Logo for Between Two Palms above a collage of the many interviewees.

Between Two Palms is a livestream series of intimate conversations between award-winning art-makers from the performing, visual and literary arts and members of The Studios family. Select Wednesdays at 6PM EST join us for an hour as we explore how stage, TV & film performers, designers, writers and visual artists are keeping the creative spirit alive through these turbulent times.

BETWEEN TWO PALMS

Select Wednesday evenings
June 2020 – June 2021.
Beginning at 6pm EST for approx. 1 hour.

Free! Registration required.

Stephen Kitsakos, Executive Producer & Creator


Michelle Boscamp, Associate Producer
Kevin Assam, Production Assistant

Key West Fine Wines with logo of wine stain
Series sponsored by Key West Fine Wines
& Camp Northwest Hill

FORMER GUESTS

For more information about our former guests and luminaries, please click on their images below.

MARY TESTA
June 23

DONALD MARGULIES
June 16

JENNIFER ASHLEY TEPPER
June 9

JUDITH DAYKIN
June 2

RICHARD KIND
May 26

ALYSSA MILANO
May 19

CHARLES BUSCH
May 12

JOY BEHAR
May 5

Enrico Lopez-Yanez

ENRICO LOPEZ-YAÑEZ
Apr 28

Marco Pigossi

MARCO PIGOSSI
Apr 21

KATE BORNSTEIN + TRAVIS FINE
Apr 14

Rebecca Salter

REBECCA SALTER
Apr 7

Johnathan Freeman in front of a depiction of his most famous character, Jafar from Disney's Aladdin

JONATHAN FREEMAN
Mar 31

Dale Soules

DALE SOULES
Mar 24

Joel Conis

JOE ICONIS
Mar 17

Ann Harada

ANN HARADA
Mar 10

JESSICA HECHT
Mar 3

Mark Feurstein

MARK FEUERSTEIN
Feb 24

Telly Leund

TELLY LEUNG
Feb 17

Dylan and Becky Ann Baker

DYLAN BAKER & BECKY ANN BAKER
Feb 10

Emma Manners

EMMA MANNERS, DUCHESS OF RUTLAND
Feb 3

Headshot of Annie Golden

ANNIE GOLDEN
Jan 27

STEPHEN HANNOCK
Jan 6

MICHAEL R. JACKSON
Dec 16

MICHAEL URIE
Dec 9

PAULA VOGEL
Dec 2

JUDITH LIGHT
Nov 18

KEALA SETTLE
Nov 11

GREGG BARNES
Nov 4

DAWN FRENCH
Oct 28

STEPHANIE BLYTHE + JACK O'BRIEN
Oct 21

TOM KITT
Oct 14

DORIE GREENSPAN
Oct 7

JANE KACZMAREK
Aug 24

MARISA TOMEI
Aug 19

ANIKA LARSEN
Aug 12

TONY SHALHOUB
Jul 29

KENNY LEON
Jul 22

CONSTANCE SHULMAN
Jul 8

REED BIRNEY
Jul 1

TONYA PINKINS
Jun 24

kate burton

KATE BURTON
Jun 17

MARY TESTA in conversation with STEPHEN KITSAKOS
June 23, 2021
sponsored by Key West Fine Wines & Camp Northwest Hill

MARY TESTA is the recipient of the Legend of Off-Broadway Award, Three Tony nominations, two Lucille Lortel nominations, six Drama Desk nominations, two Drama League nominations, two Outer Critic’s Circle nominations, an Obie Award, and a special Drama Desk award celebrating Queen of the Mist and ‘Three Decades of Outstanding Work.’ Broadway: Oklahoma! Wicked, Guys and Dolls, Xanadu, Chicago, 42nd St, Marie Christine, On the Town, Forum, etc. Opera: Anna Nicole/BAM. Off-Broadway: Oklahoma!, The Portuguese Kid, The Government Inspector, First Daughter Suite, Caucasian Chalk Circle, Queen of the Mist, Love Loss.., A New Brain, See What I Wanna See, etc. Film: Ratatouille: The TikTok Musical, The Mother (short; 3 Best Actress Awards), Big Stone Gap, Eat Pray Love, The Bounty Hunter, etc. Television: The Good Fight, Divorce, Marvelous Mrs. Maisel, Bull, SMILF, Two Broke Girls, Difficult People, and Whoopi. Featured on fourteen original cast albums, Mary’s album with Michael Starobin, Have Faith, is now available.

DONALD MARGULIES in conversation with STEPHEN KITSAKOS
June 16, 2021
sponsored by Key West Fine Wines & Camp Northwest Hill

DONALD MARGULIES won the Pulitzer Prize for Drama for Dinner with Friends and was a finalist twice before for Sight Unseen and Collected Stories.His many other plays, which include Long Lost, The Country House, Shipwrecked! An Entertainment, Brooklyn Boy, The Loman Family Picnic, Found a Peanut, What’s Wrong With This Picture?, the Tony Award-nominated Time Stands Still and the Obie Award-winning The Model Apartment, have been produced on and off-Broadway, and in theaters across the United States and around the world. The film of his screenplay, The End of the Tour, premiered at Sundance and was nominated for Film Independent Spirit and Scriptor Awards for Best Screenplay.He is an adjunct professor of English and Theater & Performance Studies at Yale University.

JENNIFER ASHLEY TEPPER in conversation with STEPHEN KITSAKOS
June 9, 2021
sponsored by Key West Fine Wines & Camp Northwest Hill

JENNIFER ASHLEY TEPPER is a theater historian and producer of the musicals Be More Chill, Broadway Bounty Hunter, and Love In Hate Nation, projects that are part of a decade-long collaboration with the group known as Joe Iconis & Family. She has written four volumes of The Untold Stories of Broadway book series which have been called an “inspiring Must-Read” by NBC New York. As the Creative and Programming Director at Feinstein’s/54 Below, she has curated or produced over 3000 shows. On Broadway, Tepper has also worked on [title of show], The Performers, Godspell, Macbeth, and The Parisian Woman. She is the conceiver and director of The Jonathan Larson Project, historian consultant on the upcoming tick, tick… BOOM! movie, and co-creator of the Bistro Award- winning concert series, If It Only Even Runs A Minute. Tepper was named one of the 10 professionals on Backstage Magazine’s “1st Annual Broadway Future Power List“, which stated: “Proving herself both a zeitgeist predictor and theatrical historian with her eclectic programming, Tepper is leading the conversation on contemporary musical theatre.”

