Volume 6, Number 1         www.rehearsalclubnyc.com     Winter, 2012

Rehearsal Club

Key Award!

 

One of the highlights at the Centennial Player's Club dinner will be the RC Key Award.  It will be given to an under-30 actress (singer or dancer) who is just breaking through in NY theater, TV or film.

 

You may submit your nomination to:

Rise:  [email protected]

Western Region Organizes 
Chair:  DeBorah Sharpe-Taylor
Vice Chair:  Patricia Hill-Meyer
Secretary:  Kathie Kellogg
We look forward to seeing more of our LA members in NY next year!

 

Rehearsal Club "Stuff"  

Baseball Caps
Donation:  $20
Black hats only left
Contact:  [email protected]

RC NOTECARDS
Donation:  $12/box of 8
Contact:  [email protected]


COOKBOOKS!
Only a few left
Donation:  $10

Phyllis Sketch

PR KIT

 

The electronic version of our PR Kit is now available.  Contact Lee Kelley for info. 

[email protected]


SOCIAL MEDIA
Like us on Facebook


We also have a Rehearsal Club Facebook page - "LIKE" itLike us on Facebook
Check out the photo albums on our Facebook page for more pictures from our March event!

Join our View our profile on LinkedIn Rehearsal Club Group
There is also an interactive RC Group on Facebook (which is different than our page)  We communicate through the "group," we are more selective with what is posted on the RC page (at least for now - until we learn more).
Website Expanded 
 
If you haven't visited our website lately, please do.  Note that members -- and their descendants -- can link their businesses to us!

 

GOINGS ON!

 

 Olyve Hallmark Abbott 

[email protected] - Finalist in the Ms. Texas Senior America Pageant, Dallas, 8/11/12, performing "Tu che di gel sei cinta" fromPuccini's opera, Turandot.   Her 6th book, COME SUNDOWN: The life and letters of a frontier woman available this year. Her 4th and 5th books came out in 2011: Lone Star

Ghosts and TV-Live-or Dead. (The latter, an amateur sleuth, is set in N.Y.

Donna Brooks, an American Indian Storyteller, performed for world renowned artist, George Catlin's 216th Birthday @ Greenwood Chapel, Brooklyn, NY.  She and her husband sang an honoring song and danced with the participants after the unveiling of John Coleman's bronze, "The Greeter." 

Johann Carlo plays Al Capone's mother on Boardwalk Empire 
Phyllis Creore (Westerman) - is currently celebrated at the NY Historical Museum as "The Canteen Girl."

Patricia Hill - Now on the air- she is working as a camera operator on NBC's "Whitney," based on Whitney Cummings observation of relationships. Seinfeld like- give a watch.  Another show airing later in the season, called "Work it". 

MJ Houdina choreographed WHITE CHRISTMAS at Theatre Under the Stars in Houston, Texas

Grace Kiley wrote & brilliantly performed in her own one-woman show based on the life of Grace Kelly.  Inspiring work performed both in England & NYC 

Lora Mitchell has several short stories published in two collections:  Rockin' Chair  Cowboys and Treasured Memories.  She also received a foundation grant to develop a project on Lerner & Loewe  

Denise Pence records a weekly broadcast for Gatewave Radio and produced Union Women At Work:  Inspiration in Motion @ The York Theatre in March.   

 

Don't forget to send us YOUR latest news!
Hurricane Sandy!
Nancy Wight pictured above outside her apt. in NY in the aftermath of Sandy.  Most RC Alum got away lucky.  One (we know of) went into a hotel due to lack of power, but most in the uptown area were well-blessed & grateful.
Editor's Corner
Wow, what a year!  Our March event was a miracle of collaboration and creativity that makes being in the business worth it all.  Thank you to each and every participant - especially Kathy Conry who went above and beyond any call of duty.  And Larry Spivack -- now on board as the new composer for the full Rehearsal Club musical.  Rise, you married quite a guy (congrats again on 30 years)

As we move into our Centennial Year, everyone on the RC Team encourages you to COME, RECONNECT, INSPIRE, PLAY and work with all of us to make our coming together again a memory never to be forgotten.

