Join Artists Without Walls for its January Showcase at The Cell, 338 West 23rd Street, Manhattan, Tuesday, January 24th. Presenters include jazz fiddler Michi Fuji, author and lecturer Suzanne Bernier, singer/songwriter Martina Fiserova, artist and singer Maia Nero, writers Billy Barrett and Mike DeLucia, playwright Brendan Connellan and actor Faye Franzini. Charles R. Hale and Niamh J. Hyland are the evenings hosts and emcees.
The doors and the bar open at 6:45. Performances begin at 7:30. This is a free event.
Artists Without Walls’ January Showcase at The Cell Theatre, 338 West 23rd Street, Manhattan, will take place on January 24th. The doors and the bar open at 6:45pm. The presentations begin at 7:30pm. The evenings presenters included playwright Brendan Connellan, actor Faye Franzini, writers Billy Barrett and Suzanne Bernier and musicians Martina Fiserova, Michi Fuji and Maia Nero.
Tara O’Grady is the band leader of a dynamic group of elite NYC jazz musicians who have performed with everyone from Dizzy Gillespie to Debbie Harry. Her voice is usually compared to Billie Holiday, but she has a distinct sound all her own. The New York born singer-songwriter with Irish roots has four cd releases, and she has appeared in the BBC film Danny Boy – The Ballad That Bewitched the World which was nominated for Best Documentary at the Irish Film & Television Awards in 2014. Her recording of the famous song, Danny Boy, was recently ranked the #6 best selling jazz/blues mp3 in the UK.
Stella Pulo
Stella Pulo is a writer and performer. In 1992 she became the first Australian to be made lifetime member of The Actors Studio. Shrimp Shells in My Cleavage is a collection of stories, each set in a different country where Stella has lived and worked.
Brendan Connellan
A longtime AWOW member, Brendan Connellan has written and staged multiple productions in New York City. Among them, Kill the Bid, Pompa Pompa, Death, Please and Python. He is currently completing two new ones called Gash and Savage and working on his novel.
Tue Hoe
Tue Hoé, who will be performing a scene from Connellan’s play, is originally from Denmark. He has lived and has worked in New York for the past five years since graduating from The William Esper Studio. He has worked both with theater and film in New York as well as Denmark.
Faye Fanzini
Faye Franzini is a New York based Brazilian actress and singer. She studied acting with Bill Esper, at the William Esper Studio and improvisation at the PIT. Faye has been part of various theater, music and improv productions as well as written, directed and acted in some of her own projects.
Justin Colon-Rabinowitz
Poet and novelist Justin Colón-Rabinowitz graduated from Dartmouth College in 2005. He has traveled extensively throughout Spain, the Dominican Republic, and lived in Puerto Rico. Justin will also be reading at the well-known literary space, the KGB, Bar next month as part of Hofstra University’s MFA fall program.
Martina Fiserova
Prague born singer, songwriter and musician Martina Fiserova will be making her fourth appearance at an AWoW Showcase. She would also like to invite readers to her release party and introduce you to her latest CD “Shift”, which stamps her mark on the NYC arts scene, and was created both in Europe and in the USA. “Shift reveals the maturing and development of an artist, who is not looking back” – James Nadal, All About Jazz
Richard Deane
Richard Deane spends his time between New York City and Rhinebeck and has been continuing to work on his novel “When Yesterday Comes” while free lance writing and editing for a periodical financial publication. Richard will be reading a scene from his novel about a young girl with amnesia who finds herself homeless on the streets of the city in the care of a stranger.
The Cell Theatre is located at 338 W23rd St in Manhattan. The doors and the bar open at 6:45. Hope to see you there.