JUDITH DAYKIN in conversation with MURPHY DAVIS
June 2, 2021
sponsored by Key West Fine Wines & Camp Northwest Hill

JUDITH E. DAYKIN retired in 2003 after a long career in arts management. She took the helm of NY City Center in January, 1992 and in 1994 inaugurated its highly-acclaimed and Tony Award-winning, Encores! Great American Musicals In Concert series. She came to City Center directly from Theatre Projects Consultants, an international theater design & management consulting firm, where she was Principal Consultant. Ms. Daykin was EVP & Managing Director of the Brooklyn Academy of Music, America’s oldest performing arts center, where for 15 years she supervised the operations of five performance spaces & a staff of 165. Previously she was Executive Director of the Paul Taylor Dance Company. Daykin is the recipient of Arts Management Magazine’s Career Service Award, the Outstanding Service Award from the League of Historic American Theaters, & the Encore Award from the Arts and Business Council. From 1995-97, she served as Chair of the Cultural Institutions Group, an association of 34 not-for-profit cultural institutions which operate facilities owned by the City of New York.In 1998, she received the City Center/Leonard Harris Award.

RICHARD KIND in conversation with MURPHY DAVIS
May 26, 2021
sponsored by Key West Fine Wines & Camp Northwest Hill

RICHARD KIND has been performing for over 35 years on stage and screen as well as lending his voice to some of the most iconic animated films of the last 20 years. He is recognizable from his starring roles on the TV sitcoms Mad About You, Spin City, Scrubs and Curb Your Enthusiasm and has made guest appearances on over 30 more TV shows. Film roles include A Serious Man, Argo and Hereafterand he has  voiced characters in many Pixar films including A Bug’s Life, Cars, Cars 2, Toy Story 3 and Inside Out. His versatility as a sketch comedy performer was evident as a cast member of Carol Burnett’s  Carol & Company, which ran for two seasons on NBC. Theatre roles have included his originating the part of Addison Mizner in Stephen Sondheim’s Bounce and he has appeared on Broadway many times including starring roles in The Tale of the Allergist’s Wife, as Max Bialystock inThe Producers, Sly Fox & The Big Knife for which he won a Drama Desk Award and a Tony nomination.

ALYSSA MILANO in conversation with MURPHY DAVIS
May 19, 2021
sponsored by Key West Fine Wines & Camp Northwest Hill

Actress and activist ALYSSA MILANO has been in the spotlight for most of her life.  She chooses to shine that spotlight on causes that matter deeply to her.  Her advancement of #MeToo sparked a viral movement of women fighting against sexual harassment and assault and she has been involved in TimesUp since its inception.  In the wake of the mass shooting at Stoneman Douglas High School, Alyssa became one of the founders of NoRA, a coalition dedicated to combating the NRA money in political campaigns so that common sense gun reform can be enacted. For 15 years, she has been a UNICEF National Ambassador.  In 2016, she received their Spirit of Compassion Award for her dedication to their mission of advocating for the protection of children’s rights, helping meet their basic needs and expanding their opportunities to reach their full potential.  She has lobbied members of Congress for greater rights for immigrants as well as education reform and has been on the forefront of efforts to protect health coverage for all Americans.  She continues to use her voice and platform to advocate for social justice, fairness and equality.

CHARLES BUSCH in conversation with MURPHY DAVIS
May 12, 2021
sponsored by Key West Fine Wines & Camp Northwest Hill

CHARLES BUSCH is an actor/playwright/cabaret entertainer and drag legend. He is the author and star of such plays as The Divine Sister, The Lady in Question, Red Scare on Sunset, The Confession of Lily Dare and Vampire Lesbians of Sodom; one of the longest running plays in the history of Off-Broadway. His play The Tale of the Allergist’s Wife received a Tony nomination for Best Play and is the longest running Broadway comedy of the past twenty-five years. He wrote and starred in the film versions of his plays, Psycho Beach Party and Die Mommie Die, the latter of which won him the Best Performance Award at the Sundance Film Festival. Mr. Busch has been honored with a special Drama Desk Award for career achievement as both performer and playwright and received the Flora Roberts Award for Sustained Achievement in the theater by the Dramatists Guild. He is the subject of the documentary film The Lady in Question is Charles Busch.

photo by Eric Stephen Jacobs

JOY BEHAR in conversation with MURPHY DAVIS
May 5, 2021
sponsored by Key West Fine Wines & Camp Northwest Hill

JOY BEHAR, Co-Host of ABC News’ The View, is among today’s leading comic talents. Whether performing standup comedy or interviewing politicians & artists, she is an original voice and leading woman on both stage and screen. She was a member of the original cast of ABC’s The View for 16 years, returning as co-host in September 2015 for the show’s three most recent seasons. Along with winning the 2009 Daytime Emmy® Award for Outstanding Talk Show Host. She is also the recipient of three MAC awards, a CableACE award & a 2000 GLAAD award for her enduring friendship with the LGBTQ community. On television she starred in two HBO specials and was a regular on the series Baby Boom. She recently appeared in Woody Allen’s Amazon series, Crisis in Six Scenes. Behar has hosted her own shows including a call-in radio show on WABC, The Joy Behar Show on HLN & Say Anything on Current TV. 

In June 2016, Behar was inducted into the Brooklyn Walk of Fame at the Brooklyn Botanic Garden, joining an impressive list of Brooklynites honored for their distinguished work in entertainment, sports, media & the arts. Her film appearances include This is My Life directed by Nora Ephron & Woody Allen’s Manhattan Murder Mystery. In theater, Behar starred in Nicky Silver’s play The Food Chain, for which she earned rave reviews, and also in the critically acclaimed play The Vagina Monologues. She also wrote and performed in her own solo show, Me, My Mouth and I at the Cherry Lane Theatre. Behar has written five books, including two children’s books. Her most recent book, The Great Gasbag: An A-to-Z Study Guide to Surviving Trump World, was released in October  2017.

ENRICO LOPEZ-YAÑEZ in conversation with STEPHEN KITSAKOS
Apr 28, 2021
sponsored by Key West Fine Wines & Camp Northwest Hill

Enrico Lopez-Yanez

ENRICO LOPEZ-YAÑEZ is the Principal Pops Conductor of the Nashville Symphony where he leads the Symphony’s Pops Series & Family Series. Lopez-Yañez has quickly established himself as one of the Nation’s leading conductors of popular music known for his unique style of audience engagement. Since working with the Nashville Symphony, Lopez-Yañez has conducted concerts with a broad spectrum of artists including: Patti LaBelle, Kenny Loggins, Richard Marx, Toby Keith, Trisha Yearwood, Renée Elise Goldsberry, and more.  In the coming seasons, Lopez-Yañez will collaborate with artists including Wu-Tang Clan, Nas, Maxwell, Leslie Odom Jr., Stewart Copeland of The Police, Ben Folds, Kenny G and more. He will appear with the National Symphony Orchestra, San Diego Symphony, Pacific Symphony and will make return appearances with the Detroit Symphony, Rochester Philharmonic and Utah Symphony. As Artistic Director and Co-Founder of Symphonica Productions, LLC, Lopez-Yañez curates & leads programs designed to cultivate new audiences. An enthusiastic proponent of innovating the concert experience, his exciting education, classical, and pops concerts are performed by orchestras across the United States.

