Into the Absurd with Tina Brock

Liz Goldberg has taught Fashion Illustration at The Pratt Institute and Drexel University for the past 11 years. Her work is an exploration of the theme of the “diva” – the flamboyantly uninhibited female and the personal and political empowerment she represents.

As a painter, graphic artist, and animator, Liz has been inspired by puppets and absurdist theatre, influenced by puppet–like characters reminiscent of Alfred Jarry’s forerunner of absurdist theater, Ubu-Roi, the buffoons of modernist playwright Michel de Ghelderode, the existentialist mime plays of Samuel Beckett, and the symbolist and political figures of European puppet theater.

Liz has developed these “diva” and puppet-inspired works into experimental animated films in collaboration with filmmaker Warren Bass, broadcast on American Public Television and cable, receiving awards and juried recognition in over 20 countries. The works use animation as an analog to painting, dance and poetry, and are intended to re-define the paradigm of what an animation can be. The process of animation has, in turn, influenced her full-scale paintings and works-on-paper producing diptychs, triptychs, and serial prints with progressive deviations.

In 2018, Liz and Warren produced “Vogueing and Other Pleasures” shown at the Film Festival at the Barnes in conjunction with the Musee de Paris. In 2018, the film was also shown as part of “Contexualizing Fashion” at Pratt. A full room installation was created at Joan Shepp where Liz was a resident artist for 3 years 2017- 2020, installing the entire space with 1,750 hand-drawn cells from the animation, as well as paintings and prints.

Liz’s work was recently part of MINIFEST at Theaterlab - a fun and vibrant event that brought together a variety of artists to share short works throughout Theaterlab's full loft on September 18 and 19 in New York City.

MINIFEST is an afternoon of tiny delights, short sparks of new work, and other small surprises. Last produced on March 8, 2020, days before theater closed. This year’s MINIFEST focused on Fashion and the Body.
Participating artists included Marco Casazza, Liza Cassidy, Blane Charles, Orietta Crispino, Jed Distler, Liz Goldberg, Naoki Iwakawa, Michaela Lind, Stefanie Nelson, Lisa Silvestri, Alex Sollitto, Lesley Ware, Louisa Willis, Ulisespal, Glenna Yu and Lanie Zipoy.

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Michael P. Toner has been acting, directing, dialect coaching and specializing in Irish theatre for over 49 years. His recent roles include doing Phil Hogan in O’Neill’s Moon For The Misbegotten for Walnut Street Theatre (with national tour). Other WST credits include She Stoops to Conquer, Philadelphia, Here I Come!, Conversations With My Father, 1776, Someone Who’ll Watch Over Me, and The Caretaker. Other Brian Friel plays include Volunteers, Dancing At Lughnasa, Aristocrats, Translations and his one-man play based on Friel’s works, The Humours Of Ballybeg. Recent roles include Knacker Woods in Marie Jones’s Rock Doves, Vladimir in Beckett’s Waiting for Godot and the one-man play Crossing The Threshold into the House of Bach by David Simpson for Amaryllis Theatre.

Other Irish roles include Vladimir in Samuel Beckett’s Waiting for Godot, Krapp in Beckett’s Krapp’s Last Tape, Mr. Rice in Brian Friel’s Molly Sweeney, Owen in the East Coast premiere of Friel’s Translations, Michael / Narrator in Friel’s Dancing At Lughnasa, Maurice in Conor Mc Pherson’s The Night Alive, An Irish Man in Tom Murphy’s The Gigli Concert, Trooper O’Hara in Sebastian Barry’s White Woman Street, Eugene O’Neill in Pat Nolan’s Midnight Rainbows, Doctor McSharry in Martin Mc Donagh’s The Cripple Of Inishmaan, among many others.

His one-person plays include Beginning to End and Nohow On, based upon Beckett’s writings, An Evening with Mister Dooley, drawn from Finley Peter Dunne’s writings, his own Ever Yours, F. Scott Fitzgerald. Mr. Toner has performed for the Villanova Shakespeare Festival, the Carnegie-Mellon University Beckett Festival, the New York W.B. Yeats Society, the International James Joyce Symposium, the NYC A Dublin Evening, the NYC Gotham Book Mart Bloomsday, the Meadowlands Irish Festival, the American Shaw Festival, and he is a founding reader for the Rosenbach Museum & Library Bloomsday Festival.

