Marie Adams

Marie Adams is a member of the Lake Como writing group, maintaining her association long distance for the rest of the year from her home in the UK. Before training as a psychotherapist, Marie worked as a journalist, initially on newspapers and magazines and for many years as a producer on the BBC’s Today Programme, the country’s leading news and current affairs programme. As well as her private practice, Marie continues to work with the BBC, this time as a psychotherapist, training journalists, editors and documentary staff to recognise signs of trauma, particularly when in the field. She has recently completed doctoral research into the personal lives of therapists, specifically in relation to their work with clients and patients. The theme of the ‘wounded healer’ is also reflected in her most recent piece of fiction, presented here in its draft form.

Antonia Brancati

Born with a nice theatrical pedigree (her father was novelist/playwright Vitaliano Brancati, and her mother is famed stage actress Anna Proclemer) Antonia could not escape – no matter how she tried – the destiny of a life in the theatre. Apart from the dresser (she cannot stitch) she must have done every job on and off the stage: actress, assistant director, light designer, casting, production manager… until in 1991 Laura Del Bono convinces her that she was really born to be a literary agent for the theatre and gives her a 50% of her own agency, Concessionari Associati.

In 1993, in the hope of improving her ability to read and understand scripts, Antonia attends a seminar on playwrighting organised by teatro Stabile di Roma and ends up writing her very first play instead (Preoccupazione per Lalla).

In 1998 she creates her own literary agency for the theatre and has since continued also to translate and write for the stage.

Barbara Cady

Writer, editor and publisher Barbara Cady is author of Icons of The 20th Century (Overlook Press, 1998), a pictorial and biographical history of the 200 men and women who have left an indelible mark on our modern world. Cady began her career in print journalism with her interview of John Dean, the first of several for Playboy magazine. While publisher and editor of Flowers& and the collector’s magazine Almanac, she served as president of the Western Publications association. She was a frequent contributor to The Los Angeles Times Book Review, as well as a charter member of the newspaper’s Book Awards Committee. She also co-hosted a weekly show on women’s issues for Los Angeles television station KCET, and for ten years hosted and produced a daily one-hour talk show on radio station KPFK (Pacifica) in Los Angeles. As a vice-president of The Franklin Mint, she headed The Franklin Library, which published a series of leather-bound signed first editions, including authors such as Tom Wolfe, Maya Angelou, E.L.Doctorow, Joyce Carol Oates, Kurt Vonnegut, Iris Murdoch, Gore Vidal, Michael Crichton, and Arthur Miller. She then served as editorial director for the internet’s first health site, Intelihealth.com, which partnered U.S. Healthcare with the renowned medical center, Johns Hopkins. She is currently writing a novel about the Polish resistance in World War II.

Julie Cobb

Julie was born into a theatrical family. Her mother was the renowned Yiddish stage and film actress Helen Beverley and her father was the Tony Award winning and Oscar nominated actor Lee J. Cobb. Her grandparents on her mother’s side were also performers and theater owners. Involved in theater at Beverly Hills High School and following her acting studies to San Francisco State University, Julie left college to pursue an acting career in Los Angeles. She has appeared in over seventy television programs in her forty-year career. She’s remembered as Jill Pembroke on the CBS series Charles in Charge and has recurred in Knot’s Landing, Family Ties, Magnum P.I., Hearts Afire, Judging Amy and others. At Company of Angels Theater she was awarded the Los Angeles Drama Critics Circle Award for her performance as Maggie in Arthur Miller’s After the Fall and won the same honor as well as the Dramalogue Award for her direction of Twelve Angry Men. Julie is also a published writer. Her column, The Path, appeared in the magazine journal Country Connections for several years. She has raised a daughter, Rosemary Morgan, who continued the family tradition in the theater and is now a law student at NYU. In addition to acting and directing, Julie has become a trained and certified Coactive Life Coach and leads workshops as well as working with individuals who long for more fulfillment in their lives and careers. She lives in Los Angeles with her dog Seamus and cat Bonnie who embody many of the qualities she aspires to – unconditional love, spreading the light of total acceptance and a willingness to find the fun in these challenging times.

Cynthia Lewis Ferrell

Cynthia Lewis Ferrell established her unique voice through works that encompass fiction, nonfiction, drama, opera and musical theatre.  Her published titles include the award-winning stage play on legal elder abuse, 3DB INSIDE (Arts and Letters Journal of Contemporary Culture 2010); and the non-fiction Spiritual Survival Guide, co-authored with the late Dr. Charles Shields (Doubleday NY 2001).

