Determined Women: Recent Episodes
Rachel Love
DETERMINED WOMEN: A GLOBAL PERSPECTIVE -Women in Theatre for
Social Change from 1920-2020.
Purpose & Scope: An online course that would run consecutively two
semesters and serve as a core requirement for college theatre programs
throughout the world.
This course would incorporate several perspectives all with the common theme of understanding how and why women struggle to put forth their messages in the theatre.
In addition to collected biographies, we will include in-progress scenes with
director/playwright notes and actor comments. I would like to use one
narrator throughout to give the course a sense of continuity, much
like Leonard Bernstein did with the Norton Scores at Harvard.
website: www.determinedwomen.org
arrie Wesolowski, Theater/ Film/ Television and Now Zoom Actor/Director/Host/Singer
A lifelong New Yorker born and raised in New York City, Carrie's a co-host of AirPlay and regular contributor to AirPlay as Actor/Director. As a highly creative child with a great imagination, she enjoyed giving speeches and joined her school’s Speech team, winning awards in speech and acting in school plays. She went on to take acting classes at HB Studios and The American Academy of Dramatic Arts before completing a two-year Acting Training Program with Phil Gushee and Joe Anania, dedicated to the teachings of The Neighborhood Playhouse where they trained. For Carrie, being a part of creating film and theater is a means of telling stories and creating beauty and light and shedding truth even on the pain in our experiences and transforming that pain through recognizing our shared humanity. Carrie has been singing with a NYC-based community choir called Peace of Heart Choir since 2013 where she is a member of the Steering Committee and hosts and organizes their Cabaret Night and has most recently served as Executive Producer as well. Carrie's recent credits include directing the opera The Bird Lady at The National Opera Center, playing Mandy in Theater for the New City's Dermalogic and directing and playing the female lead Destiny in Coni Koepfinger’s Simon Says, a finalist in Playbill’s 1st Virtual Theatre Festival Live and Manhattan Rep's Stories Film Festival. Carrie looks forward to her next project--playing Helen Hayes and Julia--and her role as Associate Director to Director Dan Carter in Coni Koepfinger and Dan Carter’s Live From The Bardo: My Dinner With Mary at Theater for the New City in NYC in January 2022.
Annalisa Loeffler (AEA)
CURRENTLY: In production on indie film DROWNED GIRL (about 1940s Swedish/German film star Kristina Söderbaum) by Richard Byrne, produced by Pandora Machine; member of band The Buttery Barmaids; performing in benefit reading of THE BLUE CARBUNCLE by Andrew Joffe for Episcopal Actors Guild on December 9.
CREDITS: Broadway on Demand: Alice/Henry V, Quince/Midsummer Night’s Dream, (Titan Theatre Company). Off-Broadway: Dorothy/Like Money in the Bank (Theater Row); Attica/Alligator Summer (Abingdon); Indie Theatre: Orgon/Tartuffe, Gertrude/Hamlet (Titan); Feste/Twelfth Night,Queen/Cymbeline, Titania/Midsummer Night’s Dream, Gertrude/Hamlet (Boomerang); Maeve/Parish Dunkeld, Paulina/Winter’s Tale (WorkShop); Olivia/Twelfth Night, Adriana/Comedy of Errors, Puck/Midsummer Night’s Dream; (Theater 1010/2020); Regional: Texas/Colorado/Alabama Shakespeare Festivals, roles including Desdemona/Othello; Queen Elizabeth/Richard III; Luciana/Comedy of Errors. Voiceover: various PBS and Scholastic projects including Clifford the Big Red Dog and Harry Potter (voice of “Harry Potter Pronunciation Guide”); audio tour guide for The New-York Historical Society
Hosted by Coni Koepfinget with Guest Zoe Anastassiou: Zoe Anastassiou is a Greek Australian British theatre/TV/film/voiceover actress living in NYC. She came to the USA to further her education; a double BA in Theatre and Psychology from Middlebury College in VT, then moving to NYC to get her MFA in Acting from the original Actors Studio Drama School/The New School for Drama. Some career highlights include…She won the Eva Gore-Booth Award for Best Female Performance for her role as Del in Carolyn Gage’s new play EASTER SUNDAY at The International Dublin Gay Theatre Festival; She performed in THREE SISTERS and AS YOU LIKE IT both directed by Eve Best; She performed as Hermia in MIDSUMMER at the Globe Theatre in the UK; She was an understudy (and a co-producer) in Jose Rivera's BRAINPEOPLE workshop production in which Jose also directed; She was a TS Eliot US/UK Exchange selected participant and performed at The Old Vic in the UK; She became a member of the Old Vic New Voices; She was a founding member of At Play Productions that presented (and she performed in) the annual Off-Broadway Celebrity 24 Hour Plays; She was a co-founder of Helluva Theatre Company and performed as Barbara in their inaugural production of MAJOR BARBARA; She performed in the film FESTIVAL OF LIGHTS that starred Aidan Quinn & Jimi Mistry; She performed in the short film THE BETROTHED starring Gale Howard; She was the voice for DULCOFIBRE commercials airing in Australia; She has had many performance art pieces written by Mark Blickley published internationally in several renowned online sites and magazines. Currently, Zoe can be seen in Amazon Prime’s second season of JACK RYAN, in the play adaptation of Emily Bohannon’s VIRTUE featuring Margaret Colin and Joshua Henry with Cowboy Bear Ninja productions streaming on Broadway on Demand, and can be heard as Maddie the 8 yr old CEO on the podcast HOW WE MANAGE STUFF. Zoe is also a 365Blogger that video blogs daily on a different annual theme and has been doing so for eight years. She just started year nine with WHAT NOT TO DO 365. Zoe is also a published poet. Next up you can see Zoe performing in Visible Ink’s upcoming show - a writing program for cancer patients at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center who write and are mentored one-on-one by a professional award-winning writer and then have their pieces come to life by many award-winning actors.
