Day 12:23 PM

  • Interview with Actor, Director,Playwright, Author Teacher E Katherine Kerr

    4-18-17 Interview

    4-18-17 Having spent years working on stage, film and TV, and as one of the principle members of the prestigious Westport Theatre Group, actor, director, playwright, author, and educator E Katherine Kerr has recently brought her talents and skills to Sarasota. Katherine maintains that as a girl from Indiana, with no exposure to theater and no formal training, she should never have become an actor. Listen to the hilarious story of the first time she was on a stage and how it convinced her to never step foot on a stage again. But time after time she was placed on stage until she recognized that it was the place she was meant to be. And having accepted that she was an actor, hear her tell how she was discovered by her idol Mike Nichols, and the extraordinary career that followed where she shared stage and screen with stars like Meryl Streep and Cher.

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  • Interview with Senior Development Director for the Ringling Musuem Anna Von Gher

    4-11-17 Interview

    4-11-17 Anna E. von Gehr is a facilitator. As the Senior Director for Development for the prestigious John & Mable Ringling Museum of Art. Anna’s job, and her passion, is securing the resources to create the very best space possible for the museum and to make that space welcoming to every potential visitor. Remembering how her first museum trip, when she was just eight years old, shaped her life, Anna is especially interested in encouraging visits from at-risk families by making the museum a friendly place. To do this she works with museum staff, as well as donors, helping them create a legacy for their lives that achieves their goals. Anna is about creating a win-win situation for the museum, its visitor and its donors. Listen to this dedicated woman talk about how she arrived at this unusual career and the hiccups along the way. Hear her describe how she recognized and pursued what is right for her the very moment she saw it.

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  • Interview with Poet, Dancer, Choreographer, Director Harry Bryce

    4-4-17 Interview

    4-4-17 Poet, Dancer, Choreographer, Actor, and Director Harry Bryce says that he came out of the womb dancing. And when you talk to him you can well believe it. Precocious and wise beyond his years Harry began writing poetry (although he didn’t know it was poetry) when he was a young boy in order to “stay sane.” Curious and observant as few are, Harry began to notice everything. It became important to him to be “precise,” so he recognized the variation in the hues of different colors – and wondered about what happened to a seed. He couldn’t take ballet lessons like his older sister because ”boys didn’t do that;” but when she came home from her lesson his sister would take him into the back yard and do the lesson again for him. By the time they were ten years old Harry and his sister were a popular dance act appearing at local weddings and events. Harry went on to have a varied and productive career as the artistic director of Memphis Black Repertory Theater and creator of the Harry Bryce Dance Company, Choreographer in Residence for the prestigious Vinnette Carroll’s theater company and as professor of dance and theater at Atlanta’s Morehouse and Spellman colleges. Currently Harry is directing the West Coast Black Theater Troupe of Sarasota’s production of Dearly Departed. Listen to this charming, delightful and reflective man talk about his career and the

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  • Interview with Johnny Epstein – Midsummer Nights Dream

    3-28-17 Interview

    3-28-17 Johnny Epstein has had a long career as a Shakespearian Player and acting teacher. Although he knew from age 7 that he was comfortable on stage – when he spontaneously adlibbed to cover a fellow student missed cue – it was a series of unplanned and unintended actions and comments that lead him to realize that acting was his career. To help him overcome a fear of water his parents sent him to Tuffs Magic Circle summer day camp because campers were encouraged to swim and, by the way, spent the mornings doing theater. Johnny spent 3 years there enjoying doing plays but did not think of acting as a “profession.” Following his first performance in a Shakespeare play (As You Like it) the shop teacher a “plain man with little exposure to Shakespeare” said “I saw that As You Like it – you’re a great actor – is this going to be your profession” This was the first time Johnny considered of acting as a profession. Listen to this knowledgeable, articulate man describe the ironic way he got his first role on Broadway and talk about his life, the work of acting, and the upcoming production of Midsummer Night’s Dream– performed by his class of 2nd year graduate students at the FSU Conservatory for Acting Training.

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  • Interview with actor Denise Cormier

    3-21-17 Interview

    3-21-17 Denise Cormier says she is a “repertory actor.” She thrives on the challenge of playing several different roles in a repertory setting, which means that it is not unusual for her to be playing two different characters in the same day – at matinee and evening performances. And that is exactly what she is currently doing at the Asolo Repertory Theater. If you hurray you can see Denise as Lady Bird Johnson in The Great Society, a senator’s wife in Born Yesterday and Birdie Hubbard in Little Foxes. Come see what it means to be the consummate “repertory actor!” And listen to Denis describe the ironic way in which her career evolved, opportunities arriving just when she was ready to accept them.

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