Tuesday, September 28, 2010

Member Spotlight: Caren Jo Shapiro, Heidi Russell, Helene Galek, Janet Restino, and Melissa Riker in Estrogenius‏


"Nude on Belly"
limited edition of 50 C-prints
11x14" in 14x20" frame 
$250 framed  $200 unframed.
 


International Women Artists’ Salon is pleased to announce Salon members participating in Manhattan Theatre Source’s 11th annual Estrogenius Festival, a celebration of female voices.

Art Exhibition:  Caren Jo Shapiro, Heidi Russell, Janet Restino – September 29th-October 30th  in the gallery space of Manhattan Theatre Source

Opening reception - Wednesday, September 29th – 5:00pm – 7:00pm
 
Theater: Helene Galek – Week 1 – Assistant Producer;  Week 2, performing in The Open Door at Manhattan Theatre Source

Dance: Melissa Riker – Women in Motion: Inner Beast, producer - Only 2 performances!, Friday, October 22nd and Saturday, October 23rd at 8:00pm,  at Joyce SoHo


Come on out to celebrate female creative voices!!!
See you there!

***

The 11th annual celebration of female voices opens this Wednesday, September 29th with  FREE art reception from 5pm to 7pm followed by the premiere of this year's short plays at 8pm!

The festival runs through October 30th and features 5 weeks of short plays, 6 Sola Voce performances, 2 GirlPower performances, 2 Women in Motion dance performances (at the Joyce Soho!), and their new African benefit Voices Without Borders.

Wednesdays through Saturdays,  there are nightly pre-show music on their Windowbox Stage and on Friday nights after the show they will be featuring the 2010 New York International Fringe Festival hit musical solo show Classically Trained, Practically Broke. 

In short, there's something to fit every taste and every calendar, so don't miss it!

Tickets (including ticket packages!) and more info available at: http://www.theatresource.org/estrogenius.org

(And don't forget to become a fan of  their Facebook page!)


Estrogenius Festival 2010 - our 11th year!

manhattantheatresource
177 MacDougal St.
New York, NY 10011

http://www.theatresource.org/estrogenius.org

estro art

works by female visual artists

The Estrogenius group art exhibition presents work of female visual artists.



Opening reception - Wednesday, September 29th – 5:00pm – 7:00pm

Show runs for duration of festival - September 29th to October 30th 
Free Admission!

ManhattanTheatreSource

177 MacDougal St, btwn 8th and Waverly Streets

Featuring artists...
Aline Ridings, Anita Cimino, Ann Firestone Ungar, Ann Sgarlata, Anne Carlino, Aurora, Caren Jo Shapiro, 
Ellen Schneiderman, Heidi Russell, Ignitia Tipton, Iris Dresin, Janet Restino, Jennie Booth, Jennifer Earhart
Kathleen Furey, Naomi Rosenblatt, Rita Wilmers, Sara Jiminez, Sue Karnet


women in motion: Inner Beast

Only 2 performances!

Friday, October 22nd and Saturday, October 23rd at 8:00pm
 


Joyce SoHo 
155 Mercer St (between Houston and Prince)


Tickets $18 
(or become an Estro Addict and see all festival events for only $99!)

Women in Motion is the dance event of the Estrogenius Festival and has been in existence since the very first Estrogenius. 



Women in Motion 2010 is made up of commissioned dances by four choreographers. The works will be developed over the summer
and fall, and presented during the festival.





presented by

Estrogenius Festival, Kinesis Project, [QuA2D] The Queens Academy of Arts and Dance
 with Melissa Riker, Esther Palmer, Amber Sloan and Jessica Edkins



Commissioned Choreographers: Kathryn Enright, Yina Ng, Amiti Perry/æmp:dance, Anne Zuerner/RoxanneLola MovementMachine



Performers: Kathryn Enright, Corey Harrower, Yina Ng, Amiti Perry, Amy Campbell, Sophie Torok and Anne Zuerner

short play series

Our short play series anchors the EstroGenius Festival.

