Amy Stoller

Dialect Design/Coaching, Dramaturgy
New York, New York USA; global via Skype

Where do you look for inspiration? I don’t look for it; I let it sneak up on me.

What’s your favorite book / movie / line from a play / cocktail? I never have only one favorite of anything!

Book: Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland; Pride and Prejudice

Movie: Casablanca; Some Like it Hot

Line: “We’re actors! We’re the opposite of people!” (Although I probably quote “Sometimes there’s God so quickly” and “Are we all met?” more often); also pretty much anything from Casablanca, The Wizard of Oz, The Cocoanuts, and any other early Marx Bros. film

Cocktail: Never mind the cocktails, bring on the champagne!

What play or production changed your life? All my firsts. In the audience: the original production of My Fair Lady (first Broadway show); Peter Brook’s production of A Midsummer Night’s Dream (first Shakespeare on stage). On stage: The Crucible. As a dialect designer: An Ideal Husband.

Is there anything you still dream of doing? Dialect design for Broadway. Breaking into feature film. Directing the first revival of a virtually unknown seventeenth century comedy by a woman (yes, I have one in mind).

What is your best escape? Reading.

Amy Stoller. Resident Dialect Designer/Coach (and occasional dramaturge) at the Mint. Other New York and regional includes world premiers by Athol Fugard, Paula Vogel, Anna Deavere Smith. Television: children’s animation to documentaries. Current/Recent: Let Me Down Easy, Rutherford and Son, A Moon for the Misbegotten. Officer, Voice and Speech Trainers Association. www.stollersystem.com

Mari Lyn Henry

Educator, Talent Manager, Career Coach
New York, New York USA

I feel most like myself when I teach a group of young actors audition skills.

Everyone knows me, because I’m an open book.

I look for inspiration from great works of art at the Metropolitan Museum.

The RSC’s NICHOLAS NICKLEBY changed my life because of Trevor Nunn’s imagination and the core work of the ensemble.

My favorite line is from the movie CASABLANCA: “Round up the usual suspects.”

My favorite cocktail is the Pasha Martini from the Pasha Restaurant (70 W. 71st Street) with sour cherry and lime juice. They also make great Turkish food.

My best escape is a biography.

I still dream of going to Paris to pay my respect to Sarah Bernhardt’s grave.

Mari Lyn Henry is the co-author with Lynne Rogers of five editions of HOW TO BE A WORKING ACTOR. More info: www.howtobeaworkingactor.com

Georganne Aldrich Heller

President of Irish Theatre & Film Production
New York, New York USA

In November will be celebrating her twenty years in producing new Irish Drama in New York and Los Angeles honored by The Consul General of Ireland at a special celebration party at The Odyssey theater Los Angeles. She has worked exclusively all these years on introducing new Irish plays and playwrights to the USA. As producer, Georganne is opening three Irish shows this month: two in Los Angeles: FORGOTTEN by Pat Kinevane, WHO’S YOUR DADDY? by Johnny O’ Callaghan; and one in Dublin: the award-winning THE PROPHET OF MONTO by JP Murphy which premiered in New York City at the 1st Irish Theater Festival at The Flea Theater, transferred to Dublin with original cast and director. She hopes to bring this to London next year.

Where do you look for inspiration? Observing people and meeting people when I travel.

What’s your favorite…
Book: At the moment- Alice Munro short stories
Movie: Casablanca
Line from a play: “I didn’t go to the moon, I went much further—for time is the longest distance between two places” Tennessee Williams/ The Glass Menagerie
Favorite guilty pleasure: A day of room service in a luxurious hotel
Cocktail: Cranberry juice with soda water!!!

What play or production changed your life? Ladies & Gents, an Irish play which I produced in the public toilets in Central Park! We had five hundred people on the waiting list when we closed!
Is there anything you still dream of doing? This all the time…
I feel most like myself when I ….am extremely busy!
What is your best escape? A day of room service in a luxury hotel!
What’s the one thing nobody knows about you? Well it’s a secret!

Georganne Aldrich Heller is the president of Irish Theatre & Film Production.  Most recently, her credits include the world premiere of The Prophet of Monto by John Paul Murphy for the 1^st Irish Festival at The Flea Theater and My Old Friends by Norman Sachs and Mel Mandel at The Victory Theatre, Los Angeles.