MARCO PIGOSSI in conversation with STEPHEN KITSAKOS
Apr 21, 2021
sponsored by Key West Fine Wines & Camp Northwest Hill

Marco Pigossi

MARCO PIGOSSI is taking his work to millions of people in 190 countries jointly with Netflix International. In the last two years he starred in three productions in three languages & countries. In the drama Tidelands (2018) Netflix’s first Australian production, he played one of principal roles. The Spanish Alta Mar (2020) saw him as a spy responsible for discovering the killer that carries a lethal virus on a ship, and in the Brazilian Invisible City (2020), created and directed by the renowned Brazilian director Carlos Saldanha, he plays an environmental law officer trying to unravel a real world mystery that collides with an underworld inhabited by mythical creatures from a lineage of Brazilian folklore.  With more than 14 years on Brazilian TV he appeared in more than 12 telenovelas on Rede Globo as well as appearing in the films 492: A Man Called Death, the story of Julio Santana, a charitable family man who was also an assassin and A Última Chance where he played a former drug dealer from the suburbs of Rio de Janeiro. He has appeared on the covers of many magazines including GQ (Brasil).

KATE BORNSTEIN & TRAVIS FINE in conversation with STEPHEN KITSAKOS
Apr 14, 2021
sponsored by Key West Fine Wines & Camp Northwest Hill

Author, playwright, performance artist and actress KATE BORNSTEIN is a trans icon whose wide range of work over more than forty years has been in service to sex positivity, gender anarchy and to building a coalition of those who live on the cultural margins. Her bestselling books, Gender Outlaw, My New Gender Workbook, and Hello Cruel World are taught in hundreds of colleges. She has performed her solo performance work in theaters across the globe as well as speaking and leading workshops of non binary gender, fun sex, and alternatives to suicide. The subject of Sam Feder’s award-winning documentary A Queer and Pleasant Danger, Kate has also had starring roles in film, television, and the 2018 Broadway production of Second Stage’s production of Straight White Men by Young Jean Lee. She currently stars in Travis Fine’s film Two Eyes. 

Writer, producer & director of award-winning independent films, TRAVIS FINE does not shy away from challenging or provocative material. The Space Between starring Academy Award winner Melissa Leo took audiences on a cross country journey with a young Pakistani boy on September 11, 2001. Debuting at the Tribeca Film Festival, Leo’s performance received a Special Jury Award. The film was purchased by the USA Network. The 70’s period drama Any Day Now starring Alan Cumming & Garrett Dillahunt explores the definition of family as two gay men who attempt to adopt a young boy with Down Syndrome. Receiving over 20 Audience & Best Picture awards at worldwide film festivals it was recognized by GLAAD with a 2013 Media Award for Best Film. In Japan the film became a cultural phenomenon with long lines at theaters, huge box office numbers & unprecedented media coverage and in 2020 it premiered as a stage musical. Fine’s current film Two Eyes is a cinematic triptych following three main characters, in three distinct time periods, exploring themes of gender, love, grief, and the power of art to transcend time.

REBECCA SALTER in conversation with ROSI WARE
Apr 7, 2021
sponsored by Key West Fine Wines & Camp Northwest Hill

Rebecca Salter

REBECCA SALTER is first female President of the Royal Academy of Arts in London since the Academy was founded in 1768. She studied at Bristol Polytechnic and at Kyoto City University of the Arts in Japan where she lived for six years studying traditional Japanese woodblock printing. She has written two books on the subject. Her interest in printmaking is combined with her main practice in painting. Salter had a major retrospective into the light of things at the Yale Center for British Art, New Haven, CT in 2011 and was an artist in residence in 2003 & 2011 at the Josef and Anni Albers Foundation, CT.  Architectural commissions include 15 Sackville Street, London W1, and St George’s Hospital in Tooting. Her work appears in private & public collections including the Tate, British Museum, Yale Center for British Art & Yale University Art Gallery. She was elected a Royal Academician in December, 2014 and, in June 2017, was elected as the Keeper of the Royal Academy. On 10th December 2019 she was elected the 27th President of the Royal Academy of Arts.

JONATHAN FREEMAN in conversation with MURPHY DAVIS
Mar 31, 2021
sponsored by Key West Fine Wines & Camp Northwest Hill

Johnathan Freeman in front of a depiction of his most famous character, Jafar from Disney's Aladdin

JONATHAN FREEMAN is the voice of Jafar in Disney’s 1992 animated feature Aladdin, a role he has been recreating since 2014 on Broadway.  Other Disney Broadway shows include Mary Poppins, The Little Mermaid and Beauty & the Beast. He has voiced characters for the Disney channel’s American Dragon, Lilo & Stitch and Teamo Supremo.  Jonathan was nominated for a Tony Award in 1993 for his portrayal of the Headwaiter in She Loves Me.  Other Broadway shows include The Producers, 42nd Street, On the Town, How To Succeed in Business, Platinum and Sherlock Holmes (RSC). New York appearances include the Irish Rep, Manhattan Theatre Club, City Center Encores and several Carnegie Hall concerts.  Jonathan has worked regionally at The La Jolla Playhouse, The Houston Grand Opera, The Williamstown and Berkshire Theatre Festivals and the Seattle Rep. Television appearances include roles in Too Big to Fail, Law & Order, Gossip Girl, Shining Time Station and Remember Wenn. Films include Forever Lulu, The Hoax, The Ice Storm and the 2017 Oscar nominated documentary Life Animated.  Jonathan has been enjoying a “virtual residency” conducting Master Classes in Musical Theatre for one of several universities with which he is associated.

DALE SOULES in conversation with STEPHEN KITSAKOS
Mar 24, 2021
sponsored by Key West Fine Wines & Camp Northwest Hill

Dale Soules

DALE SOULES made her Broadway debut in Hair, going on to star in The Magic Show with magician Doug Henning, introducing Stephen Schwartz’s songs Lion Tamer and West End Avenue. Other Broadway shows include The Crucible, Whose Life Is It Anyway?, Grey Gardens & Hands On A Hardbody.  Off-Broadway, Regional and International credits include the critically acclaimed I Remember Mama, Shows For Days with Michael Urie & Patti LuPone, Posterity, Getting Out, Candide, Jet Lag & the National Tour of her solo show Chameleons. Films include The Messenger, Aardvark, AWOL, ASH, & The Miseducation of Cameron Post. TV includes her portrayal of Frieda for 6 seasons on the Netflix series, Orange is the New Black for which she is the recipient of three SAG Awards, The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel, At Home with Amy Sedaris, Really Rosie, Law & Order, Unforgettable, Sesame Street, American Playhouse & New Amsterdam. A recipient of the New Dramatists Charles Bowden Award for her extraordinary contribution to theatre, she is the founding Director of The Community Stories Project, an oral historian, ethnographic interviewer, teacher & writer. 

