Broadway To Vegas

Copyright: April 19, 2020
By: Laura Deni
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THEATRE COSTUME DEPARTMENTS STAY BUSY MAKING COVID-19 MASKS

Creativity has always been the operative work for theatrical costume departments - be they on a collage campuses, local community theatres or a provider to major Broadway productions.

The devastating scene stealer known as COVID-19 provided an opportunity for costumers to sew for a cause.

The hew and cry of not enough facial masks became a rallying cry for departments which already have on hand material, thread, sewing machines and man power.

A spot check discovered:

NORTH SHORE MUSIC THEATRE'S costume department in Beverly, MA, headed by Kelly Baker took to creating purple face masks to give away to nursing homes and local facilities in need of protective equipment during the coronavirus pandemic.

According to Boston 7 News which first published the story, the masks are made out of purple fabric to honor theatre general manager Karen Nascembeni, who loves the color purple and was diagnosed with coronavirus. Nascembeni lost her husband and father-in-law to COVID-19. The theatre also lost long-time usher Eileen Day to the virus.

“I always said to [Eileen], ‘You’re my good luck charm,’ so I kind of lost my good luck charm but I’m sure she’s going to watch over me and this theatre from right upstairs,” theatre owner Bill Hanney told the television station: "This is our giving-back part of this theatre.”

MIDLAND CENTER OF THE ARTS in Midlands, Michigan formed The Costume Goddesses , a volunteer group of costume designers with decades of volunteerism experience for Center Stage Theatre. They began working in day and night shifts to construct as many CDC approved facemasks as possible to support local health systems.

The group is able to collectively create more than 100 masks per day, and will continue to build the masks through this critical time. What started as a group of 7 volunteer seamstresses, expanded as a call went out for additional costume volunteers.

“The idea for this group to lend their expertise in sewing and construction began last week,” Dexter Brigham, Director of Theatre Programs told NBC 25 News. “The Center is thrilled to be supporting the volunteers with access to supplies from our costume shop to create the masks, and coordinating the pick-up and delivery of these masks to get them in the hands of healthcare professionals.”

joins effort to make medical masks for nursing home residents and personnel.

Emily Ruiz, director, director of costume shop at Ball State, uses her skills as a seamstress to create cotton masks for area medical and health facilities. Photo: Ball State

BALL STATE UNIVERSITY'S costume shop head Emily Ruiz is used to last second alterations. So, when the COVID-19 pandemic hit Indiana, she quickly led her team in making medical masks for area nursing homes.

In the last few days, the costume shop in the Department of Theatre and Dance has created several hundred masks from cotton fabric. The team is addressing the needs of the medical community in east central Indiana. Although the items are not the N95 masks recommended for protection against COVID-19, they offer wearers some protection from infections.

“We went from doing last-second alterations on costumes to knocking these out as fast as we could,” said Ruiz, who has been with the University for the past six years. “Our goal was 500, and we hit are close. Then, our job will be to make as many as we can for as long as we are needed.”

Department Chair Bill Jenkins calls the efforts heroic as members of the costume shop, Ball State students, and others rise to the challenge.

“This is a perfect example of the Spirit of Beneficence here at Ball State,” he said. “Emily and her collaborators are showing how our University is about more than educating student. We serve our neighbors.”

“We are used to the hems and trims, coming together at the last second to solve costume problems so that the show goes on,” Ruiz said in an e-mail sent to Broadway To Vegas. “I am glad that we can make a difference,”

Founded in 1918 and located in Muncie, Ball State University is one of Indiana’s premier universities and an economic driver for the state. Ball State’s 22,500 students come from all over Indiana, the nation, and the world.

UNIVERSITY OF SAN DIEGO face mask project is led by Corey Johnston MFA, an adjunct assistant professor of theatre at USD who has finished over 400 masks.

It all started when his colleague, Farrah Karapetian, MFA, an assistant professor of visual arts, approached him with the idea of making masks to help those on the front-line of the COVID-19 fight. Shortly thereafter, the County of San Diego began requiring all public-facing employees to wear masks. At this point, Johnston knew he was in a position to help. As the faculty costume supervisor at USD, Johnston not only had the materials he needed but also the equipment required to begin production. With a $1,000 donation from the USD Changemaker Hub to purchase additional supplies, Johnston set to work creating these masks.

“I knew the Theatre program—of all programs on campus—would be uniquely situated to do this. It’s that simple,” Johnston told the news department of the school. “I knew we had some small portion of resources on hand when currently everyone is looking for them, and the only place on campus that has sewing machines. It was the perfect storm of opportunity and responsibility.”

Since starting, Johnston has created 400 masks. Part of the “You Are Essential” initiative through the College of Arts and Sciences, Johnston’s are provided to USD’s essential employees who are still working on campus, as well as donated to the university’s community partners.

Joshua Stephenson, scene shop foreman, sews masks for his fellow employees. Photo: UC Riverside/Alif Emil Marchi

THE UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA AT RIVERSIDE is a busy place. Six UC Riverside costume - and scene - shop employees have been sitting behind sewing machines, stitching together face masks for their colleagues.

