My Life 1977 - Articles Page 12

Playwright/actor John Copeland's latest theatrical project ANITA BRYANT'S PLAYBOY INTERVIEW recounts a specific incident in the truth-is-stranger-than-fiction saga of the former Miss Oklahoma and runner-up to Miss America whose 'Save Our Children' campaign fought to repeal gay rights in Dale County, Florida in 1977. 

Karen Lynn Gorney, star of the 1977 movie 'Saturday Night Fever' and 'All My Children,' headlines From Silence, a brand new drama by Anne Marilyn Lucas premiering at Theater for the New City this November. Cast includes Audrey Heffernan Meyer, Krystal Rowley, Lori Funk, Nora Falk, Shannon Harrington, Tori Murray and Jessica Gollin. Additional cast TBA. The production will be directed by Peter Zachari.

Attorney and women's health advocate Thomas A. Glessner will debut his newest book, 'Created Equal: Reflections on the Inalienable Right to Life,' on Monday, July 25.

Cleopatra Films, the movie division of famed indie record label Cleopatra Records has signed former Lynyrd Skynyrd drummer Artimus Pyle to an exclusive production deal to co-write and co-produce a feature film about the 1977 plane crash that took the lives of several band and crew members of the Lynyrd Skynyrd band.

All eyes are on New York as the American Theatre Wing and The Broadway League prepare to present the Tony Awards at the seventieth ceremony of its kind. On the morning of the awards, BroadwayWorld South Africa asked six local theatre professionals what the Tony Awards means to them and who they were hoping would bring home the bacon.

David E. Stanley, Elvis Presley's step brother whom Elvis took under his wing as a young adolescent to work with him on tour in the 70's, will release his new book, My Brother Elvis, worldwide on Amazon on August 16.

'In his world, I find myself,' Raquel Cion pronounces with almost oracular force in her one-woman show, Me & Mr. Jones: My Intimate Relationship with David Bowie (performed on April 21 at The Slipper Room on the Lower East Side). The Connecticut-raised performer and director received a 2015 Broadway World nomination for 'Best Musical Comedy or Alt Cabaret Show' for her brave and intensely personal exploration of the musical legend through whose work she plots the arc of her life over a 35-year period.

Bibliomotion is thrilled to announce the launch of EVEN THE ODDS: Sensible Risk-Taking in Business, Investing, and Life by Karen Firestone (April 26, 2016).

Continuing the worldwide centennial celebration for legendary entertainer Frank Sinatra, on May 27, 2016, Eagle Rock Entertainment will release a suite of four titles in 'The Frank Sinatra Collection'. On license from Frank Sinatra Enterprises (FSE), the definitive collection pulls together some of the finest performances on television and in concert from the greatest entertainer of the 20(th) century.

Continuing the worldwide centennial celebration for legendary entertainer Frank Sinatra, on May 27, 2016, Eagle Rock Entertainment will release a suite of four titles in 'The Frank Sinatra Collection'.

Roundabout Theatre Company (Todd Haimes, Artistic Director) has just announced Academy Award nominee Diane Lane will return to Broadway to play 'Ranevskaya' in a new production of The Cherry Orchard. Ms. Lane made her Broadway debut as a child, in the 1977 revival of The Cherry Orchard.

Leapin' lizards! With more than 400 performances under her belt, the new U.S. National Tour of ANNIE will play the National Theatre for one week only, March 15 - 20, 2016. Directed by original lyricist and director Martin Charnin for the 19th time, this production of ANNIE is a brand new physical incarnation of the iconic 1977 Tony Award-winning original.

'Everything Is Possible: A Nurse's Memoir' (published by Archway Publishing) recounts the personal and professional life of a woman - a daughter, nurse, wife, mother, friend, educator, scholar and mentor - through the decades that span the second half of the 20th century and reach into the new millennium. Author Sylvia Kleiman Fields shares her diverse experiences and places them in the context of world events that mark those decades.

Ronnie McDowell, known for decades of hit songs and genuine warmth that fills seats again and again, opens up about his illustrious music career in his new autobiography, “'Bringing It To You Personally,” available for preordernow.

Leapin' lizards! With more than 400 performances under her belt, the new U.S. National Tour of ANNIE will play the National Theatre for one week only, March 15 - 20, 2016. Directed by original lyricist and director Martin Charnin for the 19th time, this production of ANNIE is a brand new physical incarnation of the iconic 1977 Tony Award-winning original.

