PERFORMERS
PAULA EWIN (Katharine Hepburn) is a Founding Member, Board Associate and long time player in the acting ensemble of the award winning Off Broadway theater company, 29th Street Rep, where she has performed leading roles in over 27 New York and World Premiere productions since 1988. Playwright in residence Bill Nave has written characters with her in mind including the Off Off Broadway Review “OOBR” winner Visiting Oliver and Bible Burlesque (opposite Edward Norton). She is the Artistic Director of The Hive-The Women of 29th Street Rep, a networking collective. Recently, she toured the country in the Broadway production of On Golden Pond with Tom Bosley and Michael Learned and performed the role of Katharine Hepburn in the one woman play Tea at Five at The Pasadena Playhouse, in West Palm Beach at The Cuillo Center and at her alma mater, Rhode Island College at The Nazarian Center for the Performing Arts. Elsewhere, she has appeared Off-Broadway at The Harold Clurman Theater, Triangle Theater and Actors’ and Directors’ Theater and in numerous regional and summer stock theaters across the country.
Television credits include daytime (“As the World Turns”, “The Guiding Light”, “Days of Our Lives” and “All My Children”) and in broadcast news (correspondent for ABC and CBS News ENG training). In addition, she works regularly in on-camera and live business theater productions for such clients as Toshiba, KPMG, Chase and many others. In 2000, she produced and co-directed the documentary short “Look Here!” A Portrait of Sylvia Sleigh, profiling the life of the realist painter famous for her male nudes and feminist contributions including her involvement as a Founding Member of Soho 20 Gallery in 1973.
Also an accomplished singer, Ms. Ewin is currently working on her musical tribute to Julie London, “Party of One”. A graduate of The William Esper Studio in New York, she holds a BA in Theater from Rhode Island College. Ms. Ewin is the recipient of an OOBR Award for Night of Nave, The ACTF Irene Ryan Award (Alternate) for Excellence in Acting and is listed in Who’s Who in American Women and Theater World. Member-AEA, AFTRA and SAG, The League of Professional Theater Women and a Literary Member of Soho 20 Chelsea.
GINGER GRACE (Minnie Maddern Fiske) is thrilled to be part of Stage Struck. Credits include The First Ladies Coalition, written and performed by Ms. Grace and directed by Austin Pendleton, (Abingdon Theatre, NY; David M. Player Center for the Arts, AZ.) Her production of William Luce’s The Belle of Amherst has played throughout the country since 2002, and she created her own interactive performance piece, Inside Emily Dickinson: Her Poetry & Her Life. She toured nationally opposite Rich Little in The Presidents playing all of his First Ladies from Jackie Kennedy to Hillary Clinton. New York and Regional work includes Tennessee Williams’ Vieux Carre opposite Austin Pendleton, and Cat on a Hot Tin Roof (Mississippi Mud); Doubt (WSCC); Look Homeward Angel (Mother of Invention); Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf (Penobscot Theatre); Elektra, Faust (CSC); Miss Julie (The Pearl); Dancing at Lughnasa (Greenwoods Theatre); and A Midsummer Night’s Dream (Woodstock Shakespeare Festival). Work on new plays in New York includes Jenny Lyn Bader’s In Flight (Turn to Flesh); Fengar Gael’s Devil Dog Six (Spiral Theatre), Deborah Savadge’s The Favor (Finalist, American Globe Theatre Festival); and Alyssa Hadad’s Peace & Quiet (Midtown International Theatre Festival).
Film work includes 6-Minute Mom (Vancouver International Film Festival), FRAT STAR (playing opposite Chris Elliott), SHEER, and It’s all Relative. She is a member of LPTW, Women Stage the World and Playwrights Gallery.
MARI LYN HENRY (Clara Morris), teacher, author, theatre historian, founded the Society for the Preservation of Theatrical History in 2013 in order to reacquaint today’s actors with the great actresses and visionaries of the 19th and early 20th centuries.
Her workshops and seminars on audition techniques and impression management have been very successful in cities and universities across the country as well as in Toronto, London, Oxford and Sydney. Seminars about “The business of the business” are based on her best-selling book How To Be A Working Actor, co-authored with Lynne Rogers. Updates can be found on the book’s website: www.Howtobeaworkingactor.com.
For 30 years the ‘bible of the biz’ has received praise from industry professionals, educators and celebrities. The most recent edition boasts a foreword by award-winning actor Joe Mantegna.
She is the dean of students at the Tom Todoroff Conservatory in New York. As a guest faculty member at Circle in the Square Theatre School, she advises actors-in-training about career preparation and audition techniques. Currently she is the industry showcase consultant for Miami’s New World School of the Arts.
