Audio Interview

Diane Ladd is an actress, film director, producer and author. She has appeared in over 120 roles on television, in miniseries and feature films; including Alice Doesn’t Live Here Anymore (1974), Wild at Heart (1990), Rambling Rose (1991), Ghosts of Mississippi (1996), Touched by an Angel (1997) (TV), Primary Colors (1998), 28 Days (2000), and American Cowslip (2008). She is the mother of actress Laura Dern, by her ex-husband, actor Bruce Dern. Ladd has won a Golden Globe and a BAFTA and has been nominated three times for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress. She has recently published her 2nd book – a series of short stories called A Bad Afternoon for A Piece of Cake. Listen to this extraordinary woman talk about an extraordinary life in which she travelled the countryside with her veterinarian father; convinced her cousin playwright Tennessee Williams to let her do his play (Orpheus Descending), and then convinced the New York reviewers to come out and review it; and experienced the sensation of seeing a “white light” which convinced her that she would be an actress and a writer – which of course she had been.

Author and journalist Candice Russell discovered Haitian Art seemingly by accident, but the minute she saw it, she was captured. And that capturing led her on a journey which would culminate 25 years later in the creation of her beautiful coffee table book – Masterpieces of Haitian Art. Early in life Candice fell in love with books, making the library her second home. She thought her life would be was dedicated to words and, not surprisingly, she worked as a journalist. In her early 30’s, seeing her friend Michele’s ability to create a beautiful environment and saddened by the thought that she had no “visual sense,” Candice prayed to develop an “artistic sensibility.” Remarkably her prayers were answered. Listen to Candice talk about the way she’s pursued what has become her passion – the advocacy of Haitian Art and Artists.

1-21-14 Audio Interview

Howard Millman understood very young that he belonged in the theater, but his first generation immigrant parents couldn’t see how he could make a living in the theater, so to assuage their concern he majored in pre-law in university. A request from a professor that he take a role in a play led to the professor confirming that he “was an actor.” This confirmation gave him the courage to change his major – the very next day – from pre-law to theater, assuring his parents that he could ”always teach.” In some ways it seems as if Howard had a guardian angel sweeping his path; listen to the ironic way he lucked into directing plays for the army and then directing school plays as the Dramatic Consultant Prince Georges County Maryland. But it was a job as Civilian Entertainment Director for the United States Army that showed him his managerial abilities, and he used those skills many times to rescue theaters from the brink of disaster. Now in retirement at 82 years old, he is able to pursue his real passion, which is directing, and to “pick his projects.” His current “pick” is The Whipping Man, which he directed for the Westcoast Black Theater Troupe in Sarasota FL. Listen to Howard talk about this extraordinary play.

1-14-14 – Audio Interview

Lynn Goldsmith is impossible to categorize. She is Island Record’s recording artist Will Powers, the youngest woman ever accepted into the Director’s Guild of America, and the award winning celebrity portrait photographer of Bruce Springsteen, the Rolling Stones, Michael Jackson, Bob Marley, Bob Dylan and Patti Smith to name a few. She has done over 100 album covers and was co-manager of Grand Funk Railroad. Her most current endeavor is a book of her photographs called Rock and Roll Stories. In this interview Lynn talks about how she became the multi-talented person she is, and tells stories of some of the famous people she’s photographed.

Sharon Sokal was given a “box camera” at 8 years old and has had a camera in her hand ever since. But she was raised when a woman could be either a “teacher or a nurse,” so Sharon pursued her other love, majored in English and became a teacher. Still she documented everything in her life photographically. When she finally bought a “real camera,” and learned how to use it she also accepted that photography was her art; her “visual voice.” She joined and became president of Photogroup Miami, a conclave of all of the photographers in Miami which provided classes, exhibits and lectures. Listen to the way in which she has enriched the lives of at risk kids in Miami and New York, using a program called Picturing Ourselves, and the ironic way she managed to collect the photographs which fill her current book Plus One: An Outsider’s Photographic Journey Into The World Of Fashion.

1-7-14 Audio Interview

Howard Giordano wrote his first book when he was fifty years old, after retiring from his career as an advertising account manager. It took him two years to finish the book and five years to get it published, which he did without the aid of an agent. This book Tracking Terror won the bronze award in the prestigious Readers International Favorite contest. Since he was a boy Howard knew that he was interested in stories, books, writing, but never thought he could be a writer, so he pursued his career in advertising. After retiring, he took a short story class and has never looked back. Listen to the charming story he tells of having gotten up the nerve to show a “published writer” the beginning of a short story, and her response. Having gotten an agent who is shopping his second book, he is currently working on his third. And although he is delighted by his success and looking forward to whatever money he might earn, Howard has committed himself to writing for the “joy of writing.”

