–Reckonings (award-winning family saga/suspense), Tangled Lies (award-winning murder mystery), Getting It Right (recognized by Essence Magazine as a Best Read), True Grace, (award-winning historical fiction inspired by her grandmother, set in 1924 Harlem, NY), and Justice for Emerson, a dual timeline murder mystery due out March 13, 2025.
What is central to my work is comedy. For me, there is a desperation in comedy that's very theatrical. And that you can ultimately get a play to a place where everybody wants to just kill themselves or they can tell a joke. So, to me, that's often where they often land. These are your choices: you can kill yourself or die or tell a joke. ~Theresa Rebeck
Theresa Rebeck is a prolific and widely produced playwright, whose work can be seen and read throughout the United States and abroad. Last season, her fifth Broadway play premiered on Broadway, making Rebeck the most Broadway-produced female playwright of our time.
For me, acting is the greatest tool we have right now to teach people empathy. Because empathy requires you to put yourself squarely in the shoes of another person. I thin, therefore, acting should be a required subject that should be taught. Anything that teaches empathy. ~Adam Davenport
Adam Davenport is the Founder and Artistic Director of The International Acting Studio (TIAS), with regular ongoing workshops in Belgrade, Budapest, Zagreb and Prague overseeing the coaching of more than 100 actors in Europe, from actors just starting their careers to well-established and famous actors in their own countries: including Guslagie Malanda, Jelena Gavrilović, Ana Geislerova, Kata Dobo, Slaven Došlo and Ivan Kamaras.
In BLANK, I wanted to open readers' eyes a little bit more to the inner workings of the publishing world. I started as an aspiring author then became an author ... I was immediately surprised and discouraged by how hard it is for ANY book to find its audience amid all the other books out there in the market.
Zibby Owens is the bestselling author of Blank: A Novel, Bookends: A Memoir of Love, Loss, and Literature, Princess Charming, and the forthcoming novel Overheard. She is the editor of three anthologies: On Being Jewish Now, Moms Don’t Have Time To Have Kids, and Moms Don’t Have Time To: A Quarantine Anthology. Zibby has regularly contributed to “Good Morning America,” Vogue, Oprah Daily, and many other outlets.
Holding people's feet to the fire by just saying, 'You know what, you may think that a lot of women are being hired.' 'I've done five shows last season, isn't that enough to make women happy?' 'No! it's the consistency of the pattern of hiring because we've been doing this now for fifteen years!' ~Martha Steketee
Martha Wade Steketee is a critic, researcher, and dramaturg. Michigander, who loved movies and theater, went off to study literature at Harvard and social science and social welfare at Washington University in St. Louis and the University of Michigan, spent 20 years as a court researcher and domestic policy analyst in university and nonprofit research offices in several cities, then landed in dramaturgy, criticism, and theater research.
I came to New York to meet people I read about in college like Joe Chaiken and Judith Malina, and I met them! I took workshops with Joe Chaiken, and he was very encouraging, and so how could I NOT stick with it if Joe Chaiken thinks I'm doing okay? It was a dream come true. ~Alyssa Simon
Alyssa Simon is an award-winning theatre and film actor, who has performed modern works, classics, cabarets and musicals in the U.S., U.K., Argentina and the Caribbean. She was selected as A Person Of The Year by Martin Denton of nytheatre.com for her acting work and she was also a Master Mason at the Caffe Cino award winning Brick Theatre.
Alot of the reasons why the male/female -- the binary, in general, was for men specifically like white men and colonizers, too, assert dominance and control over people who were lesser than them or predominantly women and women of color is that they could marry them, own them, and enslave them. So, these containers were a sort of act of violence on people; that being said, claiming and reclaiming the labels can be an act of liberation. ~Reid Pope
Reid Pope (they/them) is a comedian, playwright, and Jew (despite the ironic last name) who’s been featured in PAPER, Vulture, and Boys With Plants Magazine. They do stand-up around NYC and serve as the Head Writer and Executive Producer of Late Stage Live: a trans-led monthly late-night comedy news show on Brooklyn public access.
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.
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.
The theater is essential to the health of a nation - of any democracy. And perhaps we are so impoverished right now is because of our inability to communicate with each other and see anyone else's point of view other than our own is that we are theater starved. This is where one gets the whole package of the humanist code is in the theater. This is where the big ideas of the day are truly debated, and this has been going on since the Greeks!