A classical musician, Cynthia has combined instrumental and vocal knowledge with literary skills to create lyrical works that have captured international attention.  Her opera, EL CANGURO, on Guatemala’s scandal-ridden foreign adoption industry, premiered in the 2011 California International Theatre Festival, sponsored by Los Angeles Classical Radio KUSC. Composed by 2010 Berlin Opera Prize winner Peter Michael von der Nahmer, the work was recognized while in development by Germany’s HerrenHaus Edenkoben, with a portrait concert featuring Fulbright soloist Keith Colclough.

In the field of musical theatre, Cynthia teamed with Jeff Marx (Tony winner – AVENUE Q) and double-Emmy winner Carl Johnson to create THE RIGHTFUL MONARCH OF AMERICA, which debuted in 2007 at the Colony Theatre in Burbank, CA. With Johnson as composer, Cynthia also wrote the musical book for Jan Karon’s AT HOME IN MITFORD, workshopped at the Colony to a sold-out audience.

Notable among Cynthia’s stage plays are SNAPSHOOT, winner of Los Angeles’ 2006 Jerome Lawrence Festival (judges - Paul Mazursky, Tom Schulman and David Franzoni); MEAN HIGH TIDE (finalist, 2007 Writer’s Digest award); and her solo WHAT A WIFE DOESN’T KNOW (drawn from her debut novel RATTLER IN THE IVY), selected for New York’s 2010 Women at Work festival and performed to a standing-room-only crowd.

Her full-length comedy, HOLY COWS OF OXNARD, has been optioned for 2012 by Georgian Bay Productions, and will star Susan Clark. Also upcoming is a 2013 commission by California’s professional Rubicon Theatre Co. for a series of TV-to-stage adaptations of the iconic courtroom drama PERRY MASON.

Among Cynthia’s original short films is SHERMAINIA!, a musical tribute to Richard and Robert Sherman, produced for Disney’s 2010 Destination: D and distributed by Mouse Lounge.

Her nonfiction work, following the 2001 publication of SPIRITUAL SURVIVAL GUIDE, centers on young adult audiences. With the financial support of Court-Appointed Special Advocates (CASA), Cynthia hired terminally-ill foster teen Rolanda Arnold and launched LiveLikeMad, an interactive website and blog for catastrophically-ill children and teens.  The content Cynthia and Rolanda developed offered multi-faith resources and frankly-worded, practical information.  LiveLikeMad garnered extensive international press coverage prior to Rolanda’s death in 2003, at age 18.  Cynthia’s essay on Rolanda’s passing, CRIES THAT REGISTER, won the 2005 Conquest Prize.

Cynthia is the recipient of the Jerome Lawrence Fellowship and the Phi Kappa Phi creativity medal.  She holds a Masters of Professional Writing from the University of Southern California and has taught as an adjunct professor of playwriting at Pepperdine University in Malibu, CA.

Patricia Rae Freed

Entering her 69th year, Patricia has had three careers: Retail, Teaching, and as an Agent /Helpmate, to her husband, Donald. This latter endeavor, which began over thirty years ago, is best summed up in the following way: When people ask Patricia at cocktail parties: “What do you do”; she answers “Nothing”, trying desperately to create the enigmatic dignity of Cordelia. Translated, it means: “Everything”. Thus, in one word, characterizing her past, current, and future career. Her wish during her University years was to become a writer. After fifteen years of selling high fashion to working women, another fifteen teaching psychology to nursing students, she fulfilled her youthful desire by marrying a brilliant Playwright. Thus, she never wrote the words echoing in her soul, but she married someone who could…and does. Such a life has left little time for anything else; that, and indulging her passion for feeding with generosity and elegance, those she loves, including her dog Emma.

Brenda R. Freiberg

Brenda Freiberg can be characterized as a Queen of All Trades or, perhaps, as a curious and restless woman. She is a child of the end of the Depression, a woman who grew up with white-glove values, who was educated at Wellesley and UCLA, a woman who never anticipated a career, but who became a woman with an unusual career path.

Her material draws upon her groundbreaking experiences in satellite communications and the cable industry as one of the few female executives in that field, first at Hughes and then with International Satellite Strategies in the ‘70’s and ‘80’s. She worked in the US as well as in Europe. Her career continued as an executive in healthcare with major medical hospitals and systems.  She served as a Deputy Mayor of Los Angeles under Richard Riordan.

