Blog30

Celebrating the members of the League of Professional Theatre Women

Search Results for: “Joanne Pottlitzer”

22 Feb 2012

Joanne Pottlitzer

Writer and Director
New York, New York USA

The play that changed my life would be Antigone. I was cast as Ismene for a radio production at Purdue University, where one of the theatre department’s directors was playing Creon. He asked me to join the cast of one of his productions and I spent the rest of my college years on stage in extraordinary roles, such as Julia in The Cocktail Party, Laurie in Green Grow the Lilacs, where I sang “Black Is the Color of My True Love’s Hair” a capella (!!), and Gertrude in Hamlet. Favorite line from a play: the last scene of Hamlet: “There is a special providence in the fall of a sparrow. If it be now, ’tis not to come; if it be not to come, it will be now; if it be not now, yet it will come – the readiness is all.” I also love Albee’s line in A Delicate Balance, which paraphrased is that we need to edit our memory in order to survive.

I remember one summer while I was in college reading D’Annuncio’s The Flame of Life, an autobiographical rendering about his relationship with Eleanora Duse, listening to the music of Tchaikovsky’s Capriccio Italiene. The music and the book are one in my memory.

My love of music covers a wide range–classical, new music (from Stravinsky to Steve Reich), fusion, folk, Latin, and I love country!

I look for inspiration in people I admire, the wonders of nature, art, ideas that either stimulate my mind or move me.

I feel most myself writing, painting…beside the Chilean sea, surrounded by the beauty of nature. My passion for other cultures stems from a summer spent in Mexico City when I was 19, living with a Mexican family and attending the National University. That also changed my life.

I don’t think I have any guilty pleasures. I just enjoy them.

My dreams include designing a house (I studied architectural design), painting professionally, acting again, adapting for theatre and film my book, Symbols of Resistance: The Legacy of Artists under Pinochet, about the influence of artists on the political process.

Joanne Pottlitzer, writer and director, has produced many Latin American plays in New York. She has received numerous producing and writing awards, including two Obies. Articles: NY Times, TDR, American Theatre, Theater. Teaching: Yale School of Drama, NYU Tisch School of the Arts, Hunter College, Ohio University School of Theater.

Posted in Director, Dramatist (Playwright) and tagged Antigone, D'Annuncio, Eleanora Duse, Hamlet, Joanne Pottlitzer, League of Professional Theatre Women, New York, Purdue University, The Cocktail Party

25 May 2012

Week in Review, May 21-27, 2012

LPTW’s Blog30 was created to highlight the diversity, passion and brilliance of the individual members of the League of Professional Theatre Women in celebration of the organization’s 30th Anniversary. Every Sunday, the women featured in the previous six days, as well as three others from our first two months, receive a little more attention, a second chance for readers to learn about them. Sunday is often a day for reflection, offering the opportunity to catch up on the previous week’s activities. Now, the Week in Review gives our readers the opportunity to experience a week’s entries in one easy sitting. We hope you enjoy the latest addition to Blog30.

I never get tired of analyzing various forms of love. – Saviana Stanescu, May 21

I had five lines, saw a big black box with levers offstage right, said “What’s that?”, was told it was the light board, ran the board for the next production and never set foot onstage again. – Judith Binus, May 22

I am a black belt in Judo. – Joyce Liao, May 23

Singing – no matter where, it makes me happy and calms all my stresses. – Marie Ann Chenevey, May 24

From the Archives:
The scope of my cultural umbrella widened and prompted me in later years to become an advocate, a cultural mender, a “cultural agitator” as Martha had called me. – Joyce Maio, February 3

In fact, playing Amanda in Glass Menagerie at the wise old age of 15 helped me realize that I HAD to be in the theater for the rest of my life (saying the lines “deception, deception, deception” was one of the most divine moments of my young life). – Antoinette LaVecchia, February 9

What play or production changed your life? Bruce Springsteen in concert with the E Street Band. – Caridad Svich, February 11

My work has been generated by listening, particularly to older people whose lives have been dramatic. – Julia Pascal, February 17

My love of music covers a wide range–classical, new music (from Stravinsky to Steve Reich), fusion, folk, Latin, and I love country! – Joanne Pottlitzer, February 2

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