These dedication stems from their desire to offer another layer of protection for essential personnel who continue to work on campus in service of students. These six employees are part of UC Riverside’s Department of Theatre, Film, and Digital Production. Their years of experience building sets and creating new wardrobes, came in handy when an Environmental Health and Safety engineer reached out to see if anyone in the department could help. Within hours, Alan A. Call, Alif Emil Marchi, Joshua Stephenson, Kerry Jones, Landis M. York, and Maria Hong had a plan in place.

They took over two floors of the Arts Building, rearranging sewing machines to create enough physical space between them in order to safely adhere to social distancing policies, wearing face masks as they operated the machines. In a few hours, they had completed 32 masks. By day four, they had sewn 284. One of the first teams to receive these masks were UC Riverside’s Police Department officers and their support staff, said Tracy Stark, safety engineer with EH&S.

“The theater community is extremely close knit, and the folks on our campus are a true embodiment of that,” Stark said. “Their work is a really big boost to the campus community. We want to make this situation as bearable as possible for the essential personnel; we want to let people know we are going to get through it together.”

The goal is to sew at least 750 washable, three-ply face masks with existing material found in the costume shop. The masks, made out of colorful and fun patterns, are supplemental to other face coverings UC Riverside already offers its workers, but are not intended to be medical grade, Stark said. These are free for all essential employees.

Joshua Stephenson, ’17, a scene shop foreman who started working in the unit as a student in 2014, said volunteering to make the masks was simply his way of thanking “some of the people that are out there every day” making sure “our corner of the world keeps on spinning.”

“We had the knowledge and the means to do this. Our equipment was sitting idle, so we geared up and made it happen,” Alan Call, technical director who has been at UC Riverside for 35 years was quoted as saying. “We were asked on a Thursday afternoon if we could do this, and we were sewing Friday morning.”

Kerry Jones ’84, scenic artist and properties designer, said she too was glad to help.

“I was happy to be asked to make masks, as I had been trying to think of some way to safely help out or volunteer in the community,” said Jones, who has been working at UC Riverside since 1995.

That same commitment to help is shared by her colleague, Maria Hong, a costume shop assistant. She has been working at UC Riverside for six months and has seen the campus grow over the last two decades she’s lived in Riverside.

For Landis York, costume shop manager and costume designer, volunteering to sew helped her feel less helpless and less frustrated about not being able to help those affected by the COVID-19 pandemic.

“Working on the project has given me something positive to focus on,” said York, who joined UC Riverside in 2018. “Making masks has allowed me to feel that, yes, even as the world grinds to a halt, l can contribute to the UC Riverside community in some small way.”

Gayle Stahlhuth, artistic director for EAST LYNNE THEATER COMPANY in Cape May, NJ traded in her director's chair for a sewing machine. "Lee O'Connor, my husband and ELTC's Tech Director, James Rana, who was in The Band's Visit on Broadway and in the recently shut-down National Tour, are helping with the masks," she told Broadway To Vegas. "James was visiting us and we're all sequestered together. The material for the masks came from Cape May County health care workers, and the masks are for them."

McCARTER THEATRE CENTER in Princeton, New Jersey has a ten-person costume shop team who jumped at the opportunity create masks.

. For one McCarter worker, Sarah Romagnoli, creating these masks has personal significance. Her sister, who is a military doctor in Louisville, Kentucky, told Romagnoli that mask stockpiles would run out. “So I video-conferenced with her about what she thought the ideal mask would be,” said Romagnoli in a press release. “[She] wanted extra-large washable masks to fit over her medical mask.”

Likewise. Janessa Cornell Urwin, wardrobe supervisor for the New Brunswick–based American Repertory Ballet, heard from her stepsister who works in a large health clinic outside Boston that masks were scarce. She asked Cornell Urwin if she had any extra reserves. Instead, Cornell Urwin said, “Well, I could make them.”

“I wasn’t sure if cotton masks would be useful for medical professionals at first,” she says. When her stepsister explained that washable fabric masks can be placed over N95 medical masks, enabling the N95 masks to be used longer. Cornell Urwin scrounged through her fabric supply and began sewing.

Others keeping busy include Jim Vagias, producing artistic director for the South Orange–based AMERICAN THEATRE GROUP, was new to sewing but a quick study. His home made masks are donated to Robert Wood Johnson University Hospital in New Brunswick.

According to New Jersey Monthly GEORGE STREET PLAYHOUSE'S costume shop manager Joleen Addleman Loyd crafted masks for a friend who is a nurse at Robert Wood Johnson.

CENTENARY STAGE COMPANY'S resident costume designer Meghan Reeves is teaching all costume design students how to make masks to support Heath Village Retirement Community.

TWO RIVER THEATER in Red Bank, NJ donated gloves and N95 masks they had on hand for their set construction team to Riverview Medical Center, and delivered masks made by their costume shop to CareOne at King James in Atlantic Highlands. They used fabric from past shows, including cherry-printed material from Joe Iconis’s Love in Hate Nation.

