Free Tony Talk/ End-of-Season Celebration

Will The Temptations take home a Tony Award ® or is it just their ‘magination? Will Hadestown and Beetlejuice ascend? Or will The Prom reign as queen and walk away with the Tony for Best Musical?

All of these questions and more will be part of the fun end-of-season celebration Wednesday, June 5 hosted by the CT Chapter of the League of Professional Theatre Women at Stratford Public Library's gorgeous Lovell Room. Networking begins at 5 pm followed by the panel and Tony predictions at 6. Find out who predicted correctly when the 73rd annual Tony Awards honoring the best of Broadway are announced just a few days later.

Local radio personality and Actress Virginia Wolf (Herstory Theater) will moderate a panel of experts who will do their best to guess this year’s winners and talk about all of the shows that made the 2018-2019 Broadway season so exciting. Joining the discussion are Tony and multi Award-winning Producer Pat Addiss (Desperate Measures, A Christmas Story, Spring Awakening, Vanya, Sonia, Masha and Spike), Broadway Publicist Susan L. Schulman (“Backstage Pass to Broadway”) and Broadway Critic Lauren Yarger (Drama Desk and Outer Critics Circle).

In addition, the chapter will present Playhouse on Park in West Hartford with a “Seal of Approval” which recognizes a theater’s success in hiring women for its productions, both on stage and behind the scenes.

A light buffet dinner will be offered during the networking hour. Door prizes will be awarded. This event will be offered free of charge, but donations will be appreciated to help defray costs. RSVPs are required. Click here to secure your seat.

For more information about the League of Professional Theatre Women, visit http://theatrewomen.org/. For information about joining the Connecticut Chapter, email Co-Founder Mary Miko at mary@goodspeed.org.

Pat Flicker Addiss is a native New Yorker who went to Finch College. She started a promotions Company, Pat Addiss Enterprises, to support herself and three children. After 30 years, she gave it to her daughter Wendy who still runs it from Virginia and does many theatre promos. Pat, became a Broadway producer in 2005 on Little Women starring Sutton Foster. She has produced 16 plays on Broadway, many Tony Winners and seven Off-Broadway including the award-winning musical Desperate Measures, slated to play all over the USA. Her latest show Loves of Picasso had a special reading at MoMA. She is on the boards of NJ Rep and League of Professional Theatre Women and on the Broadway League Legislative Committee. Pat is an active female advocate espousing her mantra 50/50 in 2020. She speaks at many symposiums traveling to speak to groups on " Reinventing Yourself.” She created the popular YaYa brunches and dinners to feed her passion of connecting people. https://www.ibdb.com/broadway-cast-staff/pat-addiss-392225

Susan L Schulman has been a theatrical press agent for over 40 years, handling Broadway, off-Broadway, dance, film, special events, TV, books, dance and individual personalities. Susan was born and bred in New York City, attending Hunter Elementary and Hunter High School, NYU and holds a Master's degree in Theatre Arts from Columbia University. Upon graduation from college she landed several low-paying but interesting jobs including Assistant to the Press Director at Lincoln Center which utilized her writing skills and love of the theatre. After a year and a half at L.C. she worked for virtually every top theatrical press agent in New York, honing her skills with the legendary Bill Doll, Mary Bryant, Arthur Cantor, Frank Goodman and Merle Debuskey. She also worked at WNET/Channel 13 (handling The Forsyte Saga, An American Family, etc.) and at United Artists as a Senior Publicist (Lady Caroline Lamb, Last Tango in Paris and Tom Sawyer, The Musical.) Her popular book “Backstage Pass to Broadway: More True Tales from a Theatre Press Agent” will be available for purchase and signing at the event. schulmanpublicity.com

Lauren Yarger is a critic covering New York and Connecticut theater. She is a voting member of the Outer Critics Circle (for whom she manages the annual awards party), the Drama Desk (former vice president) and the American Theatre Critics Association. She is co-founder of the Connecticut Chapter of the League of Professional Theatre Women. In addition, she is a producer and playwright (member of the Dramatists Guild of America). She has written several dinner theaters and musical revues and co-wrote a musical adaptation of A Christmas Carol which won a Vermont arts award. She produced a one-woman musical about Mary Magdalene which toured nationally for three years before closing in New York. She is producing a retreat in Vermont (fall 2020) where theater presenters will be able to connect with women playwrights and their work. Lauren also is a book reviewer for Publishers Weekly and a member of the National Book Critics Circle. Criticalartsconnection.com

Virginia Wolf (moderator) is a local actress who pops up on stage all over Connecticut stages. She performs a one-woman show she wrote about the Connecticut Witchcraft Panics (check out herstorytheater.com) and is always looking for the next theatrical endeavor. But her passion to support and promote the arts here in Connecticut is the driving force behind “SpotLight,” her popular radio program heard weekly on WLIS and WMRD.