12-31-2013 Audio Interview

Actor, writer Montae Russell always knew he had a sensitive, emotional, artistic nature. As a small child he would stand by the radio and listen to the “slow jams” (the ballads) his mother loved. Without knowing what he was doing, little Montae indentified with the singers, understood what they were feeling, and was able to feel it himself; it was perfect training for an actor. His friends teased and harassed him for his sensitivity, but he was a “rebellious sort of fella” and responding to a dare from his civics teacher, he auditioned for the school Xmas play. He was cast as Ebenezer Scrooge and knew that he had found his path. Today he is brilliantly starring in the Florida Studio Theater production of Thurgood by George Stevens; the story of the remarkable life of Thurgood Marshall – the first African American Justice of the United States Supreme Court. This is second time Montae has played the role and he is the only actor (following Lawrence Fishburn on Broadway) that Mr. Stevens has allowed to play it. . Although he knew he wanted to be an actor, he didn’t know exactly what that meant; listen to how this sensitive young man found his way to the “noble” life he is thankful he discovered at a very early age.

12-24-13 – Audio Interview

Patrick Noonan didn’t come from an artistic family but he and his siblings all went into the arts. Following in his older sister and brother’s footsteps baby brother Patrick auditioned for school shows. A seemingly casual comment made, by of all people his gym teacher, after he’d seen Patrick in a production of West Side Story, changed Patrick’s life and set him on the path he wasn’t aware he wanted and which he has he’s followed ever since. Listen to him tell this remarkable story. Currently Patrick is cutting it on stage at Florida Studio Theater, with a bunch of of talented and hilarious actors in a side=splitting production of Spamalot. If you’ve never seen it – or even if you have – you owe it to yourself to go out and have a great time. Listen to Patrick talk about his life and this production and also hear some of the outrageously funny songs from the show.

12-17-13 – Audio Interview

Larry Alexander is one of the lucky ones. He discovered his “calling” early and has been able to make a life with it. Having fallen in love with the musicals as a boy he auditioned for and was in several plays, but when he was cast as the star of Bye Bye Birdie his fate was sealed. He majored in theater in college and has been a working, professional actor since he was 18 years old. Currently Larry is sharing the stage as one of a quartet of extraordinary actor/singer/ dancer/ musicians in the delightful, engaging American Stage Production of A Marvelous Party, a Noel Coward Celebration. In this show I am not only airing Larry’s Interview, but a taste of his vocal skill – a cut from one of his CD’s and a sample of Noel Coward’s amazing repertoire, which is bound to make you want to see the show.

12-10-13 – Audio Interview

Wade Russo is the Musical Director of the Asolo Repertory Theatre production of Show Boat and there could hardly have been a better choice, as he fell in love with the score of Show Boat early in his life and never lost his enchantment with it.

This enchantment led him to read everything there is on the subject. Listen to the fascinating stories he tells about the way Edna Ferber (who wrote the book on which the show is based) came to write it. And listen to Sharon Leslie’s glowing review of the current production.

12-3-13 – Audio Interview

Jim Weaver always knew that he was a performer. He knew that it would be challenging but nonetheless knew that it would allow him a kind of self expression that he yearned for. He still remembers the night his Dad took the family backstage to meet James Brown, who picked up six year old Jim and put him on his knee. That event; the lights, the cables, and the way he felt, stayed with him stayed with him. When he was ten he asked his parents for acting lessons and to his surprise they said yes. By the time he was sixteen he’d gotten an agent and his first Broadway show. Over the years he graduated to directing and you can see his work at the Westcoast Black Theater Troupe production of Purlie.