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We'll explore in 50-minutes what it means to create and to think about art during this time. Join us for this weekly virtually existential gathering until we can share stories on the stage again.
If you're on the IRC's mailing list, look for an email each Wednesday detailing the upcoming week’s guest on Into the Absurd, with links to websites and information.

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Tonight, we talked with Mark Fitzgerald Wilson, Executive Director of the Zoellner Arts Center at Lehigh University about his journey from professional opera singer to arts administrator, his early and important years working in loss prevention (which included learning how to spot shoplifters), knowing your superpower, lessons learned from wise professors along the road, and what’s in store this season at Zoellner.

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Mark Fitzgerald Wilson was named Executive Director of Zoellner Arts Center in July 2020. Mark joined Zoellner from the Jay and Linda Grunin Center for the Arts at Ocean County College where he served as Executive Director of Cultural Programs and Partnerships.

Over the last 20 years, Mark has been a leader in arts administration, a music professor, a professional opera singer and a corporate director. During his tenure at the Grunin Center, he planned and managed all aspects of the campus-based performing arts center including long-range artistic and strategic planning, programming, operations, finances, marketing, fundraising, educational and community engagement. In recognition of his contributions, he received the Ocean County College Presidential Leadership Award for Campus Wide Impact. Mark has a Bachelor of Music from Simpson College and a Master of Music degree from the University of Houston.

In his role as Executive Director of Zoellner, Mark is responsible for the overall leadership of the center, a crucial function of championing goals and values, setting direction and inspiration. The position also directs and implements the artistic vision in alignment with the center’s mission.