JOE ICONIS in conversation with STEPHEN KITSAKOS
Mar 17, 2021
sponsored by Key West Fine Wines & Camp Northwest Hill

Joel Conis

JOE ICONIS is a musical theater writer & performer. He has been nominated for a Tony Award, four Drama Desk Awards, two Lucille Lortel Awards, two Outer Critics’ Circle Awards, and is the recipient of an Ed Kleban Award, Jonathan Larson Award, and Richard Rodgers Award. Be More Chill with Joe Tracz is in London’s West End, after running at Broadway’s Lyceum Theatre following an Off-Broadway run. Joe is the author of Love in Hate Nation, Broadway Bounty Hunter w. Lance Rubin & Jason SweetTooth Williams, Bloodsong of Love (Ars Nova, NAMT), The Black Suits with Robert Maddock, ReWrite, The Plant That Ate Dirty Socks & We the People which have been performed at top regional theaters in the nation. Musicals currently in development include The Untitled Unauthorized Hunter S. Thompson for La Jolla Playhouse (directed by Christopher Ashley) and Punk Rock Girl! His music appeared on season two of NBC’s Smash. Albums include Be More Chill, Broadway Bounty Hunter, Things to Ruin, Two-Player Game & The Joe Iconis Rock & Roll Jamboree, He is hugely inspired by Robert Altman, Dolly Parton, The Muppets, and the Family of artists he frequently surrounds himself with.

photo by Stephanie Wessels

ANN HARADA in conversation with STEPHEN KITSAKOS
Mar 10, 2021
sponsored by Key West Fine Wines & Camp Northwest Hill

Ann Harada

ANN HARADA is best known for Avenue Q (Christmas Eve) on Broadway and in London’s West End. Other Broadway roles include Cinderella (Charlotte), Les Miserables (Mme. Thenardier), 9 to 5, Seussical and M. Butterfly. Off-Broadway she has appeared in Emojiland, Pacific Overtures, Brooklynite and Dropping Gumballs on Luke Wilson. Television roles include Smash, Bluebloods, House of Cards, Master of None and The Jim Gaffigan Show. Film roles include Sisters, Hope Springs and Admission. Ms. Harada was nominated for a 2020 Indie Series Award for Best Guest Supporting Actress for Indoor Boys  Twitter: @annharada Insta: @iamannharada

MARK FEUERSTEIN in conversation with JEFF JOHNSON
Feb 24, 2021
sponsored by Key West Fine Wines & Camp Northwest Hill

Mark Feurstein

Over the past 20 years, MARK FEUERSTEIN has received critical acclaim for his roles in feature film, television and theater, but he is best known for his lead role as Dr. Hank Lawson in the series Royal Pains. He is also known for his role on The West Wing, Cliff Calley. His feature film credits include Defiance, In Her Shoes, Abandon, What Women Want, The Muse, Rules of Engagement, Woman on Top and Practical Magic and for playing the titular character in Larry Gaye: Renegade Male Flight Attendant.  Coming up, Mark can be seen in the Power spin-off, Ghost, in the Paramount Network’s Coyote and in Netflix’s Baby-Sitters Club. Feuerstein made his Broadway debut starring in Alfred Uhry’s Tony Award-winning play “The Last Night of Ballyhoo.”

TELLY LEUNG in conversation with STEPHEN KITSAKOS
Feb 17, 2021
sponsored by Key West Fine Wines & Camp Northwest Hill

Telly Leund

TELLY LEUNG is a New York City native, Broadway performer, recording artist, producer & theatre arts teacher. Broadway & National touring include Aladdin in Disney’s Aladdin on Broadway, starring roles in In Transit, Allegiance w. George Takei & Lea Salonga, Godspell, Pacific Overtures, Flower Drum Song and the final Broadway company of Rent. He portrayed Boq in the original Chicago company of Wicked. In 2010 he starred as Angel in Rent at the Hollywood Bowl opposite Wayne Brady, directed by Neal Patrick Harris. TV audiences will recognize him as Wes the Warbler from the Fox series Glee as well as appearances on Instinct, Odd Mom Out, Deadbeat and Law & Order: Criminal Intent. He is featured as a coach for the Jimmy Awards in the PBS documentary, “Broadway or Bust” and can be heard on many original Broadway cast recordings as well as two solo albums – I’ll Cover You (2012) and Songs for You (2016). He holds a BFA from Carnegie Mellon University’s School of Drama. He recently produced and starred in The Nice List, a virtual holiday musical for the whole family. 

DYLAN BAKER & BECKY ANN BAKER in conversation with JEFF JOHNSON
Feb 10, 2021
sponsored by Key West Fine Wines

Dylan Baker
Becky Ann Baker

DYLAN BAKER is best known as an actor for his starring role as ‘Bill Maplewood’ in the critically acclaimed film Happiness, directed by Todd Solondz. Other film work includes Nightfire, Selma, Anchorman 2, Spiderman 2 and 3, Trick ‘r Treat, Planes, Trains & Automobiles and Thirteen Days. He appeared as Colin Sweeney on The Good Wife for which he received three Emmy Award nominations, and has done arcs on The Americans, Homeland and Hunters. For the theater, he directed George Kelly’s The Torch-Bearers and Eduardo di Fillipo’s Christmas in Naples for the Williamstown Theatre Festival. In New York, he directed The Torch-Bearers (Lucille Lortel award-Best Revival) for the Drama Department, and The Two Gentlemen of Verona for the Blue Light Theater. Mr. Baker also directed The Coarse Acting Show at the Chautauqua Theatre Company, and Blithe Spirit, Our Town, The Taming of the Shrew, The Importance of Being Earnest and A Midsummer Night’s Dream for the Shakespeare Theater of New Jersey. 23 BLAST marks Mr. Baker’s feature film directorial debut.

