June 15, 2023, As a boy Michael Donald Edwards attended Catholic schools where he was steeped in theology and philosophy and considered becoming a priest or a teacher. He didn’t see a play until college, where he discovered what he was really meant to do with his life. But having given up religion for theater he none-the-less maintained his passion for philosophy and the life of the spirit. Listen to this articulate, passionate, sometimes outrageous man talk about how those influences informed his choice of, and work on, the production of Galileo, and get a taste of why we will miss him.

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 June 9, 2023, Musician/Composer/Artist Michael Royal performed in London, Paris, Rome, Amsterdam, Athens, Lisbon, Copenhagen, Tokyo, Bangkok, New York, Los Angeles and throughout the U.S. He worked with Red Rodney, Mel Lewis, Clifford Jordan, George Garzone, Larry Coryell, Emily Remler, Ira Sullivan, and Mark Murphy in addition to his own groups. Michael began improvising at the piano at the age of five. Early on, he turned away from the conventional study of music and, by uniting classical and jazz influences, developed his own unique piano style. His repertoire includes a unique blend of romantic jazz standards from the Great American Songbook, Bebop, Ballads, Blues, and Classical Masterpieces. While still performing, composing, teaching, coaching, and lecturing Michael continued to pursue his independent studies. In the first half of my interview Michael describes his early life and the way he discovered his unique path and I play two cuts from his CD – TRANSITION with Richard Drexler on bass and Steve Davis on drums. The second half of our interview picks up when Michael returned to Sarasota and describes the way his continuing pursuit of all things artistic it also includes two more cuts from his CD.

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The Lynne Show Pod cast can be heard and downloaded at

3-15-23 Chris Eisenberg discovered he could have an impact on an audience when he “played tricks with a basketball” at a kindergarten talent show. It turned out that he was right. Follow the surprisingly quick trajectory of his career beginning with his first role with the West Coast Black Theatre Troupe, where he played little Michael Jackson at age 9. Listen to his philosophy, one that is perhaps unusual for a young man and come see Frank and me, “a night of crooning, dancing, stories & laughs that looks back and celebrates one of the greatest artists of all time” which he conceived, wrote, and, with the help of his mentor Nate Jacobs, will bring to the WBTT stage SUNDAY MARCH 26 & MONDAY MARCH 27, 2023 7:30PM And Tues April 4th

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2-24-23 2-24-23 Memorial to the remarkable David Howard. A seemingly unassuming, mellow person, David was powerful on stage. He was not only a brilliant actor, he was that rare thing, a real human being. I’m sure it was his ability to be real in person, that was his superpower on stage. Listen to this gentle, formidable man talk about his life, his unshakable belief in what he had to be/do, and how he overcame the challenges to achieving his lifelong goal – to be the best actor he could be..

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You will leave the theater feel Good!
“The stories are touching and funny, mostly they make you feel good”   Jay Handelman Art/Theater Critic for the Sarasota Herald Tribune
“It’s like an antidepressant for the soul” Stage/screen actress E. Katherine Kerr                                                        
The Players Centre Tickets $36.00 – 941-365-2494 – ThePlayers.org
Produced by the Sarasota Jewish Theatre

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6-27-22 Deb has created concerts and revues for Jazz at Lincoln Center, NJPAC and the Schimmel Center at Pace University. Feinstein’s/54 Below, and the Birdland Theater. As Artistic Director of the 92Y’s Lyrics & Lyricists American Songbook concert series, for nine years, she brought top tier artists from Broadway and music, to the 50 original shows she presided over.

Again, bringing top tier artists from Broadway and music, plus Lincoln Center’s remarkable Jazz musicians, Deb has created Songbook Sunday’s for Dizzy’s club at Lincoln Center. Each event highlighting a great songwriter Sunday July 17^th.will be “Anything Goes! Cole Porter and More Cole Porter.

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The Anatomy of an Artist Series with Lynne Bernfield

Can be heard and downloaded at

4-6-22 I interviewed Cabaret Performers Anne Pringle Burnell and Mark Burnell right before the start of the Pandemic. In their interviews both Anne and Mark talk about the way they found their love of Cabaret and each other, In Anne’s interview she talks about The Chicago Cabaret week which was about to begin. It didn’t happen then, but it is happening now at the Epiphany Center for the Arts – Get tickets at epiphanychi.com/tickets –

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Bill Charlap comes from a musical family. His father was the composer Moose Charlap, best known for the score of Peter Pan and his mother, Sandy Stewart, a singer, who was a regular on Perry Como’s Kraft Musical Hall, and recorded the hit song “My Coloring Book.”

