Salon Radio: Community Arts at Goddard Riverside's W.H.A.M. Women History Artist Month (and beyond); Rhonda Musak

Salon Radio Special: Community Arts at Goddard Riverside's W.H.A.M. Women History Artist Month, featuring a variety of performances focusing on women.

Listen in to hear from some of the participating artists and about their projects along with program director Susan Macaluso, with an open invitation to follow this important community arts program and their collaborting artists.

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 Salon Solo {Radio} presents actor, playwright, acting coach Rhonda Musak.

Find out why Rhonda wrote her solo show Rhonda Badonda: The Adventures of a Girl with a Pain in Her Brain and about her acting studio.

 

This episode is hosted by Heidi Russell with Maureen Van Trease presenting our guests. Salon Radio is rounded out with our Women in The Arts world bulletin highlighting news about women in all The Arts, from this week’s editor Barbara Sullivan, and our Salon Bulletin for upcoming week's happenings of Salonistas around the world. This podcast was recorded at our production partner Funkadelic Studios with sound engineer Jade Zabric.

 

Thank you to this month's sponsor: Funkadelic Studios

www.funkadelicstudios.com

Funkadelic Studios prides itself on having everything a musician needs to continuously advance their career, regardless of where a musician is in their creative journey. This obligation of service to the artistic community in New York is what gravitates many musicians to Funkadelic Studios.

Beyond rehearsal and recording, Funkadelic provides other great features to benefit the career musician. It’s a one stop shop offering discounts for teaching sessions, open mic nights, weekly jam sessions, affordable event space, and internship opportunities. Equipment repairs, gear rental and gear storage are a few more of the services we provide! Here at Funkadelic, we understand what music is really about: a feeling, a groove, a dream, and most importantly, the people who create them.

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Salon Solo {Radio}: Rhonda Musak- actor, playwright, acting coach

Rhonda Musak has appeared in numerous NYC productions including the title role of Ondine – which was produced by her company, Deep Water Productions. Other favorites include: The Good Person of Setzuan, Measure for Measure and The Marriage Proposal. Rhonda Badonda… has been performed in NYC; Vancouver, BC; Lincoln, NE and Bluffton, SC. Rhonda has toured nationally and has performed regionally. She is a graduate of the National Shakespeare Conservatory and coaches actors 9-90 at her acting studio, Art & Soul Acting.

Rhonda Badonda Website: www.RhondaBadonda.com

Art & Soul Acting: www.artandsoulacting.com

 

Solo show – Rhonda Badonda: The Adventures of a Girl with a Pain in Her Brain

Rhonda Badonda wants to function normally… Her brain has other ideas. Dive into the shape-shifting landscape of the mind as Rhonda unscrambles a hidden medical mystery and encounters the truth of her baffling and bewildering world. When your brain won’t cooperate, you have to get creative.

Why I Wrote This Show
by Rhonda Musak

"When I received the dual diagnoses of audio processing disorder and sensory processing disorder in 2010, I rejoiced: there were actual names for what I had and I could finally stop feeling crazy.

Hand-in-hand with my diagnoses came the wondrous possibility of healing through a sound-based course of treatment. Prior to that, I had never heard of the Tomatis Method. I soon discovered that doing this powerful therapy was only the tip of the iceberg.

From that point on my past began to realign itself. Odd moments from grade school suddenly made sense. Decisions I made about college had a new clarity behind them. Disjointed moments as an adult rang with a deeper meaning. My perspective on my entire life began to shift.

As I continued my course of treatment and started feeling better, I began having conversations about it…with everyone. My family, my friends, my students, my colleagues, my neighbors—anyone who would listen. I was very surprised that every conversation was met with curiosity.

At first I thought people were being friendly, polite or supportive. But without fail my attempts at truncating my story were never successful. Most of these conversations clocked in somewhere around 45 minutes and were filled with an enormous amount of detail for my part and many probing questions on the part of the listener. Many times, whomever I was speaking to either recognized themselves or someone else they knew in my story.

