Michelle Hurst

I've been acting since 1989 - a union member of both major acting unions since the late 1990's/early 2000's. During my career, I've been described as a 'working actor,' an 'actor's actor' and/or 'a blue collar actor.' There have been times where even though I have called myself, with outward pride, an actor; internally, I've felt lacking. I never went to a four-year acting program. I actually started out as a visual artist, attending art school after high school. But even as a child in North Carolina, I'd strike poses in my bedroom mirror, as if I was appearing in the opening credits of shows like 'Hawaii Five-O,' humming the theme song as I vamped it up. I had the dream, but I honestly didn't even know there was such a thing as an acting school.

Happy Pride Month! During the month of June, BroadwayWorld will be bringing you a look back on LGBTQ+ representation in television. We will delve into some of the shows and episodes that broke barriers for the LGBTQ+ community on television! The next show in the series is Orange is the New Black, which was a trailblazing Netflix series.

Park Avenue Armory, with lead partner National Black Theatre, today announced it has invited ten New York City-based cultural institutions to join 100 Years |100 Women, a two-part, multidisciplinary initiative marking the centennial of the ratification of the 19th Amendment. Together, this cohort of institutionsa?"which includes the Apollo Theater; The Juilliard School; La MaMa Experimental Theatre Company; The Laundromat Project; The Metropolitan Museum of Art; Museum of the Moving Image; National Sawdust; New York University (Department of Photography and Imaging, Tisch School of the Arts; Office of Global Inclusion, Diversity and Strategic Innovation; and Institute of African American Affairs & Center for Black Visual Culture); and Urban Bush Womena?"is commissioning one hundred artists who self-identify as women to respond to this significant anniversary.

Midtown Direct and Triple Birch Media present an exclusive preview reading of NOVEL: An Audio Drama Series, created by Aimee Parrott and William Bienes.

Play On Shakespeare today announces an expansive list of compelling actors and dynamic directors confirmed to participate in the Play on! Festival, presented in association with Classic Stage Company (CSC) and Oregon Shakespeare Festival (OSF). Play on! features 39 readings of new, work-in-progress translations of Shakespeare's plays into contemporary modern English by some of today's most exciting playwrights-May 29-June 30 at the Lynn F. Angelson Theater at CSC (136 E. 13th Street). In 2015, Oregon Shakespeare Festival launched an ambitious 39-play, three-year commissioning project, Play on!, tasking 36 playwrights-more than half of whom were women and playwrights of color, each paired with a dramaturg-to translate Shakespeare's canon in celebration of the enduring impact of the Bard's work. Supported by a generous grant from the Hitz Foundation and inspired by long-time patron Dave Hitz's passion for Shakespeare, the project was and continues to be led by Lue Morgan Douthit. For more information, visit playonfestival.org.

Thousands of people attended the Garden State Film Festival's 17th annual celebration in Asbury Park last weekend (March 27-31, 2019).

ONE DAY HOME, screenwriter and actress Rebecca Louise Miller's debut as a filmmaker, is a touching and sensitively executed allegory about hope. The short film, deftly directed by Drew Denny and featuring a superb cast, is an enchanting and smile-inducing paean to hope and possibility.

Theatre for a New Audience announces the seventeen-member cast and the creative team for its production of William Shakespeare's The Tragedy of Julius Caesar, directed by Shana Cooper in her Off-Broadway debut.

Seventeen-year old rising jazz star and music student Matthew Whitaker joined other students who are also blind or visually impaired from Lighthouse Guild's Filomen M. D'Agostino Greenberg Music School to perform in a concert at The Metropolitan Museum of Art on Friday, May 18, at 7pm in the Grace Rainey Rogers Auditorium.

Seventeen-year old rising jazz star and music student Matthew Whitaker will join students who are also blind or visually impaired from Lighthouse Guild's Filomen M. D'Agostino Greenberg Music School to perform in a concert at The Metropolitan Museum of Art today, May 18, from 7 to 8:30 pm in the Grace Rainey Rogers Auditorium.

Seventeen-year old rising jazz star and music student Matthew Whitaker will join students who are also blind or visually impaired from Lighthouse Guild's Filomen M. D'Agostino Greenberg Music School to perform in a concert at The Metropolitan Museum of Art on Friday, May 18, from 7 to 8:30 pm in the Grace Rainey Rogers Auditorium.

Based on the short story by Isak Dinesen (and made famous by the 1987 Academy Award-winning film), Babette's Feast will play its final performance Sunday May 13th,  at the Theatre at Saint Clement's (423 West 46th Street, between Ninth & Tenth Avenues).  Babette's Feast will have played 14 previews and 56 regular performances.

Based on the short story by Isak Dinesen (and made famous by the 1987 Academy Award-winning film), Babette's Feast will begin performances Wednesday March 14th at the Theatre at Saint Clement's (423 West 46th Street, between Ninth & Tenth Avenues) for an open-ended Off-Broadway engagement.  Opening Night is set for Sunday March 25th (5pm).  The performance runs 90 minutes with no intermission.

Portland Stage has mounted an adaptation of Isak Dinesen's short story Babette's Feast, conceived by Abigail Killeen and written by Rose Courtney, that retains the message of grace and humanity at the core of the tale, while casting the narrative in an entirely different, highly contemporaneous light. Intriguing and sometimes perplexing in its Brechtian staging, this production adheres closely to the Dinesen text and bears little resemblance to the iconic movie of 1987.

Portland Stage is pleased to present Babette's Feast, running Jan 23 through Feb 18 on the Mainstage. This production of Babette's Feast was conceived and developed by Portland Stage Affiliate Artist Abigail Killeen in a process that began over a decade ago. The production is made possible by the generous support of Jennifer Carolyn King & Timothy Fredel, the Rugged Elegance Foundation.

Midtown Direct Rep (MDR) is delighted to present its second reading of its 2017-1018 staged reading series, Theater at The Woodland, with a presentation of FEAR, written by Matt Williams and directed by Mark Armstrong. This event will be performed for one night only on Sunday, December 3rd at 7:00pm at The Woodland (60 Woodland Rd. Maplewood, NJ), where MDR is the resident theater company. The reading is $20 (advance purchase), $25 (if purchased at the door) and open to the public. Student/Senior discounts are also available. Tickets can be purchased online through Eventbrite by clicking the link HERE.

Midtown Direct Rep (MDR) launches its 2017-18 reading series, Theater at The Woodland, with a free presentation of SOMETHING TO LIVE FOR, a new play with music, written by Rob Zellers, directed by Billy Porter, with music supervision by Zane Mark and musical direction by Darryl Ivey. 

Nearly 700 people enjoyed a wonderful evening of poetry, art and music as students who are blind or visually impaired from Lighthouse Guild's Filomen M. D'Agostino Greenberg Music School performed in concert at The Metropolitan Museum of Art on Friday, April 28.

Music students from Lighthouse Guild's Filomen M. D'Agostino Greenberg Music School will perform in concert at The Metropolitan Museum of Art on Friday, April 28. The concert will take place from 7 to 8:30pm in the Museum's Grace Rainey Rogers Auditorium. 

The worlds of art, music, and poetry will come together as students, who are blind or visually impaired, from Lighthouse Guild's Filomen M. D'Agostino Greenberg Music School perform in concert at The Metropolitan Museum of Art on Friday, April 28, from 7 to 8:30 pm in the Grace Rainey Rogers Auditorium.