A member of the League of Professional Theatre Women (www.theatrewomen.org), she ia director of their heritage program. She is also a member of the Twelfth Night Club, an organization founded in 1891 for women in the theatre. She received her B.A. in speech and drama from San Jose State University and earned a Master’s Degree in Theatre from the Catholic University of America in Washington, D.C.
TATE KENNEY (Kim Stanley [in development]) began as a FORD model in early childhood and was involved in competitive cheer-leading, tennis, soccer, various forms of dance, as well as cross-country and track-and-field running. She began acting in children's theater at age 8, in back-to-back productions of Shakespeare's "Julius Caesar" and "Much Ado About Nothing". She graduated with an Honours Bachelor of Arts from the University of Western Ontario, holding a double major in English Language and Literature and Film Studies.
Shortly after graduation, she began studying at the Lee Strasberg Theatre and Film Institute in their Two Year Conservatory Program, which allowed her to move to New York City. She was the recipient of the Vincent D'Onofrio Scholarship Award for her lifelong dedication to method acting and was able to train with Vincent D'Onofrio in an invitation-only masterclass.
Recent NY theatre credits include playing Marcia in Stephen Adly Guirgis' "Our Lady of 121st Street" directed by Kelly O'Donnell, Darlene in Lanford Wilson's "Balm in Gilead" directed by Jenna Worsham and Flirt in William Inge's "The Dark at the Top of The Stairs" directed by Lee Kasper. She was last seen onscreen playing Marilyn Monroe in Cristina Noya's short film "Happy Birthday Mr. President" and she will be playing a leading role in a new television show to premiere in early 2017.
LAURA E. JOHNSTON: (Pearl Bailey [in development]) Actor/Producer/Director, etc.: As an actor, Laura has been seen regionally as Calpurnia in To Kill a Mockingbird; Margaret in Much Ado About Nothing; as well as appearing in From the Mississippi Delta and The Miracle Worker. In NYC theater, she’s been Mrs. Horn (Rain), Lady in Blue (For Colored Girls) to Nurse (Romeo and Juliet) and Mamie Till (Clover). She has enjoyed working with several theatre companies including: The Drilling CompaNY; The WorkShop Theatre Company, Metropolitan Playhouse and La MaMa Experimental Theatre Company. On TV, Laura has co-starred in “100 Centre Street”; “The Sopranos”; “Law & Order” to “The Mysteries of Laura” and has been featured in indie films: James White, The Quiet, and Mind the Gap. Laura directed African Folk Tales for TheatreWorks USA & Chris Trice, Prods. and produced/co-produced: Interchange; G.O.Bodine’s one-man A Christmas Carol; Fabulous Darshan; Life on the Mississippi; Protected and Full Frontal, while a member of The WorkShop. She has also read her poetry and short stories at Pulse Ensemble Theatre; Housing Works (Crosby St.); and the 14th Street Y. Ms. Johnston is currently working on a piece highlighting the life of the sassy Pearl Bailey.
ROMY NORDLINGER (Alla Nazimova) is an NYC based actress, audiobook narrator and voice artist. Recently performed Off Broadway in her original solo show Places, about silent screen and Broadway star Alla Nazimova, starred in Lancelot by Steven Fechter (The Woodsman) and is in pre-production for the Lancelot feature film. Some recent credits include Florence Foster Jenkins directed by Stephen Frears, the web series WOMG. Romy starred in the Indie short A Separation, to be released soon.
Listen for Romy in many diverse roles from grandma to geisha, in China's highest grossing blockbuster Monster Hunt, by the creators of Shrek. She can be heard in over 200 audiobooks and counting! She has had costarring roles on Law & Order CI (Officer Talbor), All My Children, One Life To Live, numerous indie films and industrials, and has just wrapped the web series The Ruthless Spectator created by Rob Bartlett. She has appeared in scores of off and off-off Broadway and regional productions.
Selected theatre credits: "Rose" in Shakespeare's Slave by Steven Fechter, Clurman/Resonance Ensemble; Between Here and There and R Culture by Cecilia Copeland with New Perspectives; The Woman On The Bridge workshop by Julia Pascal, directed by Ludovica Viller Hauser; January directed by Lorca Peress/Multi Stages. She performed in her original hit three woman play Lipshtick at the NY Fringe Festival. Regional credits include Actors Theatre of Louisville, Wilma, Fleetwood Stage. Her original solo piece Nazimova, based on the life of Alla Nazimova premiered in Stage Struck at the Snapple Theatre Off Bway and then at the Metropolitan Playhouse.
