by Karen Tortora-Lee on March 11, 2011
These women of the arts hail from different disciplines, but they all have an indomitable spirit and a luminescent spark that makes them amazing human beings who are out there every day, doing amazing work.
Today we continue our series with Robin Rice Lichtig. Robin is no stranger to The Happiest Medium; I’ve had the opportunity to review her work as well as sit on a panel with her last December to discuss the role of women in Off-Off Broadway. But when you’re as prolific a playwright as Ms. Lichtig a few months makes a world of difference so I’m pleased she’s joining us again to give us an update on her work, as well as share with us her experience of what it’s been like to be a woman in her business. I’ll let Robin tell you in her own words:
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by Karen Tortora-Lee on December 8, 2010
A few weeks ago I was honored to be able to sit on a panel of women brought together by Monica Bauer to discuss the specific challenges (and joys!) of being a woman in the Off-Off Broadway community. My fellow panelists were from many different paths, but we all came together with the same spirit and goal – to color an area of the larger picture with our own story in order to present a richer canvas to the audience.
Our discussion was lively, energetic, informative and surprisingly fun. Since I was the only one of the bunch with an actual tool to preserve what had happened that evening (this website you see before you) I offered to turn our discussion into a web series for posterity. Over the next few weeks I’ll feature a different, amazing Woman of Off-Off Broadway who will share her journey with us all.
Kicking us off this week is playwright Robin Rice Lichtig. The author of over 40 plays, including 12 full lengths, Lichtig’s plays have been produced worldwide. She is currently working on an autobiographical play (SUKI LIVINGSTON OPENS LIKE A PARACHUTE), a play about the Victorian photographer Alice Austen, and a puppet theatrical to be produced in a Manhattan park next summer. PLAY NICE! will have a New York premiere in May. SEARCHING FOR A NEW SUN will have a New York workshop and/or premiere next spring following a reading in Berlin.
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by Karen Tortora-Lee on September 4, 2010
If you weren’t one of the lucky ones who was able to get to Planet Connections to experience Made For Each Other- take heart! It’s coming around again as part of an evening of theatre entitle BALLS: the Testosterone Plays of Monica Bauer. In order to be able to get this production off the ground some very talented, inspirational writers are gathering on Saturday, September 11th for a one-night-only fundraiser entitled “WOMEN WITH BALLS” short plays by women about men.
This news makes me very happy becuase 1) Made for Each Other is a terrific show which I’m excited to have a chance to see again 2) this gives me an opportunity to interview playwright Monica Bauer - a talented, funny, smart woman. Monica took some time out of her really busy schedule to tell me a little bit about the great women who will be sharing the bill with her on 9/11, how she convincingly channeled the spirit of war veterans, and what it means to be a woman with balls . . .
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by Karen Tortora-Lee on March 3, 2010
The Power of Birds (written by Robin Rice Lichtig and directed by Elizabeth Bunnell) begins with migration; but that of a family, not a flock. For a moment if you just sit still enough, you can see the allegory of it take shape in front of you: Father Philip Fogarty (Jay Potter) has left the family (apparently for good) and without even an emotional downshift Mom Loretta (Annie McGovern) moves into lead position – steering the flock toward new territory and new horizons that she feels will benefit all of them. Loretta Fogarty takes a job in a new state and brings her two children and her mother-in-law along. It’s as if nature has taken the place of nurture and the migration must happen according to some unspoken but unmistakable design. And despite grumblings from 12 year old daughter Zoe (Emma Galvin) who had a strong connection to her father, the family moves because they are compelled to by some inner compass. Loretta, a gym teacher with very little regard for the world of ornithology which was so important to her husband , uses sports metaphors and cheers to rally her family and take them into the next phase of the game (“Go Team Fogarty!”). Like a parrot, son Charlie (Noah Galvin) repeats everything his mother says, and even if he’s saying it for the first time you get a sense that it was filtered through his mother’s voice at some point first (In response to where their father might be, Charlie and his mother have this exchange: CHARLIE: Not working in an office like a man, right Mom? LORETTA: Not taking care of his 12-year-old children. CHARLIE: Not taking us on family trips, right Mom?) He is like the other half of his mother, like a twin.
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