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Tonight, we talked with Lane Savadove, the Founding Artistic Director of EgoPo Classic Theater about performing during pandemic, EgoPo’s upcoming season Awakenings and Transformations, and much more, featuring several special appearances by his daughter on location attending a very special birthday party (https://www.egopo.org).
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Lane Savadove is the Founding Artistic Director of EgoPo Classic Theater, now in its 27th season.
Lane has directed over 40 shows for EgoPo, Off-Broadway, regionally in San Francisco, Chicago, New Orleans, Provincetown, Philadelphia and on National Public Radio. He was the resident director of the National Cultural Center of Indonesia (1996-7), Artistic Director of Jean Cocteau Repertory (2004-5), and Associate Artistic Director of the Living Theater (1989-90).
An Independence Foundation Fellow, Drama League Directing Fellow, Shubert Fellow, Henry Luce Fellow, TCG Leadership recipient. His works include: Beckett’s Company (NPR and 6 cities); world premiere of Tennessee Williams’ House Not Meant to Stand (Southern Repertory); Wedekind’s Spring Awakening (Phila, New Orleans), Maeterlinck’s Bluebird (Phila.), the world premiere of John Guare’s 10-hour Lydie Breeze Trilogy.
Savadove's staging of Chekhov’s Seagull won the company the 2017 Barrymore award for Best Production. He holds an MFA in Directing from Columbia University and BA from Haverford College. Lane was a Professor of Acting and Directing at NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts, The National University of Indonesia, and Head of Directing at Loyola-New Orleans. He is currently Head of Acting and Directing and Full Professor of Theater at Rowan University in New Jersey.
Creating in Philadelphia: "It can be easy to accept the estimation that we’re not a place that’s bursting with deep thinkers because so many outsiders see us strictly as inhabitants of a blue collar city...and, of course, that’s complete nonsense. It’s been my experience that there’s plenty of brain power generated on a daily basis, and I think that’s particularly evident when you look at theater companies and what they’re collectively trying to convey to us, namely, that it’s perfectly acceptable to seek answers and apply your findings for the good of so many.” - Lane Savadove
Ego Po Classic Theater Season 2021-2022
Awakenings and Transformations
Alice: not your child's wonderland
Based on Lewis Carroll's Alice's Adventures in Wonderland
Adapted by Dane Eissler & Jenna Kuerzi
Directed by Dane Eissler
At Glen Foerd, public park and museum, 5001 Grant Ave
Season Launch Event: Tuesday, September 28th
Fringe Performances: Wednesday and Thursday, September 29th and 30th
Tickets and more info at www.egopo.org/alice
Wine in the Wilderness
by Alice Childress
Directed by Damien J. Wallace
Performs Jan 19-30 at the Louis Bluver at the Drake
Life is a Dream
Based on the play by Pedro Calderon de la Barca
Created by Brenna Geffers & Felipe Vergara
Directed by Brenna Geffers
Performs March 16-27 at Theatre Exile
Curse of the Starving Class
by Sam Shepard
Directed by Lane Savadove
Performs June 15-26 at Drexel's URBN Center Annex Black Box
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Sharon Geller is a comedic actress who has appeared on SATURDAY NIGHT LIVE 4 times and on The TODAY Show as “Lucy”.
After spending 10 years in the corporate world, Sharon followed her heart and decided to pursue her first love – acting. Her radio and TV commercials have won awards and she can currently be seen in a national TV commercial for Colonial Penn Life Insurance.
Since 2012, Sharon has performed in the national touring company of the off-Broadway hit “OLD JEWS TELLING JOKES,” which is a tribute to the Borscht Belt and the birth of Jewish humor.
After winning the Manhattan Monologue Slam in 2007 for presenting the best monologue in New York City, Sharon’s musical improv troupe, MC Hammerstein, became the first musical improv house team at the PIT (People’s Improv Theatre) in NY.
In addition to being a spokeswoman on QVC, Sharon teaches comedy improv at the Walnut Street Theatre and IMPROV FOR LAWYERS, a course she created, at the Thomas R. Kline School of Law at Drexel University. She presents her CLE, ‘A FUNNY THING HAPPENED ON THE WAY TO ARBITRATION – Great Communication Techniques for Lawyers’ to the ABA, PBI and law firms around the country. She also leads corporate workshops on communication where she teaches people to think more quickly on their feet, be a team player and think outside of the box. Clients include Johnson & Johnson, Janssen Pharmaceuticals and Berkshire Hathaway Realtors.
Her 1-woman show, ‘KNOCK, KNOCK…JEWS THERE? A Talmudic Take on Comedy’ about the importance of laughter and comedy in Judaism has received rave reviews from Jewish organizations around the country.
Globally, Sharon has taught improv workshops for Tel Aviv Improv and at the St. John School of the Arts in the Caribbean.
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We'll explore in 50-minutes what it means to create and to think about art during this time. Join us for this weekly virtually existential gathering until we can share stories on the stage again.
If you're on the IRC's mailing list, look for an email each Wednesday detailing the upcoming week’s guest on Into the Absurd, with links to websites and information.
To keep up with who’s on deck, join the IRC mailing list: https://www.idiopathicridiculopathyconsortium.org/....
To explore past episodes of Into the Absurd, visit our Facebook page:
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Tonight on Into the Absurd, we talked with singer and actress Trudy Graboyes about her love of musical theater, her many roles in stages throughout the Philadelphia area, her background in theater producing and her upcoming one woman show based on her grandmother's immigrant experience titled Her Strength, Our Story.

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Trudy Graboyes is a Philadelphia based singer and actor. She is currently in rehearsal for her one woman show, Her Strength, Our Story.

Recent stage appearances include the Chaperone in THE DROWSY CHAPERONE and Mrs Brice in FUNNY GIRL at the Broadway Theater in Pitman, New Jersey, Mrs. STRAKOSH and Vera at The Candlelight Dinner Theater and Rose in GYPSY at Shannondell Performing Arts Center.

She was nominated for both a 2014 Perry award and 2014 Broadway World best actress award as Fraulein Schneider in CABARET, the musical. Trudy was nominated for and won The Subscribers Choice Award from The Ritz Theater for her portrayal of Yente in the musical, FIDDLER ON THE ROOF. She appeared in, IF THE SLIPPER FITS with the Philadelphia Fringe Festival, in RAGTIME at Centre Theater, in NUNSENSE JAMBOREE and ANNIE at the Media Theater. In ANNIE Trudy was cast in the ensemble and was understudy to Ms. Hannigan who was played by comedienne, Wanda Sykes.