Emily Mann is a playwright, screenwriter, director, mentor, and McCarter Theater’s Artistic Director and Resident Playwright Emerita, dedicated to creating and supporting theater that impels conversation, debate, and empathy in an increasingly polarized world.
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. ~Christine Dixon
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.
I believe that [National Women's History month] is about women and social change. Leaders of change reside with women.
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.
Theatre Responds to Social Trauma: Chasing the Demons. ed. Kaplan, Ellen W. (Routledge, 2024)
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. ~ Janet Mitchko
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.
Losing or winning an argument is not just a zero-sum game. Working together, collaborating is something that you have to learn. The most important part is not you getting all you want all the time, but learning how to feel satisfaction, even if your collaborator talks you into something else. How to find satisfaction within that and helping them to do the same thing. This seems esoteric, but you know something, it's not. And I think that is something we've lost...and something that the world of The Arts could teach our public discourse.
Robert Viagas is an author and historian specializing in theatre. He was an editor at Playbill for 24 years, during which time he created Playbill.com, the theatre news service that’s now the standard source in our industry.
"Art is ageless. There is no number on Art. As long as your heart is in it, you can do it. And that's a fantastic thing because very often we do put age limits on things, and we put age limits on PEOPLE, and I don't think that's necessarily so. I think these people are teaching us that it's absolutely possible."
ADRIENNE D. WILLIAMS is New York based actor, director, educator, and storyteller. She is an Artistic Associate at the Martha’s Vineyard Playhouse, and a member of The Honor Roll, The Bechdel Group and the Rattlestick Theatre Community. And holds an MFA in Acting from Binghamton University.
"Artivism is a combination of Art and Activism. I wrote about Bayard Rustin who served as the right hand of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. for many years. He was a gay Quaker from Pennsylvania and a black man who was instrumental in organizing the March On Washington. Many had issues with Bayard working with Dr. King due to his sexuality. However, it was Bayard's influence that brought celebrities, politicians, and the like to support The March on Washington. Bayard was an amazing singer who combined his art and activism to change the world. Hence, the title The Artivist for my One-Man show."
Carla Debbie Alleyne is a playwright, screenwriter, and director who received her B.F.A. and M.F.A. in Film and Television and Dramatic Writing from New York University. Carla's play Hey, Little Walter was produced Off-Broadway at Playwright's Horizon as part of the Young Playwrights Festival when she was 16 years old.
"It's so important to have that outlook of everyone is human, everyone is worthy, but I also think it's important, for me, and for everyone to protect ourselves. [As a sensitive child growing up] to protect myself, I dove into movies, I dove into playwriting when I couldn't get that connection from anywhere else. The Arts is what saved me."
Stephanie Okun is a playwright/screenwriter/director. She is a recent graduate of Wesleyan University, student at NYU’s Educational Theatre MA program, and proud former intern/current member of New York Women in Film & Television (NYWIFT). At a young age, she discovered her love for playwriting and pursued it at Stephen Sondheim’s Young Playwrights Inc., an organization that changed her life. For her, theater is home and she’s always thrilled to be there.
How can I explain change? It's something that makes me feel hopeful...that audiences, and as people, and most importantly as human beings, we can, by looking at the big picture, be much better equipped, I think, at making change...we have to look at how can we work together to make change in the world.
CATHERINE FILLOUX (Playwright/Librettist/Activist) is an award-winning French Algerian American playwright and librettist who has been writing about human rights for many decades. Filloux’s world premiere play “How to Eat an Orange” opens in Spring 2024 at La MaMa in New York City. The play was commissioned by INTAR.
How do we create a world where we allow people to express themselves, and if they need to be called in, or if they're doing something that really is egregious? How do we help teach them [students] why it's problematic rather than me having to shut them down?
Clara Francesca is an award-winning artist, activist, educator and speech coach and holds a BA in Laws & Biomedical Sciences from Monash University. She specialized in mediation, courageous conversation integration and has over 15 years of professional practice coaching and facilitating co-existing with differences in shared space. Her acting spans from avant-garde live immersive poetry recitations and classical theatre to commercial voice overs and co-starring on network TV. Clara has meditatively sung at the NYC Hayden Planetarium, is a member of NYC’s SITI Company’s Inaugural Conservatory Alumni, co-founder of XREnsemble and performs game-theory with TidalFire at the California Academy of Sciences Dome Shows.