Just this week, the ARTS COUNCIL OF PRINCETON launched the Sew Many Masks Initiative. Community members can cut fabric into patterns for masks or sew the fabric into masks themselves. The completed masks can be picked up (no charge) by those who need them.

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This is not your typical, totally boring textbook.

In the pages of How To Earn A Living As A Freelance Writer (the first to be lied to and the last to be paid) you'll find sex, celebrities, violence, threats, unethical editors, scummy managers and lawyers, treacherous press agents, sex discrimination; as well as a how-to for earning money by writing down words.

ART AND ABOUT

GRAMMY MUSEUM ANNOUNCES DEBUT OF ITS PUBLIC PROGRAM SERIES as part of its Digital Museum on the Museum's website. Confirmed artists participating in the Museum's new digital Public Program series include Ingrid Andress, Brandy Clark, Kevin Cronin of REO Speedwagon, Echosmith, Jim Lauderdale, Kip Moore, Caitlyn Smith, The Shine Down, Soul Asylum, and Webb Wilder.

The Museum has also been releasing free digital content, including never-before-released archival Public Program footage, exhibit slideshows that feature past exhibitions, digital educational content and lessons plans, and continuing its mission of paying tribute to our musical heritage and bringing our community together through music. The Museum is sharing daily playlists and thoughts curated by its staff, including the guest services and security team members, in an effort to continue keeping all employees engaged during this closure.

The first digital Public Programs to be released was Soul Asylum last Saturday, April 18, followed by Caitlyn Smith on Monday, April 20.

WORKS & PROCESS AT THE GUGGENHEIM announces Virtual Commissions.

To financially support artists and nurture their creative process during these challenging times, Works & Process, the performing arts series at the Guggenheim, announces Works & Process Virtual Commissions. With the generosity of the board, Works & Process will grant $40,000 in commissioning funds to artists who have been featured at Works & Process. Artists from a wide variety of genres have been commissioned to create new works, less than 5 minutes long, while observing social distancing guidelines, that will premiere on Facebook, Instagram and YouTube every Sunday and Monday at 7:30pm starting on April 19.

Confirmed Commissioned Artists

Evita Arce * Ephrat Asherie * Brandon Stirling Baker * LaTasha Barnes * Hope Boykin * Brian Brooks * Rena Butler * Chris Celiz * Anthony Roth Costanzo * Dylan Crossman * Machine Dazzle * Michelle Dorrance * Tom Gold * John Heginbotham * Michael R. Jackson * John Jarboe * Gabrielle Lamb * Pontus Lidberg * Missy Mazzoli * Ryan McNamara * Andrea Miller * Nico Muhly * Calli Quan * Jamar Roberts * Anthony Rodriguez * Penny Saunders * Claudia Schreier * Dan Siegler * Conrad Tao * Omari Wiles.

Confirmed Commissioned Collaborations

Joshua Bergasse and Sara Mearns * Nora Brown and Caleb Teicher * Nathan Bugh and Gaby Cook * Alejandro Cerrudo and Ana Lopez * Adrian Danchig-Waring and Joseph Gordon * Larry Keigwin and Nicole Wolcott * Ashley Laracey and Troy Schumacher * Carson Murphy and Nicholas Van Young * Michael Novak and Josh Prince * Kamala Sankaram and Preeti Vasudevan.

IMPORTANT MRS AMERICA MINI SERIES IS NOTHING SHORT OF BRILLIANT: CAMPAIGN UNDERFOOT TO CRITICIZE SERIES

This is the year celebrating that 100 years ago self important men decided that American women could vote.

Obviously, that was a major accomplishment.

Unfortunately, it didn't create legal equality among the sexes.

Decades later a movement attempting to get an Equal Rights Amendment added to the constitution was launched. The expensive and exhaustive effort - failed.

A documentary about the hard fought effort to elevate women to the legal status of men has been brought to the screen through the mini-series Mrs America.

Women have always been second class citizens. They still are. Perhaps they will never possess "equal rights." I'm old enough to have lived through the groundbreaking effort to get the Equal Rights Amendment (ERA) passed. Back in those days boys took shop and girls took home economic. I remember my Home Ec teacher trying to explain why all girls should become active in what women like Gloria Steinem were doing. She was emphatic that we must get involved. Realistically, she explained that we weren't fighting for ourselves, perhaps not even our daughters. She speculated that it would be our granddaughters that would benefit. As the wise teacher put it: Nothing will change until the boys grow up, get married and have children because - "what a man will do to you, he will never permit another man to do to his daughter."

Cate Blanchett aa Phyllis Schlafy. Photo:Production

The ERA failed. Time passed and those who fought so hard for passage are now old or deceased. Memories need to be shocked into reliving what shaped a nation.

The totally brilliant miniseries Mrs America does just that

In an era when few television series can actually be called "smart" Ms. America is brilliant.

Exceptional casting features Cate Blanchett starring as as ultra conservative Phyllis Schlafly. Margo Martindale is cast as Bella Abzug, John Slatery portrays Fred Schlafly. Rose Bryne is Gloria Steinem while Uzo Aduba appears as Representative Shirley Chishol. Tracy Ullman is cast as Betty Friedan, Elizabeth Banks appears as G.O.P. activist Jill Ruckelshaus, James Marsden is Phil Crane, Sarah Paulson is Phyllis' fictional friend Alice Macray.