“As a first time visitor of an AWoW Showcase, I enjoyed everything about the evening…. Talented performers, friendly people, time to mingle … fantastic. I will be back for certain.” Clyde Berger
Ashley Galvani Bell has performed as a soloist in the United States, Italy, Spain, France and Russia. Recent performances include Donna Anna in Don Giovanni in Narni, Italy, Musetta in La Bohème at the National Opera Center, and Norina in Don Pasquale with Rioja Lirica in Spain, where she was called unstoppable in her brilliant singing and a true “stage animal” with her hilarious interpretation of the two sided character of Norina/Sofronia. This will be the popular soprano’s third appearance at an AWoW Showcase.
I.S. Jones
I.S. Jones is a spoken word poet hailing from Southern California. She moved to New York to pursue her passion for poetry. Her intense fire & honesty brims through every performance; It has been said she has a voice bigger than her body. Her works have appeared in Chaparral, The Harpoon Review, Fat City and various others literary magazine.
Brendan Connellan
Mary Tierney will be directing a scene from Brendan Connellan’s Savage. According to Mary, “We’ve given it the Ingmar Bergman treatment. In Sweden, he’d rehearse actors from the National Theater for six months before a production was ‘ready.’ That’s what our actors, Larry Fleishman and Courtney Torres have done. ” Fleischman, has performed at a number of AWoW Showcases, and Torres, who recently performed at Beal Bocht in Sacred Sow, will be making her AWoW debut.
Martina Fiserova
Prague born singer/songwriter Martina Fiserova has established a following on the NYC music scene with her unique songwriting approach and intimate and emotional vocal performance. She is finishing up an album of her original music, which will be her second release after the jazz oriented debut Clearing Fields.
Allison Sylvia
Alison Sylvia is a “poet.in.progress,” and Tuesday, she will connect her poems with dance. Allison dazzled the audience with a spellbinding performance of her epic poem “Scroll” at her first AWoW appearance. “I am honored to have performed for such a receptive audience and to share the space with such talented artists,” she said. “That was the first performance I’ve done where I summoned the appropriate chutzpah to make the concluding sword trick work.” Her’s was an absolutely mesmerizing performance.
Gabriela Gyergeva
Gabriela Gyergeva was born in Macedonia and studied at University in Bulgaria, majoring in opera and voice. Gabriela performed extensively in Bulgaria and Macedonia before moving to NYC three years ago. Last year she performed at Carnegie Hall and the Mono No Aware film festival in Brooklyn. Currently Gabriela performs at St. Francis Xavier church in the city.
Joanna Migdal
Joanna Migdal is a poet working on a chapbook of centos, one of which she is reading Tuesday night in honor of women poets of the past as part of the celebration of March Women’s History Month. Her cento will be posted 3/31 on a site called www.womenyoushouldknow.com
AWoW’s Showcase is hosted by The Cell Theatre, located at 338 W23rd St., NYC. Drinks at 6:45; the show begins at 7:20. Hope to see you then.
After staging three full productions in the past year at Theatre Row – Pompa Pompa!, Kill the Bid! and Death, Please! – Brendan Connellan has turned his hand to making movies. Here is a brief excerpt from his dark and strange (and fun) 15 min short film – KEEP HER CLOSE – which he wrote, directed and features in. Further portions will be released in the coming weeks.
Brendan Connellan’s DEATH, PLEASE!, which is directed and produced by Brendan, is opening on Tuesday, March 11th at Theatre Row, 410 West 42nd St., NYC. There will be six shows running through Sunday, March 16th. Evening shows on Tuesday at 7, Wed-Sat at 8. Afternoon matinees Wed and Sat at 2 and Sunday at 3. The cast (in alphabetical order) are Alessia Sushko, Amit Gupta, Brendan Connellan, and another AWoW member, John Moran. No intermission. 70 minutes
For AWOW, instead of the $21.25 cost via Telecharge, go to www.broadwayoffers.com the ticket price is $17.25 with a lower service fee! Use the code TRAWOW.
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Peter Quinn, Honor Molloy and others will be discussing “Dagger” John Hughes and the Rise of Irish New York at the Museum of the City of New York, 1220-1227 Fifth Avenue, Thursday, March 13pm, 6:30pm. Free for museum members, $12 students/seniors, $16 general public.
