Wiser With Age

Tag: theater

  • Betty Corwin receives Lifetime Achievement Award for archiving thousands of NYC theater productions


    A woman with short hair wearing red necklace.
    Betty Corwin receiving her Lifetime Achievement Award at Sardi’s Restaurant in NYC on November 8, 2017. (Photo/Ellis Gaskell)

    Betty Corwin is going to turn 97 this month, but she says she still feels like a baby.

    “If you feel young, you are young,†says the native New Yorker, enthusiastically.

    This month was an extra special one for Corwin. She received the Special Lifetime Achievement Award from the League of Professional Theatre Women (LPTW) for founding the Theatre on Film and Tape Archive (TOFT) in 1969. In 2001, she also received a TONY Award for her dedicated work.

    It was because of Corwin’s vision, and untiring effort, that TOFT has been filming and archiving video recordings of Broadway, Off-Broadway, and regional theater productions for nearly 50 years. The archive is located at New York City’s Lincoln Center Library for the Performing Arts and is open to the public.

    “There are over 8,000 titles now – shows, interviews, dialogues, and over 4,000 are theater productions, and it continues to grow,†says Corwin, proudly. “It’s considered the largest archive of its kind.â€

    What’s perhaps most impressive about her extraordinary feat is that she only began this immense project when she was 50.

    “I got married in 1944, and my husband [a doctor] decided to practice in the country – so we moved to Connecticut,†says Corwin.

    She says it took her forever to get used to life in the country, but she did eventually. It’s there that she had, and raised, her three children.

    After they were grown, Corwin started to commute to NYC to volunteer in a psychiatric emergency room of a hospital. It was while filling out an application for a scholarship that she realized her true life’s calling.

    “I had to write a brief autobiography, and I found myself saying the most exciting time in my life was when I worked in the theater,†recalls Corwin, vividly. “When I was 20, I wasn’t married…I was a production assistant at the theater and script reader for three years.â€

    Because of this revelation, the next morning, she went straight to Lincoln Center and told the head of the drama department her plan to make an archive of all theater productions.

    He asked, “What makes you think you can do this?â€

    Corwin answered, “I can try.â€

    He said, “I’ll give you a desk and a telephone and see if you can get it off the ground.â€

    So, straight away, the unstoppable Corwin started calling foundations in order to get the money to fund her vision.

    “It was two and a half years just to get through the unions — I had to tackle them one at a time,†says Corwin, as if it were only yesterday. “I was persistent. I worked hard for it. Even when it was difficult getting union clearances, I pushed ahead.â€

    A woman with short hair wearing red necklace.
    Betty Corwin with the video tape recorders in Lincoln Center in 1998. (Courtesy Betty Corwin)

    She remembered literally walking into the offices of executives, after not getting callbacks, in order to get contracts signed. Sometimes it’d take up to an hour of convincing why the archive was necessary, but she says she wouldn’t leave until she got the signatures she needed.

    “Musicians have a lot of privacy rights. They didn’t trust anyone, or me,†says Corwin. “We finally had all the unions to be able to tape on Broadway, and I had also been raising money throughout…I did that for 31 years – getting up at 5:30am to catch the 7:31 train, and I loved what I was doing. I really did love what I did.â€

    Corwin’s love for the theater began as a young girl. Her parents would take her to see shows on Broadway. It was then that the seed was planted, and she began feeling someone had to preserve these shows. Little did she know that person would be her.

    “I was always a spectator. I never acted,†says Corwin. “When you go to the theater, you’re lost in another world.â€

    She says she also loves theater, because it can shed light on controversial topics happening in the world, like “The Normal Heart†– about the AIDS epidemic – which TOFT got to tape in 1985.

    Her favorite memory of her career was being able to watch a special finale of one of her favorite plays, “A Chorus Line†– which she says is also the longest running Broadway show.

    “The actors emerged from all over the theater,†says Corwin. “The orchestra and audience were in evening clothes. It was thrilling.â€

    What thrills Corwin nowadays is seeing her beloved archive continue at New York’s prestigious Lincoln Center.

