Virginia-born and Chicago-based, Lisa Dellagiarino Feriend is an award-winning playwright, a member of the Dramatists Guild, and President of the Board of Arts For All, a NYC-based nonprofit bringing accessible artistic opportunities to children who face barriers to exploring the arts. She has a BFA in Film & TV from NYU and two kids who are disappointed that she doesn't write plays about dinosaurs.
WEBSITE AND SOCIAL MEDIA New Play Exchange: https://newplayexchange.org/users/38716/lisa-dellagiarino-feriend FB: Lisa Dellagiarino Feriend MORE ABOUT ME These times fill me with rage and anxiety, and I imagine that the best way to tell stories right now is through comedy. I've started taking my lectures on topics I feel passionately about and wrapping them in comedy like a heartworm pill in a slice of cheese. It goes down easier, and sometimes folks don't even realize they're being preached to. (And even if they do, it's hard to shut your mind when you're laughing.) WHAT I'M WORKING ON I'm currently doing rewrites on my comedy about reproductive rights, "Abort: The Mission," and a gun control comedy is germinating in my head slowly. KEYWORDS Comedy, political, historical, farce, faith-based Malini Singh McDonald is a native New Yorker who has been involved in the arts for her entire life. She has an MFA from the Actors Studio Drama School; an MPA and BA in Theatre Arts and English Literature at Baruch. Select theatre credits include the revival of Godspell (Producer, Broadway Revival); The Colored Museum; The Year of Living Dangerously (Publicist, 54 Below); Whiskey Pants: The Mayor of Williamsburg (Publicist, HERE Arts Center); From Ship to Shape (Publicist, Winner of Two United Solo Awards); The Eternal Space (Associate Producer & Marketing Director, Theatre Row); The Wiz (Director, Matsiko World Orphan Choir, Liberia); Torch Song Trilogy (Director, ATA). Malini is also the founder of Theatre Beyond Broadway which provides a platform to promote and support independent artists beyond the bright lights of Broadway. TBB represents a broad range of artists through producing, publicity, education, an online community and a podcast. She is the Executive Director of Black Henna Productions, a boutique theatre company producing original and classic works throughout the five boroughs. Productions include Deserters (Altered Stages), Naughty Prep School Stories (2006 New York International Fringe Festival), Much Ado About Nothing, Twelfth Night, and Hamlet: The Viking Prince of Denmark (NYC Parks). Malini is a member of the League of Professional Theatre Women and a member of the Stage Directors and Choreographers Society. She has collaborated with The Anthropologists, Broadway Artists Connection, Non-Disposable Productions, New Perspectives Theatre Company and Mind the Art Entertainment. Malini has been recognized for her role in the community with the Woman of Distinction Award for her contribution to Media, Arts and Culture from the City of New York. She is also the Deputy Chief Diversity Officer of a NYS agency where she was recently recognized for her dedication to Diversity and Inclusion.
WEBSITE AND SOCIAL MEDIA Website: https://malinism.com/ and https://theatrebeyondbroadway.com/ FB: Malini S. McDonald TW: @malinism IG: @malini_sm MORE ABOUT ME Here are two things about me: I believe that everyone has a voice and I advocate for those who have not found theirs yet. Pondering and expressing innovative ways to connect with others has given me the opportunity to advocate for artists through producing and directing. My writing includes my personal narratives on genealogy, epigenetics, a woman’s right to choose, and the intersectionality of being a woman and a woman of color. It also includes the many interviews I have had with artists in the independent, regional, and commercial arenas. This has allowed me to connect with other people on their own journeys. It is also the only reason that I am still doing theatre. When I am not doing theatre or writing, I am of service to my community as needed and wanted. WHAT I'M WORKING ON During the summer of 2020, amidst the trifecta of social injustice, economic distress and a global health crisis, four friends and artists came together to connect and create. We were already on a personal journey of ancestry but had either paused or hit the proverbial brick wall. However, together we were able to support each other in the exploration of our history through DNA and genealogical research. The four of us identified at that time as Caucasian, African-American, and Indo-Caribbean. During the process, other identifying markers were presented defying these labels. We learned through using the basic principles of genetics and the social structures that our families encountered based upon their DNA that we were not our labels. We were actually more complex people through epigenetics and generational trauma. The themes of the piece are conflict, identity and culture. The overall storyline is about wanting to know where one comes from and from whom one descends. KEYWORDS New Yorker, Indo-Caribbean, Trini-American, Woman of Color, Diversity, Equity, Inclusion Interfaith, Gender Parity, International Women Artist, Biographical Dorie Clark is a librettist, as well as a lyricist in the BMI Lehman Engel Musical Theatre Advanced Workshop.
Along with composer Marie Incontrera, her collaborator on the lesbian spy thriller musical Absolute Zero, Clark has been a participant in the Apples and Oranges Arts THEatre Accelerator program, an intensive show development program. Absolute Zero, which received a staged reading in Dallas in August 2022 as the winner of the MusicalWriters.com pitch night, has received media coverage in Forbes and the Harvard Business Review. Clark and Incontrera also developed a 10-minute musical, 23 and You and You and Me, through the Prospect Theater Company’s Musical Theater Lab, which premiered at Symphony Space in New York City in November 2021. One of their songs, “On the Town Tonight,” was showcased at Joe’s Pub in March 2022 as part of a Kander and Ebb tribute showcase organized by Ring of Keys, the nonprofit group for queer women in musical theater. Clark was a participant in the 2019 New York Musical Festival (NYMF) Songwriting Workshop and served as an assistant producer on the multiple Grammy Award-winning album Presidential Suite: Eight Variations on Freedom, by The Ted Nash Big Band (winner for Best Large Jazz Ensemble and Best Instrumental Composition). She is a graduate of Smith College and Harvard Divinity School, and has been hailed by the New York Times as an “expert in reinvention and helping others make changes in their lives.” WEBSITE AND SOCIAL MEDIA: Website: https://www.dorieclark.com Twitter: @dorieclark LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/doriec/ Facebook: @dorieclarkauthor Instagram: @dorieclark YouTube: @dorieclark Clubhouse: @dorieclark MORE ABOUT ME After seeing Fun Home in January 2016, I awoke the next morning and bolted out of bed with the certainty that I needed to learn to write musical theater. I'd never done anything like that before, and had to train from scratch. In the intervening years, I've been accepted into and completed the BMI Lehman Engel Musical Theatre Workshop as a lyricist and am now part of the Advanced Workshop, and have had staged readings and performances of shows I've written. Since that moment, I've been working to fulfill my original vision that arose from seeing that transformative show. WHAT I'M WORKING ON Absolute Zero - sexy lesbian spy thriller musical 23 and You and You and Me - a paternity comedy musical The Philosopher of Love - contemporary musical adaptation of Plato's Symposium KEYWORDS: lesbian, musicals, lyricist, librettist |
AuthorHonor Roll ! Members Profiles Project Archives
December 2024
Categories |