With all the incredibly serious issues facing our world today, writing a 2016 recap of my acting career is trivial, to say the least, and embarrassingly self-reverential to say the worst. And it's why it's taken me a while to put together.
Be that as it may, this re-cap is written from a place of deep gratitude to the many people who provided me with the many opportunities to express the insights of the human condition as only art can do. I am honored & humbled by their trust in me to do so. Here goes.....
With two feature films, one NYC play, two TV pilots, one guest-starring national network TV role, one recurring-guest-starring webseries role, and leading roles in a podcast play & two short films, plus, my directorial debut of a top-secret episodic webseries, here's what happened in 2016:
- A feature film - A comedy written & directed by John Turturro. I got to act with Tim Blake Nelson, Bobby Cannavale & John Turturro. More info soon. Spring 2017 release.
- CENTRAL PARK DARK - Feature film thriller written & directed by Cybil Lake. Leading role as Tom Sizemore's wife. Starring Cybil Lake.
- GREGORIAN - Play written by Matthew Greene. Directed by Jessica Dermody. Playing the 1930's Academy Award-winning screenwriter #FrancesMarion.
- UNDOCUMENTED - Comedy TV pilot by Laura Bray. Directed by David de Lautour. Playing the leading role of an undocumented immigrant's lawyer.
- PUPPETS - Comedy TV pilot by Ken Del Vecchio. Directed by Dylan Bank. Starring as a German psychoanalyst with Martin Kove as my husband, Buddy Fitzpatrick, and Julie McCullough.
- SAMESAME - Webseries by Lauren Augarten. Directed by Stephanie Begg. Recurring Guest Star as Lauren's character, Aviva's, mom, Alice. Josh Lewis as my husband & Michael Warner as my brother.
- REUNION - Quirky dramatic film written & directed by Rüya Koman. Starring with Judith Roberts and James Meneses. Cristhian Andrews - DP.
- FAR FROM THE TREE - by Natalie Roy. Directed by Jenna Pace. Produced by John Davisi. Starring with Natalie Roy as mother and daughter.
- LIMITLESS - Quirky CBS dramedy written by co-executive producer Taylor Elmore. Directed by Academy Award-winner Peter Werner.
- NINETY DEGREES OF SEPARATION - Comedy play podcast by David Guaspari. "Amy's Horse" podcasts produced and directed by Christopher Flockton.
Many thanks go out to Todd Thaler and John Turturro for that feature film, Cybil Lake for Central Park Dark, Jessica Dermody, Matthew Greene, and Charlie Sutton for Gregorian, Laura Bray for Undocumented, Ken DelVecchio for Puppets, Lauren Augarten and Jessica Blank for SameSame, Rüya Koman for Reunion, Natalie Roy for Far From the Tree, Ross Meyerson and Jen Rudolph for Limitless, and Christopher Flockton for Ninety Degrees of Separation/Amy's Horse.
To top things off, films I shot in 2015, in which I play Josh Mostel's wife in Issac Chehebar's comedy The Amazing Ray (thank you Donna Grossman and Jenny Sciara) and in which I have the leading role as a wife torn by present & past loves in Hugh Scully's Confabulation will be making the festival rounds, along with Far From the Tree, Reunion, and Central Park Dark. Plus, Damien Leone's horror flick Terrifier, in which I play the leading actor's mother, opened recently. And, then there's the little red carpet premiere of the wee project Going Places at some point soon in this new year. What do I wear???
Plus, filming continues this year on the hilarious By The Dashboard Light, thanks to writer/director Joe Ronca and producer Kristin Eissler.
But, the pièce de résistance on a personal note, was when I earned my 20th SAG Pension Credit last month! This milestone achievement provides many benefits (literally) for my family and me that I won't bore you with here, but that I am extremely proud of and relieved by. Thank you, thank you, thank you to both of my amazing unions - SAGAFTRA & Actors' Equity Association, and to everyone who hired me for union gigs! I could not have done it without you!
From getting much more politically involved in saving our planet to booking many more SAGAFTRA projects, I'm ready for ya, 2017!
