Solo Arts Heal
Hosted by Gail Schickele
Wednesday, Jun 17 | 7:30 PDT
Joanna Rush | Kick
Written & Performed by Joanna Rush
Directed by Lynne Taylor-Corbett
Show Description
Actor/Playwright Joanna Rush will be with us LIVE to perform excerpts from KICK followed by a Q & A with Solo Arts Heal Producer Gail Schickele and KICK Director Lynne Taylor-Corbett.
Show Description
On her way to her first big New York audition, dancer Bernie O’Connell is tricked into a car and attacked in a vacant lot off the Brooklyn Queens Expressway. KICK follows Bernie from a kickline to A Chorus Line to Hollywood and back as she picks up the pieces and finds the glue to put herself back together.
Acclaim for KICK
“…drama, comedy, honesty and more… allows the audience to feel, rather than watch!” — nytheatre.com
“This is how theater should connect to people.” — Margo Jefferson, Pulitzer Prize-winning critic
“Finding the truth of one’s life in a culture of lies… a powerful piece.” — BBC Radio 4
Artist Biography
Joanna Rush – Playwright/Performer
Writing credits include Asking For It, which later became KICK and was nominated for an Off-Broadway OBA Award. It was developed at the NY Society for Ethical Culture, The Kirk Theater on Theater Row, Stocker Arts Center in Ohio, Appearances include Lincoln Center Atrium, Peter Jay Sharp Theater at Playwright’s Horizons, and more in New York City and The Boston area. She was chosen to perform sections of the play for “International Women’s Day” sponsored by the United Nations Counsel on the Empowerment of Women” and The Hunger Project. Other plays include multi-character Home Sweet Homeland, Accidental Mummies. Screenplays include Irish Whiskey (co-author, Best Screenplay winner at the Temecula Valley Film Festival, America’s Queen, a historical drama. Also, author of the book KICK… It’s not how high. It’s how strong!
Also, as an actor, Broadway: Pousse Café, Shirley MacLaine at the Palace. A Chorus Line (Shubert Theater, Los Angeles.) Off-Broadway: Daughters, Inside Out, Grandma Sylvia’s Funeral, Broadway Scandals of 1928, Options Regional: Beyond Therapy, Fifth of July, Freedomland, Little Mahagony, Great White Hope, Women Who Steal (WHAT), concert versions of Two by Two, and Minnie’s Boys at Jewish Rep. Film: upcoming – The Glorious Resurrection of Claire Owens, Sunburn, On the Cliffs (winner Best Short Comedy 2004, Ohio Ind. Film Festival) Saying Goodbye, TV: Shannon, Archie Bunker’s Place, A Killing Affair, Cagney & Lacey, Splendor in the Grass.
The book, KICK, is available through these fine, non-Amazon online options.
Paperback EBook
Or Search for it at your nearest independent book store.
Lynne Taylor Corbett – Director
Lynne has been nominated for two Tony awards for her direction and choreography of Broadway’s Swing! in addition to a Drama Desk award. She also choreographed Chess and Titanic. Off-Broadway, she directed and choreographed Wanda’s World for which she won the Callaway Award and was nominated for a Lucille Lortel award. Her production of My Vaudeville Man garnered a Drama Desk award. Cougar the Musical, for which she was Director and contributing Writer, ran for almost two years and is licensed worldwide.
Her film choreography can be seen in the classic Footloose, My Blue Heaven, and Bewitched. She directed Real to Reel, a live-action event developed in China, and later presented at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival. Ms. Taylor-Corbett has choreographed for numerous dance companies including American Ballet Theatre, Alvin Ailey American Dance Theatre, and New York City Ballet.
She co-wrote and directed Out of the Shadows, the Good Housekeeping benefit for The National Women’s History Museum featuring Meryl Streep, Glenn Close, and Jane Alexander at City Center. Her adaptation of The Lion King is in its seventh year at Disney Hong Kong. She will be proudly helping to present KICK this Fall.
Solo performers present real-life, empowering stories. Transformative experiences for audiences. A theater of resilience that celebrates overcoming mental and physical life challenges and offers hope and inspiration. SOLO ARTS HEALS will include excerpts, talkbacks, and Q&A that provide education and advocacy. Readings or clips of performances will be shared by artists in conversation with Gail Schickele, whose work as a manager and producer of solo artists inspired collaboration of performing arts presenters with artists on a medical track based on their personal experience. The collective creative vision? To help communities through educational outreach and the healing power of the Arts.