 Bill recorded Love Is Here to Stay, and Something to Remember with his mother. His albums Somewhere, featuring the music of  Leonard Bernstein, and Live at The Village Vanguard received Grammy Award nominations. The Silver Lining: The Songs of Jerome Kern, which he produced with Tony Bennett, won the Grammy for Best Traditional Pop Vocal Album. He was the musical director of Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil, A Celebration of  Johnny Mercer.  He succeeded Dick Hyman as Artistic Director of New York City’s 92nd Street Y and is the Director of Jazz Studies at William Patterson University.

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4-18-22 In the second half of my interview with Frank Galati, Frank continues to describe the serendipity of his extraordinary career, and talk about the creation, with Stephen Flaherty and Lynn Ahrens, of the brand new musical Knoxville, based on the on the Pulitzer Prize winning book A Death in the Family by James Agee and Pulitzer Prize winning play All the Way Home by Tad Mosel which will have its premier at the Asolo on Saturday 4-23-22.

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 4-15-22 Interview with Actor, Director, Teacher Tony Award winning Playwright Frank Galati. I began my interview with the indefinable Frank Galati while he was directing a production of 1776 for the Asolo Theater. He was summarily whisked away for rehearsal so we never got to talk about 1776. In this half our conversation Frank talks about his early life. 

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http://www.thelynneshow.com/Audio/Podcasts/Show_643_3_7_22_Memorial_to_Tony%20Walton.mp3

3/7/22 Memorial to Director, Costume and Set Designer Tony Walton

 I interviewed the remarkable Tony Walton when he directed George Bernard Shaw’s The Devil’s Disciple for the Asolo Repertory Company in Sarasota FL. Known primarily for his design work, Tony was delighted to be interviewed as a director. Listen to this generous, delightful, funny, charming, man describe his astounding career, the success of which he self-deprecatingly credits to “dumb luck.”  See below some of his awards

Tony Awards for Pippin, House of Blue Leaves, and Guys and Dolls.

Oscar, for All That Jazz,

Emmy, TV version of Death of a Salesman

Academy Award for Best Production Design 1980,

Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Set Design 1992, 1986, 1973

Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Art Direction – Miniseries, Movie or a Special 1986

Lucille Lortel Award for Outstanding Scenic Design 1996

Art Directors Guild Lifetime Achievement Award 2012

Academy Award nominations for Mary Poppins (1964), Murder on the Orient Express (1974), and The Wiz (1978).^[1]

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  2-4-22– Memorial to painter Eleanor Merritt. Eleanor began to draw when she was five years old and “never stopped making Art.” She was supported in her passion by her mother, an immigrant with a 6^th grade education, who once challenged an elementary teacher who complained that Eleanor was “always drawing.” I interviewed Eleanor when she was over seventy and still going strong. She said she’d “learned to compartmentalize” so she could do all of the things she wanted and needed to do with her life. She gave all the attention needed to her work as a teacher, the love and care of her husband and children, and never stop doing Art – even when she had to do it “in the bathroom after midnight.” Eleanor never stopped exploring her own very personal relationship to painting and courageously believed in her own artistic vision. When she moved to Sarasota, her work was very different from the popular “palm trees and sunsets,” and when shown would be “hung by the bathroom door, or in a corner.” She never gave up creating her own work and was rewarded when her work was recognized.  Eleanor Merritt is a role model for ‘self-actualization’ and listening to her story tells us all how it can be done. Listen to this passionate woman describe her very special life and come see her extraordinary work in a Remembrance to Eleanor Merritt at the Ringling Museum Feb 18, 2022 – Aug 21, 2022 at Art Gallery 12

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-31-22 Actor, Director, Playwright, Administrator, and Educator. Lee Gundersheimer has done it all. Actor in 75 shows in New York and more all over the country. Director of over 80 plays, from Shakespeare to Annie. Playwright of 7 full length plays and 4 one acts including “Incommunicado,” nominated for four Audelco Awards, and opened the new Federal Theater Season off Broadway and Pas De Deux which won Best play in the New Play Festival on Theater Row. Administrator – he built and ran two theaters in New York; a Rep Company an off Broadway theater, was the Managing Director of a professional Shakespeare Festival and Arts and Culture Coordinator for the city of Winona, MN. Educator he taught at 7 University’s. Listen to this passionate man describe a lifelong commitment to every aspect of Theater.   

