Putting on the pinstripe suit of a "producer"
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My very first venture into the world of producing. The year was 2006 and I'm still working in the law firm, Patterson Belknap Webb & Tyler LLP. My boss, the late Arthur D. Sederbaum, Esq. has been diagnosed with cancer (which I didn't know at the time) and he loved the theater. One of the reasons we got along so well.
One day he says "Would Bebe & Donna come out if you asked them to?" I said, "If Steve and I ask them, they might." "Ok, he says, go find out the cost of a theater." I picked up the phone, called Bebe and the rest of my Broadway friends who all came on board to create:
click on the above logo for more info
This is also where I first met and worked with Kathleen Conry, Founder of The Rehearsal Club. |
It wasn't until 2010 that I had an opportunity to produce again. This time, I'm out of the law firm and reconnecting in the world of show business. As co-President of Women in Arts & Media Coalition, I had the opportunity to produce a show where we showcased the first song, "Good Girls Only," inspired by the women of The Rehearsal Club, written by my dear friend, Charles Leipart & the late composer, John Kroner. I visualized this logo, but Betsy Ashton, manifested the miracle. 
click on the above logo for more info |
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VintAGE inspired Charles Leipart and John Kroner to option writing two more songs. Now we had 3 songs & no $$$. As a member of Actor's Equity's Women's Committee, I had the opportunity to create a proposal that the Eastern Region Equal Employment Opportunity Committee voted to support. So in 2012, we created Union Women @ Work -- this logo, too, was visualized by me, using the "Rosie the Riviter" logo from WWII, but Betsy Ashton again, gave it form.
click on the image above for more info |
Those 3 songs showcased in Union Women @ Work then inspired the intension to write the full Rehearsal Club Musical -- however -- our composer, John Kroner, unexpectedly died! I was devasted thinking it the end of our musical. Charlie, however, continued moving forward with composers Larry Spivack and Eric Scott Reed who wrote supplemental material to create a condensed, 50-minute version, presented in March, 2013 at the Professional Children's School with a full Broadway cast, George Lee Andrews, Mary Lou Barber, Jamey Grisholm, Ernestine Jackson, Randy Graff, Victoria Mallory and Jane Summerhays.
This logo was designed by our own RC Alum, and then Treasurer, Terry Baughan.
click on the image above for more info |
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As Vice Chair to Lee Kelley's leadership as Chair, our women created four days of events in NYC culminating with dinner and a show at The Players, NY. Stepping up to Chair with Amanda Roberts as my Vice Chair, we launched a new website and then all our women helped in creating the 105th Anniversary five years later. Envisoned as a one-night-only Cabaret Rising Star Competition, this event paved the way for incorporation the next year. Gale Patron, who had been our Treasurer and then stepped up to Vice Chair for me, became our first President. I spent one "transition" year on their Board of Directors and then stepped down to focus on the creative projects, the musical and the memoir book, which I had slowly nurtured since we came together in 2006.
The Rehearsal Club, meanwhile, held a matching grant campaign which surpassed its $50,000 goal to raise over $200,000 to "re-birth" The Rehearsal Club in a wing of The Webster Apartments.
Our Rising Star event has been post-poned two years now due to Covid, however, we did hold a lovely Anniversary Champagne Toast, in 2020 and another, even bigger, "Teaser" Tribute in 2021. This last was "exclusive" to TRC Members Only. Things change. Watch for the next Cabaret in May, 2022, produced by TRC.
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