All of the performances are award worthy.

Good looking and blonde, Schlafly was the face of the stay at home, obedient wife. She once suggested that a husband comes home from work his wife should greet him at the door - naked, wrapped in Saran Wrap. I always thought that problematic, as a naked body wrapped in Saran Wrap would sweat - meaning the potentially odoriferous wife would need a bath.

Anyway, this powerful production is important because it shows why the ERA got defeated. People have forgotten and they need to be reminded - otherwise we step backward.

Margo Martindale as Bella Abzug. Photo:Production

Schlafly is a conservative whose activism (a two-time loser for a Congressional seat) is indulged by her lawyer husband as long as she has dinner on the table.

Phyllis Schlafly is manipulative and cunning. She sees managing men as simply a woman’s role.

If Schlafly knew how to play a man, business men knew how to used Schlafly for satisfy their economic needs.

Executive producer Dahvi Waller asserts that Schlafly, who died in 2016 at age 92, was considered too obscure to be taken seriously. “The feminists felt her newsletter or any arguments against the ERA were backed by the insurance industry and business interests, and that she was a puppet for misogynists,” she has been quoted as saying, “I think what really surprised the feminists was the force of misogyny among lawmakers — that they were so ready to have a woman to hide behind.”

“The insurance lobbies were pumping a lot of funding into the anti-ERA movement because, until the Affordable Care Act, being a woman could be treated as a pre-existing condition,” Stacey Sher, an executive producer also told the press, which was first printed by the NYPost.. “And you were able to discriminate on the basis of sex in paying for your policies. So there was a huge incentive for them not to see it pass.”

Schlafly frequently laid blame at the feet of other women. At a meeting with male Republican lawmakers, she says, “Some women like to blame sexism for their failures instead of admitting they didn’t try hard enough.”

Tracey Ullman as Betty Friedan. Photo:Production

One of the strongest arguments against ERA passage was the fear that housewives would be required to register for the draft. Schlafly became incensed at the thought of women going to war.

Arguments used against permitting women in combat actually included that women have periods which can produce an offense odor which the enemy would be able to smell and thus enable them to locate and kill our brave male soldiers.

Schlafly and her co-horts prevented the amendment from passing the required 38 states by its deadline.

The E.R.A. was first proposed in 1923, though Congress did not pass it until 1972. To approve the amendment, ratification was needed in 38 states by 1979; the deadline was later extended to 1982. The deadline passed and the spotlight focused on other issues.

The E.R.A. promised equal rights to women, and was aimed at improving pay equity for them, strengthening domestic violence and sexual harassment protections, and blocking discrimination against pregnant people and mothers. The amendment reads, in part: “Equality of rights under the law shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any State on account of sex.”

In recent years, new efforts emerged to reignite the E.R.A., amid the MeToo movement, efforts to protect abortion rights and as Democrats won control of some statehouses. Despite the now passed deadline, in 2017, Nevada became the 36th state to approve the E.R.A., and a year later, Illinois passed it. That left Virginia, a state that failed to pass the E.R.A. last year, considering it again this year, and with a State Legislature newly dominated by Democrats.

This time it succeeded. The vote was 59-40 in the House and 28-12 in the Senate. The governor, Ralph Northam, a Democrat, has said he supports the measure.

Rose Bryne as Gloria Steinem. Photo:Production

Supporters, like Democratic legislator Jennifer Carroll Foy, viewed the moment as historic and the measure as timely.

“The question is, which side of history do you want to be on?” she said before the vote. “The world is watching — your mothers, your sisters, your daughters.”

Yet many potholes remain.

Last month, the Justice Department released an opinion concluding that Virginia’s efforts to ratify the E.R.A. had come too late, given the 1982 deadline, and that the entire legislative approval process must be restarted for a proposed amendment to be legally binding. That advisory conclusion will next be heard by federal courts.

Further complicating the matter, five states - Nebrska, Idaho, Kentucky, Tennessee and South Dakota - have revoked their ERA ratifications. However, in some past instances, when states attempted to annul legislative votes in support of constitutional amendments, initial approvals were deemed valid, including those for the 14th and 15th amendments.

Uzo Aduba appears as Representative Shirley Chishol. Photo:Production

Generally, constitutional amendments do not have ratification deadlines. In fact, the 27th Amendment, was ratified in 1992 — more than two centuries after Congress passed it.

Eileen Davis, 65, the founder of Women-Matter, a feminist group, and an advocate for passage of the E.R.A., said she found out in about 2010 that Virginia had never passed the measure, and decided to go to Richmond to alert legislators.

“I was naïve. I thought I would bring it to the powers-that-be and they would take care of it,” she said. “But nobody knew what the E.R.A. was.”

That only emphasizes the importance of Mrs America.

Last November, Democrats won control of both chambers of the State Legislature for the first time in 25 years and declared that passage of the E.R.A. would be one of their primary objectives.

Opponents of the E.R.A. said they feared it would upend the gender norm applecart.

