Arts Independent

It was only a matter of time. Jay Michaels Global Communication, a worldwide service creating visibility for all forms of independent artists has formed a partnership with IFT Network, Inc. an integrated community of programs and professionals whose purpose is the development, marketing, and distribution of independent film and the creation of opportunities for independent theater, and live events.

Jay Michaels Communications and its media partners have been creating visibility for independent theater, film, music, and literature for more than two decades. Through a diverse internal multi-media platform and diverse group of media partners including Stage Whisper Podcast, ReviewFix.com, Music Makers New York., YouTube Channel I, Five Star Arts Journals, Next Stage Press, and now IFT Network, this communications organization is able to supply guaranteed coverage to hundreds of emerging artists and their productions while growing its external network of promotional sites and groups.

IFT Network offers powerful and unique services to its membership:  The IFT Network Writing Room – a FREE, SAFE, virtual development space for writers to hear their scripts read; the IFT Network Agency – their marketing arm works to enhance the brand and image of independent filmmakers, theater producers, and their projects; and its flagship program: the IFT Network itself – Available now on the App and Play Stores, IFT Network streams dozens of Award Winning Independent Films, Theater & Musicals, Original Series & Shows, as well as live tapings of compelling theatrical projects.

Currently the new collaboration is in development to create a new paradigm for theatre and film festivals.

Denise B. Flemming Interview

WINTERKILL is an engrossing one-woman mystery written and performed by Denise B. Flemming.  It tells the tale of the dubious past of a successful professor.

 Denise B. Flemming is a Chicago native.  She began her artistic career at Hull House Theater. After completing her B.A she attended the University of Iowa where she studied stage lighting. Her passion was play writing and acting but she wanted to be VERY aware of the technical aspects around her. After completing her studies, she attended the University of Southern California for an MFA in acting.  She is a member of the League of Professional Theater of Women, N.A.C.A  and P.O.W.E.R.

Every artist has a mission for their artistic endeavors.  Ms. Flemming’s mission is reflective.  “My mission as an artist is to reflect humanity. I am a mirror. I want to show you where we are, so that the audience can arrive at their own truth.”

It was Ms. Flemming’s interest in crime and criminal justice that sparked the writing of this play.  “The inspiration of WINTERKILL came from my interest in the MANSON murders, The Belly of the Beast, and several newspaper articles.”

Ms. Flemming tackles difficult and uncomfortable topics in her writing.  Addressing these issues through art can sometimes be thought provoking and can lead to enacting positive change.  “I write about topics that BOTHER me. And my other scripts such as ECLIPSE is about discrimination and racism, and HEADLINE focuses on senior abuse and loneliness.”

Ms. Flemming relates to and internalizes the characters that she creates.  “I learn about myself by creating and writing my characters. I feel their pain, their addictions, how society views them. Also, I alone have to feed, protect and provide for myself as these characters.”

Ms. Flemming would like to raise awareness of the topic that is presented in WINTERKILL.  “My hope for WINTERKILL is that audiences realize this topic remains in our newspapers, television and society. It cannot be overlooked or forgotten. It continues to happen. Therefore, it BOTHERS me.  I must continuously remind/reflect this topic.”

Anna Capunay’s Your Silent Face confronts generational tension, alcoholism, mental instability and queer expression, all in just 19 minutes. Aurelia, played by Greta Quispe, is struggling to support and protect her daughter Guada, played by Marie Capunay, whose nonbinary identity and queer relationships are confusing and distressing to her. Guada’s lesbian friend Piura, played by Yessenia Rivas, is staying with Guada in their home, which causes further tension that Aurelia copes with through drinking.

Your Silent Face doesn’t pull any punches. Aurelia is a mean drunk, name-calling and tossing out judgments against Piura and Guada’s “lifestyle” and choices. It’s revealed that the struggle for support and independence comes on the heels of a psychotic break for Guada, who was tackled by police in the family kitchen after their frightened mother called 911. The trust between the two after that moment seems irreparably broken. Aurelia is convinced that Guada will have another episode. She also seems terrified that Guada is now reliant on medication—pills she fears Guada won’t take.