11-26-13 – Audio Interview

When he was eight years old Rob Ruggiero would make up stories, corral his cousins, costume and rehearse them and put on performances for his large Italian family. He instinctively knew who he was and what he wanted to do with his life – but like so many of us, he forgot. Luckily in his high school senior year Rob, already a disco dancer, was asked to dance in a production of Oklahoma and he says that it was there that he “found his place, his people, his family.” Still, while he knew that the theater was his path, he didn’t discover his role in it until he took his first directing class in his senior year in college and remembered his eight year passion for creating theater by directing. In addition to a prodigious free lancing career as one of the few directors to earn national recognition for his work in both straight plays and musicals, Rob is the producing artistic director of TheaterWorks in Hartford CT. The only director to have received four Kevin Kline Awards (2 for Best Direction of a Musical (Urinetown and Ella) and two for Best Direction of a play (Take Me Out and The Little Dog Laughed), he is in Sarasota FL to direct his version of Show Boat, which he created for the Goodspeed Opera House, and which garnered him his fifth Connecticut Critics Circle award, to open the 2014 season at the Asolo Repertory Theatre. Listen to this charming, ebullient, delightful man discover his deeper connection to Show Boat and talk about his circuitous path tp the place he calls home.

11-19-13 – Audio Interview

Luckily for him, Richard B. Watson‘s parents were a patient audience for their two year olds replaying of everyday’s Sesame Street. This went on for years as Richard enhanced his performances with lights, sounds, puppets etc. What then could Richard be, but an actor? Having just appeared in the American Stage Theater production of Daphne du Maurier’s thriller The Birds, Richard can next be seen at the Orlando Shakespeare Theater in a production of Nicholas Nickleby, a two play 6 hour tour de force January 22 – March 9, 2014. Listen to the story of how he went from a precocious toddler to a working actor, and hear him tell the story of learning to perform with a peg leg on a stage filled with stairs in his role as Captain Hook in the first production of Treasure Island A New Musical.

11-12-13 Audio Interview Part – 2

In this second part of my interview, Wayne Adams continues to relate his remarkable life. Listen to him describe his delightful meeting with legendary acting teacher Maggie Flannigan; and how his production of Ralph Pape’s Say Goodnight, Gracie directed by Austin Pendleton, resulted in his determination to bring Chicago’s Steppenwolf Theatre Company to Broadway; first in the production of True West with John Malkovich and Gary Sinise and then in the Lincoln Center production of And a Nightingale Sang with Joan Allen. Wayne says “I’m interested in being the human being that I am,” and he reminds us that “life is taking chances, not doing what someone else thinks you should do but doing from yourself honestly according to your own instincts.” Listen and be inspired.

11-5-13 – Audio Interview Part 1

Actor, Director, Broadway Producer, Lighting Designer, Art Gallery Owner, waiter, server in an upscale tie store and more, octogenarian Wayne Adams did everything with passion, commitment and panache. Adopted by an extraordinary couple who wanted him to experience everything and encouraged him to “be himself, and to take responsibility for everything he attempted,” Wayne has done just that. A musician, an artist and an actor as a boy, Wayne majored in commercial design and minored in history of architecture at Ohio University, and although he never took a “theater course” he was in 11 productions during his four years at school with the result that when he graduated he knew that after his mandated stint in the Air Force he would go off to NY to pursue a career as an actor. Listen to the remarkable diverse jobs he tackled – all with the same commitment to excellence and hear how he discovered “what it really means to be an actor.”

10-29-13 – Audio Interview

Tom Aposporos still remembers portraying the planet Mercury in his first grade class play. By fifth grade, Tom knew he wanted to be an actor and his parents made it possible for him to take acting lessons. Luckily, for Tom, there were professional actors with whom he could study and he attributes his success in all of his varied careers to that training at a young age. At age 20 Tom was acting professionally but not sure of the stability of such a career. He followed his father’s example and went into the real estate business. Very quickly, he also entered public life, elected to the Poughkeepsie, New York Common Council at age 25, then Mayor of his city two years later. Following four terms as Mayor, the shareholders of Progressive Bank, Inc., a publicly traded bank holding company, elected him to their Board of Directors and he later served as Chairman of the Board. However, Tom never lost his passion for acting and the theater. One of the founders of the Theatre Odyssey, based here on Florida’s Gulf Coast, Tom works steadily as an actor and director, and most recently appeared in Banyan Theater Company’s critically acclaimed production of Time Stands Still. He also writes a weekly column on the life and people of the local barrier islands for the Sarasota Herald Tribune.

