Steven Wishnoff is an actor and producer and, as he says, “anything in the arts.” How true. He knew early and says very clearly that theater acting was his oxygen. Did his parents take him to auditions. He laughs, says it was New York and you took yourself to auditions. He landed a part in No No Nanette at the age...

Vanessa Sabarese was, one particular holiday season, overwhelmed by sadness and needed something to help her see the glass half full. As generous and loving a spirit as Vanessa is, she thought that bringing joy to others would bring some happiness to her. Understatement times ten! The Wishing Tree went into annual bloom. Here’s how it went. First her...

In the world of what counts as a love letter, it has always been a wide-open field with room for constant expansion. Thanks to Mickey Smith for a most inventive new entry. Raised in Indiana, he came as a young adult to San Francisco via a few other places he was living with his girl friend of the time and...

It may be a little murky how St. Valentine became synonymous with romantic love, but it is no longer a mystery as to how Angi Brzycki did. She wanted a project to bring back the love letter, so for the entire year of 2013 she circulated weekly love by stealth. Every Wednesday she typed a love letter, made 100 copies,...

Hank Berman, a San Francisco marriage family and child therapist, has some interesting light to shed. On so many things. He is a tri-lingual hearing son raised by two deaf parents, was a pioneer of the psychedelic 60s, took part in teaching Koko the gorilla to speak English, has traveled extensively, and knows how to live in gratitude. Having been...

Good news. Joshua Abramson is back to talk about another aspect of this “I love you” and his personal undertaking to have the entire world’s population, all 7 million of us, to forsake “hello” for “I love you.” He told us last time about how he came to this mission, yes, the voice in the shower he tried to ignore until he...

You most likely know Hank Garrett from the popular 60s NBC sit-com “Car 54 Where Are You?” in the role of Officer Ed Nicholson. What you may not know is that it would be hard to conceive of a fictional character that comes close to the drama of Hank Garrett’s actual life. He was raised in Harlem, and despite his...

Cynthia Toussaint is a cheerful, grounded and beautiful woman who knew as a girl she was meant to be on stage. And, work toward that she did, with talent, grace and diligence as her guide. She was well on her way only to see her career cut short and her life knocked off balance by what started as a hamstring...

Filmmaker Jenni Gold knew early that she wanted to come to Hollywood from Florida to become a film director So she did. She is a wonderful story-teller, insightful, funny, smooth, emotionally generous and with the agility to keep her eye on simultaneously occurring aspects of a tale. She talks about how she went from being an 8th grader who made movies...

Natalie Lander comes from more than a long and charmingly complicated line of theatrical talent; she comes from a long line of love for that family, and you can feel it with every word she says about them. Her family is, in her words, “an interesting melting pot of performers and industry people. My mom married my dad, an actor,...