Trudy has performed at Walnut Street, Arden, Ritz, Hedgerow, Plays and Players, and New York Dinner Theaters. She was in the cast of TONY AND TINAS' WEDDING Show for 6 years (as Mrs. Vitale; mother of the bride).

Trudy is also a cabaret singer. Her cabaret, DUSTPAN DIVA, a history of American musicals told through the eyes of a cleaning woman, was produced at NYC's cabaret, Don't Tell Mama to rave reviews.

Trudy wrote, produced, and is the singer on the children's tape entitled, DOODLE DEE DOO.

Trudy's day job is as a Standardized Patient for medical schools and clinical skills programs in the region.

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Ari is a Professor at The Community College of Philadelphia where he teaches classes designed to enhance empathy levels; he also provides all sorts of information his students would prefer not to know, but should know, such as the fact that almost all coffee originates from beans collected from children forced to labor on plantations (way to go Starbucks!)


He is also a highly talented dog-walker for rescues looking for homes, a passionate volunteer at food distribution centers, and a person with a megaphone who likes to shout random compliments to people walking in Center City.

In addition, Ari is an activist for human rights and for animal welfare ... he has led many marches in Philadelphia and has also collected hundreds of pounds of cat food for the kitties in local animal shelters. He is a published poet, short story writer, and essayist ... but he quit writing altogether because Ari felt it was becoming a bad habit. Ari is also a recent film maker who has starred in a short movie about himself (so selfish!) and he once worked with the IRC as a volunteer house manager who forgot to collect money from ticket sales; working for IRC again seems doubtful due to loss in revenue.


Recently, Ari was an independent presidential candidate in 2020, and he is now eyeing another run for public office, but is unlikely to ever win since he accidentally started a rumor that Steve Martin had passed away this summer via a tweet reply that went viral (but Steve Martin did tweet Ari back which is awesome!)

Ari lives in the city with his drop-dead gorgeous wife Kirsten Quinn, two cats that like to sleep on his belly, and himself of course.

Lisa Grunberger is the author of three books: Yiddish Yoga: Ruthie’s Adventures in Love, Loss and the Lotus Position (Harper Collins); Born Knowing (Finishing Line Press) and I am dirty (Moonstone Press, First Prize Winner). A Pushcart nominee and Temple University Professor, her work has appeared in a wide variety of publications including The New York Times, Hanging Loose Press, Crab Orchard Review, Mudfish, Krytyka Literacka, Bridges: A Jewish Feminist Journal, The Drunken Boat, Paroles du Jour, and The Mom Egg Review. Her play about motherhood, infertility, and assisted reproductive technologies, Almost Pregnant, is currently under artistic development at the Squeaky Bicycle Theatre company in NYC and is published by Smith Scripts. Her work has been translated into Russian, Yiddish, French, Slovenian and Hebrew. Her play Evidence or Moon Immigrants premiered in NYC’s Manhattan Theatre Company in 2018. Her one-act play “Alexa Talks to Rebecca, or “I’m sorry there are some things I cannot do yet, and explaining why is one of them” won the Audience Choice Award when it was produced in The Squeaky Bicycle’s Guts and Glory Playwriting Contest in 2021.

Lisa teaches Narrative Medicine and Yoga and Writing at the Lewis Katz School of Medicine. When she’s not being a mom, a professor and a poet, she teaches Yoga and Writing Workshops at The Healing Arts Center in Philadelphia. She is currently working on her memoir, Spit: A Jewish Adopted Woman’s Reckoning with her Refugee Origins.