“Laws protecting women’s interests will be undercut by the radical language of the E.R.A. that strips away from women their unique place in the law,” said Kristan Hawkins, president of Students for Life of America, an anti-abortion group that opposes the E.R.A. Hawkins added that “the most profound change will be creating a constitutional foothold for abortion.”

Davis countered that her efforts were not designed to safeguard legal abortion rights. She said she simply wanted equality for women.

“One of the things I’d tell legislators is that someone’s going to make a movie about this, and I don’t think you want to have to explain to your granddaughter why you didn’t support equality for women,” Davis said.

That movie would be called Mrs America.

Unfortunately, a group apparently led by a Beverly Hills, CA press agent - though well meaning, is terribly misguided - and is harming the cause they purport to support. The official release requests the press to criticize the miniseries Mrs America.

In part the release states:

"A group of feminist filmmakers and activists released an Open Letter on Tuesday, calling out FX’s new TV series MRS. AMERICA and its marketing for focusing on the Equal Right’s Amendment’s failure to pass in 1982 without shining a light on the recent victories in the movement to ratify the ERA.

“The TV series MRS. AMERICA and the press around it make no reference to any of the recent actions, like the fact that the ERA was ratified by the necessary 38th state, Virginia, in January,” said Ariel Dougherty, an independent filmmaker and activist who spearheaded the drive. “This is devastating for the current push for the ERA. It would be less dangerous if current positive strides for the ERA, on the cusp of becoming codified, were getting the constant media attention that they deserve. Sadly, that is not the case.”

"The Equal Rights Amendment, almost a century in the making, stands poised in U.S District Court in Massachusetts to become the 28th Amendment to the Constitution of the United States. On January 27, 2020, just as the coronavirus cropped up in five U.S. locations, both chambers of the Virginia legislature ratified the ERA. As the 38th state affirmed equal rights based on sex, the ERA should have been tacitly attached to the Constitution. Instead, the courts are to decide its final fate.

"Concerned feminist filmmakers and activists - Ariel Dougherty, Alexandra Hidalgo, Jennifer Hall Lee, Kamala Lopez, Ivana Massetti, Barbara Ann O’Leary, and Barbara Winslow - organized the campaign to heighten awareness about the current status of the ERA with an open letter calling on Hollywood, the mainstream news media and streaming outlets to tell the story of contemporary actions taken toward passing the amendment. As the letter circulated, it quickly gathered steam and support from over 500 people, including such notables as actress & activist Rose McGowan, Nevada State Senator Patricia Spearman, film directors Lizzie Borden & Eva Husson, Lizzy Jagger & her father, rocker Mick Jagger, feminist artist Natalie White, fashion designer Tommy Hilfiger & daughter Ally Hilfiger, Jerry and Rupert Murdoch, Caitriona Balfe (Outlander), Mishel Prada (Vida), filmmaker/producer Vanessa Hope and Amazon Studios’ Ted Hope. Young activists from GenerationRatify, led by high school sophomore Rosie Couture, also signed the letter.

"As an example of the short-sighted media buy-in for the made-for-TV series, a review in The Hollywood Reporter called the amendment “comatose,” despite the battle for the ERA close to being won. MRS. AMERICA and the press around it make no reference to any of the recent actions, like the fact that the ERA was ratified in January by Virginia, the last required state to reach the 38 needed to codify the amendment."

Part of the signed letter states:

"The ERA will provide equal pay for equal work or work of equal value, require gender equity in scientific research, prohibit police departments from giving domestic violence calls lower priority than other crimes, compel colleges to properly investigate sexual assault, and propel a myriad of other substantive advances for American women and families.

"It is painfully ironic that the April 15th premiere of the nine-part Hulu miniseries Mrs. America highlights the amendment’s opposition 50 years ago without referencing the present action—the ratification of the final three states—which now enters a final crucial stage.

"Mrs. America centers on Phyllis Schlafly (played by Cate Blanchett), the woman who mobilized an ultra conservative movement to end the fight for women’s legal equality in 1982.

"Although the promotional materials for the series and the advance press present the series as providing a history of how the conservative movement gained the traction it has today, we worry that this story diminishes the present-day successes of ERA activists around the country. We are dismayed that while highlighting the inequities of the past, the media currently gives short shrift to the gender cultural narrative of inequality that if reversed could change the lives of millions of Americans of all ages.

"We fear that the gains that our renewed movement has made could be hurt by Mrs. America, as well as by the poor coverage by the news media of recent historic victories in the battle to pass the ERA. We respect and support artistic and creative freedom, but we hope that with that freedom the media can also take responsibility. Hollywood can and should accurately represent the voices of women and activists around the country today. The renewed ERA movement is alive and in play right now."

Broadway To Vegas asked some questions. My letter was was apparently forwarded by the press firm with a reply received from award-winning Venezuelan filmmaker Alexandra Hidalgo, Ph.D. Co-Director | The Documentary Film Lab. Assistant Professor | Department of Writing, Rhetoric, and American Cultures Michigan State University.

BroadwayTo Vegas thanks her for her prompt response. My questions and her replies follow.