    “We have viewers coming from around the world,†she says. “I continue to work for the library, and I’m also on the jury for the Outer Critics Circle…I feel good.â€

    What is her most important piece of life advice that she’d tell her 20-year-old self?

    “Just enjoy life and keep doing what you love. That’s the most important thing – to just keep going.â€

  • Actor Ivonne Coll on playing the matriarch on ‘Jane the Virgin’ at 70


    A woman with short hair wearing red necklace.
    Ivonne Coll (Photo\Starla Fortunato)

    Ivonne Coll is not a mother, or a grandmother, in real life, but she plays the role of both on television.

    Coll, otherwise known as Alba, plays the matriarch of her alternate reality home on The CW’s “Jane the Virgin.† There, the Puerto Rican actor plays the Venezuelan grandmother of Jane (Gina Rodriguez), and the mother of Xiomara Villanueva (Andrea Navedo). Her main goal as head of that household is to try and steer Jane in the right direction. 

    “What I like about the show is how they portray Alba is that she is still sensual,†says Coll, adding that her character is also courageous and intelligent. “A lot of times abuelas are shown as always having an apron on and asking if you ate, but Alba is a dynamic woman who has a boyfriend and makes mistakes in life. The creators allow me to sing and dance – those are the opportunities that this show has allowed me to express.â€

    In a way, the now 70-year-old actor is going back to her roots. At 20, while studying psychology at the University of Puerto Rico, Coll won the Miss Puerto Rico title, and in the same year, 1967, she represented Puerto Rico in the Miss Universe pageant – both of which required her to display her talents of acting, singing and dancing. Upon seeing her performing skills, a producer in Puerto Rico gave Coll her own variety show. But at 26, Coll decided it was time to move to Hollywood.

    A woman with short hair wearing red necklace.
    Ivonne Coll in 1967 (Courtesy Ivonne Coll)

    “My mother couldn’t understand why I was leaving Puerto Rico, because I was so successful there, but I knew my calling was somewhere else,†says Coll. “I knew I had to study the craft of acting. I didn’t care about fame, or making it, or becoming a star, I wanted to become a working actor – that was my goal.â€

    Little did she know, she says, that according to the standards of Hollywood, she was already considered “too old.â€

    “But I didn’t know that, and when I was told about it, I didn’t care,†says the determined Coll. “I just thought, ‘Let me keep on growing and doing my craft.’â€

    It was around this time in her life that she often didn’t have money for food or to buy bottled water, but nothing, not even not having money, would be an obstacle to accomplishing her dream. When she needed diction classes to make her spoken English clearer, she instantly thought of a creative solution.

    “I would clean the room for free lessons,†says Coll, laughing at this memory. “It was joyful. I never thought that I was struggling. I never thought I was paying my dues. It was a joy to do that work to get that session.â€

    Shortly after, by a chance situation, she was hired to play the “redheaded singer, Yolanda†in Francis Ford Coppola’s, “The Godfather II,†which hit theaters in 1974.

    “It was around 2 or 3 in the morning, and Al Pacino came on the set to do the kissing scene, and that’s what it did it for me,†recounts Coll about the exact moment she confirmed she wanted to dedicate the rest of her life to acting. “As he walked to Fredo, watching the way he transformed. I thought, ‘How did he do that?!’â€

    It was then that she started to train even harder.

    “I studied acting techniques for seven years, with Lee Strasberg, David Alexander, and Lucille Ball – who gave an eight-week workshop in Hollywood,†says Coll, adding that Ball was very strict and committed as a teacher.

    Throughout her career, Coll has starred on Broadway in “Goodbye Fidel,†and played Lady Macbeth in “Lady Macbeth,†and acted in the films, “Lean on Me,†and “Walking the Dead,†and has countless television credits, including “Switched at Birth,†and “Glee.†Yet no matter how many years and projects pass, she still calls her mother her biggest inspiration, role model and hero.