When HIV hit the world and her family in the mid’80’s, she dove in and worked indiscriminately in hospices, clinics, schools, communities. She raised funds, lobbied Congress regarding policy, pursued and encouraged new approaches to treatment, and testified frequently before the FDA.  Her HIV work continues today with projects in the US, India and Africa.

She lives in Los Angeles.

Lance Fogan, M.D., M.P.H.

Born in Buffalo, New York in 1939 he was educated in that city’s school system. His father died suddenly driving his taxicab when Lance was in eighth grade. A pet lover as a boy, he considered veterinary medicine; one summer during high school, coordinated by Cornell University’s Veterinary School, he worked on a dairy farm. This experience further broadened his perspective of life – but he realized that working with large animals was not for him; upon returning to Buffalo, he took an after-school job operating the cigarette-smoking machine at a major cancer research facility. It was pre-medicine from then on. Lance attended the State University of New York at Buffalo, majoring in Anthropology and Linguistics…“The best major I could have had. It helped me appreciate that we’re all the same in this world; we must recognize that our individual cultures and beliefs all have value.” It was this background that stimulated his work with an Australian physician at an Anglican Mission Hospital in Papua New Guinea during a summer between medical school semesters in Buffalo in 1964. This tropical medicine adventure of two and one-half months was followed by traveling home via circumnavigating the globe for another six weeks, visiting many major cities in Australia, Asia, and Europe.

During service in the U. S. Public Health Service as a Tuberculosis Control Officer for two years, he earned a Master of Public Health Degree while stationed in Oklahoma. This was followed by neurology training in Cleveland, Ohio. As a board certified neurologist, he practiced general clinical neurology full-time at a Kaiser Permanente Medical Center in Southern California, retiring in 1997 with part-time practice until recently. He currently teaches medical students and resident physicians as Clinical Professor of Neurology at the UCLA School of Medicine.

Life is invigorated by a private weekly writing/literature class since 2000. “Those famous authors had largely just been names before, but now I’ve actually read much of the great literature. Learning never stops.”

He established the Edward Fogan Annual Neurology Lecture/Prize in honor of his father in 1986 at the Neurology Department in Buffalo’s medical school; two Nobel Prize winners are among the speakers, to date.

What enriches his life is his marriage of 45 years, his two daughters, and being grandfather to two young grandsons.

Geoffrey G. Forward

Geoffrey G. Forward began his collaboration with prize-winning author Donald Freed more than 20 years ago, when Don was directing Shakespeare’s “Macbeth,” in which Geoffrey was playing Macduff and they wrote the first version of “Will—Boy Eternal,” a one-actor play of William Shakespeare on-stage talking about his life and times. Geoffrey acted the role in several theatres in the Los Angeles area. In 2011, Don and Geoffrey revised “Will,” adding additional historical and psychological material and expanding the character into an in-depth, human portrayal. Plans are in the works for a tour of the U.S. and England.

Geoffrey G. Forward holds an M.F.A in Acting and Directing and is an actor, director, teacher, writer and Shakespearean scholar.

Mr. Forward has founded and served as artistic director for several theatre companies. He is currently serving as artistic director of The Los Angeles Shakespeare Company (LASC), which he founded in February, 1992. LASC is a year-round Shakespeare company performing six plays annually at the Globe Theater in Topanga.

In his acting carreer Mr. Forward has played, among other roles, Richard, in The Lion In Winter, with Joan Fontaine; Digger, in The Hasty Heart, with James MacArthur; Tony, in The Boyfriend; Sky Masterson, in Guys and Dolls; and Will Mossop, in Walking Happy. Some of his Shakespearean roles include Iago, in Othello; Macduff, in Macbeth, Petruchio, in The Taming of the Shrew, Lysander, in A Midsummer Night's Dream and Hector, in Troilus and Cressida.

Among the plays Mr. Forward has directed are King Lear, Merry Wives of Windsor, Much Ado About Nothing, Richard the Second, The Taming of the Shrew, The Sonnets (with Sally Kirkland), Under Milkwood, Spoon River Anthology, The Lion in Winter, Charley's Aunt, The Fantasticks, You're a Good Man Charlie Brown and Oh, Coward!

Mr. Forward has taught The Actor’s Shakespeare Workshop, training professional actors, for over twenty years and taught Voice and Speech for seven years at The American Academy of Dramatic Arts, West.