Why aren't names such as Gloria Steinem, Gloria Allred, Jane Fonda, etc- those who have been on the front-line of ERA passage for years - included in the letter?

If we had their contact information, we invited people to sign the letter, including long-time leaders in the ERA battle like the ones you mention. Everyone who said they wanted to sign was added to th Why aren't names such as Gloria Steinem, Gloria Allred, Jane Fonda, etc- those who have been on the front-line of ERA passage for years - included in the letter? If we had their contact information, we invited people to sign the letter, including long-time leaders in the ERA battle like the ones you mention. Everyone who said they wanted to sign was added to the letter. Why haven't powerful and high profile women been demanding ink and air-time for this subject? This is a tough question that I can only answer from conjecture. Our understanding is that there are consequences to people's careers and sometimes even personal wellbeing when they push for gender equality and for stories like these to be told. The ERA could completely transform American society if passed. That makes it a particularly risky subject for people, in particular women, to champion. If you look at our letter, however, high-profile women like Rose McGowan, Senator Pat Spearman, Lizzy Jagger, and Ally Hilfiger have signed the letter and are asking the media to tell these stories now. As our #ISupportTheERANow campaign soars, our hope is that more and more powerful women will ask for media attention to these stories."

NOTE: Pat Spearman is a Nevada State Senator from North Las Vegas. Spearman became the first openly lesbian member of the Nevada Legislature. She was re-elected in November 2016, and serves as co-majority whip since. Regarded as one of the most liberal members of the Nevada Senate, Spearman has introduced bills that provide equal pay for women, support LGBT rights, and support veterans.

What legal firms are preparing the oral and written arguments for the US Supreme Court? What do they say about how they plan to persuade the SC?

Wendy Murphy is the lead counsel handling the case on behalf of the Women’s and Children’s Advocacy Project under the Center for Law and Social Responsibility at New England Law|Boston.

She will argue the case before the lower federal courts and the SCOTUS if it gets there. She is admitted to practice before the US Supreme Court. Many of the legal arguments align with seemingly conservative jurisprudence, such as states’ rights and textualism. Although the current court is hardly feminist, they will not be asked to resolve legal questions regarding women’s rights per se. The issues in controversy involve foundational principles of democracy, federalism, and separation of powers.

Broadway To Vegas seriously questions the appropriateness of criticizing a television mini series which brings to the forefront the history of the ERA and how and why it got defeated. Without being cognizant of that history any attempt to reinvigorate interest becomes short sighted and doomed for failure.

It also doesn't seem kosher to have people sign a complaint letter before they have seen the mini-series.

By criticizing the one and - at this point - only major effort to, not just educate the public, but doing so in an entertaining manner is counterproductive.

Since many of the letter signatories hold themselves forth as being film makes, stop complaining and get a go-fund-me to bankroll your own miniseries.

If you can't do it, don't tell those who can how to create.

This memorable mini series Mrs America should be required viewing in civics and American history classes. It accurately shows both sides and how each position changed women and America - not always in a favorable or straight line.

In this day and age when most people are trying to cope with COVID-19 and desperate to get an economy re-opened, diverting attention towards getting what some may feel is an amendment past deadline falls on deaf ears. Also, the passage of individual laws which have somewhat accomplished what the ERA would have guaranteed, doesn't encourage people's attention to be focused on insulting a television show.

The out-and-out effrontery to solicit negative or critical comments about a project which is eligible for legitimate reviews is totally unprofessional. Honest critics know how to do their job. Let them.

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SPREADING THE WORD

MEET THE MAKERS a digital series of conversations with scholars and New York's Irish Rep artists discussing their work and theatre in general. With episodes released every Thursday throughout the COVID-19 hiatus, this special series offers a behind-the-scenes look at Irish history, theatre, and the creative process - starting with the story of how Irish Rep came to be as told by co-founders Charlotte Moore and Ciarán O'Reilly.

Upcoming programs include:

Thursday April 23: Aedín Moloney and Column McCann discuss James Joyce and Yes! Reflections of Molly Bloom

Thursday April 30: Irish Rep Stage Managers discuss theatre behind-the-scenes.

STREAMING MUSICALS' free ‘virtual opening night’ on Friday, April 10 for a new musical adaptation of Pride and Prejudice was viewed by a worldwide audience of 160,000 in 14 countries. The event, hosted by Beth Leavel, Laura Osnes and Julie James, was streamed throughout the United States, England, Scotland, Wales, Northern Ireland, Mexico, Brazil, Australia, Singapore, Taiwan, Japan, Greece, Germany and Italy.

92Y'S POETRY CENTER ONLINE continues its celebration of National Poetry Month with archival recordings of readings by many of the best-known poets, including Maya Angelou, W.H. Auden (pictured above), e.e. cummings, T.S. Eliot, Robert Frost, Pablo Neruda (his first U.S. reading), Kay Ryan, U.S. Poet Laureate Joy Harjo, Adrienne Rich, Mary Oliver , Tracy K. Smith and Seamus Heaney, among many others. All of the poets mentioned have appeared at 92Y as part of the Poetry Center's main reading series; the Poetry Center began in 1939. The site also includes a portion of the 1953 world premiere of Dylan Thomas' Under Milk Wood and a 2014 encore performance featuring actor Michael Sheen -- as well stirring poetry readings by Vladimir Nabokov , Leonard Cohen and Hillary Clinton, to name only a few.