Each week we present five, thought-provoking plays by some of today's hottest playwrights.

week 1: 

wednesday sept. 29 to friday oct. 1 at 8pm

saturday oct. 2 at 3pm & 8pm

Producer: Jen Thatcher

Assistant Producers: Helene Galek, Catie Choate

Stage Manager: Michael Bordwell

Lighting Designer: Karen Sweeney

Costume Designer: Sarah Bertolozzi
Sound Designer: Jay Spriggs

Week 2:
wednesday oct. 6 to friday oct. 8 at 8pm
saturday oct. 9 at 3pm and 8pm

series includes…

The Open Door

For those with a bad case of nerves, the peaceful English countryside offers the promise of rest and renewal; but for a young, bored and restless girl, it affords a golden opportunity for mischief.

Adapted by: Hana Mironoff from a short story by Saki 
Directed by: Kathleen O'Neill

Featuring: Joseph Franchini*, Melissa Dougherty, Helene Galek*, 
Richard Kent Green




festival information
Manhattan Theatre Source’s Estrogenius Festival, an annual celebration of female voices, is one of New York City’s largest women’s arts festivals.

Founded by Fiona Jones in 2000, the festival debuted with a program of 10 short plays and music. Since then, it has grown into a five-week event including short plays, solo shows, music, visual art, dance, teen performances and support for African girls’ education.

Completely volunteer run, the Estrogenius Festival has provided more than 1,600 artists the chance to shine; showcased award-winning playwrights Sheila Callaghan, Quiara Alegria Hudes, T.D. Mitchell and Melissa Maxwell; presented Bessie Award-winning choreographers Marta Renzi and Jennifer Nugent; and provided scholarships for girls to attend school in Niger, ranked the poorest country in the world by the United Nations.

We take open submissions from around the world and are committed to providing opportunities to female artists - in a variety of disciplines - ranging from the emerging to the seasoned professional.

The New York Times raves that Estrogenius 
“lives up to its billing as a celebration of women’s work.”


Ph.212.260.4698

F. 212.260.4697


ManhattanTheatreSource

177 MacDougal St, NY NY 10011

***


MELISSA RIKER
Melissa Riker has been curating and producing Women in Motion since the inception of Estrogenius.

That would be (*cough*) 11 years now....

Surprisingly, Women in Motion is the only dance series in New York City dedicated to the voices of female choreographers.

Each year, the series aims to place the work of both emerging and established female artists on stage in a supportive and development-friendly environment.

Exactly how the choreographers' work is showcased has changed and grown over the years, from a simple showcase format in the cozy Theatre Source brick-box, to dance studios in Manhattan and finally in 2010, to a full process based performance.

Thanks to a full team of WiM producers for 2010, Women in Motion:INNER BEAST has commissioned choreographers with time in rehearsal, a development showing with feedback and a final fully produced performance at a major downtown dance venue, Joyce Soho on Oct 22 and 23rd, 2010.

Melissa would not be able build this one of a kind show every year without the help of Fiona Jones, Jen Thatcher and the Estrogenius team, Jessica Edkins (2008, 2009, 2010), Amber Sloan and Esther Palmer (2010).


JANET RESTINO
Janet Restino creates with her heart, hands and head in many media. She is intuitive, instinctual, sometimes impulsive.

Piano was her first love, she later took on many more loves – sculpture, drawing, painting and photography. Nature is always calling the shots.

She is now trying her hand at video and comedy. And she’s always been writing and sometimes performs as a singer/songwriter/poet Off Off Broadway.  She likes to co-mingle media. Her poetry and lyrics also find their way into her images – especially the ink drawings of nudes – adding a literary component that takes sensual visuals to the cerebral plane.

Restino is steeped in visual history from cave drawings to cartoons, from Willendorfs to windmills, frescos to fig leafs and fractals, papyrus to Polaroids to pixels.

Coming to NYC in the 80’s from Philadelphia, she “bopped around” various neighborhoods in the East and West Village and Brooklyn until settling in Hells Kitchen in the early 90’s.

Formally trained as a sculptor, she studied classically and with a master of Abstract Expressionism, she wants her two dimensional work to jump off the wall.
Her renewed interest in making small figurative bronzes celebrating the feminine spirit is timely.

She exhibits primarily in New York, in Solo, Group Shows and Arts Events.
Her clients and collectors include many well-known cultural organizations and performers in the Arts, Entertainment and Theater.