A published author, Mr. Forward's article, "What Maior is Falstaff Denying?" appeared in The Shakespeare Quarterly, Fall, 1990. His book and audio cassettes, American Diction for Singers, was called "a remarkable book, a significant contribution to the literature" by the The National Association of Teachers of Singing Journal. He has also written Power Speech, a set of cassettes on improving the strength and resonance of the speaking voice, and ProSpeech, a book and audio cassettes on American Diction. Mr. Forward received a grant from the Huntington Library, in San Marino, CA, to research a book on acting and directing Shakespeare, titled The Actor's Shakespeare, which he is currently writing.

Deborah Frutkin

Deborah Frutkin is a nurse anesthetist living and working in Los Angeles. Donald Freed and his unique class have changed her life.

Georganne Aldrich Heller

What do jazz clubs, cultural directors of Manhattan, sophisticated dress designers, a gallery winning collage series called Engagement, Marriage, Affair and Divorce and teaching ballroom dancing all have in common?

They make up only one small part of a totally nontraditional life and career span of Georganne Aldrich Heller, a sophisticated New Yorker, whose wit and sophistication make for a hilarious often poignant read in her newest collection of short stories.

Anne B. Johnston

Originally from Atlanta, Georgia, Ms. Johnston relocated to Los Angeles to attend the University of Southern California. While at USC, she began working in investing at a Beverly Hills based merchant bank involved in opportunistic investment in small to mid-cap emerging growth companies.

Upon graduating cum laude from USC, Anne was invited to join the Wealth Management division at UBS Financial Services, Inc in a consulting role. Anne partnered with the management team to build strategic planning initiatives for the firm, designed fixed income portfolios on the municipal bond trading desk, and collaborated with firm specialists to develop sophisticated strategies for UBS private clients. Additionally, after two years of study in conjunction with UCLA, Anne earned the Certified Financial Planner™ certification, the recognized standard of excellence for personal financial planning.

Anne has since joined as a partner with the Gach Group Wealth Management in Beverly Hills, providing wealth planning and portfolio management for individuals, families, and philanthropic organizations. As the team's chief financial planner, she works with clients and their tax and legal advisors to develop strategic plans for the three critical phases of financial life: accumulation, preservation, and distribution of personal and family assets. Ms. Johnston also has expertise in working as a consultant to clients with special needs family members to manage and protect their money.

Ms. Johnston enjoys her involvement in several non-profit organizations in Los Angeles. She has served on the board of directors for the USC Marshall Partners, Semel Institute for Neuroscience at UCLA, and Step Up on Second in Santa Monica

Francine Kubrin

I am a native Angelino who grew up in mid-Wilshire area and attended local public schools. I studied literature in college as an adult, fulfilling a lifelong ambition to complete my education. The experience of learning as an adult strengthened my lifelong commitment to continuing education. After completing my schooling, I became a medical librarian , a position I held for 27 years until my retirement seven years ago. Since then, I’ve pursued many activities, focusing on my writing as well as being a mentor to children and adolescents involved in cultural arts and educational programs.

I have been a member of Donald Freed’s Saturday seminar since the group’s inception in the year 2000. Although I’m an avid reader, I didn’t write my first piece until I joined the seminar, a nurturing place to grow and learn my craft. My favorite genre to explore as a writer is the narrative short-story. I like to explore how a character’s inner life is revealed through their actions. I am particularly intrigued by the social and political events of the 1920s and their impact on our society today.

Shirley Ross Loeb

Shirley Ross Loeb is a playwright, screenwriter, and is currently working on a novel. She is also a practicing Marriage and Family Therapist and a lawyer. Her work often centers on the internal turmoil we experience and how we patch together our resolutions. She lives in Santa Monica, California.

Frances Luban

Frances Luban is an art historian who has taught classes for collectors and travelers in the UCLA Extension program. She wrote and produced the documentary, Joyce Treiman, The Artist as Voyeur, which has been seen on PBS. No Such Thing as Forgetting is her first story collection. She lives in Los Angeles.

Paola Moscarelli

Paola Moscarelli was born and grew up in Rome, Italy. She studied Music History, Literature, and Theater at the University of Rome, and graduated Summa cum Laude. She later completed an M.F.A. in Opera at the Licinio Refice Conservatory of Music. Until moving to California in 1994 she worked as a freelance journalist for various Italian newspapers and magazines. In Los Angeles she studied for a graduate degree in Italian Studies at UCLA. She has taught in the Department of Modern Languages and Literatures at Loyola Marymount University since 1999. Paola is currently working on a collection of humorous stories set in Los Angeles.