In addition to the archival recordings, the site features newly-commissioned readings for the recently-launched Read By podcast: Billy Collins (who reads two new poems, among others), Rachel Cusk (who reads Tennyson), and Colm Tóibín, who reads and discusses W.B. Yeats, among other offerings.

It also includes the Poetry Center's Writers on Recordings anthology, which pairs archival recordings with written responses by well-known writers including: Cynthia Ozick wrote about a 1955 W.H. Auden reading; W.S Merwin wrote about a 1976 Jorge Luis Borges reading.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO . . .

QUEEN ELIZABETH 11 who was born on April 21, 1926 turns 94 this week. She could pass for 60.

Her birthday is officially celebrated in June when the British weather is more party friendly.

This week's event will be private and low key thanks to the COVID-19 epidemic.

The birthday gal has four children, eight grandchildren and 8 great-grandchildren. She continues to work full time While the job perks are great, there isn't a retirement plan.

LAUGHTER IS THE BEST MEDICINE

Rodney Dangerfield was one of the mist famous of American comedians. He coined the lines "Take my wife, please" and "I ain't got no respect." On a regular basis he starred in Las Vegas and for years had his own comedy club Dangefield's in New York City.

A few of his famous jokes:

I asked my wife, 'Is there somebody else?' She said, 'There must be.'

We were poor. we were so poor, in my neighborhood the rainbow was in black-and-white.

I knew a girl so ugly that she was known as a two-bagger. That's when you put a bag over your head in case the bag over her head breaks.

Comedy is a camouflage for depression.

Do ya remember the first time you had sex? I do, and boy, was I scared! I was alone!

Well with girls I don't get no respect. I had a blind date. I waited two hours on the corner. A girl walked by. I said "Are you Louise?" She said, "Are you Rodney?" I said, "Yeah." She said, "I'm not Louise."

My wife's a water sign. I'm an earth sign. Together we make mud.

I don't get no respect. I called Suicide Prevention. They tried to talk me into it.

And, from comedian Wayne Alan owner of The Historic North Theatre Performing Arts Center in Danville, VA.

Guys will stand 5'8" from you and call it 6 feet.

Knock knock. Who's there? No one because we're isolating.

Weeks without sports on TV. Found a young lady sitting on my couch yesterday. Apparently she's my wife. She seems nice.

OTHER PEOPLE'S MONEY

THE BRET ADAMS AND PAUL REISCH FOUNDATION has announced the recipients of their special COVID-19 response grants for playwrights, composers, lyricists and librettists who have had a full professional production cancelled, closed, or indefinitely postponed due to the COVID-19 closures. Earlier this month, in response to theater closures due to the COVID-19 pandemic, The Foundation announced its decision to reinvent the means by which it would distribute funds allocated for its 2020 Idea Award for Theatre. Supplemental funding from the Venturous Theater Fund of the Tides Foundation supports additional grants to playwrights, through administrative services provided by New Dramatists. The Foundation has awarded 80 grants of $2,500, a total of $200,000, for theater writers impacted by the crisis.

The Bret Adams and Paul Reisch Foundation COVID-19 response grant recipients:

Raquel Almazan, Kevin Artigue, Hilary Bettis, Liza Birkenmeier, Seth Bisen-Hersh, Jessica Blank & Erik Jensen, Carlyle Brown, Darcy Bruce, Diana Burbano, Heather Chrisler, Heather Christian, J. Julian Christopher, Kate Cortesi, Patricia Cotter, Nathan Davis, Guadalís Del Carmen, Jeremy Desmon, Noah Diaz, Christopher Dimond, Sarah Einspanier, Will Eno, Bonnie Gleicher, Daniel Goldstein, Kirsten Greenidge, Katori Hall, Kate Hamill, Jessica Huang

Caroline Hewitt, Justin Huertas, Anthony Hudson, Ruben Santiago Hudson, Candrice Jones, Sukari Jones, Barbara Kahn, Nambi E. Kelley, Hannah Kohl, Abe Koogler, Michael A. Kooman, Michael John LaChiusa, Rehana Lew Mirza, Haruna Lee, Melissa Li, Ethan Lipton, David M Lutken, Steven Lutvak, Caroline V. McGraw, Aaron Meicht, Omar Vélez Meléndez, Tony Meneses. Anna Moench. Nahal Navidar. Ronan Noone. Yea Bin Diana Oh. Matthew Paul Olmos

Marisela Orta, Andrew Palermo, Zach Redler, Gab Reisman, Marco Antonio Rodriguez, Steph Del Rosso, Elyssa Samsel, Laura Schein, Madhuri Shekar, Mat Smart, Celine Song, Gary Soto, Caridad Svich, Alexandra Tatarsky, Shaun Taylor-Corbett, Melisa Tien, Jillian Walker, Stephanie Kyung Sun Walters, Cheryl L. West, Whitney White, Jason Odell Williams, Sam Willmott, Chris Wiseman, Nathan J. Yungerberg, Karen Zacarias, Daniel Zaitchik.

