Debra Messing Acceptance Speech
“Storytelling can change lives.” -Debra Messing
Listen to what more Debra, one of two honorees, had to say about the importance of storytelling at the 2017 Gala held on March 27th.
PLAYBILL NEWS: WP Gala Photos Are In…Debra Messing and more!
WP Theater (formerly Women’s Project Theater) honored Emmy-winning Broadway alum Debra Messing and President of BBC Worldwide North America Ann M. Sarnoff with Women of Achievement Awards at its 32nd annual gala. Hedwig and the Angry Inch Tony winner Lena Hall hosted the event at the Edison Ballroom.
The New York Times Review: Songs Say What a Family Can’t in ‘Sundown, Yellow Moon’
“To love is to worry in “Sundown, Yellow Moon,” Rachel Bonds’s quietly perceptive portrait of a family in simmering crisis at the McGinn/Cazale Theater. The characters in this beautifully acted production from Ars Nova and WP Theater, directed with probing sensitivity by Anne Kauffman, are united by a web of mutual concern that is as exasperating as it is reassuring.
When a father and his grown daughter bid good night to each other in an insomniac haze, this is their exchange of endearments: “I’m worried about you”; “I’m worried about you, too.” There’s a competitive passive aggression in their solicitude, and plenty of ego within their altruism. That doesn’t make their shared affection any less deep or genuine…” Read more
The Special Unicorn of Artistic Directors….
Take a break and listen to this interview with Lisa McNulty with Eliza Bent on her video series!!
Real Talk / Kip Talk – Artistic Directors on Divans – #02 With Lisa McNulty from Eva von Schweinitz on Vimeo.
Playbill News: Cast Announced for “Sundown, Yellow Moon”!
The world premiere of the night-time play with songs, SUNDOWN, YELLOW MOON casting and creative teams have been announced on Playbill! You don’t want to miss the real, honest, funny and sad play about seeing old faces with new eyes, and the liminal space between loss and letting go.
“The cast includes Eboni Booth (Revolt. She Said. Revolt Again.), Lilli Cooper (The Spongebob Musical), Peter Friedman (Synecdoche, New York; The Savages), Greg Keller (Our Mother’s Brief Affair), Anne L. Nathan (It Shoulda Been You), Michael Pemberton (Veep), and JD Taylor….” Click here for more information!
WATCH: Lisa Lampanelli on “Sway in the Morning” at SiriusXM
Lisa Lampanelli on Losing Vagina Weight, Working with Donald Trump & New Play “Stuffed”
WATCH! STUFFED Promo Trailer
Time Out New York says STUFFED is “equally HILARIOUS and HEARTBREAKING!”
The New York Times says “Now that Joan Rivers is gone, no one in #comedy is stomping on sensitivities as consistently as Lisa Lampanelli.”
GET TO KNOW THE CAST OF STUFFED!
ANN HARADA (Stacey) Ann Harada originated the role of Christmas Eve in Avenue Q on Broadway and the West End. Other Broadway includes Cinderella, 9 to 5, M Butterfly, Seussical, Les Miserables (revival). Recent Off-Broadway includes Brooklynite (Vineyard Theatre) and Love, Loss, and What I Wore (Westside Theatre). Regionally: 42nd Street and Mamma Mia (MUNY), and God of Carnage (George Street Playhouse). Film: Youth in Oregon, Sisters, Trouble, Admission, Hope Springs, and The Art of Getting By. TV: “The Jim Gaffigan Show,” “The Good Wife,” “SMASH,” “30 Rock,” “House of Cards,” “Master of None.”
ZAINAB JAH (Katey) Recent credits include: Maima, Eclipsed (Broadway); title role of Hamlet (The Wilma Theatre); A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Romeo N Juliet, Trojan Women (Classical Theatre of Harlem); The Loneliness of the Long Distance Runner (Atlantic Theater, NYC), Prudence in The Convert, Josephine in Ruined, A Doll’s House (Williamstown Theatre Festival); In Darfur (The Public Theatre /NYSF), Peter Sellars’ Children Of Herakles (European Tour). Film/TV credits: New York, I Love You (Short), “Law & Order SVU,” Outliving Emily (with Andre Braugher and Philicia Rashad). Awards: OBIE Award (Eclipsed), Philadelphia Critics’ Circle Best Actress Award (Hamlet); Los Angeles Stage Alliance Ovation Award Best Featured Actress (The Convert); San Francisco Bay Area Critics’ Circle – Outstanding Performance Female Featured Role (Ruined); and Best Featured Actress, Philadelphia Critics’ Circle Featured Actress Award (The Convert).
JESSICA LUCK (Britney) Jessica is thrilled to be making her off-Broadway debut in Stuffed! Select NY Theater: The Digger (La MaMa), The Blood Brothers (The Brick), The Quake (Ideal Glass), Our Town (The Gene Frankel), and The Disembodied Soul (NY Fringe). Web Series: Down Dog and Carolers. Jessica is a Yale graduate and a recent Rockwell scholar at ESPA/ Primary Stages. She is a member of the rock band My Dear Mycroft and the improv team The Jessicas.
LISA LAMPANELLI (Playwright/Lisa) Lisa Lampanelli shot her fifth stand-up special, “Back to the Drawing Board,” which premiered June 26, 2015 on EPIX and was nominated for a 2015 Grammy Award for “Best Comedy Album.” In the special, Comedy’s Lovable Queen of Mean showed off her radically different look after having lost more than 100 pounds. That weight loss, which she has maintained for over four years, inspired her to write Stuffed since, having been every size from 2 to 26, she has firsthand knowledge of the food and body-image struggle.
Lisa became a household name when she joined 17 other celebrities on the fifth season of NBC’s “Celebrity Apprentice,” where she advanced to the final four in the competition, raising $130,000 for her chosen charity, the Gay Men’s Health Crisis. She also starred as a regular on “Bounty Hunters,” CMT’s first-ever animated series, and recently stole the show on an episode of CBS’s “2 Broke Girls,” helmed by “Sex and The City” creator, Michael Patrick King.
Lampanelli joined the ranks of comedy greats with her 2009 HBO comedy special, “Long Live the Queen,” and that same year, released her autobiography, Chocolate, Please:
My Adventures in Food, Fat and Freaks (Harper Collins). Lisa was also a monthly writer for the Women column in Playboy Magazine and is a contributor to the blog for Kripalu, the world-renowned yoga and meditation retreat center.
Photographs by Carol Rosegg
WATCH! ANNE KAUFFMAN’S ACCEPTANCE SPEECH
ANNE KAUFFMAN
2015 OBIE AWARD WINNER
Sustained Excellence of Direction
“Every play is a world all its own, and every new play is a world that a director has to explore, map, and sometimes shape. It takes resolve and patience; it takes an imagination that must build on the playwright’s vision, knowing when to trust and when to challenge. It takes an open mind and a sturdy, daring spirit. For displaying that spirit, in many seasons past, and this year with productions like Buzzer, The Nether, and You Got Older, the judges have voted an Obie for Sustained Excellence of Direction to ANNE KAUFFMAN” – Tommy Tune
ANNE KAUFFMAN to direct the world premiere of SUNDOWN, YELLOW MOON by Rachel Bonds at WP Theater.
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WATCH: Lisa Lampanelli Gets Stuffed Off-Broadway
As Lisa Lampanelli, the comedy favorite, prepares to make her playwriting debut, Theatermania stopped by WP Theater to interview Lisa, director Jackson Gay, and the cast of STUFFED.