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. ~Valerie David
Valerie David, is a New York City-based performer/playwright. Her mission in life is to educate and empower through the performing arts.
Even though [Don't Shoot the Messenger] is comical it's an opportunity to change thoughts about who we are, and they can see us as normal people with disabilities. There should be no barriers between us. We find ways to communicate. We find ways to be together and collaborate. I was filled with hope. We can achieve great things when we work together. It also showed sign language wasn't a detriment. Sign language is amazing! It's a natural form of communication.
Maleni Chaitoo is a passionate entrepreneur residing in New York City. Her professional endeavors in business, performing arts, and education contribute to her success as a multi-faceted businesswoman who embraces challenges and converts them into opportunities.
"Here's the thing about AI. It doesn't have a soul, and it doesn't understand psychology, and it doesn't understand the quirks of human behavior. All it can do is strip-mine what has already been written by other people. So, AI is first a foremost in violation of copyright because it's using our material without compensating. Secondly, it has so sense of humor and it has no sense of character and so the stuff that comes out of AI sounds very stilted. Third, audiences aren't that stupid. They can tell when there's life behind something and there isn't." ~Jeffrey Sweet
Jeffrey Sweet has had a split career. On the one hand, as a dramatist, he's been writing plays and musicals that first were produced professionally in 1970. They have been produced off-Broadway in New York and on stages around the world, though he's primarily identified with Chicago. He was part of the wave of writers, actors and directors who transformed Chicago's off-Loop theater scene beginning in the Seventies.
Focusing outside of yourself helps you thrive in this industry and helps you deal with so much and all the obstacles we face. ~Donna Benedicto
Donna Benedicto is a Filipina Canadian actress and singer born and raised in Vancouver, BC. Growing up as an ethnic minority, Donna decided to make a switch from full-time singing to pursue acting in 2013 because she saw a gap in Asian representation. Since then, she has gone on to become the first Filipina lead in multiple TV movies, including Incendo's Farmer Seeking Love, as well as guest starring on NBC's The Good Doctor, and booking recurring roles on CW's Supergirl and ABC's A Million Little Things.
My work has always been about bringing people together, forging new transcultural and transnational artistic relationships, and combining research with theatre-making in order to explore and extend the limits of creativity.
Avra Sidiropoulou is a theatre director and academic. She is the Artistic Director of Persona Theatre Company. She has published extensively on directing theory and practice, contemporary performance and dramaturgy and is the author of Directions for Directing. Theatre and Method (Routledge 2018) In 2020 she was nominated for the Gilder/Coigney International Theatre Award by the League of Professional Theatre Women.
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".
Getting my Masters at Harvard at age sixty-nine, I hope that I'm inspiring other women that there are no limits. There's absolutely no limits except for those you place on yourself. I never actually wrote a screenplay and now all these Film Festivals think I'm such a great writer.. . There's always a first time for everything. Why not me?
Pamela S. K. Glasner is a critically acclaimed published author of fiction and non-fiction, a filmmaker, a playwright, a social advocate. She is also a proud member of the Writer’s Guild of America, the Academy of Science Fiction, Fantasy and Horror Films, the Connecticut Historical Society and Grace Episcopal Church. Additionally, she is a Registered Reader at both the Royal Society of London and the British Library.
I truly believe we are in an apocalyptic culture shift ; truly, an historical, multi-century, multi-millennial shift and in the last gasp of the white-supremacist patriarchal society. We are living through that moment...So, what I focus on these days more than railing against what has been we had to tear the scales from people's eyes: 'Hey, wake up everybody! This is what's been happening and you need to look!' But the moment has shifted now and now we have to build on what's going to happen next. And what is already happening. And that is what I spend my days doing.
Naomi McDougall Jones is an award-winning storyteller and thought leader for bringing gender parity to cinema. A long-time advocate for bringing parity to film, both on and off screen, she has spoken at film festivals and conferences around the world and written extensively on this subject.
We are a film production company on a mission to inspire, empower and light a fire! Not just for women.