10-22-13- Audio Interview

Karyl Lynn Burns says that she was a born producer. Listen to her delightful story about when her mother’s friends came to play bridge, how 4 or 5 year old Karyl Lynn would charge the children who accompanied them their allowance to watch her put on a show. Her childhood was filled with stories, invention and play acting; Karly Lynn says that she always knew her life would be about acting, producing and the telling of stories. But it has been that and more. She was also interested in writing and so she majored in Journalism in College, but she went on to study acting under Tony Nominated director Bill Ball at the American Conservatory Theater (ACT) an experience which changed her approach to her work and her life. Also through a series of coincidences she created a major Public Relations firm. But acting and producing remained her passion, listen to this delightful, charming, spontaneous woman describe the circuitous route which led her and her husband Jim O’Neil to the creation of the Rubicon Theater, a remarkable space for all kinds of theater.

10-15-13 – Audio Interview

This is an atypical Lynne Show. A few times I have neglected to hit the right button on my recording device and failed to record an interview. I learned early that if I re-interviewed the person, the spontaneity of the original was inevitably lost so I stopped doing it and resigned myself to losing that person’s story. When I realized that I wasn’t recording the terrific interview I was getting with Jim O’Neil however he surprised me by saying “well, I guess you’ll just have to tell my story” and so, in this show, I am doing just that. Jim O’Neil never intended to be an actor. It was a series of unrelated and seemingly insignificant events which triggered in him a certainty that theater was his destiny. You can hear me describe those incidents and then hear Jim (I finally turned on the recorder) talk about the philosophy which motivated Jim and his wife Karyl Lynn Burns to create the Rubicon Theater, the first professional theater in Ventura CA. Listen to this thoughtful man talk about his passion for creating a space where we humans can tell our stories and cement our humanity.

10-8-13 – Audio Interview

David Shepherd is The Father of Improvisational Theater. He insists that he isn’t the father but the uncle, because it was he and Paul Sills who started the first improvisational theater in the United States. It was called Compass and it morphed into Second City which included Mike Nichols and Elaine May, Stiller and Meara, Barbara Harris, Alan Alda, Shelly Berman, Alan Arkin and many more. As I air this interview David is about to celebrate his 89th birthday. Listen to this remarkable man talk about his desire to “revolutionize the theater” and how he did it. Also hear about the most current version of his revolutionary idea – Life Play – improvisation on the telephone and learn how you can play along.

10-1-13 – Audio Interview

June Garber always knew that she was born to be performer. She had a natural voice (wait till you hear it!) and at four years old would pack her little suitcase with everything she needed to be a star (again wait till you hear what she packed) and go two streets down to “Hollywood.” June knew what she needed to be and do from the very beginning of her life but the circumstances of her life made it very difficult. A step father and later a husband forbid her to sing or perform and as a girl raised in her generation she obeyed. But June never forgot who she was and finally found a way to pursue what she was meant to do. Listen to this inspiring story and to a couple of cuts from her CD and you too will be glad she persevered.

9-24-13 – Audio Interview

Blake Walton desperately wanted to be an actor, but he believed that actors were “noisy,” while he was shy. He was good at everything; he could draw, play several instruments, run track, sing and dance, but while he enjoyed his success in these things, his desire to be an actor stayed a dream until high school when he was cast in the production of The Sound of Music and knew for sure this was where he wanted to be – this was what he wanted to do. Listen to Blake describe the many obstacles he had to overcome, the many times he re-invented himself. And hear him talk about his current work – a one man show called Leading Men, which he wrote and will be performing at Home Resource in Sarasota Fl, Thurs. 9/26, Fri. 9/27 and Sun at 7:30, and at the United Solo Festival Competition in New York City on Sunday Oct 13th at 7:30 pm at 42nd St Theater Row –Studio Theater Top Floor.

9-17-13 Audio Interview

Roxanne Fay fell in love with words when she was very young and participated in “forensics competitions” – the reading of poetry – in elementary school. Her love of “words that she wanted to say,” never left her and she relentlessly pursued those “nourishing words” as an actor and playwright, but it wasn’t an easy journey. Not accepted in to the BFA program at university and not accepted to the Asolo Conservatory program Roxanne persevered despite a “broken heart.” She attended the Burt Reynolds acting program (which in retrospect was the better choice for her), and has never looked back. Travelling to work in Hawaii, Chicago, New York, and Orlando and finally finding herself back home in St Petersburg Florida where she has been working steadily as an actor, playwright, and stage manager. Listen to her talk about the work she and her Blue Scarf collective partners have done, her extraordinary two part piece called Home Fires Burning, (which if you get a chance to see you shouldn’t miss), the one woman narrative she is writing about Mary Magdalene for which she won a grant, and her upcoming work in The Birds which will open on Oct 2nd at American Stage Theater in St Petersburg FL.