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Eamon Loingsigh‘s new book “Light of the Diddicoy” will be released at Le Poisson Rouge, 158 Bleecker St. in NYC’s Greenwich Village on March 12, 6pm. It’s a free event and books will be available.
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Join IFNY, The Irish Film Board and Under the Milky Way for a screening of the critically acclaimed film Good Vibrations in celebration of the iTunes release of four Irish films this March. Where: Wythe Hotel Screening Room, Wythe Hotel, 80 Wythe Avenue, Brooklyn. When: Friday, March 14th @ 7:30 pm. Tickets: $10.00 (available for purchase online http://www.brownpapertickets.com/event/594198)
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Artists Without Walls will be presenting the University College Dublin Choral Scholars in a fund raising event called Sailing Away: Songs of Farewell, a program filled with songs of love, loss, parting, immigration and the sea at St. Peter’s Church Chelsea, 346 West 20th St., New York City, Saturday, March 15th, 7:30pm.
Special guest, historian/author Peter Quinn, will share stories of his family’s immigrant experience. “Peter Quinn is a poet and an historian and one of our finest storytellers,” said National Book Award winner Colum McCann. Click here for tickets $20
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Honor Finnegan will be performing in a tribute to Patty Griffin at Rockwood Music Hall, 196 Allen Street, NYC, on Saturday, March 15, 8pm.
Brendan Connellan’s play KILL THE BID! will have its final performance today, Sunday, at 3pm. at Theatre Row, 410 West 42nd Street. Tickets are $21.25 (including Theatre Restoration fee) but AWoW members and friends can go to www.broadwayoffers.com and punch in the code TRAWOW and pay $18.25in the box. Phone 212-239 6200 or 800-432 7250.
Artists Without Walls presents its “Showcase at The Cell Theater,” 338 W. 23rd St., NYC. Monday, 7pm, September 30th. Evening includes actors Jack O’Connell, Nancy Oda and Mary Tierney, author Honor Molloy, singer/songwriters Tara O’Grady and Sasha Papernik, the soulful sound of mbiraNYC’s music of Zimbabwe and more.
The plays of Kate McLeod, who also is the event’s producer, and Tzila Levy will be performed at the Bacon Theater Festival, Thursday Oct 3rd, 6:30-9:00pm at the Ding Dong Lounge, 929 Columbus Avenue, NYC. Tickets are $25, which includes one bacon mac and cheese, 1 dessert and 1 glass of wine. Click here for tickets
Niall McKay and “Irish Film New York” is back with its third annual slate of top-notch contemporary Irish cinema. All films screen at the Cantor Film Center of New York University on East 8th St. The festival kicks off Friday October 4th with “Run and Jump”starring Saturday Night Live’s Will Forte and directed by the Oscar-nominated Steph Green. AWoW members can buy discounted $10 tickets (normally $12) for any of the films included in the festival by using the promotional code: OFIG. For more information on the critically acclaimed films included in this year’s festival and to watch trailers and buy tickets go to http://www.irishfilmnyc.com/tickets/
New York Irish Center Concert Series hosts Tara O’Grady & her Black Velvet Band, Friday, October 4 at 8:30pm. 10-40 Jackson Avenue, Long Island City, NYC Advanced tickets: Tara O’Grady Regular Tickets $25Tara O’Grady Seniors/Students/Unemployed $15If you missed Tara’s CD launch, this is your chance to hear her full band perform favorites off all three albums. Doors open at 7:30pm.
As the audience was making its way to their seats at a recent AWoW Showcase, AWoW cofounder Niamh Hyland got everyone’s attention when she stepped on stage and, unannounced, belted out a few lines from “You Have No Idea Who I Am,” which opens Brendan Connellan’s comedy Pompa Pompa. Niamh co-starred in a New York City production of Connellan’s play earlier this year.