Piura’s presence is an additional strain on the family—yet as a third party she offers Guada an intriguing perspective. She is able to handle Aurelia’s drunken cruelty with ease—she even encourages Guada to see the bright side—that their mother cares about them, even if Aurelia is unsure and still learning how to be supportive. In the end, Piura sneaks her friend out to a concert in Brooklyn, where the two Latines share a kiss in defiance of the heteronormative and cultural demands around them.

At its finest moments, Your Silent Face encourages family to have patience for each other in their darkest moments, particularly in the face of generational expectations. The film’s presentation of these huge arguments can be a bit clumsy—it glosses over Mom’s drinking problems and abusive language. But Rivas’s and Quispe’s performances in particular resonate despite occasionally clunky dialogue.

Yet the story of queerness surviving in hostile homes is deeply important and resonates with today’s reality. It encourages both children and parents to find love and understanding for each other, and reminds queer youth that they can still find, experience, and pursue joy while they and their families learn to understand their identities.

The One in a Million Documentary will certainly mean more to those lucky few who were able to see the musical during its limited run during fall 2022. But giving more people a chance to see the show is exactly what director and producer Kevin Davis is hoping to influence through his documentary by connecting his musical with potential investors.

The sky is the limit for Davis and his team of co-producers, Joel “El Niño” Roman and Margie Santos. They explain through interviews their dream to take One in a Million to Broadway in an extended run, create a soundtrack and maybe even a TV series starring the characters created in the show.

Little teases of the musical are sprinkled throughout the documentary—photographs and a few clips, even the introduction to one of the audience’s favorite numbers, written by Davis. The story begins when a group of friends use all their money to buy lottery tickets—and then end up winning. The ensuing plot reveals how those winnings tear their friendship apart, but one stranger is able to show them how to live together in unity doing all things through Christ.

The fact that this show is evangelical in nature is something the producers hope will connect with future stakeholders. The play’s message, Davis says, is not just for Christians but for all viewers, to show how coming together despite and even because of differences is necessary for the betterment of the nation.

While non-Christian viewers of the show may be a little put off by these Christian ideals, the producers’ full-throated support of their greater vision takes this documentary beyond religion. While the film itself could perhaps be organized better—full discussion of what One in a Million is actually about does not happen until after the first 20 minutes—viewers will certainly be left wanting a chance to experience the Davis, Roman and Santos production, an opportunity this film hopes to help create.

Amanda Reckonwith: In Residential Care

Theatre Review of Broadway icon, David Sabella as Amanda Reckownwith by one of Broadway’s chiefest chroniclers, the great Robert Viagas

These two Great Bright Way alumni had a wonderful time at Amanda’s latest showing and took time to hold court in the restuarant sharing quotes from their books.

As the Wicked Witch of the West famously lamented, “What a world, what a world.”

We now have haters from Tennessee and other red states to thank for attempting to twist the naughty, witty, fun tradition of drag performance into what they perceive as a sinister political act. Indeed, a crime.

Luckily, New York once again can embrace well-named Amanda Reckonwith, back from a 25-year hiatus/rest cure, to sing us golden showtunes and opera, and to entertain us with wicked double-entendre patter during her monthly apparitions spéciales on the stage of Pangea nightclub in the West Village (and elsewhere), collectively titled In Residential Care.

Amanda Reckonwith is the alter-ego of Broadway actor David Sabella, who originated the role of sob-sister Mary Sunshine in the current epically long-running revival of Chicago.

Among the more delicious moments in the new show: A murderously funny “To Keep My Love Alive” by Rodgers and Hart. Singing both Maria and Anita’s parts in the duet “A Boy Like That/I Have a Love” from West Side Story. And a salute to gone-too-young chanteuse Nancy LaMott with “How Deep Is the Ocean.” Amanda also tipped her wig to one of the earliest and greatest of American female impersonators, Julian Eltinge, finding new life in the ballad “Those Come-Hither eyes,” custom written for Eltinge by Jerome Kern in 1914.