Susana Montal

Susana Montal began her musical studies as a violinist, and developed a passion for singing after hearing the opera Norma by the Italian composer Vicenzo Bellini.  The soprano has performed in opera, musical productions and concerts throughout Europe, and also at Los Angeles Music Center Opera, Michigan Opera, Opera Pacific, including the roles of Butterfly in Madama Butterfly, Mimi in La Boheme, and the Countess in The Marriage of Figaro.

She has written several plays, and is presently at work on the life of a Renaissance poetess and courtesan.  A recent work is Anna of the Violin, about the Venetian muse and her relationship with Antonio Vivaldi, and Malibran Tonight!, a glimpse into the life of Maria Malibran, accompanied by the music that Malibran sang during her short but astonishing career.

In Europe, Susana has performed in oratorios, the cantatas of Bach and Baroque and other opera productions.  She sang, choreographed and danced the ballet/flamenco role of Candela in Manuel de Falla’s El Amor Brujo with the New West Symphony. The Los Angeles Times has called her  “A fine composer and singer” with “daunting displays of vocal agility.”

 Additional reviews:
"... Susana Montal performed the role of the abandoned geisha Cio-Cio-San with passion and pathos ..."      
    Belinda Paschal, Daily News Valley Press
"A glorious one woman tour de force. Malibran lives in the text and music of Montal's and Freed's astonishing play..."
M.C. Gardner, AnotherAmerica.org

Beryl Nairn

Beryl is an actor and director based in the UK, having made her home in York. She has an M.A. in English Studies in Education and was previously a Secondary School Head of English & Drama and Advisory Teacher of Drama for the county of North Yorkshire. Amongst her many current theatre projects, Beryl works on the development of drama strategies with medical students training to be Doctors and she is active in promoting the work of local playwrights with Script Yorkshire's York branch.

Beryl has been a member of York Settlement Community Players, a York based community theatre group, since 1983. Other theatre work includes acting and directing with Piggyback Theatre Company. Beryl has also acted in both classical and modern productions with Mooted Theatre Company, Six Lips Theatre Company and the York Theatre Royal Young Actors Company.

In 2011, Beryl appeared as Mrs Alving in Amelia Bullmore's (2007) adaptation of Ibsen's classic play Ghosts at The Studio, York Theatre Royal, directed by Andy Love. She began working on the role of Mrs Alving, under Donald Freed's guidance, during his first annual Lake Como Writers/Actors Project in July 2010. It was during this time that Beryl was inspired to create an ending for the play, which resulted in Mrs Alving delivering a 'kiss' to her son as the ultimate gesture of her love for him.

Please visit Beryl's Contributors' Work link on this website to see photographs of Ghosts  - as well as other productions listed below:

Photos by Mike Oakes www.michaeljoakes.com 

Black Potatoes (November 2010) in rehearsal and performance.

Ghosts (March 2011) in performance at The Studio, York Theatre Royal. Beryl Nairn as 'Mrs Alving', Matthew Wignall as 'Osvald Alving', Maurice Crichton as 'Pastor Manders'.

Photos by Andy Love:

The House of Bernarda Alba (February 2009) in performance at The Studio, York Theatre Royal. Beryl Nairn as Poncia'.

Jenn Robbins

An actor, playwright and educator, Jenn Robbins is a member of SAG/EQUITY/AFTRA and a theater instructor/director at American Martyrs School in Manhattan Beach. As an actor, Robbins has worked extensively throughout the Los Angeles Area. She recently starred in RABBIT HOLE with her husband, actor Matthew Brannan ("Terrific performances...Robbins (Becca) scenes with Brannan (Howie) often sear us." - BACKSTAGE) and in FIFTH OF JULY ("As Ken's sister June, Jenn Robbins not only resembles Kate Winslet, she has a similarly potent and wholly natural acting style." - BACKSTAGE). On the writing front, her work with Donald Freed has nurtured to completion her first full length play, THE SMOKING BOY. Excerpted herein, it is the story of an American soldier, his family, and a country fighting to survive the Great War. THE SMOKING BOY will receive a production at the 2012 Edinburgh Festival Fringe, thanks to a grant from Loyola Marymount University.

Lyn Rothman

1963 Set up Sebara Designs - an interior design consultancy

1971 Joined Richmond Designs - the first company to include quantity surveying, architecture and interior design, and ran the latter department.

1975 Married Mo Rothman and left Richmond Designs. Carried on with private commissions for her own company, Sebara Designs.