Some 9 million American kids wake up every day without enough guidance and support to make the kind of crucial decisions that will shape their futures. It's the kind of support that mentors like author, Aaron Kirk Douglas, believe every child should have access to. January 2016 marks the 15th year of National Mentoring Month, a campaign aimed at connecting more of our community's young people with caring, invested adults. It's also the month that Portland author and award winning mentor with Big Brothers Big Sisters, Aaron Kirk Douglas' first-of-its-kind mentoring memoir comes out. And it was Douglas' own 'coming out,' in 1977, that plays an integral part in the story he shares in 'Growing Up Twice: Shaping a Future By Reliving My Past' (ISBN: 978-09970501-0-3), as he explores what it's like to be a gay, Jewish man mentoring a troubled young Latino boy named Rico (the son of an undocumented immigrant from Guatemala). For Douglas, what started as a one page 'Friendship Agreement,' had, six years later, created a whole new definition of family for both him and the boy he mentored. 'At its core the book is really about the search for acceptance by individuals who have been marginalized,' says Douglas. And though Douglas admits he didn't face many of the difficulties and obstacles that Rico experienced (living in the foster care system, the son of an illegal immigrant) he did struggle to retain a sense of hope and faith in the face of anger and rejection at home, while growing up. Douglas says, 'This is not just a story about mentoring with Big Brothers Big Sisters of America, it's a story about breaking the traditional mold in that role - about how, I couldn't be just someone who showed up once a week to do homework or go out for ice cream. Rico needed more than that - he needed an invested male role model and a father figure.' 'Growing Up Twice' is available on Amazon.com and other online retailers in print, and as an ebook download. For more information on 'Growing Up Twice' visit the publisher's website at: http://www.newsworthybooks.com About the Author Aaron Kirk Douglas is a life-long creative, a passionate philanthropist, and award-winning mentor with over a decade's experience in mentoring at-risk youth. A journalism graduate of the University of Oregon and former marketing director at some of the largest and most prominent law and commercial real estate firms in the Pacific Northwest, Douglas is also an award-winning documentary filmmaker, whose film Monster Camp was lauded by Variety. He is currently working on a new musical in development with co-conductor of Broadway's Hamilton, Kurt Crowley. Expertise & Awards • Board member, and 10-year volunteer with Big Brothers/Big Sisters Columbia Northwest (Portland, OR) • Top three finalist, national mentoring recognition from The National Mentoring Partnership (2015) • Recipient of one of Oregon's highest individual honors for outstanding personal achievement in volunteerism in support of low-income children and families. (2011) • Nominee, National Big Brother of The Year (2010) Book Facts Growing Up Twice: Shaping a Future By Reliving My Past Publisher: Newsworthy Books, USA Print: Kindle: Publ. Date: Media kit: Sources ISBN 978-09970501-0-3, $14.95, 238 pages, 5.25' x 8' paperback ISBN 978-0-9970501-8-9 $3.49 Release Date: January 1, 2016 http://www.newsworthybooks.com/media-kit KATU - AM Northwest (2/14/11) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3AJtxMrfLIo&feature=player_embedded Interview for documentary https://youtu.be/Jbn_QJFTASc?t=1m37s (The above video interviews feature Douglas' Little Brother's real name, which has been changed to 'Rico' in the book, at his request.) Contact: Vanessa Nix Anthony Phone: (646) 799-2536 Email: editor@newsworthybooks.com

Old School Square has just announced its events, performances, exhibits and classes for January through March, 2016. Scroll down for details!

The legendary song and dance man, Tony Award-winning triple-threat Ben Vereen will be performing his solo cabaret act Steppin' Out with Ben Vereen at Catalina Jazz Club on December 18 and 19. In our talk, he comments about the show and shares memories from many of the shows he's done during his illustrious career.

Joe's Pub at The Public has announced its upcoming nightly performances from November 25-December 6, 2015. Scroll down or visit www.joespub.com for a complete list of shows!

Joe's Pub at The Public has announced its upcoming nightly performances, running November 18-29, 2015. Scroll down or visit www.joespub.com for a complete list of shows!

Joe's Pub at The Public has announced its upcoming nightly performances, running November 18-29, 2015. Scroll down or visit www.joespub.com for a complete list of shows!

On December 12 singer Frank Sinatra Jr. will perform a 100th Birthday Celebration of his father Frank Sinatra's music at the Saban Theatre in Beverly Hills at 9 pm. In our talk he describes the concert in detail. He also talks about his mentors and what music he prefers to listen to nowadays. When and how did this celebration concert come about? When Frank Sinatra died back in 1998 I engineered a celebrational show which I intended to run for eighteen months to two years, to celebrate his life and his career. The show at that time was called Sinatra Sings Sinatra. As it turned out, the audiences and the people who hired our program wanted very much to keep Sinatra Sings Sinatra going long after two years had passed. By now we were getting close to going into the 21st century, and it has been so ever since. Now we come to December the 12th forthcoming here which will have been his 100th birthday. OK! Two years ago I discussed with my family and the people that we work with the importance of organizing a special series of events to commemorate his 100th year. I was wondering whether or not  this was a little bit of overkill at the time, but I have been told such things happen for people like Duke Wayne, Bing Crosby and people of that situation that they have these big festivals, recapitulations, tributes, you name it. In 2013 I started writing a show for the end of 2015. That show debuted in May this year.

For the third night of this year's Cabaret Convention at Town Hall, the uber-enthusiastic Karen Mason hosted Life Is a Cabaret (Directed by Barry Kleinbort) in celebration of long time collaborators, composer John Kander and lyricist Fred Ebb. Introduced to each other by their mutual music publisher in 1962, the team's first Broadway show was 1965's Flora the Red Menace in which Liza Minnelli made her Broadway debut and with which the three began a long association. Their last together (Kander is alive and hopefully writing), was 2015's The Visit starring Chita Rivera, a production Ebb (who died in 2004) unfortunately didn't live to see. Kander and Ebb's best known musicals are Cabaret and Chicago, both of which seem to run forever on popular appeal, but they wrote many others, a wide selection of which were represented at Thursday night's show.

s I was waiting for my theatre guest to arrive at the Pantages Tuesday night for the opening of ANNIE, a school bus pulled up. Within seconds, a gaggle of little girls spilled out onto the sidewalk shrieking in anticipation and taking pictures of the sparkly marquee on their smart phones. They were only minutes away from seeing her - that spunky little red-haired orphan, Annie, and they could barely contain themselves.