Since it took me a lifetime, up to that point, to understand what was going on with me, and since it also seemed that so many people had not heard of processing disorders or the Tomatis Method, I knew that this was a story that I needed to tell."

Rhonda Badonda 90-Second Trailer: https://vimeo.com/157041541

 

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Salon Radio Special: Community Arts at Goddard Riverside's W.H.A.M. Women History Artist Month, featuring a variety of performances focusing on WOMEN

 

Goddard Riverside serves some 17,000 people each year through 26 programs on the Upper West Side and throughout Manhattan, working every day for a fair and just society where all people have the opportunity to make choices that lead to better lives for themselves and their families.

Community Arts is a program of Goddard Riverside to provide accessible and affordable arts programming and arts experiences for all ages.  Community Arts brings together economically and culturally diverse audiences to learn about, participate in and enjoy quality arts programming created and performed by seasoned and emerging artists and local arts groups. The program has flourished since its official designation as a separate program in 2012. With the assistance of art partners, the program has grown from 11 to 500- the number of performing arts events, rehearsals and auditions, and non-arts community events it offers- and expanded its audience from 700 to 15,000. 

This March, they are featuring a variety of performances focusing on WOMEN, called W.H.A.M!

All events take place in the Bernie Wohl Theater at 647 Columbus Ave.

 

Goddard will use this month-long festival to also help support our Performing Arts Camp serving 8-14 year olds.  It is an intensive, conservatory style summer camp that teaches creative thinking and discipline for our future leaders of tomorrow.  Proceeds will help continue the camp this summer, its third year.

A visual art display by artist Barbara Shelly will showcase her work of the urban scene and dancers during this festival.  Proceeds from sale of her artwork and original t-shirts and tote bags will also support the Performing Arts Camp. For sponsorships of the Performing Arts Camp, please contact Susan Macaluso, smacaluso@goddard.org

www.goddard.org/communityarts

 

Guests on hand for this feature talk about their projects and their collaborations with Community Arts at Goddard Riverside's WHAM Festival.

• Susan Macaluso: director of Community Arts at Goddard Riverside
• Melissa Bell: playwright with the 29th Street Playwrights Collective and is a co-producer of Feisty Women Festival
• Susane Lee: Executive Director of Hudson Warehouse
• Rhonda Musak: actor, writer and acting coach in New York City
• Sarah Pillow: Soprano with Galileo’s Daughters

          Susan Macaluso is the director of Community Arts at Goddard Riverside, and launched the program in 2012, with the first performances in the Winter of 2013.

         Melissa Bell’s works have been seen in New York at Theatre East (DEVIL & THE DEEP, music by Graham Russell and Katie McGhie), NACL Theatre (COURAGE, featuring Debra Winger), Future is Female Festival (GAME BOY), Reproductive Freedom Festival (PLAYGROUND PLACENTA), Bernie Wohl Center (LADY CAPULET). LOVE, SEX, ANARCHY had readings in Washington DC at Corner Arts Center and National Museum of Women in Arts. LOST IN LOVE, the Air Supply Musical, produced to benefit the Actors Fund by the Triad Theatre, featured Constantine Maroulis, Andrea McArdle, Graham Russell (Air Supply). Columbia University, BA, English/Writing. Member: 29th Street Playwrights Collective, Dramatist Guild.

          Susane Lee has fifteen years of experience in Television; three years with WGBH in Boston and twelve years with WNET in New York City. Susane has been with Hudson Warehouse since 2010 and has been directing, writing, and overseeing all their year-long productions. As the resident theater company of Goddard Riverside’s Bernie Wohl Center, she, with Nicholas Martin-Smith, have developed original programming for the center and their theater company. Among their co-productions is their annual Veterans Day Commemoration, where Susane Interviews veterans and creates a 75-minute documentary for the stage. Her recent events have been interviewing World War I veterans and Vietnam Vets. She and Nicholas have also created a Valentine’s Day Monologue Festival, now in its 4th year, and present a full production in March for Goddard Riverside. We are also very proud that these productions: Our Veterans Day Commemorations, Valentine’s Day Festival, and our Trojan Women, will be performed in jails with New York City’s Dept. of Corrections.  We have already performed in the Brooklyn and Manhattan detention facility and will also perform at Riker’s. Hudson Warehouse’s outreach mission is to provide arts to those whom arts isn’t so readily accessible and our work with the NYCDOC is a gratifying extension of our mission. We will soon be holding auditions for our summer season. As it’s our 15th season, we will present Romeo and Juliet in June, an original adaptation of The Three Musketeers, 20 Years Later, in July, and Hamlet in August.

