First Online With Fran

Alot of the reasons why the male/female -- the binary, in general, was for men specifically like white men and colonizers, to assert dominance and control over people who were lesser than them or predominantly women and women of color is that they could marry them, own them, and enslave them. So, these containers were a sort of act of violence on people; that being said, claiming and reclaiming th...

Theater is both a spiritual healing and emotional healing and even physical healing for me, and it's been my raison d'etre for most of my life, and that's been problematic, at times, because...as a professional actor there are going to be times when you're not engaged or employed in my chosen profession, but I still go back to the theater to look for sustenance, inspiration, community --all those...

The theater is essential to the health of a nation - of any democracy. And perhaps we are so impoverished right now is because of our inability to communicate with each other and see anyone else's point of view other than our own is that we are theater starved. This is where one gets the whole package of the humanist code is in the theater. This is where the big ideas of the day are truly debated,...

Harriet Tubman knows how to relate to the different groups because Harriet doesn't 'see' people like [cultural entities]; my audience is seen as humans, a beautiful mélange of people that are just there -- all together -- breathing in sync. ~Christine Dixon Chris Dixon has been directing, producing, booking, and starring in the award-winning, one woman show Harriet Tubman Herself. This production...

I believe that [National Women's History month] is about women and social change. Leaders of change reside with women. Ellen W. Kaplan is Professor Emerita of acting and directing at Smith, a Fulbright Scholar in Costa Rica, Fulbright Senior Specialist in Pakistan, Romania and Hong Kong, an actress, director and playwright. Ellen works extensively with underserved and at-risk communities, includin...

I would like to believe I attract heart-centered individuals to work with. I create a sense of safety in the rooms, empowerment and we are in service of the text. I pick plays that are going to take us on a journey that we all want to go on; that we're all going to leave a little bit better; that we're going to share with our audience, and we're all going to leave the experience a little bit bette...

Losing or winning an argument is not just a zero-sum game. Working together, collaborating is something that you have to learn. The most important part is not you getting all you want all the time, but learning how to feel satisfaction, even if your collaborator talks you into something else. How to find satisfaction within that and helping them to do the same thing. This seems esoteric, but you k...

"Art is ageless. There is no number on Art. As long as your heart is in it, you can do it. And that's a fantastic thing because very often we do put age limits on things, and we put age limits on PEOPLE, and I don't think that's necessarily so. I think these people are teaching us that it's absolutely possible." ADRIENNE D. WILLIAMS is New York based actor, director, educator, and storyteller. She...

"Artivism is a combination of Art and Activism. I wrote about Bayard Rustin who served as the right hand of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. for many years. He was a gay Quaker from Pennsylvania and a black man who was instrumental in organizing the March On Washington. Many had issues with Bayard working with Dr. King due to his sexuality. However, it was Bayard's influence that brought celebrities, p...

How can I explain change? It's something that makes me feel hopeful...that audiences, and as people, and most importantly as human beings, we can, by looking at the big picture, be much better equipped, I think, at making change...we have to look at how can we work together to make change in the world.   CATHERINE FILLOUX (Playwright/Librettist/Activist) is an award-winning French Algerian Americ...

How do we create a world where we allow people to express themselves, and if they need to be called in, or if they're doing something that really is egregious? How do we help teach them [students] why it's problematic rather than me having to shut them down?  Clara Francesca is an award-winning artist, activist, educator and speech coach and holds a BA in Laws & Biomedical Sciences from Monash...

My mission is to keep [Iraqi Jewish] culture alive; to sustain that culture because we don't want history repeating itself. And to educate - we are all the same people. We are all in the mindset of being ONE. And that we should celebrate our differences instead of fearing them or being alienated by those differences. ~Valerie David Valerie David , is a New York City-based performer/playwright. Her...

Even though [Don't Shoot the Messenger] is comical it's an opportunity to change thoughts about who we are, and they can see us as normal people with disabilities. There should be no barriers between us. We find ways to communicate. We find ways to be together and collaborate. I was filled with hope. We can achieve great things when we work together. It also showed sign language wasn't a detriment...