We can acknowledge that we're all damaged, we're all broken. That doesn't mean that we're destroyed because beautiful things can grow out of damage. ~ Gina Dobson
I'm exploring a me that I would have never known before. Women wear so many hats. How about wearing the hat that I want to wear! ~ Carla Kelly Turner
I started to get the idea that it's possible to do what you really want to do -- no matter what age you are. [My mother] led by an example for me. It's not IF this is possible -- it's more WHEN am I going to do this. ~Jennifer Pyle
Human rights and civil rights will be realized only when we fully hear the voices, ideas and creative concepts of womxn over 40, whose perspectives have long been marginalized and stifled. ~ Cindy Cooper
Cynthia L. Cooper (Cindy to most people) is an award-winning playwright, journalist, author and activist. She became a playwright to use the power of the stage to address topics and issues that were flattened and ignored by popular media. Her plays are united by a passion for socially relevant topics, stylized staging and a dramatic-comedic mix.
Patt Addiss, Theater Producer, I 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!
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.
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.
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 here. It’s just not widely distributed yet." ~William Gibson
"We can heal. I think it's really important to be in control of what we're taking in so that we don't feel that we have to worry...that we can feel like we can live in our power, we can do things, as artists, that will hopefully push the needle and change the culture and make people think more deeply about what THEY can do if they're not artists."
Playwright, Dramaturg, and Teacher Emma Goldman-Sherman (she/they) is an autistic, gender-dysphoric, queer, Jewish, feminist playwright living in New York City. Emma Goldman-Sherman is a playwright who likes to challenge audiences in terms of what we think a play can be.
We're in a time where we are seeing new voices, new types of voices telling their stories and people create their identity through seeing themselves reflected in work, in all Art, all literature, in any aspect. And if you don't see yourself reflected EVER then think about how that impacts your life and not only in the character, but the narratives in all its ways. And that's why I hope to continue to create not only if I can create it, but foster it in other people.
Karen Cecilia She/Her/Hers (Playwright, Screenwriter, Director) Her work has been seen in NYC at 3LD, La Mama, HERE Arts Center, Dixon Place, Theater For The New City, Theatre Odyssey, Sarasota FL, The Coalescence Theatre, Illinois and The Firehouse Theatre, Richmond, VA and Jermyn Street Theater, London England.
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.
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.
Joan Kane (writer/actor/producer) is the founding Artistic Director of Ego Actus.
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, its' very important that my truth is out there because, I believe, it's truth that sets us free.
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
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?
Nicky Beer is a bi/queer writer, and the author of Real Phonies and Genuine Fakes (Milkweed, 2022). Her first two books, The Diminishing House (Carnegie Mellon, 2010) and The Octopus Game (Carnegie Mellon, 2015), were both winners of the Colorado Book Award for Poetry. She has received honors from the National Endowment for the Arts, MacDowell, the Poetry Foundation, and the Bread Loaf Writers’ Conference.
"When we're talking about the power of The Arts -- the healing, the transformative powers -- we're really talking about the fact that we're human. We're humanizing the experience of others. So, we lead with empathy, and we lead in such a way that we put ourselves in someone else's shoes. It's more than meeting people for where they are --it's BEING where they are. It's getting inside of where they are . . . I can see new possibilities. NOW what can I do to change things?"
Erika Lucille Ewing is a social impact entrepreneur and a multimedia creative, actor, activist, and fashion designer, "ARTIVIST." As former Chief of Staff of Black Lives Matter Greater NY Erika, she organized the Find Our Girls March to bring attention to the missing Black and Brown youth across the globe. In 2018, Erika combined her creativity, engagement, and activism skills and launched Got To Stop LLC.
Moise Morancy is an American actor, writer, director, producer, poet and activist from Brooklyn, New York.
Moise always had a passion for telling stories. His career as a writer began as a young boy, capturing personal aspects of life’s challenges through written expressions such as poetry, songwriting and eventually screenwriting. His literary works are transparent and serve as a safe haven for his life experiences. He has always had the mindset of turning one’s pain into power.
The immigrant stories that are here. . . when they see in us the possibility that it's real. That's why I focus on a specific community because we know the challenges . . . so young artists they see in us, [and] know that [change] is possible and we are here to support them.
Margarita Espada has traveled the world in her careers as an artist, educator and cultural organizer, training in physical approach to theater practice. Margarita is the founder and director of Teatro Experimenantal Yerbabuja, an art organization with the mission to use the arts as a tool for social change. She is part of the faculty at the Department of Women & Gender Study at Stony Brook University where she teaches theater and activism.