 

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9-27-21 Actor, Choreographer, Director Jim Weaver is the Artistic Associate and Director of Education at Westcoast Black Theater Troupe. In this interview Jim talks about his life and his current project, directing the upcoming production of the musical revue Eubie. Like many artists, Jim always knew he wanted to be a performer. Unlike many however, he talked his parents into providing acting lessons when he was ten years old and, by the time he was fourteen, he had an agent and was a working actor. Listen to this veteran describe his journey from fourteen year old model, spokesperson and actor, to chorus, dance captain, choreographer, director and artistic associate . Also hear him talk about the exciting and moving, (in the physical sense) production of Eubie.
FYI in conjunction with all of the theaters in Sarasota, WBTT is requiring proof of vaccination, or proof of a negative Covid test within 72 hours, and the wearing of masks – the audience will also be social distanced

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The Anatomy of an Artist Series with Lynne Bernfield
can be heard and downloaded
https://thelynneshow.com/Audio/Podcasts/Show_635_memorial_for_Ed_Asner_9_13_21.mp3,
9-13-21 Memorial to Ed Asner – The irrepressible, outrageous, talented, generous and sexy Ed Asner is best known for his portrayal of the curmudgeonly Lou Grant, a role he created on the Mary Tyler Moore show and reprised in his own show called only Lou Grant. Ed won seven Emmy awards, more than any other male actor, and is the only actor to win an Emmy for his work in both a sitcom and a Drama series – for playing the same role. A famously outspoken rebel who was courageously true his beliefs and often paid a heavy price for his courage, Ed Asner is the poster child for true north. Spontaneous, open, guile-less; with Ed – what you see is what there is, and that is terrific. Listen to this funny, interesting man talk about his life and his work, his dogged commitment to being the best he can be and his dedication to bettering the lives of those less fortunate than himself.

My brother Ken was at an event which Ed also attended. Ken approached Ed and asked if he’d be willing to be interviewed by his sister. Remarkably, Ed said sure. When I was next in LA, I went to his house and recorded this interview. It was 2012 and Ed was 82 years old. You can hear what a delight he was and how much fun I’m having. In the next 9 years he continued to work. Six years later he finally went back to Broadway in a Cameo role. I was in the audience opening night and when he walked on stage the audience rose to their feet. After the performance Ed invited me to stay at his apartment and now, I have to say, I regret not taking him up on it. Towards the end of the interview, when I am thanking him, Ed said “it’s because your brother has such a sweet face.” My brother does have a sweet face, but it was actually because, behind the bluster Ed Asner was a pussycat.

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2-25-21 Interview with Sam Osheroff, who has had a varied career as a studio artist, an actor, director and educator Listen to Sam describe his earliest experiences with theater, how, as an eight year old, he was struck by what seemed to him to be existence of “another world” on the stage. Hear him talk about the circuitous route he took to become the actor he always was, and see him star in “Cherry Docs,” the second production of the brand new Sarasota Jewish Theater, on zoom on Sunday Feb 28th at 3:00.

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2-18-21 Interview with actor, singer E. Faye Butler who is staring as Fannie, in “Fannie, The life and the Music of Fannie Lou Hamer,” a role which was written with her in mind. Like the woman she’s playing, Faye discovered her path unexpectedly. The role which convinced her that acting was her path was that of a mute! She also channels Fannie Lou, in her perseverance and unwillingness to give up her dream. Although the roles she trained to play, and auditioned for, were denied her because she was the wrong color, she never gave up. Listen to this delightful, exuberate woman tell her interesting story. And come see bring Fannie to life at the Asolo beginning January 20th.

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The Anatomy of an Artist Series with Lynne Bernfield
can be heard and downloaded https://thelynneshow.com/Audio/Podcasts/Show_628_1_14_21_Carolyn_and_Howard_SJT.mp3
1-14-21 Interviews with Carolyn Michel and Howard Millman.
On Sunday, January 31, 3:00 the first show of the brand new Sarasota Jewish Theater season will feature Carolyn, directed by Howard, performing Women I Have Loved featuring monologues from her favorite characters, and stories from her career, ranging from Sid Caesar and Broadway to performances in Regional Theaters and 24 seasons with Asolo Rep.
Carolyn Michel has had a storied career, from her success as a baby ballerina, to the early days at the Golden Apple Dinner Theatre, to performing with Sid Caesar on Broadway and on tour, major performances in Regional Theaters across the country, and 24 seasons on the Asolo stage.
Howard J. Millman was Producing Artistic Director of the Asolo Repertory Theatre from 1995 until he retired in 2006. Prior to rejoining the Asolo in 1995 he was Producing Artistic Director for Geva Theatre in Rochester, New York, Executive director of Pittsburgh Public Theatre and Managing Director of the Asolo. From 1968 to 1980. .
Today is Carolyn’s birthday, a great birthday gift would be buying a ticket and supporting the theater.
Get tickets at https://jfedsrq.org/events,

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As a holiday thank you gift to The Lynne Show and Anatomy of an Artist interview series audience, I will send a signed hard cover copy of my book When You Can, You Will, why you can’t always do what you want to and what to do about it. Or a copy of my of I Won’t Go With A Whimper, to the first 25 people who send me an address.
Click here to listen to the introduction to the book.

Click here to see a video of me performing the title track at the CD launch.
https://studio.youtube.com/video/ErJ5Z7Hg324/edit
As we finally close in on the end of 2020, I hope they will bring you pleasure and perhaps make life a little easier
Lynne

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