Cinderellas of West 53rd Street
  
WAITING
We're in "seeking publisher" mode.  Each submission requires waiting.  Meanwhile, other members are continuing to submit their stories.  Thank you!  We will be in touch when there's light at the end of this tunnel.

The Rehearsal Club 

Founded 1913  

Alumnae Newsletter

"To tell the story of The Rehearsal Club, to preserve its legacy and inspire the future generations of aspiring artists." 

Letter From Lee

  

The excitement and possibilities are growing as we rapidly approach our Rehearsal Club Centennial. The celebration weekend fittingly ends on July 1, 2013 - 100 years to the day the Club opened its doors to young, aspiring actresses who, through timeless dreams, reach from their era to ours.

 

Choose, from the events outlined below, the ones that interest you. Take part in their planning, if possible. Reach out to those RC women you know who have not yet joined us. Urge them to participate in this opportunity, not only to gather and reminisce, but to insure the Rehearsal Club will never be forgotten.

 

It has been an incredible journey, I think, these past 5 years leading the Centennial. Difficult at times, surely, but one that has been filled with welcome surprises. Whether the journey ends with the June celebration or that proves just a fabulous step on the way, is an intriguing question.   COME!

 
Centennial Events

Thursday, June 27, 2013
Lincoln Center Library Presentation
    Empire Hotel Cast Party
    Sponsored by WAMCo
Friday, June 28, 2013
Museum of Modern Art Screenings

     OUT Hotel Networking & Open Mic

 

Saturday, June 29, 2013 (note: date was incorrect in the recent Centennial Preview e-blast)
The Players Club Dinner 

Commemmorative Journal Planned!
How YOU Can Help?
1)  Dust off your scrapbooks and submit choice photos to be added to our book. 
2)  Help us sell advertising space
Professional Children's School is already committed to taking 1/2 page for $500 -- business card size is available for as little as $125!
Contact Terry Baughan:  [email protected]

OPEN MIC NITE!
Start thinking about how you might bring others together in your area to do something as a regional group!

Watch for a more detailed
Centennial Outline in the near future.
Rehearsal Club Documentary Trailer
  
Preliminary funding has helped us complete the Documentary Trailer which will be made available soon on our website and through our new KickStarter Campaign.  To complete the full documentary, we continue to seek Tax-Deductible Funding through NYWIFT.
 
Checks must be made out to our fiscal sponsor: 
 NYWIFT
(NY Women in Film & Television)
  The Rehearsal Club Project should be written on the memo line.  This is very important.  Checks should be mailed to: 

 Fiscal Sponsorship Program

New York Women in Film and Television

6 East 39th Street

New York, NY  10016. 

 Alternatively, donations may be made online at our website: www.rehearsalclubnyc.com on our Bulletin Board page; or just click below to go directly to the NYWIFT donation site. 

DONATE HERE

"Union Women At Work:  Inspiration in Motion"
March , 2012 - The York Theatre
This time last year the Women's History Month performance was just a figment in our imagination. Today it's a favorite memory for many Rehearsal Club gals who participated in making the evening a magical  event for one and all.
 

Please visit our Facebook photo albums to see the many sides to our Women @ Work evening. From Pygmalion scenes with the talented Grace Kiley as "Eliza;" original Ziegfeld Follies costumes (thanks to the Ziegfeld Club); and last, but not least, the three original songs from the Rehearsal Club creators, Charles Leipart, lyricist, and John Kroner, composer, "Good Girls Only," "One Dress" and "Jimmy."

 

Now we're on the road to a full fledged musical, "Good Girls Only: The Rehearsal Club Musical" with Larry Spivack (Rise husband) as our new composer. Watch for excerpts from the new show at our Centennial next year!