1987 Joined Marguerite Littman and helped create the Aids Crisis Trust, raising funds by giving private screenings of films before general release, plus other fund raising events.

1998 A highly successful auction of Princess Diana's dresses in New York raised $5.5 million. The Aids Crisis Trust was closed shortly after Princess Diana's death.

1998 Joined the Elton John Aids Foundation and continued film screenings, using mailing list from the Aids Crisis Trust. Patron and Board Member.

2001 Founded The Parkinson's Appeal.
Contributing Editor Art Review.

Patron of "thare machi Starfish Initiative" delivering basic education to women in the developing world.

Patron of the Mildmay Mission Hospital

2008 Honorary Fellow University College London

Adele Scheele, PhD

Adele Scheele’s calling has been about helping others find theirs. From her UCLA doctoral research in identifying career skills to best-selling books about this process (Skills for Success and Launch Your Career in College), columns for The Huffington Post and other syndicated publications to radio and TV appearances, and international speaking engagements to her private career coaching practice, she should feel fulfilled. And she does. But she's always kept a secret journal and now, inspired by Donald's magic and her retreats to Bellagio, she is writing a series of short short stories, Epiphanies. One of her stories, Sharing Bali, appears in the spring 2012 issue of The Bitter Oleander, and three others appear in the Foliate Oak Literary Magazine. A reflection of her life experiences, her writing weaves fiction and fact-- another passionate pursuit.

Norman Sachs

Norman Sachs was first represented on Broadway with the Tony nominated musical My Old Friends, for which he also co-authored the book. The show, which drew raves from the New York Times and Time Magazine, was later produced with Imogene Coca in the lead. Their NBC TV Musical, Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, starred Kirk Douglas, along with a host of English stars including Sir Michael Redgrave and Donald Pleasance. It was later produced at the George Street Playhouse with John Cullum in the title role. A recent version was performed at California’s La Mirada Playhouse to critical acclaim. Skinflint, an NBC country music version of the Dickens Classic, A Christmas Carol, starred Hoyt Axton and a host of country music stars including Mel Tillis, Barbara Mandrel and Larry Gatlin, with book by Mr. Mandel. Mr. Sachs began writing for television’s That Was The Week That Was, during its two seasons. For RCA Victor’s Red Seal they wrote new musical adaptations and English Lyrics for the Operettas Fladermaus, The Merry Widow,Waltz Dream, and A Night in Venice.

The distinguished singing cast included Anna Moffo, George London, Rise Stevens and Jeannette Scovotti. Mr. Sachs has scored music for TV sit-coms Starting Fresh and film Checkered Flag or Crash. He was Head Writer for 26 half-hour shows of Lifetime Cable’s A Whole New You, and Head Writer for Magic and Beyond, 26 half-hour shows about magic and magicians, hosted by Michael York. Mr. Sachs wrote the music for Include Us, a video with songs for children which won several awards including Best Video of the Year, from the Down Syndrome Organization. Most recently he presented, Presto Change-o!, at New York’s AMAS Musical Theatre, in which an illusionist falls in love with an illusion, and George, a musical about George Washington Carver.

My Old Friends was recently revived at The Victory Theater in California, where it won the Critics Pick award. Mr. Sachs is a graduate of New York’s City College and has studied music at Julliard. He lives both in New York and Los Angeles.

McKenzie Satterthwaite

McKenzie Satterthwaite lives in Los Angeles, California with her sons Talin (12)  and Gaige (4) who remind her everyday the importance of being present and living in the moment. With business partner Michael Chaturantabut, she created the martial arts merchandise line and performance based curriculum XMA (Xtreme Martial Arts) which has over 1000 licensees throughout the US and Europe. Together they own the state of the art XMA World Headquarters facility in the North Hollywood Arts District.  A former actress, most recognized for her principal role on CBS's As The World Turns-  Satterthwaite learned the value of improv and the important role it would play in her writing.  With the help of acting coaches Darryl Hickman and Jeffery Tambor she found a true love for drama. With the guidance of award winning playwright Donald Freed she is finding her place as an artist with something to say. Satterthwaite loves hiking with the family dogs, conjuring up interesting concoctions in the kitchen, and doing science projects with her kids.

She is a supporter of education reform and animal rights. Most recently she is finishing her first screenplay under the wings of Freed with partner Debra Lewin. Satterthwaite carpools the kids, runs her business, chairs The Country School's gala fundraiser and has signed on to host the Los Angeles fundraiser for Congresswoman Shelley Berkeley, Senator Harry Reid and the Democratic Party with partner John Winfield.