Rhonda Musak has appeared in numerous NYC productions including the title role of Ondine – which was produced by her company, Deep Water Productions. Other favorites include: The Good Person of Setzuan, Measure for Measure and The Marriage Proposal. “Rhonda Badonda” has been performed in NYC; Vancouver, BC; Lincoln, NE and Bluffton, SC. Rhonda has toured nationally and has performed regionally. She is a graduate of the National Shakespeare Conservatory and coaches actors 9-90 at her acting studio, Art & Soul Acting. www.rhondabadonda.com & www.artandsoulacting.com @artnsoulacting

 

Sarah Pillow: Recently praised with having “a genuinely genre-busting voice, full and vivid” (The Washington Post) soprano SARAH PILLOW enjoys a unique career, drawing on her equal expertise in jazz, classical, and early music repertoire. Beginning her career as a jazz singer, Sarah won best vocal solo in a performance at the Montreux Jazz Festival. She went on to study classical singing at Oberlin Conservatory, earning a Bachelor of Music degree. Since moving to New York City in the early ‘90s, Sarah has toured the United States and Canada with her jazz quartet, her crossover project, Nuove Musiche, and Galileo's Daughters. Originally inspired by both her Collegium director at Oberlin Conservatory, Dean Neurenberg, and the book Galileo’s Daughter by Dava Sobel, Galileo's Daughters is shaped by her variety of talents in early music, opera, jazz, drama, and scholarship. Recent dramatic performances include The Play of Daniel, a 12th-century liturgical drama, and two recently composed children’s operas by Norwegian composer Gisle Kverndokk. Her new solo album, Grace in Time, is a collection of spiritual songs for organ and voice with organist Jeffrey C. Johnson. More information can be found at sarahpillow.com.

 

WHAM! Women’s History Artist Month participants...check out this month and follow their work beyond.

https://www.goddard.org/grcc/programs/communityarts/

 

29th Street Playwrights Collective presents new short plays about women, written by women, and directed by women. Melissa Bell, producer, and Emma Goldman-Sherman, Dramaturg/producer.

www.29thStreetplaywrightsCollective.org

 

Rhonda Badonda: The Adventures of a Girl with a Pain in Her Brain with Rhonda Musak.

When your brain won’t cooperate, you have to get creative. Rhonda Badonda wants to function normally…her brain has other ideas. Dive into the shape-shifting landscape of the mind as Rhonda unscrambles a hidden medical mystery and encounters the truth of her baffling and bewildering world. 

www.RhondaBadonda.com

 

Perpetual Motion, Galileo and His Revolutions

The ensemble Galileo’s Daughters (Sarah Pillow, Mary Anne Ballard, Ronn McFarlane, and Marc Wagnon) joins Dava Sobel (Galileo’s Daughter) for an interdisciplinary event of 17th century music.  Presented as part of the FIAT LUC festival of Salon Sanctuary Concerts.

www.salonsanctuary.org

 

Batalá presented by Afro Roots. An all-female percussion ensemble playing Afro-Brazilian music, primarily Samba Reggae, a genre originating in the state of Bahia in northeast Brazil.

https://batalanewyork.love/

 

An Unknown Country by Eva Zelig.