BECKY ANN BAKER earned an Emmy and 2 Critics Choice nominations as Lena Dunham’s mother, Loreen Horvath, in HBO’s Girls. Becky’s Broadway credits include Good People, All My Sons, Assassins, Titanic, A Streetcar Named Desire and The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas. Since 1985, Becky has performed in many plays at the Williamstown Theater Festival, and lists The Torch-Bearers, Our Town and The Corn is Green as some of her favorites. Recently, she has appeared in TV’s Council of Dads, Hunters, Blacklist, Brockmire, Big Little Lies, and she was mom Jean Weir in TV’s Freaks and Geeks. Becky’s film work includes The Half of It, A Simple Plan, Hope Springs, Death of a President, War of the Worlds, Men in Black and soon in Holler.

EMMA MANNERS, DUCHESS OF RUTLAND in conversation with ROSI WARE
Feb 3, 2021
sponsored by Key West Fine Wines

Emma Manners

The entrepreneurial EMMA MANNERS is the 11th DUCHESS OF RUTLAND. The Shropshire-born Duchess is in charge of Belvoir Castle and its estates, one of the most fairy-tale castles in England. As one of the great houses of the country it dates back originally to 1067, a treasure trove of great paintings and furniture and home for thirty-six generations of the family. As a 21st century Duchess, she oversees an estate with 16,000 acres of tenanted farms, 400 properties and 50 employees. The opulent stately manor has formed the backdrop for Netflix’s The Crown, PBS’s Young Victoria and the film The DaVinci Code. One of the UK’s most business-minded aristocrats, the Duchess’s discovery of the plans for the design of the Castle’s great park, drawn up 1780 by the legendary landscape architect, Lancelot “Capability” Brown, led to her extraordinary supervision of its restoration. In addition to creating and marketing branded items in The Duchess Gallery, the social-media savvy Duchess has recently created Belvoir Castle Gin.

ANNIE GOLDEN in conversation with STEPHEN KITSAKOS
Jan 27, 2021
sponsored by Key West Fine Wines

Headshot of Annie Golden

ANNIE GOLDEN considers herself the illegitimate child of the legitimate theater having been discovered on the Bowery in the world famous rock club CBGB’s fronting her band The Shirts. Cast by Academy Award-winning film director Milos Forman as Jeannie in his movie musical Hair, she originated the role of Squeaky Fromme in Stephen Sondheim’s Assassins at off-Broadway’s Playwright’s Horizons. On Broadway she appeared in the Tony-nominated revival of Violet, Xanadu, Tony Award-winning The Full Monty, Leader of the Pack, Ah! Wilderness w. Colleen Dewhurst & Jason Robards, On the Town & Little Shop of Horrors as Audrey. Films include Twelve Monkeys, Suddenly Seeking Susan & I Love You Phillip Morris. On TV HBO’s Run, Law & Order, Law & Order SVU, Cheers, Miami Vice and recognizable for five seasons as Norma Romano, the mute inmate in Netflix’s Orange is the New Black, winner of three Screen Actors Guild Awards for Best Ensemble. Currently she appears in Fox TV’s Filthy Rich. Golden can be heard on the album of a musical written for her by Tony-nominated composer, Joe Iconis, The Broadway Bounty Hunter. 

photo by Leland Bobbé

JESSICA HECHT in conversation with JEFF JOHNSON
Mar 3, 2021
sponsored by Key West Fine Wines

JESSICA HECHT has appeared on television in Dickinson, Bored to Death, Red Oaks, Jessica Jones, The Loudest Voice & Succession. She played Sonya Barzel on The Sinner and was nominated for an Emmy for her role as Karen in Netflix’s Special. Known for her roles as Gretchen Schwartz on Breaking Bad & Susan Bunch, the wife of Ross Geller’s ex-wife on Friends, she was a featured cast member in the sitcom The Single Guy. Hecht had played Amy Burns in the comedy-drama Dan in Real Life (2007), with Steve Carell and Juliette Binoche and appeared in Woody Allen’s Whatever Works, Sideways, & A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood. Broadway roles include her Tony-nominated performance in A View From the Bridge w. Scarlett Johansson & Liev Schreiber, Harvey with Jim Parsons, as Golde in Fiddler on the Roof directed by Bartlett Sher and The Price opposite Mark Ruffalo. In 2018 she won an Obie for her performance in Admissions at LCT. With producer Jenny Gersten she runs The Campfire Project, a theatre-based wellness project that creates plays in refugee camps.

STEPHEN HANNOCK in conversation with JEFF JOHNSON
Jan 6, 2021
sponsored by Key West Fine Wines

STEPHEN HANNOCK is an American luminous painter known for his atmospheric landscapes and incendiary nocturnes. The artist has demonstrated a keen appreciation for the quality of light and the limitations of conventional techniques for capturing it. His experiments with machine-polishing the surfaces of paintings give a trademark luminous quality to his work. The larger vistas also incorporate diaristic text that weaves throughout the composition. His design of visual effects for the 1998 film What Dreams May Come won an Academy Award. His works are in collections worldwide including the Whitney Museum of American Art, the National Gallery of Art in Washington and the Yale University Art Gallery. His painting of the Connecticut River Oxbow was chosen for inclusion in the recently published Metropolitan Museum of Art, Masterpiece Paintings. In addition, Hannock and frequent collaborator Sting were the contemporary annex to the recent exhibition at the Metropolitan Museum of Art entitled, Thomas Cole’s Journey, Atlantic Crossings. Mr. Hannock’s second monograph will soon be published by The Artist Book Foundation.

MICHAEL R. JACKSON in conversation with JEFF JOHNSON
Dec 16, 2020
sponsored by Key West Fine Wines

MICHAEL R. JACKSON won the 2020 Pulitzer Prize in Drama and the New York Drama Critics Circle for A Strange Loop which had  its 2019 World Premiere at Playwrights Horizons in association with Page 73 Productions. In addition to A Strange Loop, he also wrote Book, Music and Lyrics for the upcoming White Girl in Danger; and Lyrics and Book for the musical adaptation of the 2007 horror film Teeth with composer and co-bookwriter Anna K. Jacobs. Awards and associations include: a New Professional Theatre Festival Award, a Jonathan Larson Grant, a Lincoln Center Emerging Artist Award, an ASCAP Foundation Harold Adamson Award, a Whiting Award, the Helen Merrill Award for Playwriting, an Obie Award, A Drama Desk Award, a Dramatist Guild Fellowship. He is an alum of Page 73’s Interstate 73 Writers Group. He has commissions from Grove Entertainment & Barbara Whitman Productions and LCT3 and is a newly-elected member of the Dramatists Guild Council.

