Lynne Bernfield: psychotherapist / author / consultant / speaker / musician / performer and media artist

9-20-11

Actor, Director Pamela Wiley started her career at the age of 6 when a photographer snapped a picture of her which he sold to a national magazine and which got little Pam an agent. From then till her teens Pam managed to balance a busy modeling/commercial career with her soccer playing/cheerleading/vice president of her class life as a ‘regular girl.” She celebrated her 12th birthday on stage at New Jersey’s Papermill Playhouse, where she had her first professional acting job in Annie Get Your Gun. Knowing that the theater was where she wanted to be Pam got a degree in theater at Dennison College. Once again she handled a difficult balancing act, this time between a busy acting/commercial career and her life as the single mother of three. Pam’s energy, passion and commitment to quality seem inexhaustible. And currently the Players Theater in Sarasota is benefiting from it – as she gets ready to direct “It’s a Wonderful Life” which will open December 2nd. Listen to this effervescent role model talk about life, her career and growing up.

9-13-11

Five year old Bob Trisolini and his cousins entertained their parents by putting on plays which always ended with little Bobby being stood on his head and pushed over – a perfect beginning for the entertainer that Bob would become. But like KJ Hatfield, Bob was concerned about making enough money for the life style he wanted, so he took his talents to corporations. Listen to the incredibly long list of companies for whom he created spectacular events which introduced products, celebrated successes, motivated sales forces etc. Now in retirement from an overwhelmingly successful career which took him all over the world, and with a seemingly inexhaustible amount of talent and energy Bob continues to work here and there for FL based companies and to direct and perform in local theater productions. Just having finished directing “Stop The World” for Sarasota’s Golden Apple dinner theater, he is currently directing “Seussical The Musical” for the Players theater. Listen to this irrepressible dynamo and hear a song from “Seussical The Musical.”

8-2-11

Stephanie Shine began dance class at three years old because the doctor said it would straighten her “wobbly ankle.” No one expected it to it to be the genesis of a life’s work. The mini-musicals she danced and sang in at the Linkletter Tot n Tot studio, and seeing musicals like Peter Pan, cemented her ambition to make a life in the theater. And seeing Franco Zeffirelli’s film Romeo and Juliet began a lifelong love affair with Shakespeare. Stephanie has worked as an actor and director and spent 25 years as the artistic director of the Seattle Shakespeare Company Stephanie met Sunny Thomson (listen to Sunny’s interview next week), and became the director of Sunny’s one woman show called Forever Blond, an homage to Marilyn Monroe. Listen to Stephanie’s description of the passion she and Sunny share to honor Marilyn Monroe on stage and hear Sunny bring Marilyn to life in a few of the songs from the show.

7-19-11 Interview

Greg Leaming thought he wanted to be an actor, but his height (he’s 6’6) made that very difficult, so he turned his talents and his interest to the study of directing. This stood him in terrific stead when, as associate and artistic director, he shepherded various regional theaters. Now, combining all of his skills, Greg is the Artistic Director of the Graduate Actor Training Program of Florida State University and the Associate Director of the Asolo Repertory Theater, which administers the FSU program. Listen to Greg talk about the challenges faced by acting students, and the skills required to help them become as good as they possibly can be.

6-7-11 Interview

Andrei Maleav -Babel – is a Russian Immigrant. The son and grandson of writers and artists, Andrei wrote musicals and directed his parent’s friends in his plays, by the time he was 10 or 12. Luckily coming of age as Perestroika was occurring in Russia, Andrei was able to start his own theater as a very young man. Barely able to speak English, he met, courted and married an American Sociology student and became a Professor of Acting at the prestigious Asolo Conservatory in Sarasota Florida. Listen to his amazing story and his ideas about training actors. Keep these in mind when, in the following weeks, I air interviews with many of his students who have just graduated from that program, and talk at length about the impact that studying with Andrei had on them.

5-31-11 Interview

By the time he was 8 years old Jeff Calhoun knew what he wanted to do: he wanted to be Dick Van Dyke, he wanted to be Fred Astaire, he wanted to dance with the Ernie Flat dancers on the Carol Burnett show. He wanted to be a dancer! It was “in his DNA.” And, as if it was meant to be, a series of circumstances propelled him on the path to dancer, choreographer and director of musicals. Listen to unexpected way he became the protege of the amazing Tommy Tune and the remarkable series of happenstance’s that led to his directing such musicals as Jekyll and Hyde, Grease, Big River and most recently Bonnie and Clyde – The Musical, which is scheduled to open on Broadway this fall/winter. Then hear one of the songs from Frank Wildhorn’s wonderful score for Bonnie and Clyde sung by Jeremy Jordon as Clyde and Laura Osnes as Bonnie.

4-26-11 Interview

Interview – Wes Grantom‘s grandfather would gather Wes and his 7 cousins around the campfire on weekends and tell stories – stories the kids believed were real. Including the night grandfather and uncles woke them up in the middle of the night pretending to be rustlers who’d come to steal the horses. These events are still clear in Wes’ mind and perhaps are the genesis of his desire first to be an actor and then to realize his calling as a director; a spinner of tales, a teller of stories – other people’s stories. Listen to Wes describe his trepidation at having to tell his grandfather and father that he’d given up his place on the football team to be in a show. And how he came to be directing Tartuffe for the Asolo Conservatory and about his involvement in the emerging piece The Steadfast, based on painter Steve Alpert’s extraordinary painting “Legacy.”

September 28

Kate Alexander is not only assistant Artistic Director of the Florida Studio Theater, but an extremely talented actor and director. She was not an outgoing or precocious child and says that no one would have expected her to become an actress. Even in college where she majored in drama her teachers “didn’t know what to do with her.” But although she couldn’t say exactly why, Kate had decided at age 8 that the stage was her destiny, and difficult and discouraging as her path was, Kate knew she had to travel it, and it has brought her to where she always wanted to – and knew she should be.

September 21, 2010

Richard Hopkins has been the very successful Artistic Director of Florida Studio Theater in Sarasota FL for 30 years, but he didn’t see a play until he was 19. Coasting through college with no idea what he wanted to do with his life until a speech teacher told him he would get a better grade if he helped build sets, this led to taking a drama class and he was “hooked!” He had found his “window to the world.” And then, as he says he does everything, Richard became “obsessed,” and “followed his bliss” wherever it took him – even when the conventional wisdom said that path was a dead end.

December 22, 2009

Carole Kleinberg always wanted to direct plays, and even though her family discouraged her Carole was able to find the courage to pursue her dream. Trusting her instincts, she over and over again risked closing the door on one aspect of her life without knowing what is waiting for her. And over and over again something wonderful and completely unexpected was literally waiting in the wings. Carole has lived a life in sync with her deepest conviction of what is right for her and because of that her life has not only been exciting and fulfilling, it has also touched, influenced and encouraged many, many others.