The series, Women’s History Month, will feature three veteran actresses and a librarian turned professional storyteller.
By Lesley Lotto/Special to The Malibu Times
The Malibu Library’s 6th Annual Speaker Series kicks off March 5, honoring Women’s History Month.
“It’s great for Malibu because people don’t get to see live theater for free very often” said event organizer Kathy Sullivan.
The series takes place every Saturday through March in the Malibu Library Community Room at 3 p.m. The weekly performances feature women who have either written their own one-act play, have handpicked it for themselves or had it written for them specially. “They’re an assortment of historic and dramatic performances,” whittled down to 60 minutes each, Sullivan said.
“The series was started as a way to put the library on the map as more of a cultural center for the community,” Sullivan explained.
Sullivan was involved in an accident in 1992, which left her with a great deal of time to read; this spurred her involvement in getting the library more attention.
Sullivan, who said she’s a “library advocate,” said many of the performers are veterans of the speaker series.
Stephanie Nash is scheduled as the first performer this Saturday, with her piece, “Classical Heroines of Stage and Literature.” Nash is a Yale School of Drama graduate and has plenty of theatrical experience with performances at such venues as the Lincoln Center, the Kennedy Center and Yale Repertory Theatre. She’s also performed in off-Broadway shows and in a Broadway National Tour. Nash has performed more than nine one-woman shows, five of which she wrote herself. In Los Angeles, Stephanie has starred in dramas at the Odyssey Theatre, the Colony Studio Theatre and at the Club Blue in Hollywood. Her most successful play, “A White Woman on a Red Road,” had its first performance at the Malibu Library Speaker Series in March 2002. She’s also worked in commercials and recently appeared on such television shows as “NYPD Blue,” “Carnivale,” “7th Heaven” and “Judging Amy.” She also appeared in several feature films including “Bruce Almighty.” In addition to performing, Nash also teaches acting, movement, Shakespeare and meditation. Her description of her performance of “Classical Heroines” is, “Moving from Chekhov to Shakespeare to Oscar Wilde and Moliere.”
Sullivan said, “Nash leads us on a tour of how the emotional and social plight and survival of women has been portrayed by some of the greatest writers of dramatic literature.”
Week two, on March 12, stars Seemah Wilder performing “Apple Strudel.” Wilder is a lifelong stage and television actress, well known on the Los Angeles theater circuit. Married to comedy writer William Idelson, Wilder got her start acting on CBC radio in Canada. She also performed on Broadway at a young age. The play “Apple Strudel” was written by her friend, playwright and writing teacher Mary Jane Roberts and is directed by Emmy Award-winning director Don Evans. Wilder portrays an Austrian immigrant during World War II and the Holocaust. She discusses the era as she makes strudel.
March 19 features Barbara Clark in “Finding Womanhood.” Clark is a librarian turned professional storyteller. “She’s a passionate advocate of written and spoken word,” Sullivan said of Clark. Her stories have been performed for dozens of groups and in world storytelling and arts festivals. All of Clark’s stories are original and include amusing anecdotes about her personal life experiences living in the inner city. The stories include details about family heritage, her ancestors and their pasts. They include startling accounts of mysterious and spooky events and some inspirational tales as well.
The fourth and final performance is by Kress Mersky, March 26, called “Bip 3 Times.” Mersky is an actress and writer who has performed her one-woman shows extensively throughout California and Canada. In “Bip 3 Times,” she brings 14 characters to life in a series of comedic sketches. Mersky’s full-length plays have been performed in New York and Los Angeles. She has appeared regularly on the stage and in numerous films and television shows and has been nominated by the Mark Taper Forum for the Susan Smith Blackburn Prize in playwriting.
The community room where the speakers’ series takes place holds about 80 people, but Sullivan said there have been times that performances were standing room only.
The first performance is Saturday, 3 p.m., in the Malibu Library Community Room, 23519 Civic Center Way. Admission is free.