In between gulped martinis, Amanda makes fun of her age, which somehow has grown during her long sabbatical. Some of her jokes have mellowed with the years, like a lovingly refrigerated Dubonnet. Once classed as a Spinto Soprano, she now admits to being a “Spento” Soprano. “I found my top wasn’t what it used to be.” (Pause) “I’m sure you can all relate to that.”

But some of the gags are now almost old enough to vote, including one about Vice President Dick Cheney’s 2006 hunting accident. Time to vote that one out of office.

Given that this was Amanda’s Pride Month performance, a little more current political bite might have been expected. But that kind of confrontation is not Amanda’s style. Standing up proudly as a drag artist is commentary enough, reflected in her opening medley of “Born This Way” and “I Enjoy Being a Girl.”

Amanda Reckonwith: In Residential Care is written, directed and performed by Sabella and special guests, with musical direction by Mark Hartman.

All books by Robert Viagas and David Sabella can be found on Amazon.com

Writer/Director Anna Capunay makes the jump from theatre artist to film director with Your Silent Face, a deeply moving piece involving two Latines risking all to go on an “adventure,” as her cinematic director’s bow.

Your Silent Face premieres at the Festival of Cinema NYC in Forest Hills, Queens at the Regal UA Midway, 108-22 Queens Blvd, Queens, NY. The festival runs August 4 – 13. Visit https://www.festivalofcinemanyc.com/ for details.

Secrets and stories unfold in this engrossing journey of two romantically-linked Latines who decide to risk all to see their favorite post-punk band, Bootblacks. The “risk all” part includes Guada, who is risking not only being grounded if caught but may find themself back at the psych ward if they don’t comply with their mother’s terms.

Anna is proud to include a Latine female-identified-led cast in this short film dealing with mental illness and LGBTQ themes.

Writer/Director Anna Capunay received a grant in 2021 from the Queens Council on the Arts to help fund this project. Greta Quispe and Yessenia Rivas had previously collaborated with Capunay in her play, La Gota Fria in 2017. That play was also awarded a grant from the Queens Council on the Arts and performed at the Thalia Spanish Theatre in Sunnyside, Queens. Yessenia Rivas can also be found Off-Broadway this August in Capunay’s play, Cowl Girl, at the famed Greenwich Village venue, The Players Theatre. Additionally, Marie Capunay – the filmmaker’s niece – is making her own film debut.

“Girl Shock:I Dressed As A Girl For Halloween And She Took Over My Life”

By the book of the same name, “Girl Shock” The  Musical, debuted right before Pride, for two days to packed audiences at Pangea. The timing couldn’t have been better.  Because you see this is Maria Konner’s story…a brilliant entertainer, composer, pianist, guitarist, singer, explosively passionate and raw, and yet somewhat shy, and now somewhere along on her transgender journey, with her male alter ego “Dude” brilliantly played by the mega talented Jackson Sturkey,  who is the other creative collaborator on this show.

The musical, which is a work in progress is much like Maria. The complexity of the music she writes, along with lyrics by Jackson Sturkey, created a piece so layered in words, and melody,  that it had me wishing for a sing a long sheet so I could read those words again when I got home and examine their meaning. Because you see, Maria takes us from  her marriage, the annoyance, nag of a wife, symbolically represented by a muppet (controlled by the hilarious characterization created by actress Jessie Bangarang Atkinson) a marriage plagued with heteronormative expectations, and disgust at the monoculture virus that Maria was expected to live up to, and ultimately moving from a straight life in the suburbs all the way to San Francisco two blocks away from a Trans Bar (the Universe at play here)  after leaving this suffocating marriage. And along the way Maria finds a cure for the monoculture virus:Kink….and so begins Maria’s quest for her own truth from the Orgy Dome at Burning Man where she was “outslutted” and the realization that “no man can change the world, what about a woman”. The discovery of the joy and power of being a girl. But what about that male alter ego “Dude” played by Jackson Sturkey, always there as a reminder of the guilt, of knowing who you once were, but no knowledge of what’s next,  but a burning passion to find out! What will life be like when the outside matches the inside and will a boob job be the answer? And there’s the complexity again….
“Girl Shock” defines the personal journey of transition. Of the yin and the yang, of the whole choice or the parts of a choice. And which side in this gender contest will win or will aspects of who you once were exist with who you are now?