Charlotte Schiff-Booker

Starting out as another poster child of the “feminine mystique”, mother of three living in the suburbs, Charlotte Schiff had but a hint that a larger ambition was lurking. From a speed writing ad in the NY subway to executive vice president and director of Manhattan Cable Television, to associate publisher of PEOPLE magazine, to producer of the PEOPLE series, founder of CBS Cable, cultural, performing arts network, and executive vice president of Sheila Kelley’s S Factor, a female empowering body movement, she is now working at writing her memoir.

Charlotte’s last name began as Grad, became Schiff, then Schiff-Jones and happily moved on to Schiff-Booker 16 years ago.

Katharine Delano Ryan Selznick

Born August 15, 1942

Poet, Playwright, Actor, Director, Teacher, Equestrienne

Artistic Director Annanandale Chilren's Shakespeare Company

AWARDS:

• 1998 - Dutchess county arts council "Artist of the Year"
• 1998 - Hudson Heritage Award for Moving Production of our Town
• 1994 - Best Actress in Hudson Valley Community Theatre
• 2002 - NYFA Grant for Playwriting

EDUCATION:

• B.A. - Sarah Lawrence College
• M.F.A - Sarah Lawrence College

A comoplete list of Poems, Plays Directing, Productions, Roles Played and Teaching resume are available upon Request.

The Annandale Troupe

BY Linda Pack-Butler

"She is filled with ideas, and connections, and passion -  for language, for children. And she has a tremendous ability to make connections. She can look at a text and relate it to some current event that I would never make a connection between. And because of chat, [She can] make it meaningful. She is just a tremendously creative person" says Ellen Jetto about Katharine Aldrich, the artistic director and co-founder of the Annandale Troupe, a theatrical summer camp for children ages seven through 17.

While you may not have heard of Katharine Aldrich or the Annandale Troupe, you do know the characters they play witches, grave diggers, princes, fairies, ghosts and kings. It is true that such characters spark imagination - especially in the young. It also is true that the Annandale Troupe's witches, grave diggers, and kings belong to Shakespeare.

Although William Shakespeare's plays have been exposing the human heart for centuries with that seemingly unique ability to make fairy dreams and princely fears no different from those of mortal man's. It must also be said that it is hard enough for adults to do Shakespeare well. How, then, can one expect children to get it right, let alone while performing in the Bard's own language?

"Yes," says Katharine Aldrich rather dryly. After all, she has heard that particular point of view often enough. "It's much harder for adults than children. As I say to many people, you don't need a Harvard Ph. D. to do Shakespeare. It's like anything else. It's like teaching children a foreign language. They have no preconceived notion that this material is difficult."

"She is filled with ideas, and connections, and passion – for language, for children… She is a tremendously creative person."

"I wouldn't say I don't find it difficult, but I do enjoy it. And I enjoy it so much that I wrote an A+ report on it!" says Jacob Brown of Rhinebeck, his sophisticated strawberry blond spikes belying his smiling and still-young naivete. Brown, at 12 years old, is already one of the senior members of the troupe, this being his seventh year.

"I like the language, and [Shakespeare's] play on words, mostly. And his ideas – like his ideas with Hamlet, especially. It's my favourite  play. Well, I was Hamlet," he confides before rushing on about all the reasons he likes Shakespeare. "I enjoy the fight scenes, and the idea of his father coming back in the form of ghost, with armor and everything else on. And the way his father was killed through the car. That was just a great idea that he came up with, to have a potion dropped in his car."

Jacob takes a breath and continues, more slowly this time, with a final thought about the Prince of Denmark: "Hamlet just seems to be a lot like me… When he's upset, he doesn't talk at all."

"It's my feeling," continues Aldrich, "that what we are all about here is the art of communication and the art of being creative. And I feel that Shakespeare, in my humble opinion, is the greatest writer in the English language. And I want them to learn this art of communication by using Shakespeare as the facilitator." They're definitely the greatest stories. They are stories about everything that children would be in interested in – stories that have been reduced to pop culture now,

‘WHEREFORE ART THOU?' – With sword in hand, Hugo
Reinhardt scans the horizon.