    “It’s all for Puerto Rico and my mother,†says Coll about Rosita Mendoza who was a celebrated hairstylist in Puerto Rico. “I think I inherited all my talent from my mother…Later in her life, she would be training – her talent for teaching is my talent for coaching others. That’s my mother – I’m so lucky. The last thing she saw me in was in Puerto Rican Parade in New York City when I won the Lifetime Achievement Award [in 2015]. She saw it on TV, and a week later she died.â€

    Coll admits that as her recurring role as a mom in the television series,“Switched at Birth†was dwindling down, she started thinking about gracefully bowing out of show business and returning to her island home.

    “I didn’t think there would be more roles for me,†says Coll. “As I’m doing the paperwork needed to wrap up, I get the audition for this role at Jane the Virgin.â€

    Not taking it seriously, she first told her agency she’s busy doing jury duty.

    “I was so confused, because the role was in Spanish in English, and the audition was the next day!,†says Coll.

    Once there, she asked the producers what kind of Spanish dialect they wanted. They said Venezuelan, which was a very easy transition from her native Caribbean Spanish.  

    “God decided that role was for me no matter how much I didn’t take it seriously,†says Coll. “When they called me to go to network, I turned off my phone, and I didn’t hear they cancelled the audition. So I went. And at the moment the casting director came in, and she said, ‘Abuela, we’ll see your tape.’ They didn’t answer until the next day. We were in parking lot when I got it. I was screaming in the car. It’s been a great ride.â€

    She says working on “Jane the Virgin†has been one of her most special experiences, because her co-stars have become like true family.

    “It’s also the first time three Latinas are in a mainstream show, and now we have it in ‘One Day at a Time,’†says Coll about the Netflix series she will soon guest star on – reuniting her with Rita Moreno, 85, who played the “Glam-ma†on “Jane the Virgin.â€

    Looking back now to when she once heard she was “too old†at 27, Coll laughs.

    “I just produced and co-wrote a short and I’m acting in it,†she says. “It’s about two women – one is a principal, and one is a yoga teacher and married to a Harvard professor…I want to put [Latinas] in charge like we are in real life…Producers feel it won’t sell, but it will sell, because it represents the face of North America.â€

    What advice would she tell her 20-year-old self at her age now?

    “I wouldn’t change anything of what I did really…Go with your gut feeling. God lives in you. I was not aware that I was doing that. Be more aware of what moves you, because that will inform how your life will be.â€

    “Alba, to me, has been a gift of love from God that came at a time I was about to retire. Isn’t it incredible?,” says Coll. “You can plan, but God has other plans, and His plans are better than yours.â€

  • How writing her life story led a woman to inner healing

    How writing her life story led a woman to inner healing


    A woman with short hair wearing red necklace.
    Maria Aponte (Photo/George Malave)

    Maria Aponte was born and raised an only child in East Harlem, otherwise known as “El Barrio,†in New York City, to Puerto Rican parents.

    Because she lost her mother at 16, and her father at 22, loneliness was a battle she fought most of her life, but it was also what made her the undefeated warrior and artist that she is today. And perhaps, the eternal yearning for parental guidance and wisdom, is what drove her to create a non-profit which honors elders later in life.

    At 60, Aponte has achieved much. She has written and performed two one-woman plays, the autobiographical “Lagrimas de mis Madres,†and “I Will Not Be Silenced,†based on the life of Sor Juana Ines de la Cruz. She has also written a poetry book, and a memoir, “The Gift of Loss,†which most recently hit shelves. In addition to working full-time in career development at Fordham University, she also started a non-profit called Latina 50 Plus four years ago, through which she honors other Latina pioneers over the age of 50.

    “I got the opportunity to tell my story in “Lagrimas de mis madres,†says Aponte about the play based on the women in her family, which she wrote during her undergrad years.

    A woman with short hair wearing red necklace.
    Aponte performing in her one woman show, “Lagrimas de Mis Madres.” (Photo/Elena Marrero)

    She says the story came easily, because she wrote the script using the poetry she had written throughout her youth.

