First Online With Fran

I was pleasantly surprised and [found it] incredibly fulfilling when we brought kids who I interviewed down to Florida and thank you to the Orlando Philharmonic Orchestra -- they gave us the opportun…

Anything that brings us back into the center of ourselves, into the space that literally is your heart, the center of you and recalls the truth of who you are, you should feel better. So, you are res…

We are making sure that the arts remain independent, well-funded, and accessible for all. Anytime anything rears its ugly head to challenge that, we will be there fighting for you. ~Erica Lauren Orti…

I don’t really produce plays. There are many other organizations that are wonderful at producing plays, and I’m not interested in someone coming in that’s completely done and all they’re really looki…

Our nuclear security has been compromised and that really is a dangerous situation because all of our nuclear sites are nuclear power plants, or they are a theoretically defunct site like where nucle…

This new book I've written SWEET DREAMS AHEAD FOR BED is a story that literally outlines the steps for getting ready for sleep for babies to four-year-olds. Also, in the book are tips for parents on …

Whether it's about immigrants, Iranians, Lebanese people or Jews in Warsaw or transgender characters or whatever those characters may be, I feel that, especially theatre, is like a mirror that you ho…

Age tells us one thing: the day you were born and the day you will die, and there's a dash in between. And you know what? That dash is ME! That dash represents who you are. And it is up to YOU: to de…

I love writing about women because this is how women are, and we're so diverse, right? We show our power in so many different ways, and sometimes it's not a lot of lines in the play; sometimes, it's …

What I really wanted to do was to show a strong, flawed woman - a hundred years ago! - dealing with the same issues that strong, flawed women are dealing with today.

KAREN E. OSBORNE, an award-winning…

What is central to my work is comedy. For me, there is a desperation in comedy that's very theatrical. And that you can ultimately get a play to a place where everybody wants to just kill themselves …

For me, acting is the greatest tool we have right now to teach people empathy. Because empathy requires you to put yourself squarely in the shoes of another person. I thin, therefore, acting should b…

In BLANK, I wanted to open readers' eyes a little bit more to the inner workings of the publishing world. I started as an aspiring author then became an author ... I was immediately surprised and dis…

Holding people's feet to the fire by just saying, 'You know what, you may think that a lot of women are being hired.' 'I've done five shows last season, isn't that enough to make women happy?' 'No! i…

I came to New York to meet people I read about in college like Joe Chaiken and Judith Malina, and I met them! I took workshops with Joe Chaiken, and he was very encouraging, and so how could I NOT st…

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 pre…

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 p…

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 po…

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 th…

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 Fulbrigh…