And the music!  Shout outs here to Omar Kabir, on sax trumpet and flute, turning those instruments into an organic living backround to the stories that were shared on stage, along with Bernice Bellows on accordion, punctuating moments in the story, with Rachael Kaufman on piano while Maria played guitar.
Thank you Maria Konnor for your brilliance and honesty. Your show is a piece that clearly defines how personal a journey transitioning is. Through the music and musicians, the characters you developed and the actors who played them, your audience took that journey with you. And we can’t wait to see what happens next. All aboard….

Shavonne Conroy Interview by Jen Bush

What do you get when you put together a Jewish resistance fighter in occupied Poland who falls in love with the daughter of a Nazi officer?  Aside from the obvious of a strange bedfellows situation, you get a compelling musical called Finding Helena.  The musical will have its premiere on July 30^th in Texas gearing up for a New York City run in October.  The musical is being produced by Shavonne Conroy.

Shavonne Conroy had done it all in the entertainment industry from fronting a band to cabaret and everything in between.  This gifted singer and actress holds an MFA in theatre/voice.  You can’t be a working actor in NYC for 20 years and not have a credit in the “Law and Order” franchise.  Ms. Conroy has several.  She’s equally as comfortable being on centerstage as she is behind the scenes.  This canine enthusiast is also a cosplayer.  We had a wonderful conversation about her life in the arts and this exciting musical.

“I’m Shavonne Conroy. After grad school for musical theatre and opera I toured with a Top 40 band before moving to New York where I did stage, cabaret, film and television for 20 years.  After headlining at the Waldorf, stints on Law & Order, David Letterman, Rescue Me, and some producing – I returned home to Texas to be near my mother after my father passed away.  In Texas I’ve performed in many regional productions and continue to produce shows and events of all sizes. Also, you Comic-Con fans may know me as the Baby Carriage Lady, Jasmine Jolene and other characters from the original edition Bioshock!, one of the biggest video games in history.”

In her own words, Ms. Conroy tells us about the show.  “Finding Helena is an epic love story about a Nazi officer’s daughter who runs away with a Jewish resistance fighter in 1940.” 

For this production, the apple doesn’t fall far from the tree.  It’s a total family affair.  The decision to produce it was pretty much a no-brainer.  “My daughter, Alexandra (BFA in theater) started writing the piece years ago. It went through many versions and a few producers before my husband (who is a former television writer and had been one of Alexandra’s mentors) joined her as co-writer to bring it to fruition.”

This is an ambitious production in that the subject matter is delicate and controversial.  Ms. Conroy is not concerned because the ultimate message of the piece is hopeful and inclusive.  “We don’t feel like we’re pushing any envelopes. We love musicals and love making them.  It’s a beautiful love story that is born out of the tragic and horrible circumstances of World War II and the Holocaust.  We do realize antisemitism is still going on, and that context makes this story more relevant than ever.  The story does carry the message that we’re all equal and deserve dignity no matter our backgrounds.” 

There is always a personal outcome to every artistic journey.  For this particular production, it was all about support and Ms. Conroy couldn’t be more grateful.  “Gosh, I learned so much about myself!  One of the most profound things is fully realizing that I have amazing friends who are excited to help us bring this incredible story to the stage! The other is when you have a great family, working with them on a gorgeous common goal in the Arts is the most rewarding experience one can have.” 

Ms. Conroy recognizes that a project of this caliber comes with an added sense of responsibility toward getting the historical context accurate and presenting the material with sensitivity.  “Absolutely, that is also something we have realized.  We have an enormous responsibility to get this story right, make sure it is entertaining, heartwarming and dramatic – so the audience loves it – so it will get to as many people as possible.  And our closing number is “Spread the Word, Spread the Love.”  The final lines are “Spread the word. THIS cannot be forgotten!”