Writing plays became my way of communicating with all life- from the ordinary people to the sublime consciousness… all of which seemed to operate on the same plane for me. It was clear that we are all human life forms that can conform, reform or deform to the energetic stimulus around us- but when we PERForm- we are able perfect the form, taking it to a higher creative state. I was always surrounded by art. My sister, my cousin, my uncles… Music, painting, drawing was like bread and water. Passion, yes. Madness, yes. But I wanted to know more… What was beyond the curtain? Why is art so important to the human experience?
Actors Equity is opening its doors. I think this is one of the most exciting things that's happening in my almost two decades as a Union member. It shifts the way people can become members. . . It is now OUR choice to become a member and that's incredible.
Jessica Wu is an award-winning NYC-based playwright, director, songwriter, educator, and actor. Performance credits include the Broadway revivals of A Chorus Line and Miss Saigon, and she is the writer of numerous theatrical works including several full-length musicals - YOU, ME, I, WE (O’Neill Conference Semi-Finalist, Live & In Color Finalist, Winner of NAAP’s Discover New Musicals), and Poupelle of Chimney Town (debuting in Tokyo, Fall 2021; NYC, Summer 2022). In addition to her writing, Jessica is an Adjunct Theatre Professor at American University in Washington DC, and a Lyricist-Mentor with the Harvard-Radcliffe G&S Players. After spending several years running a Times-Sq non-profit theatre as Associate Artistic Director, Jessica is now is the owner/operator of her own consulting and development company Inspirate Creative.
Everything is connected. Everything, all these things, becomes a part of YOU. But then this journey does not stop. Some people stop from manifesting what they want because they understand the importance of training and then they let the training stop them...I'm not going to wait until I get the certification [to become] a certified coach. I know training is part of the journey...but that's not a pre-requisite for me to do something.
I spent my mid-teens to mid-twenties dwelling in the "Woe is me" kind of emotional pain.
And I was living in those nightmares in my mind over and over again, making myself a victim of my memories.
Until one day it dawned on me: My past is just a story I tell myself.
It makes me feel happy. I feel happy when I sing. People who hear me sing tell me THEY feel happy; that I make their hearts happy. It's the most joyful thing that I can do, I feel, for me and for others. ~Jenny Lynn Stewart
City Artist Corps Grants support NYC-based working artists who have been disproportionately impacted by COVID-19. Funding is offered to help sustain their practice and engage the public across New York City's five boroughs. Singer Jenny Lynn Stewart was awarded a $5,000 grantfordevising an upbeat musical program The New York Spirit a musical program of uplifting and inspiring songs targeted for the 55+ senior audience. The program includes such popular songs as "I'll Take Manhattan," "on the Sunny Side of the Street" and many other show stoppers including an audience sing-a-long of "New York, New York." Success stories will be shared with the audience intended to lift their spirits and inspire them for their lives going forward.
Holly Savas is a mom, artist and VP of Brand, Art & Community at Creative Action Network. She's a passionate supporter of artists and of universal arts education in schools and makes it her mission to raise awareness and give back to her community whenever possible. Her job at CAN is the perfect combo of all of those things rolled into one.
Take one part blues, one part folk, one part country. Add a dash of Southern gospel, rock and jazz. Season with world-weary experience. You’ll have a taste of Mike Turner’s eclectic original music.
Raised outside Detroit in a family steeped in the traditional mountain music of West Virginia, Mike grew up listening to the diverse sounds of gospel quartets, classic country and Motown. A 30-year career in law enforcement gave him a perspective few encounter – a world populated with smugglers, gun runners and folks on the wrong side of the tracks, and the law.
Take one part blues, one part folk, one part country. Add a dash of Southern gospel, rock and jazz. Season with world-weary experience. You'll have a taste of Mike Turner's eclectic original music.
Raised outside Detroit in a family steeped in the traditional mountain music of West Virginia, Mike grew up listening to the diverse sounds of gospel quartets, classic country and Motown. A 30-year career in law enforcement gave him a perspective few encounter - a world populated with smugglers, gun runners and folks on the wrong side of the tracks, and the law.
Award-winning and best selling author Jeannie Moon is a native Long Islander and imagines that conjures an image of big hair and a nasally accent, but that’s not the Long Island that she knows. Raised in a north shore town that once would have been called bucolic and now people call trendy, she married her high school sweetheart and her children were born in the same hospital as she was. She has deep roots here, and it gives her a history.A strong sense of home which reflects in her fabulous stories.