From the nearly 300 eligible theater artists who have applied, The Bret Adams and Paul Reisch Foundation COVID-19 response grant recipients were selected randomly by electronic lottery.adway). With a submission deadline of April 14, The Foundation aimed to make funds available to artists as quickly as possible, as many artists are already in dire need.

THE WILLIAM & EVE FOX FOUNDATION AND THEATRE COMMUNICATIONS GROUP (TCG)the national organization for theatre, have announced the fourteenth round of Fox Foundation Resident Actor Fellowships recipients - one of only a few programs of its kind for actors in the country.

The Fox Foundation Resident Actor Fellowships awarded grants totaling $195,000 in awards and student loan repayments through two categories:

Exceptional Merit: $15,000 (with an additional $10,000 available to relieve student loan debt) supports actors who are established in their careers as working professionals with 10 years or more of professional experience. Funds will support actors who are evaluating the current state of their career and envisioning what their career could be as they continue to grow in their artistry.

Distinguished Achievement: $25,000 supports actors with 20 years or more of experience who have amassed a substantial body of work. Funds will support recipients who are looking for opportunities to continue growth and sustain the longevity of their careers. Actors may use these resources to adapt to physical changes later in their career, as well as changes in casting.

TCG Member Host Theatres each receive $7,500 to be applied to expenses associated with the actor’s fellowship activities.

The Fox Foundation fellows and host theatres are:

DISTINGUISHED ACHIEVEMENT
Ayanna Berkshine, Artists Repertory Theatre (ART), Portland, OR
Tonia Jackson, True Colors Theatre Company, Atlanta, GA
Stephan Wolfert, Syracuse Stage, Syracuse, NY

EXCEPTIONAL MERIT

Leila Buck, En Garde Arts, New York, NY
Shannon Dorsey, Woolly Mammoth Theatre Company, Washington, DC
Moses Goods, Honolulu Theatre for Youth, Honolulu, HI

The Fox Foundation Resident Actor Fellowships selection panel included Susan Booth, artistic director, Alliance Theatre; Michelle Shay, actor; Godfrey L. Simmons, Jr., artistic director, HartBeat Ensemble; Victor Vazquez, founder, X Casting NYC; and M. Burke Walker, founding artistic director, Empty Space Theater. The panel's recommendations were presented to Robert P. Warren, President of the Fox Foundation. The Fox Foundation reviewed the panel recommendations and made the final selection of the Round 14 recipients.

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FINAL OVATION

BRIAN DENNEHY two time Tony award winning actor died April 15, 2020 of cardiac arrest due to sepsis during a hospital stay in New Haven, Connecticut. He was 81.

A winner of two Tony Awards, an Olivier Award, a Golden Globe, and a recipient of six Primetime Emmy Award nominations In 2010, he was inducted into the American Theatre Hall of Fame.

While acting in regional theater he supported his family by working blue-collar jobs, driving a taxi and bartending. He hated his brief stint as a stock broker for Merrill Lynch in their Manhattan office in the mid 1970s. He later described how working odd hours allowed him to attend matinee theater performances that provided his acting education: "I never went to acting school–I was a truck driver and I used to go see everything I could see–Wednesday afternoons."

Dennehy was considered the foremost living interpreter of playwright Eugene O'Neill’s works on stage and screen. He had a decades long relationship with Chicago's Goodman Theatre where much of his O'Neill work originated. He also regularly played Canada's Stratford Festival, especially in works by William Shakespeare and Samuel Beckett.

Dennehy won two Tony Awards, both times for Best Lead Actor in a Play. The first win was for Death of a Salesman (for which he also won a Laurence Olivier Award for the production's London run), in 1999, and the second was for Eugene O'Neill's Long Day's Journey into Night in 2003. Both productions were directed by Robert Falls and were originally produced at the Goodman Theatre company in Chicago.

On stage, Dennehy made frequent performances in the Chicago theater world, and made his Broadway debut in 1995 in Brian Friel's Translations. In 1999, he was the first male performer to be voted the Sarah Siddons Award for his work in Chicago theater. He made a return to Broadway in 2007 as Matthew Harrison Brady in Inherit the Wind opposite Christopher Plummer, then returned again opposite Carla Gugino in a 2009 revival of Eugene O'Neill's Desire Under the Elms.

In fall 1992, he played the lead role of Hickey in Robert Falls's production of Eugene O'Neill's The Iceman Cometh at the Abbey Theatre in Dublin.

The actor is survived by his second wife, costume designer Jennifer Arnott, and their two children, Cormac and Sarah. Dennehy also has three daughters — Elizabeth, Kathleen and Deirdre — from a previous marriage to Judith Scheff.

Next Column: April 26, 2020
Copyright: April 19, 2020 All Rights Reserved. Reviews, Interviews, Commentary, Photographs or Graphics from any Broadway To Vegas (TM) columns may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, utilized as leads, or used in any manner without permission, compensation and/or credit.
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