Ms. Conroy is originally from Texas.  That’s where she got her start in the arts.  After her 20-year stint in New York City, she moved back to Texas where she has been working ever since.  She is committed to making Finding Helena a success, beginning in her home state.  “We have a staged public reading with live music on July 30th in San Antonio, Texas; then New York City October 26th and 27th.”

If you’re in Texas in July or New York in October, find your way to Finding Helena.  You’ll be entertained and uplifted by discovering that an impossible love is actually very possible and beautiful.

Being a playwright requires the ability to see both ends of an argument. It really is that simple. Especially so, when the writer wishes to cover and comment about the seemingly-once-a-week phenomenon known as school shootings…especially so, when the playwright is also a lyricist and musical composer, and has set the play to music.

Larry Daggett, the aforementioned playwright/lyricist/composer, has set some lofty goals for himself, in this staged version reading of his work ‘Bullet Points’, being produced by CreateTheater and Prism Stage Company at the smart, slick theater complex housed on Theater Row, at 410 West 42nd Street.

Mr. Daggett has at least partially prevailed, successfully depicting the true horrors of these monstrous events, and the desire to swim against the current of the Second Amendment and other related Laws. These ‘liberal’ precepts are carried out and imbued in human form in the character of Sarah Horowitz (deftly played by Rita Harvey), a schoolteacher spending her time trying to enlighten her knucklehead local State Senator Jacob (well played by Tom Staggs), who also doubles as her husband.

The issue here is the ‘other side’…the ideas that seems conservative in nature, that want their right to bear arms protected at all costs, the side that is clearly way more popular in America’s Heartland than on the Coastal Cities (such as New York) This other side is embodied by a cartoon character named Alexa Wright (portrayed with gusto and fire and some brimstone by Janet Aldrich, as asked to by director Daggett). What was once promised to be a scintillating duel between the two female leads turned into a rout rather early–victory was assured by the liberal side mere minutes after curtain, and the rest of the battle, despite some interesting plot twists, was anticlimactic. When the playwright sets the play in Florida (an obvious easy shot at Governor DeSantis), when Alexa is the head of clubs with the dubious name of ‘Stand Your Ground Gun Club’, when there is another shot taken at a previous President who hasn’t been in office in about three years, then you know what the night is going to look like.

The two leads, Ms. Aldrich and Ms. Harvey, did what was asked of them, and even more so. Certainly, as director of a staged reading, Mr. Daggett’s talent really shines. It was expertly, smartly crafted, with more assorted successful movements and choreography than any theater-goer had a right to expect at a staged reading. He also has surrounded his two leads with a fine ensemble company, headed by Dylan Adams as the troubled Eric Ward, and the aforementioned Mr. Staggs, who also had a lovely singing voice to boot.

Interestingly, the music for the play actually worked, to some level, and Composer Daggett must receive the credit for that as well. While not particularly hummable, the music had a certain eeriness to it, a certain melancholy, and a song about something as inane as socks was particularly haunting and memorable.

School shootings are a serious matter, with no end of them in sight, and no antidote at the ready. But this subject matter–like most others–is not a one-way street. Shakespeare had the vision to see both Othello and Iago. Albee was able to write convincingly both Martha and George in ‘…Virginia Woolf’. Even dear old Euripides was able to see both Jason and Medea. Mr. Daggett hinted at the ‘other side’ during several stretches of dialogue throughout the play. But it must be more prominent; the ‘fight’–the drama at hand–must be in a place were both sides can vision a place to ‘win’. As a result, the audience then ‘wins’, and another successful theatrical experience would be blazed into the memory of many, while headed to the history books…and, eventually, revivals.

They’re back!
THE COCKETTES are “cumming” back to NYC!

JOE’S PUB AT THE PUBLIC THEATER, Saturday, Sept 9 @ 9:30pm, 425 Lafayette St, New York

The Cockettes were an avant garde psychedelic hippie theater group founded by Hibiscus (George Edgerly Harris III) in 1969. Their brand of theater was influenced by The Living Theater, John Vaccaro’s Play House of the Ridiculous, the films of Jack Smith and the LSD ethos of Ken Kesey’s Merry Pranksters. The troupe performed all original material, staging musicals with original songs inspired by classic Hollywood movie musicals.  We had a wonderful chat with founding member and performer, Scrumbly.