Award-winning and best selling author Jeannie Moon is a native Long Islander and imagines that conjures an image of big hair and a nasally accent, but that’s not the Long Island that she knows. Raised in a north shore town that once would have been called bucolic and now people call trendy, she married her high school sweetheart and her children were born in the same hospital as she was. She has deep roots here, and it gives her a history.A strong sense of home which reflects in her fabulous stories.
Like most women, she wears a lot of hats. When she was in college, she planned on becoming a famous sportscaster. However, never being objective, she leaned more toward the publicity side of the business, doing work for local papers and local teams. But the plan took a detour and she found herself in the front a classroom, teaching English. Teaching was in her blood, and she was hooked.
Jeannie's books have received a number of honors. In addition to multiple starred reviews, Jeannie has been a finalist in the Bookseller's Best and the Holt Medallion contests. In 2018, Jeannie's novel, Then Came You, won the Bookseller's Best Award for best long contemporary romance. Jeannie was the recipient of the 2018 RWA Service Award presented by Romance Writers of America for outstanding service to the romance community.
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, 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).
Dr. Jennifer Katona, President and Founder 3 Looms Creative Education Consulting is currently the Visual and Performing Arts Sr. Manager for the Norwalk Public Schools is the former Director and Founder of the Graduate Program in Educational Theatre at the City College of New York (CCNY), where she oversaw the certification of pre and in-service Theatre teachers and training of non-certified theatre educators.
Gianmarco Soresi is a stand-up comedian and actor who just released his first comedy special "Shelf Life" on Amazon Prime, documenting the experience of writing and performing new material in the middle of a global pandemic.
For over thirty-five years, Iman Aoun, a theatre-maker from Palestine has dedicated herself to advancing her mission of “breaking down walls” that exist as both physical and psychological phenomena by “cultivating hope [and creating] beauty and change” through her art. Refusing to compromise her commitment to stripping both visible and invisible walls, Iman’s work has become a source of healing not only for her Palestinian communities, but also global populations.
With fashion being the 2nd biggest polluter, we need to consume and produce smarter. Guess what? The solutions exist, now we need to implement! Through this series, I want to show the potential that's all around us, give a stage to the visionaries and give a great cause to stand behind for those who already have amplifiers. Fun story-telling that inspire the masses to embrace positive change is my vision. ~Bunny Yan
A children's book writer, folk artist, and founder of Maggie Stern Stitches, a sock company featuring Stern's illustrations of notable women—from Maya Angelou to Greta Thunberg to Gloria Steinhem. On the sole of each sock Maggie stitches a quotation from the featured woman: "I hope that their words inspire the wearer as much as they inspire me." A portion of the proceeds from sales goes to women's organizations and other foundations whose work aligns with the ambitions of my heroes.
Put on your Super Hero Cape when you listen to Valerie David’s podcast: The Pink Hulk, a One-Woman Warrior’s survival story from cancer. But her show is NOT just about cancer; it is about conquering our fears, our anxieties, our despair during the pandemic and removing our metaphorical masks to voice the racial injustices of Black Lives Matter.
So what’s a young Muslim woman born in Saudi Arabia, raised as a US citizen in Mississippi, only to defy all the odds by moving to NYC to become a one-woman sensation in her highly- acclaimed show Dirty Paki Lingerie? Listen in to her airing an authentic assessment of how women, women of color, Muslim women break all the boundaries of what it means to be an American today.
Feeling trapped during the COVID-19 self-quarantine? Here's a pair of Italian Sisters, Delphine and Carmela, cooking up concoctions that will soothe your soul. Listen to their hilarious spin of how The Arts (and food) can cure what ails ya!
The Calamari Sisters bill themselves as the only all-singing, all-dancing, all-cooking cooking show around. Delphine & Carmela Calamari are two plus size Italian sisters from Bay Ridge, Brooklyn that began touring the country in 2009 with their stage shows. Their irreverent comedy and outrageous kitchen antics have had people in stitches from California to Florida to Chicago to New York for the past decade. They are currently in lockdown together and are looking forward to being with a live audience again.
THE TRAUMA BRAIN PROJECT is a unique theatrical narrative about the personal journey of one of its survivors, playwright Dayle Ann Hunt. Actress Marsha Mason talks about her role in the play and how The Arts can spark a conversation about early sexual trauma.
Following the NYC performance, a panel of neurologists, psychologists, and body-oriented psychotherapists discuss the relationship between early sexual trauma, PTSD and its hidden effects.
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.