    “I wanted to tell this story, because I was the last woman in my family, and I thought it could help others,†says Aponte, adding that she knew her work touched the audience when people would wait in the lobby to thank her for her courage to tell her story. “Eventually, it became a full-length play on off-Broadway. I took it on the road for 10 and a half years around the country.â€

    Because she was not the “typical looking Puerto Rican actress” of the time, she explains, like Rita Moreno – but more Afro-Latina in appearance, Aponte says she found she would get more work if she wrote plays herself. Her next play about Sor Juana de la Cruz, she also developed into a one-woman show and took it on tour around the country.

    “I was an introvert, and I think the arts saved me,†says Aponte, about how she dealt with the early death of her mother. “Even though it was painful, I was always able to use my art to deal with my pain.â€

    She says she knew she was born to be an artist as young as age 7.

    “I knew I wanted to be in the theater ever since I was a munchkin in the school play, ‘The Wizard of Oz’ – I connected to the stage,†says Aponte. “I was jumping up and down one day, and I smelled dust from the wooden planks of the stage, and I loved the smell. My first influence was my drama teacher at 13 – I was learning lines and stage plotting…I knew then that I knew I would be an artist, and I always have been in some form.â€

    She adds that her favorite medium will always be theater.

    “I love live theater,†says Aponte. “When I do a poetry reading, I end up performing…To me, it’s not just memorizing lines but developing character and taking the audience on a journey. I fell into the poetry thing in the 80’s, and that’s when I started writing more. My saving grace was the Nuyorican Poet’s Café. When I walked in, I felt like I was walking into El Barrio. That’s where I discovered my Puerto Rican pride, and where I connected with elders like Pedro Pietri.â€

    She says she also learned a lot from the late Miriam Colon who was the founder and director of NYC’s Puerto Rican Traveling Theater.

    “My elders taught me about my history and my culture,†says Aponte, who moved to the Bronx in the 1980’s, where she still resides today with her husband and fellow storyteller, Bobby Gonzalez.

    Now that she’s older, she would like to return the same favor and be an example for the youth she encounters.

    Aponte has led a structured presence, in her otherwise diversified creative life, working full-time at Fordham University for the past 19 years. She has spent time in various departments, but has stayed in career services for the past 11 years – in the managing diversity initiative, and in 2014 she simultaneously completed her MA in Latino Studies.

    “I don’t think you should stay stuck,†says Aponte. “I love the life I live today. A typical month could also involve sitting on panels and supporting other artists’ work. My heart is in the betterment and development of women of color.â€

    For herself, she realized how life growth happens in stages, over time, and she tries to teach that to others.

    “I was always telling my story in pieces. I have played my grandmother, mother, myself as a child, and as a woman,†says Aponte. “I would never address my father. My parents separated when I was two. My dad was actually not a bad person, just an alcoholic. He was a percussionist and could sing…but I never experienced him myself, just from what I heard from others. I wanted to write also about forgiveness.â€

    Through her writing, Aponte says she has documented the amount of years it took her to become her own woman.

    “It is about coming to terms with who you are, and thinking, ‘Wow, I went through all that,’ she says. “I have a tremendous gratitude for life. Like right now as I’m speaking to you, I’m smiling.â€

    She adds that most people don’t want to deal with emotion, but everyone has to at their own timing.

    “People say I’m so calm, but I say it’s a lot of work,†says Aponte. “The best I can do is plant a little seed.â€

    Why she created Latina 50 Plus?

    “In the industry I work in, career development, I felt that older Latina women were disappearing,†says Aponte. “I felt I needed to create a space where their history wouldn’t be lost. We need to honor the elders who rolled up their sleeves before us.â€

    Latina 50 Plus is a non-profit currently in its fourth year. The fourth annual luncheon, taking place on June, 24, will be honoring seven women in the fields of art, community service, education, medicine, law and literature.

    The next goal, she says, is a mentoring program.

    Her advice to her younger self?

    “Being a child caregiver, I would ignore myself,†says Aponte. “I had to really work hard on that. That’s how my brain worked. That could be your own obstacle…You have to have passion and persistence, because if you don’t, you can get swallowed up in the mundane stuff. You must discover yourself. Ask yourself, ‘Who am I?’ Everyone is going to have that moment. Don’t be afraid of it. Accept yourself with all of your imperfections. It’s ok if you mess up.â€

  • Poet Laureate of Iowa writes about our food system

    Poet Laureate of Iowa writes about our food system


    A woman with short hair wearing red necklace.
    Mary Swander, Poet Laureate of Iowa

    For the past 30 years, Mary Swander has risen at 6 every morning in her one-room farmhouse in Kalona, Iowa – a town known for being one of the largest Amish communities west of the Mississippi.