The story of European Jews who escaped Nazi

persecution to find refuge in an unlikely destination: Ecuador, a South American country barely known at the time. The film follows the exiles’ perilous escape and difficult adjustment as they remade their lives in what was for them an exotic, unfamiliar land.

http://anunknowncountry-movie.com/

 

The Pink Hulk: One Woman’s Journey to Find the Superhero Within

Written and performed by Valerie David; directed by Padraic Lillis. Valerie’s true and inspiring award-winning story about “hulking out” on cancer and beating it TWICE…first lymphoma; then 15 years later breast cancer. And does Valerie have a “happy” ending? Come see this sexy, adventurous solo show to find out! (mature content)

http://pinkhulkplay.com/

 

You Never Told Me

Premiere of video; panel discussion with artist Cassandra Kubinski and director Jessica Costa; and a mini concert celebrating the release of the music video. The discussion will focus on #BreakingYourBoundaries movement and also encompass issues women in the music and entertainment industries face and where they are breaking boundaries.

www.cassandrakubinski.com

 

Trojan Women by Hudson Warehouse

This modern adaptation of Euripides's TROJAN WOMEN, based on the works of Charles Mee and directed by Nicholas Martin-Smith drives home the lesson that the fight against the oppression and subjugation of women, that we're only now confronting, has been a fight throughout the ages. With the men annihilated and their city in ruins, the women of Troy are corralled into a makeshift prison, awaiting their fate at the hands of their brutal captors.  This production is PG-13.

www.hudsonwarehouse.net/season.html

 

Alakande presented by Afro Roots

The women’s percussion ensemble spreads joy by way of music through powerful, spiritual, and funky rhythms on the drums.

www.alakande.com

 

FUKT by Emma Goldman-Sherman, presented by 29th Street Playwrights Collective

FUKT, @ women telling, starts as an autobiographical one-woman show and becomes a meta-theatrical romp with three versions of Emma vying to survive her story (including sexual abuse and murder). A COMEDY! (for 16+, adult themes, violence, some language.)

 www.29thstreetplaywrightscollective.org

 

Funny Women: An Evening of Humor Presented by Caytha Jentis, hosted by Sandi Marks

 

Demerara Gold with Ingrid Griffith

Solo play told from the POV of a 7-year old girl who is left behind in the clutches of her grandmothers in the Caribbean when her parents get visas for the U.S., and the reality of her American life after the long-awaited reunion.

www.demeraragoldtheshow.com

 

Classes upcoming in April at Community Arts at Goddard Riverside

Spring Writing Classes with the New York Writers Workshop

 

What is The Best Way to Tell My Story?

Writing True and Unique Stories in Fiction or Personal Essay: A Two-Part Workshop

Joanna Laufer

This two-part writing workshop will help students decide on the best genre to tell a particular story – fiction or personal essay.  In-class discussions on the importance of the first sentence, voice, storytelling, and the thin line between fiction and creative nonfiction will help writers of all levels produce powerful and publishable work.

Saturdays, April 14 and 28, 2018
2:00-5:00pm
$125.00 for two sessions

 

Finding the Story Within You

Judith Hannan

This nonfiction intensive will combine writing excerpts and examples with related prompts to begin the process of opening up your personal narrative. Introductory prompts will focus both on the tools and craft of writing followed by an opportunity to delve into specific scenes or moments of one's life.

Saturday, April 21, 2018
2:00-5:00 pm
$65.00

 

The Poetic Impulse Jen Fitzgerald

Poetry is not just a literary genre or artistic medium; it is a way to see the world. This three-hour intensive will explore where poetry comes from while learning the fundamentals of poetry like craft, form, and content. Learn the basics of meter and prosody and how poetry is more like painting than writing.

Saturday, April 28, 2018
2:00-5:00 pm
$65.00

 

Memoir Writing 

Karol Nielsen

This 6-week workshop will help the memoir writer find and shape a personal narrative whether a short essay or a book-length memoir. Weekly lectures and in-class exercises will illuminate the elements of storytelling used to write a memoir: structure, characterization, plot, description, dialogue, voice, point-of-view, style, revision.

Wednesdays, April 25-May 30, 2018
6:30-8:30 pm
$240.00