Lisa earned her doctorate in Comparative Religion and American Cultural History from the University of Chicago Divinity School where she studied the fascist health politics of early twentieth century fitness guru Bernarr Macfadden and how the gym serves as our modern cathedral. She double majored in English and Religious Studies at the University of Rochester where she was a DJ who conducted one of the first national interviews on AIDS in 1985.
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Dirk Durossette has been designing scenery and teaching design, and drawing and rendering for the theater for the past 20 years in and around the Philadelphia region. Off-Broadway scene designs include: The Outgoing Tide and Any Given Monday. He has designed for Amaryllis Theater Company, Azuka Theater (Barrymore Nomination-Skin and Bone), Act II Playhouse (Any Given Monday-World Premier), Enchantment Theater Company (National Tour-Harold and the Purple Crayon), Theater Exile, 1812 Productions (First Day of School-Philadelphia Premier), Delaware Theatre Company, EgoPo Classic Theatre, Freedom Theater, Flashpoint Theater, Idiopathic Ridiculopathy Consortium, InterAct Theater Company, Lantern Theater (Barrymore Nomination- Skylight), Luna Theater, Painted Bird Productions (A Few Small Repairs-World Premier), Theater Horizon, Philadelphia Shakespeare Theater ,MumPuppetTheatre, Portland Opera (Maine), The Wilma Theater (Leaving- Associate Designer-American Premier), Temple Theaters, Temple Opera Theater, University of the Arts, Drexel University, Lawrence University (Wisconsin), Peabody Institute (Baltimore), West Chester University, Villanova University, The University of Memphis. He continues to design private commissions for weddings, special events, and lobby displays in and around greater Philadelphia.

For three seasons he served as Resident Scene designer for PlayPenn’s New Play Development Conference in Philadelphia where he consulted on the design aspects of new plays and collaborated with playwrights in a workshop setting. Additionally, his work has been featured in the Philadelphia Inquirer, American Theatre Magazine and the Da Vinci Art Alliance’s publication “Envisioning Shakespeare at 450.” He has taught theatrical design at The University of the Arts, Temple University, Ocean County College and Villanova University. He currently serves as a full-time faculty member in the Design/Tech program at Rowan University in Glassboro, New Jersey. MFA Scene Design from Temple University.

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We'll explore in 50-minutes what it means to create and to think about art during this time. Join us for this weekly virtually existential gathering until we can share stories on the stage again.

If you're on the IRC's mailing list, look for an email each Wednesday detailing the upcoming week’s guest on Into the Absurd, with links to websites and information. To keep up with who’s on deck, join the IRC mailing list: https://www.idiopathicridiculopathyconsortium.org/677648/join-our-mailing-list/.

To explore past episodes of Into the Absurd, visit our Facebook page:
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OR
The IRC's YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLj9sR3Pi7_igB845rllrtsLhtqYnuwDRv
And while you’re there, be sure to SUBSCRIBE, so you don't miss any future episodes.

Mark Williams (he/him) is a Projections and Media Graduate Student attending the University of Maryland. An associate for VidCo: Virtual Design Collective, he designed set dressings and camera solutions for Geffen Playhouse’s hit live Zoom production, Someone Else’s House, described as “A frightening digital coup-de-theatre.” by The New York Times.
-The New York Times


As a Props and Puppetry Freelancer from the Philadelphia region, he has worked in theatres such as Delaware Theatre Company, The Idiopathic Ridiculopathy Consortium, Philadelphia Theatre Company, Hangar Theatre, The Walnut, Opera Delaware, and Theatre Horizon.

Learn more at

https://www.Markwdesign.com



On Geffen Playhouse’s Someone Else’s House:
Obie Award-winning multimedia artist Jared Mezzocchi has a harrowing story to tell: his family’s frightening, true-life haunting inside a 200-year-old New England house. Flip the switch, light your candles, and prepare yourself (as best you can) for this first-hand story of terror with the latest interactive production from the Geffen Stayhouse.

On Mark:
“My own work begins with the primary goal of theatre, which Charles Mee described as “a practice for life." In its most basic sense this means what we witness in the performance space should develop us as persons, and better prepare us for the contradictions abound in life. Bitter sweetness and emotional ambivalence are representative of the human condition and should be represented by the characters we seek on stage. I seek contradiction, irony, hypocrisy, and to unravel how people make decisions.

I'm interested in developing performance ideas that heighten the reactivity between performer, audience, and design. To reduce the static nature of projection and media brings it more in line with the liveness of theatre and dance.”