The Artist(s) Resource: The League of Professional Theatre Women

New York, NY – January 24, 2014: The League of Professional Theatre Women (LPTW) is pleased to present Quarterly Networking Mondays, Presidents Day: Celebrating LPTW Presidents and Founders–The Ultimate Give and Get on Monday, February 17, 2014 at 6:00 pm at the TheaterLab, 357 West 36th Street, 3rd Floor. This historic event is an opportunity to network with like-minded colleagues and to learn from the seasoned theatre professionals who founded and served as President of LPTW. Tickets are FREE for members, $15 for non-members, available at http://LPTWNetworkingPresidentsDay.bpt.me or by calling: 1-800-838-3006 www.BrownPaperTickets.com 

Presidents Day: Celebrating LPTW Presidents and Founders

This historic panel of LPTW Presidents and Founders include: Billie Allen (President 1984-1988), Lynda Sturner (President 1988-1992), Shari Upbin (President 1992-1999), Isobel Robins (President 1999-2003), Harriet Slaughter (President 1999-2003, 2005-2007), Joan Firestone (President 2005-2007), Lynne Rogers (President 2007-2009), Rachel Reiner (President 2009-2011), Kristin Marting (President 2011-2013), Lorca Peress (President 2011-2014), Maxine Kern (President 2013-2015)

Billie Allen (actor/director/philanthropist) A Broadway veteran and trailblazer of stage, screen, television and commercials, Ms. Allen created the role of Sara in Adrienne Kennedy’s Funnyhouse of a Negro. She received a Lucille Lortel nomination for the role of Cock-Eyed Rose, in Every Night When the Sun Goes Down (American Place Theatre). Most recently she appeared in Lynn Nottage’s “mockumentary” By the Way, Meet Vera Stark. Billie established the Luther Henderson Memorial Scholarship Fund (Juilliard School of Music), honoring her husband (1940 graduate of Juilliard).

Lynda Sturner (actress/playwright/producer/journalist) A Broadway veteran, appearances include Oliver. Ms. Sturner served as the Artistic Director of Playwright’s Forum in NYC and The Provincetown Repertory Theater. Ms. Sturner is the Cape Cod Times winner for one of the best actresses in 2009.

Shari Upbin (producer/director) has produced and directed over 50 productions in New York and regionally. She was Michael Langham’s assistant director for the first Black /Hispanic production of Julius Caesar and Coriolanus starring Morgan Freeman (Public Theatre). She is President of the National Society of Arts and Letters Florida East Coast Chapter.

Isobel Robins (actress/singer/producer) A Broadway veteran of stage, screen, television, and night clubs. She has produced on and Off-Broadway, including The Changing Room, which won the New York Drama Critics Award. Ms. Robins is President of the Board of New Dramatists.

Harriet Slaughter (actress/singer/dancer/artist) A veteran performer, Ms. Slaughter has held senior management positions at Town Hall, Actors’ Equity Association and the Broadway League. She is a former Board member of Pen and Brush where her art work has appeared. She serves as chair of the Edith Meiser Foundation. Ms. Slaughter received LPTW’s coveted Lee Reynolds Award and NYWA’s Galaxy Award.

Joan Firestone (producer/advocate) Ms. Firestone has held executive and policy level positions in the for profit, non-profit and government sectors including: Assistant Director of The New York State Council on the Arts under Kitty Carlisle Hart; She served as Chairman of The Board (The Cherry Lane Theatre), Vice-President of government affairs (New York Women’s Agenda), and sits on the Boards of The Dramatists Guild Fund and The Moth. She has produced numerous Off-Broadway productions. Ms. Firestone received LPTW’s Lifetime Achievement award (2012).

Lynne Rogers (actress/voice over artist/writer) Veteran of stage, screen, television and radio, Ms. Rogers became a familiar face to millions of TV viewers on CBS’ Guiding Light, on NBC’s The Doctors, and A Time For Us on ABC. She was Procter and Gamble’s first product spokeswoman. She also has written several books including How To Be A Working Actor, (co-written with Mari Lyn Henry), which was dubbed “The Bible of the Biz”.