Women @ Work RC Cast Members:

Dottie Belle Meymann, Donna Brooks, Rise Clemmer, Kathleen Conry (Director), Maxine Greene, Sunny Keyser, Grace Kiley ("Eliza"), Denise Pence (Producer), Cameron Taylor, Amanda Trees

 

Below are a few pictures from the event -- visit our Facebook page for many more . . .

 
.
 

Rise Clemmer, RC Secretary

  

 

Donna Brooks & Amanda Trees (Finale)

 

Grace Kiley as "Eliza"

 Our Own "Canteen Girl" - Phyllis Jeanne Creore
 
Featured in the NY Historical Museum thru March
 Don't miss the wonderful films narrated by Phyllis, now 96, currently on display in the newsly renovated NY Historical Museum (77 & CPW).  We hope to share again at the MOMA Centennial Event.
Letters!  We Get Letters!
Welcome.html 
From Shannon Sturges
323-436-7777 - LA Talent
Hello, 
I believe that my mother, Colette Jackson, was a member/tenant of the rehearsal club. She died 43 years ago today and I recently met someone who told me that she was there in New York at the Rehearsal Club. I believe it would have been the late 50's and early 60's. I was born in Los Angeles in 1968.

Is there anyone who can confirm that she was there?

 

If I were to come to New York is there memorabilia or photos that I could pay to have copies of? I have no history of my mother before I was born, her parents died also when she was young. It would be a treasure to me and my children if it is true that she was there and you have any records or photos of her during that time.
(Kathy Vestuto & others among us forwarded information)
With gratitude, Shannon Sturges
______________________________________________

MORE LETTERS:
From: Debby Rettino, [email protected]
To:  Terry Baughan 
October 2, 2012
I asked my mother this morning for the name she used at the Rehearsal Club
(Melle Matthews - [email protected].)
and the years she was there (1949-1950). She wanted to know what I was up to and I told her it was none of her beeswax. I could hear the sparkle in her eyes as she started in to even more stories.
Melle was in South Pacific:
When the current cast toured to the Ahmanson in Los Angeles, I asked the stage manager if there was any way she could meet some of the cast back stage. I gave the stage manager the photos of my mother in "South Pacific."  [After the show], almost the entire cast came to meet her. They all wanted photos with her and to hear about being in the cast, her audition for Rodgers and Hammerstein, how it was to work with Mary Martin, and more.I even got some of it on video (when I remembered my point and shoot camera could record video as well). At age 91 she says it was the highlight of her life.

I get choked up just thinking of how much [being part of the RC History] would mean to her. We all want our lives to have impact, to influence someone for good, and to still be relevant.

[My mother] told me she went by the Rehearsal Club when she was in New York for the 50th Anniversay of South Pacific. It was just a hole in the ground then.
I did not tell my mother I was getting her a membership yet, but I mentioned that the Rehearsal Club was celebrating it's 100th anniversary in 2013. She got SO excited. She was trying to find a way to fly there. Oh boy - I think we may be in for an interesting trip to New York this summer.

Debby Kerner Rettino, D.Min., Psalty's Kids Co., 16 Riviera, Coto de Caza, CA 92679
Broadway Cares/Equity Fights Aids 
AIDSWALK(NY): $1,555 Raised
BC/EFA Flea Market: Bake Sale Table raised $200
(Note: BC/EFA donated $250,000 to relief efforts from Hurricane Sandy)

We're doing our part of help . . . and don't ya know, "giving" becomes a party every time. Pictured above are Nancy Wight, Judy Jenson, Kathy Conry, Denise Pence & Judith Curcio. Other RC members who shared in working our booth: Michell Mason, Melinda Tanner (both original Chairs pictured below) and Cameron Taylor (missed the camera somehow).  Lora Mitchell (who started a very successful raffle for her B'way Bear) is pictured on our website.  Thank you ALL!