MICHAEL URIE in conversation with STEPHEN KITSAKOS
Dec 9, 2020
sponsored by Key West Fine Wines

MICHAEL URIE last appeared on Broadway in Bess Wohl’s Grand Horizons at 2nd Stage and produced Drew Droege’s Happy Birthday Doug at Soho Playhouse. NYC Theater: Tony Kushner’s A Bright Room Called Day, Harvey Fierstein’s Torch Song, Buyer & Cellar, How to Succeed, High Button Shoes, The Government Inspector, Homos, or Everyone in America, Shows For Days, Angels in America, The Temperamentals. As director, Michael helmed Bright Colors and Bold Patterns on stage, He’s Way More Famous Than You and The Hyperglot on film. He co-produces Pride Plays. Regional: The Shakespeare Theater, The Old Globe, Seattle Rep, The Folger, South Coast Rep, Barrington Stage, and Center Theater Group. Film: Lavender, Beverly Hills Chihuahua, The Decoy Bride, Such Good People, Abducted. TV: Modern Family, The Good Fight, Younger, The Good Wife, Hot in Cleveland, Partners, Workaholics, Almost Family and Ugly Betty. Training: Juilliard. 

PAULA VOGEL in conversation with RICHARD ERICSON
Dec 2, 2020
sponsored by Key West Fine Wines

PAULA VOGEL is a Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright whose many plays include Indecent (Tony-Award), How I Learned to Drive (Pulitzer Prize, Obie, Lortel Prize, Drama Desk, Outer Critics Circle, NY Drama Critics Awards for Best Play), The Long Christmas Ride Home, The Baltimore Waltz & Desdemona. Other honors include the American Theatre Hall of Fame, the Dramatists Guild Lifetime Achievement Award, the Lily Award, Thornton Wilder Prize, Obie Award for Lifetime Achievement, William Inge Award, Elliot Norton Award, Susan Smith Blackburn Award, PEN/Laura Pels Award, a Guggenheim and many fellowships and residencies. Her plays have been translated and performed in over 22 languages. A distinguished theater educator and mentor, she was playwright-in-residence and professor at UCLA, Sewanee, Shanghai Theatre Academy and Nanjing University, University of Texas at Austin & the Playwrights Center in Minneapolis. From 1984 to 2008 she founded & ran the playwriting program at Brown University where she started a women’s theatre workshop in Maximum Security at the Adults Correction Institute in Cranston, RI. Most recently she was the O’Neill Chair at Yale School of Drama. A Broadway revival of How I Learned To Drive awaits the reopening of live theater. 

JUDITH LIGHT in conversation with MURPHY DAVIS
Nov 18, 2020
sponsored by Key West Fine Wines

Tony and Emmy Award winner JUDITH LIGHT is critically acclaimed for her film, television, and stage work, as well as a Hollywood Walk of Fame Star recipient. Television: The Politician, Manhunt: Deadly Games, Transparent, The Assassination of Gianni Versace: American Crime Story, Ugly Betty, Dallas, Who’s the Boss, One Life to Live. Film: Before You Know It, Ms. White Light, Save Me, Ira and Abby. Stage: God Looked Away, All the Ways to Say I Love You, Thérèse Raquin, Lombardi, Other Desert Cities, The Assembled Parties, Wit. Light is an advocate for the HIV/AIDS and LGBTQIA+ communities and is on the board of directors of the MCC Theatre in NYC.

photo by Victoria Will

KEALA SETTLE in conversation with JEFF JOHNSON
Nov 11, 2020
sponsored by Key West Fine Wines

Actress & singer KEALA SETTLE is the breakout star of The Greatest Showman alongside Hugh Jackman, Michelle Williams, Zac Efron & Zendaya. The Hawaii native’s performance of the film’s Oscar-nominated song, This Is Me, as the Bearded Lady became an explosive anthem of self-acceptance propelling the soundtrack to the top of the charts worldwide. Her electrifying live performances have stunned audiences on The Today Show, Graham Norton Show, The Ellen Show & the 2018 Academy Awards where she brought the audience to their feet. In 2019 she joined Hugh Jackman on his World Tour, The Man. The Music. The Show. On Broadway she earned a Tony-nomination for her stirring performance in Hands on a Hardbody, and appeared in Les Miserables & Waitress. Film appearances include Ricki and the Flash alongside Meryl Streep. Her recordings include Feels So Good  featured in Target’s “Do More” campaign. She effortlessly bridges the space between Motown soul queen and modern pop star.

GREGG BARNES in conversation with STEPHEN KITSAKOS
Nov 4, 2020
sponsored by Key West Fine Wines

GREGG BARNES, costume designer, received Broadway’s Tony Award & the Drama Desk & Outer Critics Awards for Best Costumes for The Drowsy Chaperone. He received another Tony & Drama Desk Award for Stephen Sondheim’s Follies starring Bernadette Peters as well as Tony nominations for Mean Girls, Tuck Everlasting, Legally Blonde, Something Rotten, Kinky Boots & Flower Drum Song. His designs for other Broadway shows include Pretty Women, Aladdin, Elf, Dirty Rotten Scoundrels, Side Show, Bye Bye Birdie & To Be Or Not to Be. An Olivier Award winner for Kinky Boots & nominee for The Drowsy Chaperone, Legally Blonde, Dreamgirls & Pageant, his designs have been seen at Radio City for Sinatra, The Christmas Spectacular, and at Madison Square Garden for The Wizard of Oz. His work is represented in major Regional theaters including the Old Globe where he was an Associate Artist, the Ahmanson, Signature, Arena Stage & McCarter Theaters, Glimmerglass Opera & the Paper Mill Playhouse where as Resident Costume Designer from 1989-1999, he designed close to forty shows. 

TOM KITT in conversation with JEFF JOHNSON
October 14, 2020
sponsored by The Green Pineapple and Jane Gardner Interiors

TOM KITT is an acclaimed composer & lyricist. He received the 2010 Pulitzer Prize for Drama as well as two Tony Awards for Best Score and Best Orchestrations for the highly lauded Broadway musical Next to Normal. He is also the composer of the musicals Almost Famous, The Visitor, Flying Over Sunset, If/Then, High Fidelity, Bring it On, the Musical with co-composer Lin-Manuel Miranda, Superhero, Disney’s Freaky Friday, Dave and The Winter’s Tale, All’s Well That Ends Well and Cymbeline for The Public’s NY Shakespeare Theater. Other credits include SpongeBob Squarepants, the Musical, Head Over Heels, Jagged Little Pill, Grease Live!, Rise and American Idiot. He received an Emmy Award as co-writer with Mr. Miranda for the 2013 Tony Award opening number, Bigger. As musical director, conductor, arranger and orchestrator his credits include the Pitch Perfect films, 2Cellos featuring Lang Lang (Live and Let Die), 13, Kennedy Center Honors, Everyday Rapture, Laugh Whore, Pippin (Deaf West) and These Paper Bullets.