Niamh will be appearing with singer/songwriter Ed Romanoff tonight, Tuesday, August 20, at Rockwood Music Hall, 196 Allen Street, NYC, 7pm. Poet Liv Mammone will be joining Niamh and Ed as well.
“I can’t stop rewinding last night in my mind! What an incredible cast of talent, surrounded by an audience in awe. A truly magical evening. Thanking you over and over.” Barbara O’Connell
With a brilliant sense of comedic timing and heart, Nadia Manzoor kicked off the evening with a hilarious segment from her one woman show, Dirty Little Paki. Nadia’s segment featured both the aspirations of a five year old and the cultural limitations faced as a woman. Her story of a Pakistani girl facing the dichotomy of a strict Muslim upbringing in free-spirited London is both universal and intensely personal. I first saw Nadia performing in Brendan Connellan’s Pompa Pompa earlier in the year and just as her humor, intelligence and charm shone through then, it did so again on Wednesday night.
Eimear O’Connor
Dr. Eimear O’Connor followed Nadia and held the audience rapt with a slide presentation that featured the art of Irish born Sean Keating. The art teacher you always wanted, Eimear presented a picture of Keating, his projects, his expansive career and his overtly political paintings with an ease and wit that brought Keating’s work to life. Sean Keating: Art, Politics and Building the Irish Nation is a book that is richly illustrated with over 200 color paintings, sketches, and photographs, and the definitive work on this hugely respected, yet controversial Irish artist.
Maggie O’Farrell
Best selling author and award winning novelist Maggie O’Farrell, whose most recent award was the Costa Novel Award in 2010 for The Hand That First Held Mine, gracefully read from her latest novel Instructions for a Heat Wave, the story of a family that is falling apart and coming together and the truths about who they really are. Earlier, Maggie said, “I’ve always been interested in how extreme weather affects behavior.” Maggie combined that interest with an interest in dyslexia and her own life long stammer to develop her novel’s main character, Aoife.
Deni Bonet and Charles R. Hale
Incorporating humor and edginess, violinist Deni Bonet dazzled the audience with her breathtaking virtuosity. Beginning with “Last Girl on Earth” from the CD with the same title, Deni moved into a sizzling violin solo called the “Goddamn Violin Solo,” so called, as Deni laughingly said, “For lack of a better name.” Deni concluded with a foot stomping, rocking “Alone.” Deni will be playing every Tuesday in August at the Garcia’s Club at the Capitol Theater in Port Chester, NY. The show is called “A Tribute to Old and in the Way”.
Pamela Herron
Pamela Herron began the second half of the evening with a dance, a very moving, untitled, Butoh solo that she performed with a grace and intensity that echoed throughout the space. She dedicated the piece to the healing of an artist she has been collaborating with since 2009, Jogyo (aka/ Dru Barnes) who recently suffered a brutal attack that took his left eye. Enthralling, heart wrenching, and spectacular.
Liv Mammone
Poet Liv Mammone is a vivacious young voice that will be heard on the New York performance poetry circuit for years to come. Using her background as a novelist, she uses various characters, including Venus de Milo, a fictional gangster, and a certain part of her own anatomy, to provide insight into what she calls “all the million ways one must be moved; the changes we make on our migrations through the world.” Her poems were titled “Venus de Milo answers a Tumblr Feminist,” “Elegy for James Darmody,” and one of the funniest poems imaginable, the laugh out loud “Vagina Resigning.”
Brendan Connellan
Playwright Brendan Connellan ended the evening dipping into crazed, frenetic prose, racing through some fresh and fun thoughts on his visit to Japan. Brendan touched on scraping away calf muscles, Perry blasting his cannons at Japan’s gates, foreigners being welcome but only if they leave quickly and Joseph Stalin turning out to be a friend with benefits.
The next Artists Without Walls Showcase at The Cell will be on August 27, 7pm. For more info on becoming a member of Artists Without Walls write to info@artistswithoutwalls.com