Dorothy Sinclair

Dorothy Sinclair is an award-winning Los Angeles actress who hails originally from Chicago. On coming to the West Coast she began a career writing and performing her own one-woman shows with which she toured the western states. She has been a book critic, (author of a column entitled “The Feminist Front”), and the Public Relations Coordinator for the William Morris Agency. For many years she studied acting with Donald Freed, and since 2009 she has been pleased to have him as her writing mentor. Currently she is working on stories focusing on growing up during the depression and, most particularly, on her memorable Aunt Flo.

Lady Valerie Solti

Valerie Solti trained at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art and worked as an actress in the British theatre with Reading repertory, Cambridge Arts Theatre, HM Tennant She. subsequently branched out into televisionworking as a free lance interviewer and presenter for Associated Rediffusion, Granada, Tyne Tees, Anglia and Southern Television.She became an interviewer and announcer for BBC working on news, cultural and childrens programmes as presenter director and writer. In 1967 she married the Hungarian conductor Georg Solti they had two daughters. She lives in Switzerland Italy and London and since the death of her husband carries on his work with young musicians and has founded the Solti Foundation US and UK to assist young professional musicians at the start of their careers. Valerie is a Cultural Ambassador for Hungary,Chairman of the Mariinsky Theatre Trust, Chairman the Solti Accademia Bel Canto, President of Sadlers Wells Theatre, Trustee EORTC. Hon Trustee The Chicago Symphony Orchestra and President The Longborough Festival Opera.

Her hobbies are her grandchildren sailing, walking,gardening and taking her dogs for walks while thinking about her writing.

Phyllis Title

I am a New Yorker who lives in Los Angeles. I grew up in Queens and have a BA in English from Queens College and a degree from the New York School of Design.

I have worked in advertising, as a model and as an interior decorator. My firm, Felicity, was on East 60th street.

I have two children. My son, David, is a science teacher living in Longmont Colorado with his wife, Beverly. My daughter, Daena, is an artist who lives in Los Angeles with her husband, Jason, and their two sons, Gabriel and Noah.

My husband, Arnold, died in May 2002 after a long illness. I then volunteered at Cedars Sinai for two years and presently am an Associate Docent at the Los Angeles Museum of Art.

I have written several books. Who Killed Mona is shortly to be published and the sequel, which continues the  adventures of Detective Jake Harmony. is proceding  under the brilliant editorial eye of Donald Freed.

Jayne Venables

Yorkshire-born to a voluble and cheerful 1950s salesman and his model post-war housewife, Jayne and her brothers grew up within the scaffolding of routine and with the rough and tumble of freely voiced opinion.

Now, with a grown-up family of four, the pleasure of serving a meal and listening to husband and offspring range from gentle banter to political debate, biting satire and surreal comedy, leaves her replete.

A jobbing writer, Jayne worked in soft journalism from the 70s and prospered in PR before it spun into ‘communications’.  Clients included children’s charities and manufacturers of equipment for the disabled; human interest features always drawn to her desk.  As history advanced, the client profile moved from manufacturers to service and IT providers; writing styles became tighter.

Common themes in the weave of a life of writing, child-rearing and teaching are literature, drama, psychology, health and social care.  Politics is a relative newcomer though there were always signs of gestation.

Today issues of democracy and liberty dominate.  Jayne’s great grandfather was born in the workhouse and died in Gallipoli.  Her mum left school at fourteen, walked bare foot and dodged blitz bombs.  Jayne’s was the free milk and no rickets generation; well educated, she was raised to contrast nazi fascism with Britain’s increasingly liberal democracy. She wishes the same freedoms for her own children and grand children.

Brigitte Weusten

Trained as a psychologist, Brigitte Weusten established herself as a writer and editor. In 1988 she and a colleague founded a freelance agency. Besides working on commercial projects, Brigitte also began researching recent historical events. Since 2002 she has published three books, her main themes being the Second World War and the history of Catholicism in the Netherlands.

Currently she is compiling the biography of dr. John B. Knipping (1899-1973), a former Franciscan priest and internationally renowned Dutch art historian. The study of his life and personality takes the reader on a journey through the Catholic landscape of the southern Netherlands during the first half of the previous century, to the devastating effects of World War II on the city of Nijmegen and to the post-war reconstruction of social and cultural life in that city. Contributing with relentless energy John was finally denied formal recognition of his cultural and scientific achievements by way of a professorship. The analysis of the bipolar character that was both the source of his energy and the cause of his rejection by university officials makes this biography a case study of this mental disorder. By the end of 2012 the study will be submitted as a dissertation to obtain a doctorate degree from the Radboud University, Nijmegen, The Netherlands.