Rachel Reiner (Producer/Managing Director); Rachel Reiner Productions/Resonance Ensemble. Ms. Reiner is the Senior Manager of Membership Services and Education Programs at The Broadway League, and the Managing Director of Resonance Ensemble (www.ResonanceEnsemble.org). Through her production company, Rachel Reiner Productions LLC, Rachel has produced numerous off-Broadway productions. In 2012, Rachel received the LPTW’s Lucille Lortel Award.

Kristin Marting – (director/producer) Co-Founder and Artistic Director of HERE and a director of hybrid work based in NYC. Under Ms. Marting’s leadership, HERE has garnered 16 OBIE awards, 2 OBIE grants for artistic achievement, a 2006 Edwin Booth Award (“for Outstanding Contribution to NY Theatre”) from the CUNY Graduate Center, five Drama Desk nominations, two Berrilla Kerr Awards, four NY Innovative Theatre Awards and a Pulitzer Prize nomination.

Lorca Peress (director/producer) Founder/Artistic Director of MultiStages, has directed and produced numerous productions including: Fengar Gael’s The Island of No Tomorrows (Honorary Mention Collaboration Award from Women in Arts and Media Coalition), Nichole Thompson Adams’ Black Girl You’ve Been Gentrified (Public Theatre’s Joe’s Pub), Velez-Mitchell/Landon/Paris’ Temple Of The Souls (4 HOLA Awards). Ms. Peress is also on faculty at the Lee Strasberg Theatre and Film Inst., NYU Tisch-Strasberg Studio.

Maxine Kern (dramaturg/ playwright) Ms. Kern’s dramaturgy includes: Final Analysis by Otho Eskins, As it Is in Heaven by Arlene Hutton, Savannah Black and Blue by Raymond Jones, The Book of Lambert by Leslie Lee and For the Time Being by W.H. Auden. She is presently working on a play about the social activist, Emma Goldman. Ms. Kern has been part of the artistic staff of The McCarter Theater, The New York Shakespeare Public Theater, New Georges, The George Street Playhouse, Company One Theater and New Dramatists, Inc.

The event is moderated by League of Professional Theatre Women members: Richarda Abrams and Romy Nordlinger.

This event is brought to you by the LPTW Networking Committee:
Richarda Abrams and Romy Nordlinger, Co-Chairs
Members: Ivy Austin, Jill Du Boff, Victoria Hale, Dorothy Leeds, Frances McGarry, Wendy Peace, June Rachelson-Ospa, Cynthia Robinson and Rachel Sussman.

And C&S International Insurance Brokers, Inc.

Monday, February 17, 2014, 6-8 PM
TheaterLab, 357 West 36th Street, 3rd Fl, NYC
LPTW Members: FREE
RSVP at Networking@TheatreWomen.Org Or call 1-888-297-3117 x1
NON-MEMBERS: $15.00 per event
Purchase tickets at: http://LPTWNetworkingPresidentsDay.bpt.me/
Or call: 1-800-838-3006 www.brownpapertickets.com

ABOUT LPTW:
The League of Professional Theatre Women is a not-for-profit 501 (c)(3) organization. It presents numerous events each year as part of its mission to promote visibility and increase opportunities for women in the field. None of its work is possible without generous philanthropic support. The League recently celebrated its thirtieth anniversary, and boasts a membership of nearly 500 women theatre professionals in the for-profit and not-for-profit sectors. League members are actors, administrators, agents, arrangers, casting directors, choreographers, company managers, composers, critics, designers, directors, dramaturges, dramatists, educators, general managers, historians, journalists, librettists, lyricists, press agents, playwrights, producers, stage managers, and theatre technicians. To find out more about how you can support its endeavors, please visit the website www.theatrewomen.org and click on the “Support Us” tab.