Born in California, this unique artist kept reinventing himself.  He settled upon being a “shockingly” good performer.  “I emerged from my good So-Cal Mormon upbringing, newly awakened and searching various belief systems to find acceptance for being who I am, energized to call attention to the Big Lies, as a folk-singing beat poet, then hippie, then androgynous Cockette. Since then, I’ve remained a musician and performer, composer of songs that purposely sound like they were written in the past, still delighting in shocking those who would call me wild or weird.”

The Cockettes are a wildly ambitious act comprised of likeminded friends that have been around for over 50 years.  “Late in 1969, Hibiscus, a musical flowerchild from a New York theatrical family, rounded up some friends who had the ‘spirit’ as he saw it, and we did a raucous kick-line at the Midnight Movies at the Palace Theater in San Francisco’s North Beach district. The audience went ballistic and soon we were doing full-out shows with lavish cardboard sets and amazingly creative thrift-store-sourced costumes. We became the Beatles of the San Francisco queer and avant-garde tribes, drawing huge, overflowing houses every show where the audience was as much a part of the fun as the under-rehearsed shows. We were anti-traditional theater, kids who foreshadowed the punk surge. As a troupe, we were young men, mostly in drag, but not trying to ‘pass’ as women, and women who were really doing the same over-the-top drag as the men. The press often referred to what we did as ‘gender role confusion’. Fame brought us to New York where we were marketed to the old-school Broadway first-nighters, who were more than shocked and insulted at our lack of professionalism, leaving us to please the audiences that found us and ‘got’ us after opening night. Then back home to complete our 2 ½ year run about 8 months later. Repercussions of the Cockettes were felt in the art, fashion and music worlds for several decades, and interest was renewed by the award-winning 2002 doc, “The Cockettes”, by David Weismann and Bill Weber. A few years after, I started reviving our shows with Thrillpeddlers’ director Russell Blackwood for nearly a decade and continuing the genre with alumna from those shows and more like-minded performer friends.”

This unique performance troupe sought inspiration from multiple sources that included big doses of camp.  “Our inspirations are thirties movie musicals, camp elements of classics like “The Women” and forties, art deco, the Rolling Stones and Tina Turner, fifties camp, and finally, John Waters and Divine, who joined in with us toward the end.”

With the underground movement walking hand in hand with the off-off Broadway movement, it makes The Cockettes and Scrumbly a part of history!  Scrumbly weighs in on that notion.  “I never felt much about being a part of history other than ‘What else would I have done?’ I suppose there is a certain satisfaction in doing what you feel you were made to do and letting the audacity of that affect history somehow. The Butterfly Effect.”

Every performer faces obstacles.  Here are some of the obstacles faced by The Cockettes during their artistic journey.  “Some people just don’t appreciate the thread of punk attitude that pervades our shows. We will never be mainstream and those who are successful swimmers in that stream resent the attention we garner. I never mean to put down someone who works hard and dedicates themself to refining their art. What we do is refined in another way, in a way of bringing performing back as a tribal ritual where everyone in the room is involved.” 

Scrumbly learned some beautiful things about himself while being on the path of a performer.  His fellow artists are lucky to have him around.  “That all I can do is all I can do. That I love people and I love helping to bring out their talent and making it shine.”

Scrumbly will continue to fill this world with compelling art.  His brain is on overdrive crafting future shows and music.  A maniacal ventriloquist from Vaudeville?  “Count me in!  I’m interested in writing in my style (genre-infused pastiche) doing musicals that bend towards opera, moving the plot along with many non-repeating melodies, setting dialogue to music, adding rhymes here and there at the most. I have a great project on the cooker with Cab Covay about a Vaudeville ventriloquist who goes maniacal”. 

“And I hope to retire soon. Maybe by the time I’m 90. Who knows?”