"Here's the thing about AI. It doesn't have a soul, and it doesn't understand psychology, and it doesn't understand the quirks of human behavior. All it can do is strip-mine what has already been written by other people. So, AI is first and foremost in violation of copyright because it's using our material without compensating. Secondly, it has no sense of humor and it has no sense of character an...

Focusing outside of yourself helps you thrive in this industry and helps you deal with so much and all the obstacles we face. ~Donna Benedicto Donna Benedicto is a Filipina Canadian actress and singer born and raised in Vancouver, BC. Growing up as an ethnic minority, Donna decided to make a switch from full-time singing to pursue acting in 2013 because she saw a gap in Asian representation. Since...

My work has always been about bringing people together, forging new transcultural and transnational artistic relationships, and combining research with theatre-making in order to explore and extend the limits of creativity. Avra Sidiropoulou is a theatre director and academic. She is the Artistic Director of Persona Theatre Company . She has published extensively on directing theory and practice,...

Telling stories that activate emotions helps audiences be open to new ideas. People can only change themselves. But until they experience the new they will remain stuck in the old--in other words, we are growing and changing or stagnating and dying. My work helps people find the best of themselves. Theresa Chaze began her career in the mid-1980s at a small independent TV station in Grand Rapids, M...

Getting my Masters at Harvard at age sixty-nine, I hope that I'm inspiring other women that there are no limits. There's absolutely no limits except for those you place on yourself. I never actually wrote a screenplay and now all these Film Festivals think I'm such a great writer.. . There's always a first time for everything. Why not me? Pamela S. K. Glasner is a critically acclaimed published au...

I truly believe we are in an apocalyptic culture shift ; truly, an historical, multi-century, multi-millennial shift and in the last gasp of the white-supremacist patriarchal society. We are living through that moment...So, what I focus on these days more than railing against what has been we had to tear the scales from people's eyes: 'Hey, wake up everybody! This is what's been happening and you...

We are a film production company on a mission to inspire, empower and light a fire! Not just for women. We can acknowledge that we're all damaged, we're all broken. That doesn't mean that we're destroyed because beautiful things can grow out of damage. ~ Gina Dobson I'm exploring a me that I would have never known before. Women wear so many hats. How about wearing the hat that I want to wear! ~ Ca...

Human rights and civil rights will be realized only when we fully hear the voices, ideas and creative concepts of womxn over 40, whose perspectives have long been marginalized and stifled. ~ Cindy Cooper  Cynthia L. Cooper (Cindy to most people) is an award-winning playwright, journalist, author and activist. She became a playwright to use the power of the stage to address topics and issues that w...

Patt Addiss , Theater Producer, I didn’t start out wanting to be a theatrical producer. She was busy running the promotion company she founded, but after 30 years, she handed the reins over to her daughter. Then in 2005, after ‘learning the tools of the trade,’ Pat went on to produce more than 18 Broadway and Off-Broadway productions including: “Spring Awakening,” “Vanya, Sonia, Masha and Spike” a...

On one hand , Janet Stilson is a journalist. On the other, she writes scripts, novels and short stories that largely fall in the grounded sci-fi and fantasy genres and illuminate the human condition in provocative ways. I [want] people to think a little bit more about where we might be headed from the standpoint of communications and how it's manipulated and massaged by people with all sorts of di...

"We can heal. I think it's really important to be in control of what we're taking in so that we don't feel that we have to worry...that we can feel like we can live in our power, we can do things, as artists, that will hopefully push the needle and change the culture and make people think more deeply about what THEY can do if they're not artists." Playwright, Dramaturg, and Teacher Emma Goldman-Sh...

We're in a time where we are seeing new voices, new types of voices telling their stories and people create their identity through seeing themselves reflected in work, in all Art, all literature, in any aspect. And if you don't see yourself reflected EVER then think about how that impacts your life and not only in the character, but the narratives in all its ways. And that's why I hope to continue...