STEPHANIE BLYTHE in conversation with JACK O’BRIEN
October 21, 2020
sponsored by The Green Pineapple and Debra Butler Design Studio

STEPHANIE BLYTHE, mezzo-soprano, is a renowned opera singer and recitalist. One of the most highly respected and critically acclaimed artists of her generation, her repertoire ranges from Handel to Wagner, German lieder to contemporary and classic American song.  Ms. Blythe has performed on many of the world’s great stages, such as Carnegie Hall, the Metropolitan Opera, Covent Garden, Paris National, San Francisco, Chicago Lyric and Seattle Operas. Her live Met Opera HD broadcasts include Orfeo ed Euridice, Il Trittico, Falstaff, and the complete Ring Cycle. Recordings include her solo crossover album, “As Long As There Are Songs” and works by Mahler, Brahms, Wagner, Handel and Bach. She was named Musical America’s Vocalist of the Year in 2009, received an Opera News Award in 2007 and won the prestigious Richard Tucker Award in 1999.  Currently the Artistic Director of Fall Island Vocal Arts Seminar she was recently appointed Director of the Graduate Vocal Arts Program at Bard College. Ms. Blythe occasionally moonlights as the dramatic tenor, Blythely Oratonio.

JACK O’BRIEN has won three Tony Awards for his direction of Hairspray, Henry IV and The Coast of Utopia. Other Broadway credits include All My Sons, Carousel, The Front Page, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, It’s Only a Play, Macbeth, The Nance, Catch Me If You Can, Impressionism, Dirty Rotten Scoundrels (Tony nomination), Imaginary Friends, The Invention of Love (Tony nomination & Drama Desk winner), The Full Monty (Tony nomination), More to Love, Getting Away with Murder, The Little Foxes, Damn Yankees, Two Shakespearean Actors (Tony nomination) and Porgy & Bess (Tony nomination). Off-Broadway includes Tom Stoppard’s The Hard Problem, Pride’s Crossing and Hapgood (Lucille Lortel Award). Other productions include Il Trittico at the Metropolitan Opera, Guys & Dolls at Carnegie Hall, Much Ado About Nothing for the NYSF, Love Never Dies and Hairspray (Olivier nomination). Mr. O’Brien was Artistic Director of the Old Globe Theatre from 1981 till 2007. He has directed six programs for PBS’s “American Playhouse.” His book, Jack Be Nimble, is published by Farrar, Straus and Giroux.

DAWN FRENCH in conversation with RICHARD ERICSON
October 28, 2020
sponsored by The Green Pineapple, Blue Heaven and Salute!

DAWN FRENCH has been making people laugh for thirty years. On purpose. Writer, comedian and actor, she has appeared in some of the UK’s most long-running, cherished and celebrated television shows including starring as The Vicar of Dibley, French and Saunders, Murder Most Horrid, Jam and Jerusalem, Lark Rise to Candleford and Roger and Val Have Just Got In. Dawn stars in the successful Delicious for Sky and plays the leading role in a series for ITV, The Trouble with Maggie Cole. She also stars in Kenneth Branagh’s Death On The Nile, which will be released in October, and is currently filming Roald & Beatrix, for Sky which will air Christmas 2020. Theatre credits include, A Midsummer Night’s Dream playing Bottom, My Brilliant Divorce, Smaller, and her one woman show Thirty Million Minutes, which toured the UK, Australia, ending in the West End. A bestselling novelist, her memoir Dear Fatty was published to critical acclaim in 2008.  Three bestselling novels followed and her fourth will be published in October 2020. 

DORIE GREENSPAN in conversation with RICHARD ERICSON
October 7, 2020
sponsored by The Green Pineapple, Archeo Gallery and Grace on Frances

DORIE GREENSPAN is a luminary in the world of food & cookbooks. A culinary guru, she debuted her On Desserts column for the New York Times Magazine in 2017. Inducted into the James Beard Who’s Who of Food & Beverage Winners, she has won five James Beard Awards, two IACP Cookbook of the Year Awards. With two New York Times Bestsellers, she is known for her books, Baking: From My Home to Yours, Dorie’s Cookies, Baking With Julia, Around My French Table and Baking Chez Moi. The Brooklyn-born Greenspan burned down her parents kitchen at age 12, couldn’t cook when she got married and gave up working on her doctorate in gerontology to bake cookies in a restaurant basement, a job she was fired from. She is among the first culinary professionals to produce cooking apps for mobile phones and tablet computers and her blog Everyday Dorie is visited by many. She lives in New York City, Westbrook, Connecticut, and Paris.

 

JANE KACZMAREK in conversation with JEFF JOHNSON
August 26, 2020
sponsored by Key West Fine Wines and Preferred Properties Key West

JANE KACZMAREK is best known for playing Lois on Malcolm in the Middle for 7 award winning seasons. Her television career began with The Paper Chase and Hill Street Blues after graduating from the University of Wisconsin and the Yale School of Drama. In New York she’s appeared both on and off Broadway and for 6 seasons at Williamstown Theatre Festival, with Alfred Molina in And No More Shall We Part, S. Epatha Merkerson in The Roommate and Tell Me I’m Not Crazy with the late Mark Blum. L.A.credits include Kindertransport, (Ovation Award), Raised in Captivity (LA Drama Critics Award), Good People (Ovation nominee) , The Stage Manager in Our Town with Deaf West Theatre and again with Mr. Molina in A View From the Bridge (BBC radio) and Long Day’s Journey Into Night filmed and available for viewing on Broadway HD. Ms. Kaczmarek’s foundation Clothes Off Our Back raised over $4 million for children’s charities by auctioning celebrity apparel. A mother of 3, she serves on the Board of The Pasadena Conservatory of Music, Pasadena Educational Foundation and the Pasadena Playhouse.

MARISA TOMEI in conversation with JEFF JOHNSON
August 19, 2020
sponsored by Key West Fine Wines and Blue Island Lighting and Irrigation

MARISA TOMEI continues to bridge the gap between rich, dramatic performances and smart, comedic turns. Marisa won an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress for her role as Mona Lisa Vito in My Cousin Vinny subsequently earning Oscar nominations for In the Bedroom and The Wrestler. She recently starred as Serafina in the Roundabout Theatre Company’s production of the acclaimed Tennessee Williams play The Rose Tattoo, marking her return to the Broadway stage, having previously appeared in Wait Until Dark, Salome, Top Girls and The Realistic Joneses for which she was awarded a Drama Desk Award. She recently wrapped production on Netflix’s action film, Sweet Girl, where she appears alongside Jason Mamoa and stars in Universal Pictures’ The King of Staten Island from Judd Apatow which was released nationwide in June, 2020. Other notable films include: The Big Short, Love is Strange, Crazy Stupid Love, Ides of March, Loitering with Intent, Before the Devil Knows You’re Dead, What Women Want, Happy Accidents, and Slums of Beverly Hills. Tomei is a founding member of the Naked Angels Theater Company in New York City.