    She, herself, is not Amish, or a farmer, however – although she does raise ducks and geese and a large organic vegetable garden from which she grows her own food.

    Swander, who recently turned 66, is the Poet Laureate of Iowa, and her 40-year writing career is currently at a peak.

    The multiple award winner for the literary arts has written the memoirs, “The Desert Pilgrim,†and “Out of This World,†as well as several books of poetry, a musical, “Dear Iowa,†and the plays, “Vang,†a drama about recent immigrant farmers and “Map of My Kingdom,†which tackles the issue of farmland ownership transfer. Both plays will be presented on November 13 at the Change Food Festival, which will be held at New York University in NYC.

    There’s a reason why much of Swander’s art focuses on food systems. It was food which was the cause of her debilitating illnesses she has battled for most of her life.

    “I became very chemically sensitive, and I ended up in a special hospital in Chicago,†recalls the writer. “They tested me on foods one at a time, and it took me months to come up with 12 foods which I should not eat. I had all sorts of symptoms. The worst ones were blacking out, horrible stomach pains – a whole variety of things. From that hospital, they told me to eat only organic food. They didn’t know if it was the hormones in the food, or pesticides that I was reacting to.â€

    It was after a severe sickness in 1983, at age 33, when she made her life-changing decision to move to Amish country, which is characterized by the “old-fashioned†life amidst horse and buggies and sprawling farmland.

    “I could only eat organic food, and it was really hard to find at that time, so I started going to the Amish to buy it from them,†says Swander. “I got to know the area and the people, and one day I drove by an old schoolhouse and it had a ‘for sale’ sign. I thought how great that would be for somebody, and that somebody turned out to be me.â€

    After her new diet cured her, Swander became very busy teaching English for more than 35 years at eight different colleges and universities. She spent the most time teaching at Iowa State University, where she became a “distinguished professor.†Eventually, she left teaching to become executive director of AgArts – an organization she founded, which began as a small group at ISU in 2008, and grew into a national non-profit organized through collectives throughout the U.S.

    “I was appointed poet laureate in 2009, and then in 2011, two more years, and then two more years,†says the Iowa-native, about her governor-appointed position which typically lasts two years. “The idea is to promote the literary arts around the state of Iowa.â€

    During her seven year tenure so far, Swander has traveled to all 99 counties of her state to host readings and workshops in nursing homes, colleges, prisons, elementary schools, book clubs, rotaries, women’s clubs.

    “Every day, I look at my calendar and look at where I’m supposed to go,†says Swander. “People contact me. I did a couple of projects for the Department of the Blind and the School for the Deaf. I’m really interested in helping people with disabilities because of my experiences.â€

    Being a writer was an idea conceived in Swander’s mind as a kid, but she actually started writing at 21 and has stayed with it ever since.

    “Some days I don’t like it, because it feels like work,†she says laughing. “But I love literature, and I love to read…I have a lot of influences from Chaucer’s ‘The Canterbury Tales’ to Elizabeth Bishop – a huge range of people. I started out in poetry – in which I wrote four books, but I’ve written non-fiction, plays and journalism.â€

    Swander received her M.F.A. from the University of Iowa Writers Workshop, and she also became a certified and licensed practitioner of therapeutic massage.

    “I think for any artist, the biggest challenge is carving out time to do your art, but then you have to pay the bills at the same time,†says the writer, explaining how she started a massage therapy business at one point to supplement her income. “There’s a million different ways to arrange your life to do that so you have to find the way that works for you.â€
    Nothing makes her more proud however, she says, than when she has a new book come out.