Romy is also an audiobook narrator and voice-over artist with over 200 titles to her credit as well as numerous voice over spots. Member of The League Of Professional Theatre Women. Member of NY Madness, Resonance Theatre Ensemble, Flux Sundays and The Playwrights Gallery.
JUDY ROSENBLATT (Bertha Kalich) FILM/TV: THE COBBLER (Tom McCarthy, Dir.) with Adam Sandler, Dustin Hoffman, Steve Buschemi and Ellen Barkin,) TAXI BROOKLYN (Web series), THE SOPRANOS (TV series.) NY THEATRE: Understudy for Roberta Maxwell and Marcia Rodd in HELLMAN V. McCARTHY with Dick Cavett - the Abingdon Theatre, (Jan Buttram, Dir.); THE BISCUIT CLUB - The Cell (Mira Simring, dir.); MOSES, THE AUTHOR – Fringe Festival Encore 2014 (Amy Wright, dir.)THE PINTER CONNECTION – HB Playwrights Theatre (Austin Pendleton & Chris Martin, Dirs.); WOMAN BEFORE A GLASS – Abingdon Theatre & United Solo Festival (Austin Pendleton. Dir.); PEGGY GUGENHEIM STRIPPED BARE BY HER BACHELORS - French Institute Alliance Francaise (Donald T. Sanders, Dir.) THERE or HERE – Fourteenth Street Theatre – (Amy Feinberg, Dir.); THE DANCERS, PERFECT ANALYSIS GIVEN BY A PARROT –HB Playwrights Theatre, (Kate Bushmann, Dir.); MONKEY, MONKEY, New Theatre Workshop (Harold Scott, dir.): REGIONAL: DIARY of ANNE FRANK, THE ROSE TATTOO, STREETCAR NAMED DESIRE, LOVERS & OTHER STRANGERS, DEATH of a SALESMAN. Judy holds a BA from Cornell University and a MA from NYU. She studied acting at Central School of Dramatic Art in London, and with a variety of fantastic acting teachers, including Joseph Balfior (of the original Group Theatre), Sanford Meisner, William Esper, Austin Pendleton, and Uta Hagen. Judy is a proud member of The Players Club, and The League of Professional Theatre Women, AEA and SAG/AFTRA. She is also the writer/creator of an entertainment company, Mystery & Mayhem (mysteryandmayhem.com. She is honored to be working with Mari Lynn and this group of wonderful, creative and talented theatre women. SW Artists, Ingrid French Management or mitzvahzoe@aol.com.
SANDHI SANTINI: (Eartha Kitt) A New York-based cabaret performer/actress/playwright, Sandhi is a native of Edisto Island, South Carolina. She received her B.A. in Broadcast Journalism from the Howard University School of Communications, with a Theatre Arts minor from Howard's College of Fine Arts. Subsequent studies were obtained in Human Rights from Columbia University's Graduate School of Arts and Sciences, NYC, and The Playwriting Program at Woodie King, Jr.'s New Federal Theatre, NYC. She is an Associate Member of League of Professional Theatre Women (LPTW); Associate Artist of NY Live Arts Fiscal Sponsorship Program; and a Member of Screen Actors' Guild-American Federation of Televison and Radio Artists (SAG-AFTRA). A new member of The Society for the Preservation of Theatrical History, she brings her rendition of Eartha Kitt to the society's production of "STAGE STRUCK" .
DIRECTOR/ DRAMATURG
MELODY BROOKS (Director/Dramaturg) has been producing and directing in NYC since 1983; in 1991 she founded New Perspectives Theatre Company and serves as Artistic Director and CEO. Its mission and goals are a result of her long experience working in the Off- and Off-Off Broadway arenas. Melody directs the NPTC Women’s Work LAB, which develops short and full-length plays by 8-12 members per year. She also serves as Executive Producer for NPTC’s Voices From the Edge Festival, which has showcased more than 75 new works by African-American writers since 1997 and of ON HER SHOULDERS, which presents the work of female playwrights through the ages in staged readings and scholarly playbills. Through these and other programs she has developed and directed numerous original and classic plays (with 2 OOBR Awards, an Audelco Award, a Princess Grace Finalist and Essence Entertainment Option among the honors the plays she has developed have received.) Melody received the "Spirit of Hope Award" in 2015 from Esperanza Theatre Company for her work with and support of women theatre artists for more than 25 years. She is a co-founder of 50/50 in 2020: Parity for Women Theatre Artists, and a member of the Board of Directors of the League of Professional Theatre Women. She also serves as co-chair of the LPTW Gilder-Coigney International Theatre Award for 2017.