To know more visit www.zoeanastassiou.com
Zoe Anastassiou
www.zoeanastassiou.com
zoeanastassiou@hotmail.com
US: (970) 376-2350
UK: 07806728692
Zoe can be seen in…
Cowboy Bear Ninja &
Hosted by : Gail Kriegel is a proud native New Yorker. A prize winning playwright, her work has been seen in many venues. SWEETEE, for which she wrote book, music and lyrics recently had a successful received reading and is now moving to production. SEVEN, which she wrote with 6 other playwrights, has been seen all over the world and translated into 25 languages and her play ON THE HOME FRONT about returning Veterans was recently chosen to be performed at the National Black Theatre Festival.
Your Host Coni Ciongoli Koepfinger interviews Cosmic Orchid's Liz Amadio on today's edition of Determined Women.
Liz has a rich history in the Theatre as dancer, poet, actor, playwright, director and producer - with credits spanning NY, regionally and abroad. Liz has moderated DAPLab, the Alumni Playwrights Lab at The New School College of Performing Arts – School of Drama, since its inception eight years ago.
She produces all their Readings, including Phase II, a season of full-length staged readings, which launched in the Fall, 2013. It included her play Millennium Mom, soon to have a workshop production. Liz plays Militant Mom. Other mom roles include Tattoo Mother in Merri Biechler's Occupation, Veteran Mother in Maria Micheles’ PhotoPlay, Mamo-O in Jorshi Taleon-Sonza’s Haiyan and Evelyn Swain in Killian Beldy’s The Surge. DAPLab’s Phase II Spring 2015 Season included her new play, Evolution: Among Statues.
Directing credits include garnering a Best Director nomination for George Cameron Grant's PUSH at the 2011 Strawberry Festival. Other recent directing projects include her own Deeply and Roommate Simulation by Maria Micheles at Manhattan Rep Theatre, and Jorshi Taleon-Sonza’s Haiyan at the 2015 Potpourri World Women Works.
Liz is the Artistic Director of Cosmic Orchid, which wrapped their launch with The Hoodie Play in October, 2015. She brings over 25 years concurrent business expertise as a Financial Advisor into that fiscal role. Liz is also a Photographer, which informs her vision of Integrative Theatre.
Liz has an MFA from The Actors Studio Drama School (New School), teaches and is a member of The Dramatists Guild, The League of Professional Theatre Women and the The National League of American Pen Women. Liz is thrilled to usher in the work of The Voire Dire Project.
www.cosmicorchid.com
www.determinedwomen.org
Today on Determined Women with your Host Coni Koepfinger.
Our Guest MOLLY SMITH
Molly Smith has been a leader in new play development for over 30 years. She is a great believer in first, second and third productions. She has worked alongside playwrights Sarah Ruhl, Paula Vogel, Wendy Wasserstein, Lawrence Wright, Karen Zacarías, Eric Coble, and many others. She is currently Artistic Director at Arena Stage and previously founded and led Perseverance Theatre. Under her leadership, Arena Stage is a national center for American voices. Her directorial work has been seen at Arena Stage, the Shaw Festival, Berkeley Repertory Theatre, Trinity Repertory Company, Tarragon Theatre, Centaur Theatre, and on Broadway.
Determined Women's Host Coni Koepfinger interviews the one and only.... Mary Ellen Ashley - The Original Tootsie Roll Sweetheart...Broadway, Radio, TV, Film - An amazing Actor, Singer, Dancer, and now Producer- Still going strong!
Determined Women hosted by Coni Koepfinger. Todays guest, founder of Ego Actus (Production Company) Joan Kane.
Joan Kane (Director) is the founding Artistic Director of Ego Actus and recently 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. Joan was named to the Indie Theatre Hall of Fame by nytheatre.com. She has directed plays and readings for the Lark Play Development Center, Ensemble Studio Theatre, Theater for the New City, Urban Stages, the Bleecker St Theater, the Workshop Theater, Nylon Fusion, Abingdon Theatre, Oberon Theatre, the Samuel French Short Play Festival, Planet Connections Festivity, the Midtown International Festival, the Prague Fringe Festival, the Dramatists Guild, NY Madness, the Players Club, the Lambs Club and the Actors Studio. She has been nominated for Outstanding Direction Awards three times each in the MITF and Planet Connections winning once. Joan has an MFA in Directing from The New School, an MS in Museum Education from Bank Street College and is a member of The New York Madness Company, the Dramatists Guild, the League of Professional Theatre Women and the Society of Stage Directors & Choreographers.
Host Coni Koepfinger interviews Sophia Romma, Ph.D
Bio: Dr. Sophia Romma, playwright and screenwriter, received her BFA and MFA at NYU; PH.D. from Gorky Literary Institute. She is the author of eleven originally produced plays for Off-Broadway...
Coni has the pleasure of interviewing Julia Pascal on the premier episode of Determined Women.
Julia Pascal is a playwright and theatre director. She was the first woman director at the National Theatre. Her stage plays have been produced internationally and have won prizes.
She trained as an actor and worked at The Royal Court Theatre, The National Theatre, Nottingham Playhouse, The Royal Shakespeare Company, BBC Television and radio. Films include The Hiding Place and the independent prize-winning feature Ham and The Piper.
Her dramas are published by Oberon Books, Faber and Samuel French (Inc).
As a theatre director she has worked widely in London, France and has twice had her work shown in New York City.