ANIKA LARSEN in conversation with JEFF JOHNSON
August 12, 2020
sponsored by Key West Fine Wines and Team Kaufelt/Truman & Co.

ANIKA LARSEN created the role of Cynthia Weill in the multi-award winning musical Beautiful: The Carole King Musical which ran for almost five years on Broadway. For her performance she was awarded the Drama Desk Award and nominated for a Tony Award. The actress and singer debuted on Broadway in Rent going on to appear on Broadway as Kate Monster/Lucy Slut in Avenue Q, All Shook Up and Xanadu. Her multiple appearances Off-Broadway and in Regional Theaters include a Lucille Lortel Nomination for her appearance in the musical Zanna Don’t! The versatile singer performs a variety of styles of jazz, pop, Latin and Broadway tunes with her husband, trumpeter Freddie Maxwell, in the Larsen/Maxwell Quintet including performances at Feinstein’s 54-Below. She has also served as Adjunct Theatre Arts Faculty at SUNY New Paltz. Larsen is set to return to Broadway in the musical adaptation of Cameron Crowe’s film Almost Famous, playing the forward-thinking yet hyper vigilant widowed mother, Elaine. The musical opened last fall at the Old Globe in San Diego to outstanding reviews.

TONY SHALHOUB in conversation with JEFF JOHNSON
July 29, 2020
sponsored by Key West Fine Wines and The Gallery on Greene

TONY SHALHOUB is an actor who is instantly recognizable from his Emmy-award winning role as Abe in Amazon Studios The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel and as Adrian Monk, the detective in the TV series, Monk from 2002-2009 for which he won three Emmy Awards having been nominated eight times. He was also awarded a Golden Globe for Monk, and a combined six Screen Actors Guild awards for Monk and The Amazing Mrs. Maisel. From 1991-1997 he played the romantic taxicab driver Scarpacci in the NBC series Wings. His over fifty film roles have included Men in Black I & II, Spy Kids and Cars films, as well as The Siege, Galaxy Quest, Quick Change, Barton Fink and Big Night. His many Broadway appearances include The Band’s Visit for which he was awarded the 2018 Tony Award for Best Actor in a Musical. Other Broadway roles included Tony nominations for Act One, Conversations With My Father and Golden Boy for which he also received a Drama Desk nod. Mr. Shalhoub is a graduate of the Yale School of Drama.

image credit: Keith Barraclough

KENNY LEON in conversation with JEFF JOHNSON
July 22, 2020
sponsored by Key West Fine Wines and At Home in Key West Vacation Rentals

KENNY LEON (Director) is a Tony Award-winning Broadway and television director. Most recently, he directed the Broadway premiere of Charles Fuller’s Pulitzer Prize winning masterpiece, A Soldier’s Play. He also directed The Underlying Chris at Second Stage Theatre Company and last summer’s acclaimed production of Much Ado About Nothing at the Delacorte/ Shakespeare in the Park. Broadway: A Soldier’s Play; American Son; Children of a Lesser God; Holler If Ya Hear Me; A Raisin in the Sun (Tony Award; 2014); The Mountaintop; Stick Fly; August Wilson’s Fences, Gem of the Ocean and Radio Golf. Off-Broadway: Everybody’s Ruby, Emergence-See! (The Public), Smart People (Second Stage). Television: “American Son” (adapted for Netflix), “Hairspray Live!,” “The Wiz Live!,” “Steel Magnolias,” “Dynasty,” “In My Dreams.” Author, “Take You Wherever You Go.” Artistic director emeritus, Kenny Leon’s “True Colors Theatre Company.”

CONSTANCE SHULMAN in conversation with MUPRHY DAVIS
July 8, 2020

Actress CONSTANCE SHULMAN is instantly recognizable as Yoga Jones in the Netflix series Orange is the New Black. She is well-known as the voice of Patti Mayonnaise for the Nickelodeon animated TV series Doug, ABC’s Disney’s Doug, Doug’s First Movie and for playing Shelly Ray in the TV comedy The Faculty. Her signature voice has been described as a “scratch and southern-accented marvel”. Shulman’s stage appearances include starring in the original production of Steel Magnolias where she created the role of Annelle. She recently appeared on Broadway in the revival of The Rose Tattoo starring Marisa Tomei. For many years she was also the “face” of Kraft Mayonnaise.

REED BIRNEY in conversation with MUPRHY DAVIS
July 1, 2020

Viewers of House of Cards will recognize REED BIRNEY as the actor who played Vice President Donald Blythe. He played Tom Connolly on The Blacklist and has many other television credits including The Americans and Home Before Dark. He is a distinguished stage actor, having won the Tony Award for his 2016 performance in The Humans. Mr Birney was an original Broadway cast member of 1984, Casa Valentina and Picnic. In 2011, Mr. Birney received a special Drama Desk Award for his versatile and finely nuanced performances over the past thirty-five years and for exceptional work in three off-Broadway plays, Tigers be Still, A Small Fire and The Dream of the Burning Boy.

TONYA PINKINS in conversation with MUPRHY DAVIS
June 24, 2020

TONYA PINKINS  has won or been nominated for nearly every award there is in American theater. A Fulbright awardee, she starred on Broadway in Tony Kushner & Jeanine Tesori’s Caroline or Change and won the Tony Award and Outer Critics Circle Award for her portrayal of Sweet Anita in Jelly’s Last Jam. You may have seen her in All My Children, Madam Secretary, and Fear the Walking Dead. As a producer, writer and director, she conceived Truth and Reconciliation of Womyn; Narrative Stories and Songs for the Soul in ten minutes or less involving women spanning the globe in age, culture and ethnicity. Ms. Pinkins is currently in post production on a socio-political horror film set during the 2020 election called Red Pill. (@redpillmovie2020).

KATE BURTON in conversation with MUPRHY DAVIS
June 17, 2020

KATE BURTON is a Swiss-born Welsh-American actress, daughter of actor Richard Burton and Sybil Christopher. On television, Burton received critical acclaim as Ellis Grey in Grey’s Anatomy, and as Vice President Sally Langston on Scandal. Ms. Burton is a three-time Emmy Nominee and Tony Award Nominee.  She has appeared in countless films, television series and fourteen Broadway shows including The Constant Wife, Hedda Gabler and The Elephant Man. A graduate of Brown University and the Yale School of Drama, she is currently a University of Southern California dramatic arts professor.