
My first encounter with Bea Arthur wasn’t in her role as Dorothy Zbornak on Golden Girls, or even as Maude Findlay in Maude. I was first introduced to Bea Arthur’s disembodied baritone as it came seeping through my bedroom floor boards. Picture it – Brooklyn, early seventies. A young six year old is trying to get her beauty ... Read The Full Article...

I’ve never been involved in a bank heist but if I were, I could never be tasked with the role of Getaway Driver. I can’t navigate with any certainty when the car is required to do above 30 mph on a city street. Ask me to drive at break-neck speed through urban obstacles and then ... Read The Full Article...

Take a preacher looking for a flock, a flock looking for a preacher, one “Good” sister, one “Bad” sister, a snooty churchwoman trying to bring down a house of cards and a housekeeper who’d give Alice a run for her money, set it all in the dry, hot Dust Bowl of Depression-Era Florida and you’ve ... Read The Full Article...

After interviewing Dorothy Fortenberry and Josh Conkel last week about Caitlin and the Swan I was ready for anything. A shocking comedy, a satirical poke at the female-friendship meme, a sly wink that came with a taboo nod, or perhaps even a mish-mash of Animal Farm, The Seagull, and Babe, Pig in the City. What ... Read The Full Article...

I like to think I’m pretty up on things when it comes to pop-culture. Armed just with a subscription to Entertainment Weekly and a healthy curiosity about all things Hollywood I’ve been able to fake my way through DOZENS of conversations through the years. I once had an 8 year old’s mother (who brought her ... Read The Full Article...

It was shocking, that first time in high school English class when my very Catholic, very quick-to-giggle sophomore class was taken through a reading of William Butler Yeats’ Leda and the Swan: A sudden blow: the great wings beating still // Above the staggering girl, her thighs caressed // By the dark webs, her nape ... Read The Full Article...

I can not, as a proud adult woman, BEAR to pick up the phone and say to ANYONE “Hello, may I purchase 2 tickets to Kooza, please?” It’s just so … undignified. But say Stephen got them for me, because he has no trouble saying any word in any language, be it real, made up, or ... Read The Full Article...

In the Fall you’ll be able to feast on all the goodness that is the Crown Point Festival: a three week multi-media arts event that incorporates Film, Theatre and Music happenings all over the Lower East Side. But for now, just like when you do a tasting for your wedding, The CPF is having a ... Read The Full Article...

William Inge’s classic Bus Stop was written in the mid-fifties and at The Gallery Players’ production everything right down to set designer Edward Morris’ bread box and costume designer Meredith Neal’s use of horn-rimmed glasses reflect that awww-shucks time period. But even if director Heather Siobhan Curran had decided to take a little creative license and ... Read The Full Article...

There’s been a lot of talk lately about Rihanna and Chris Brown in the headlines, the tabloids, the blogs, the daytime talk shows, the elevator banks … how he allegedly beat her and how they’ve allegedly reconciled. Wherever you go you’ll hear the same thing: What the hell is she thinking? I can’t even begin ... Read The Full Article...

I’ve loved the opera since I was a little girl; my parents had a pair of season tickets to the Met since I was twelve and I’d go whenever the seats were offered to me. Aside from the time I was sixteen and my friend and I ditched La Boheme to go shoe shopping on ... Read The Full Article...

You know you’re standing next to a writer when: their stance is unassuming, their posture is hunched, and when they move it’s only after hours of being in one spot either typing furiously, day dreaming earnestly, or working out that writer’s block by playing yet another game of computer solitaire. (Hey … don’t put it ... Read The Full Article...