“I’m not much different than a bee making honey, a spider spinning a web. I mine the psyche and the spirit to make art.  I’m just a vessel at times – keeping myself in tune to participate in the act of creation which feels truly divine.” – Janet Restino


HEIDI RUSSELL
Russell is a self-taught fine art photographer who specializes in capturing the intersection of languages and dimensions through full-frame, non-manipulated imagery of cultural environs.  She is a native of Oxford, New York, and is currently based in New York City.

Since receiving her first camera at the age of 6, Russell has been impassioned by sharing her discoveries of daily life through photography.  As a Rotary Youth Exchange Student to Denmark at the age of 18 she had her first opportunity to see another country and culture through the lens.  She has been capturing the intricacies and the spirit of the cultural environs she explores worldwide ever since.

After graduating from Cornell University in 1988, she worked in the fields of advertising, business and human resource management, and fundraising, working at both Syracuse and Cornell Universities.  She was a board member of the Community School of Music and Arts and the President of the Ithaca-Cayuga Rotary Club while living in Ithaca, New York.

In 2004, Russell changed her career path to follow her passions in photography and international cultural exchange.  She studied at the Cornell University-in-Rome Program during summer 2004 and spent the fall semester with the Hellenic International Studies in the Arts, a small art school on the island of Paros in Greece.

After delving into being creative full-time in Europe, she moved to NYC in 2005 to continue to pursue her passions.  Since 2005, her work has been in solo and group exhibitions internationally, including her first solo exhibition held in May 2007 at NY Studio Gallery in NYC.  In 2006, she was chosen to participate in the Hungarian Multicultural Center’s Artist Residency in Budapest and was selected to exhibit work in the 8th International Festival of Artistic Photography held in Athens, Greece.  Russell was invited in April 2007 to sit on the Board of Directors for Hungarian Multicultural Center.  During the summer of 2009, she participated in a three-week certificate program held in Berlin through Transart Institute.  Since 2005 she has volunteered for Cuchifritos, a community not-for-profit gallery project of Artists Alliance, Inc., located on the Lower East Side, and supports community-building-support projects with her photography and time.

Russell also holds curatorial positions with Manhattan Theatre Source in NYC and the e-zine, The New York Optimist.  In 2008, Russell founded the cross-disciplinary, International Women Artists’ Salon.

Russell is also spreading the wings of her creative outreach by establishing an indie publishing company that combines her passions, with the mission to publish works that utilize Art as a bridge for Cultural Understanding.

Ms. Russell invites you to follow her passions and projects through www.heidirussell.com, Facebook, LinkedIn


CAREN JO SHAPIRO
Grappling with issues of abuse, gender, femininity, masculinity, and sexuality my paintings confront the overly consumed, idealized and oppressive values inherent in society.  Through psychological, expressionist portrayals of ‘real’ human beings, my work exposes the impact of, and adaptations to a society which frequently denies the oppression and abuse inherent within it.

Defined by expressive, broad strokes of unapologetic color, the subjects of my work demand that the covert truths behind their existence be laid bare. Grappling with emotional and physical survival, conveyed through scale, color, brushstroke and occasionally text, are flawed yet remarkable individuals.

In addition to painting I am a licensed psychotherapist, who provides counseling services on the Lower East Side primarily to women and members of the LGBT community.   

www.myartspace.com
(Caren Shapiro)  /  cjart@aol.com  /  (917-439-9103).

 


HELENE GALEK
Ms. Galek is happily assisting the great Jen Thatcher for the 3rd year in a row! She has previously performed in 5 Estro festivals too and will play the cheerful British Aunt in “The Open Door”, for Week Two of this year’s Estro Fest!
 
Helene just finished her assistant producer duties for Week One of Estro and what a grand week it was! She is happily working again with director Kathleen O’Neill, having performed under her helm in Boo-Art’s premiere production of “House of Bernarda Alba.”  She is equally pleased to be acting with Richard Kent Green, who assisted her many years ago in returning to the biz. Helene recently co-starred and co-produced the much talked about production of “Jen and Liz in Love” in this year’s Fringe Festival, under her own company, BlondeBrunetteRedhead Productions (bbr). Helene has played a plethora of characters in many a Spontaneous Combustion (the 48hr short play festival) happening at MTS! She is also on the advisory board of Boo-Arts and is Casting Director at Manhattantheatresource,
Sistahs are doin’ it for themselves!

Happy 11th anniversary to all the wonderful, powerful and magical women out there! --Helene

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