    “I’m always happy to write the next book, or perform the next play, or get the next idea for the next book,†says Swander, who also likes to educate the American public simultaneously. “We’ve got a huge horrible problem going on…Corporate America is taking over organic food…Too many preservatives, dyes and chemicals. It’s just not really healthy, and it’s all subsidized by big agriculture.â€

    What advice would she give her younger self?

    “I would tell my younger self to just relax more and realize you’re on a journey. You have to put effort into things, but there are forces out there bigger than you are, so you might as well go with the flow.â€

  • “La Bamba,” “Zoot Suit” writer on the importance of building community

    “La Bamba,” “Zoot Suit” writer on the importance of building community


    A woman with short hair wearing red necklace.
    Luis Valdez (Courtesy El Teatro Campesino)

    Do you remember reading the play, “Zoot Suit†in high school or watching the movie “La Bamba†(1987), based on the life of 1950’s rocker Ritchie Valens, starring Lou Diamond Phillips and Esai Morales? They were both written by multi-award winning playwright and director, Luis Valdez.

    He is also the founder of the longest running Chicano theater in the U.S. El Teatro Campesino is located in the rural community of San Juan Bautista, Calif. – approximately 150 miles northwest from where he was born to migrant farm worker parents.

    “I was born in 1940 in a labor camp in Delano…the west side of Delano was separated by the railroad tracks,†says Valdez, now 74. “The Asians, Mexicans, and African Americans were on the west side, and the White people lived on the east side of the tracks.â€

    Valdez says he remembers understanding as early as age six, that he was born into a segregated land.

    Years later, in 1955, he remembers the segregation continued. There was a young man who was called “C.C.†who decided to sit in the middle of the movie theater and not in the section designated for “non-whites.â€

    “The police took him away,†says Valdez. “There was no law – it was custom. They released him, and the following week, a whole group went and sat in the middle of the theater. Years later, I went to work with the UFW [United Farm Workers], and my mom said, ‘Don’t you know who C.C. is? He is Cesar Chavez.â€

    It was in 1965, while volunteering with the UFW, that Valdez founded El Teatro Campesino – a theater troupe for farm workers and students. The theater, he says, served as a way to inform, educate and also provide laughter during very hard times for strikers.

    A woman with short hair wearing red necklace.
    El Teatro Campesino performing in the 1960’s. (Courtesy El Teatro Campesino)

    “I’ve seen the evolution of theater, film and television,†says Valdez regarding his continually growing work with El Teatro Campesino, which still continues today. “My focus has been on historical periods so people can know who we are today…now we’re focused on developing the young.â€

    Valdez says it was school that changed the trajectory of his life. It was his mom who sent him and his brother to school one day with their lunches packed in a little brown paper bag – a luxury, he says, in those days.

    “I used to take care of my little bag, but one day my bag was missing,†Valdez remembers back to the first grade. “My teacher said, ‘I took it. It’s for a mask I’m making for a play.’ I forgave her for the bag, and the next week, I auditioned and I got my first part in a play – a monkey. I was looking forward to my first debut in front of the world on a Monday. I told my mom, and she said, ‘We’re leaving Friday. We were being evicted.â€

    Valdez says he was six and devastated. However, that episode in his life was crucial, because it gave him the insatiable desire to pursue theater for the rest of his life.

    “It was at San Jose State University that I began to write and produce,†says Valdez. “I wrote my first full-length play there, and just last month, my son produced ‘Zoot Suit’ – it ran two weeks. It’s come full circle – 50 years after I graduated.â€

    What piece of life advice would Valdez tell his younger self if he could?

    “I would tell my young self, and others, that it’s important to develop people skills…It comes with giving respect when respect is due. Genius is not an excuse to mistreat other people. A true genius is a genius of compassion and humility…I’m happy to say that El Teatro Campesino is composed of 12 people who have been together the past 40 years. They have had other careers but are still pitching in and helping out. In an odd way, that keeps us young. That’s a great feeling. It’s amazing to me. They’ve become maestras and maestros in their own right…We got a slow start incorporating women into the group, but some of our greatest collaborators have been with women. I would talk to my younger self about the importance of that…These are lessons they I’ve learned along the way. We are all human, and we all have a heart.